tesa checkin' in

tesa · March 18, 2009, 08:52:05 AM

greetings everyone!!

i'm so sorry for not posting more over the past month, but its been crazy. family member having surgery,
oldest daughter taking the SAT's, wi-fi was out for 4 days, helping a friend plan a wedding

its been crazy!

all our PV system components have arrived, are in storage, but we're still waiting on our
batteries, as they are in production! brand spankin' new batteries, right off the line, worth
the wait, for sure. the fellow at the battery wharehouse said he could loan us some if we
need them prior to ours being shipped, i thought that was really nice

for the past two weekends, we've had alot of rain, and not been able to finish building the RV shed
but daniel is taking tomorrow, and friday off to finish that puppy so we can actually move!

i will be posting photos of the finished building asap

i just wanted you all to know i was still alive,

have a wonderful day!

tesa

glenn kangiser · March 18, 2009, 09:44:21 AM

Thanks for checking in, tesa. I was thinking we hadn't heard from you in a while the other day.

March 18, 2009, 08:04:20 PM

its just been too crazy. too many irons in the fire, for sure, but the child is finished with
her SAT's, and my cousin is doing much better after her surgery, so things are beginning
to get back to normal (whatever that is)

we plan to be out at the property bright and early tomorrow morning and if the building
gods are with us, the roof should be on by friday

we have a wedding on saturday, so not much work will get done that day, which is why daniel
took two days off work

hopefully we'll be on the property for good come the first of april, the RV park we are at now
lets you pay by the week, or month, so if we have to wait till that first week in april, at least
it wont be the full months rent

we are so close!!

it might be a few weeks of hardcore camping 'till daniel gets the PV system up and running, but
i could care less! i just want to be out there

i was born camping, so if we have to rough it for a few weeks, i'm ok,

to wait three long years, and dream this dream for so long, to be this close, i gotta tell ya
sometimes i have a hard time falling asleep, i'm so excited

and so thankful, thankful that we had the nerve believe we could make it happen, thankful to my friends
who have helped SO much, (i tell ya, we have some friends who have come out so many times, driven from so far, just to help us, it really makes me feel humble to know they would do such a thing, and on their days off too!!) and thankful to the man upstairs for helping too

tesa

glenn kangiser · March 19, 2009, 12:28:52 AM

Please keep us posted on your progress, tesa.

Windpower · March 19, 2009, 09:45:53 AM

What kind of batteries did you get ?

I am getting very close to purchasing some .... probably in the next couple weeks

I am going with a 48 volt bank

Got a pretty good prive onsome Lifeline (made by Concorde) about $500 each for GPL 8DL

but the warranty sucks -- 1 year

At least I found a local battery dealer that even delivers in my area at no extra charge

March 19, 2009, 12:30:53 PM

Are the 8D's good for solar?

I like the L16's a local manufacturer makes but have Interstates and the Trojans I'm trying to recover that were given to me.

I assume they figure they will be good for a year no matter how poorly they are maintained. With the desulfators Xtreme claims life could go to about 3 times the expected 4 to 5 years or up to 15 with proper maintenance. They say the material is there in the battery plates for that much life. We will see.

MountainDon · March 19, 2009, 12:39:22 PM

Are those AGM or just a sealed battery? How many series/parallel?

I don't like sealed, and wonder about AGM's although I will admit that on paper they have many attractive features/qualities. They are usually kind of pricey compared to flooded lead acid.

glenn kangiser · March 19, 2009, 12:42:43 PM

I think the AGMs are too finicky about things they can and can't do for me. I'm not a lab where things are highly controlled. I'm a crude off gridder.

I'd blow a lot of money fast with AGM's - likely destroy them by running them too low or desulfating too high. At least with the Lead Acid's I have a chance.

Windpower · March 19, 2009, 02:45:48 PM

They are agm's

I'm not convinced they are the best either

but low maintenace is good

this distributor handles L16's too

I would prefer to use 12 V since it will be less expensive to add capacity later on (yeah I know you're not supposed to mix batteries of different ages) but if I had 2 or 3 banks of batts it would be a flexible set up

I'm going to call him here soon and see what he recomends (they have Rolls there too -- now if I win the lottery ....)

March 20, 2009, 12:04:13 AM

I keep the strings in Series of the same age but the parallels vary ....8 at 5 years old, 4 at 4 years old and 8 at less than 1 year old and 8 at 3 years old. They are working well and I am working on setting up to maintain the strings of series batteries separately along with together for equalizing and maintenance purposes - without having to shut down power or over-voltage the system on equalizing - my Trace inverters shut down at 31v.

tesa · March 23, 2009, 08:34:10 AM

our batteries are US flooded 6volt 220 amp hour, we purchased two

they have a 10 year warranty, i think

i'm WAY behind on filing paperwork, and can't seem to locate that right now, but i think daniel said
10 years

i wanna say they are the US verson of the trojan L-16's, but i really didn't have too much
to do with battery selection, i left that up to the engineer, and just wrote out the check

tesa

glenn kangiser · March 23, 2009, 10:59:16 AM

Those would be the Golf Cart batteries - like the GC220 - I don't know the Trojan number but 220 AH is the golf cart battery size. L16's run from about 375 to 420 AH.

MountainDon · March 23, 2009, 01:38:59 PM

Trojan T-105 (golf cart) battery, 225 amp-hr
Dimensions: 10 3/8" x 7 1/8" x 10 7/8" tall (264 x 181 x 276 mm)
Weight: 62 lbs. (28 kg)

Trojan L16P, 390 amp-hr
Dimensions: 11 5/8" x 7" x 16 3/4" tall (295 x 178 x 424 mm)
Weight: 113 lbs. (51 kg)

Dimensions will be similar for other brands.

Info from
http://www.affordable-solar.com/trojan.battery.t105.225ah.htm
http://www.affordable-solar.com/trojan.battery.l16p.390ah.htm

tesa · March 23, 2009, 09:13:20 PM

confirmation from the old man, they are us L-16's with 420 amp hours, sorry,
i wasn't sure

tesa

March 23, 2009, 11:35:21 PM

Those are good batteries.

glenn kangiser · March 24, 2009, 01:04:52 AM

The Trojan site for some of their batteries - RE warranty looks like 3 years with up to 5 years pro-rated but it looks like with all of the reasons they won't warranty them it would be real rough to get any warranty on them.

I would say - take good care of them - electrolyte levels - equalizing etc.

I know they are a first class battery and know of no better ones.

I think the longer guarantee probably applies to the panels and other accessories. Batteries are very subject to abuse - yes ...I'm an abuser...