Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Be one with your Batteries!

Your system is ONLY AS GOOD as Your Batteries and Inverter!

DEEP CYCLE BATTERIES ONLY!!!! NOT CAR BATTERIES - There is a HUGE difference!
Deep Cycle Batteries have a different plate design and are made to run low and cycle charges.
A Car Battery - Different animal!! These batteries like to be topped off all the time- fully charged and ready to go for the one funcion they have in life- to start your car!! Thats why your alternator has a built in voltage regulator - so it doesnt over charge your battery and all your 12v accessories run from the alternator, not your battery - but that will be in a different blog entitled how an Alternator works.
If you were to run a car battery on your system - you "might" get 3 charge cycles before the battery is ruined and could possible overheat and explode.

Deep Cycle Batteries are rated by Amp Hours (aH).
Car Batteries are rated by cranking amps (CCA).

When it comes to off grid applications, Dont spring for cheap batteries - you DO get what you paid for.
12v Walmart Marine batteries are good and cheap, but an expensive Rolls Surrette will run circles around that Walmart battery and probably last 5-8 times as long!


Make sure you have enough amp hours (aH) in your system to last you.
Insulate your batteries if you live in a region that has cold winters! A cold battery does NOT like any kind of load on it and will last 1/3 (or less) of your normal runtime.
Vent your batteries if they are conventional Lead Acid batteries. If you batteries are not sealed (lead acid or AGM), then they DO produce hydrogen as you charge them. That bubbling you hear means hydrogen is being produced and will need to be vented. Enough hydrogen could cause an explosion and nobody wants that. The make special vents for this. Just some plain ol' fan with exposed brush motors could ignite hydroden - so spend the money!!! Its worth the extra couple dollars!

Higher voltage systems - Like 48v and above - WEAR RUBBER GLOVES!!!! If one of those things bite ya', your gonna know about it and you wont like it!!!! 12/24v systems isnt much of a worry, but something could still bite! Always wear eye protection when handling your batteries. I have seen these thing explode and it aint' pretty what the electrolyte solution of a battery can do to exposed skin, much less an eyeball (plus the shrapnel can get ya).

Maintain your batteries!
Get into  the habit of checking your batteries at LEAST once per month.  If you have sealed/maint free batteries, then only some of this applies to you.
Check water levels - very important - no water and charging means your going to damage a cell, or two, or three...
Desulphate your batteries - Over time, your batteries will produce sulphur and this sticks to the plates.
This needs to be rattled off and this will extend the life of your batteries. Some inverters and charge controllers will allow you to "Equalize" your batteries which is more or less the same thing. The Equalization of your batteries is done a little differently though, but more or less serves the same purpose.  A desulphator works slower and over a period of time. Some people actually leave them on all the time (which I wouldn't do personally), but some people swear by it.

Any questions - feel free!

No comments:

Post a Comment