My solar electric system is old school in a lot of ways. There have been upgrades. I updated the charge controller and the inverter. Some parts, like the panels themselves, have been in service for over 20 years.
While I’ve changed out the battery bank a couple of times I keep going back to lead acid. I would have thought by now that I would have something better. Lithium batteries are an upgrade but the price is prohibitive.
Besides price lead acid has some other advantages. They can take a fair amount of abuse. I made a lot of mistakes with my first battery bank and still got 10 years out of them. The big thing to remember with lead acid is to keep the cells topped off with distilled water. Never let them get to the point where the plates are exposed to the air. That one simple item is critical for years of service.
Another big battery saver is to never let them sit in an uncharged condition. Ideally, never let the charge get below 50%. If it gets to that level but it’s early morning I’ll let the panels charge them up. If it’s dark or very cloudy I’ll top off the battery bank from the grid. Should the grid be down I’ll go into serious conservation mode. Eventually the panels will bring the batteries out of the danger zone.
I’ve just topped off the distilled water so the batteries won’t have to be checked for three or four months.
-Sixbears
Lead acid well treated are good batteries.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a distiller 6 bears?
Lead acid does the job. I can distill if I have to but it's a cobbled together thing. Much easier to buy distilled water.
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