Deep Zombie Batteries?

[brahmon]

they said 75ah onnthe label unless i'm mistaken. im just better off stickin with my crappy walmarts until thenprice of lithium bottoms out

 

[Lowdesertpatrol]

75ah at 1hr is probably what you seen. Theyre 215ah @ 20hr rate.

 i don't like overpaying for overhyped product.

Theyre not over-hyped. If anything theyre wildly under hyped. You're just barely getting your feet wet in understanding how aweful lead batteries are for solar.

You dont have to buy $1k "drop-in" lifepo4. You can do your homework and DIY or go used for half that.

 

[Cajunwolf]

Heres a DIY LiFePO4 12v100ah kit for $600, and as I mentioned above you can do 200ah, 300ah, and 400ah. Properly maintained and charged these batteries can last up to 12 years or longer. Someone mentioned 24v and that was a good suggestion too. Your MPPT and Inverter will be cheaper.

LiFePO4 12 Volt 100ah

$599 and that's cheap for an excellent battery.

 

[brahmon]

ldp cajun et al, the problem is that ive already dropped about $1800 on the batteries so im sort of stuck. until the warranty runs out and they die.

fyi. i took all 5 dead batteries to walmart and they didnt even test them. just told me to get 5 new ones! at least im learning for free while i kill batteries left and right. wouldnt wanna do that with lithiums.

 

[Lowdesertpatrol]

Only way to kill lithium is to charge too fast when frozen. Kinda the entire point.

 

[B and C]

Did you check the water in any of them? You said the caps came off. Low water will give you a dead battery too.

 

[brahmon]

yes i checked and it was ok. everstart said not to worry since theyre "maintenance free." lol. i think i just loaded em tto death with all my stuff: 2 acs, dorm fridge, tv, microwave, sawzall, drill, etc. wanted to test the limits

 

[bullfrog]

I think you found the limit! LOL!!!

 

[Cajunwolf]

I'm sorry, I just have to be candid here, and don't take me the wrong way brahmon, I'm trying to offer a constructive suggestion, but you're not learning anything destroying $1800 worth of batteries. What you need to learn is how to calculate your average hourly load in watts times how many hours you will be running that load and size the battery bank required for the load and the solar array required to maintain the battery banks state of charge.

 

[MrAlvinDude]

at least i'm learning

Good for you 

Might you want to share with us what you have learned so far? 


I am all for: Learning while doing. (And thus accepting errors and fails as a very natural part of the process). 
It might however be beneficial to try learn as much from each error/breakdown as possible.  Or there is high risk that the learning process will take too long (and potentially become unnecessarily expensive).

 

[MrAlvinDude]

I would suggest that some of the things you might have observed is:

- doing a calculation of expected/needed energy going in and out (as has already been mentioned by others), can be a very good, and highly beneficial, exercise.

- monitor (using measuring instruments, preferably watt measuring of what goes in and out) is possibly very good advice. And might be the only way, to make (each) battery survive for as long as possible. And might quite possibly be more and more important, as a paralleled battery bank gets bigger.

- for maintenance and monitoring (if not done automatically and with watt monitoring) at the very least, make a plan to measure and evaluate the state of each battery - and do this with 'short' intervals.



- working with a high number of paralleled batteries has its own set of challenges.

Like; It is typically difficult to 'spread' the energy evenly.
So special thought and design of how to attempt to ie. make all cables equally long, going between power source/use and each battery, is an issue worth giving some thought (especially for battery banks with many batteries in parallel).

So it might be interesting to you, if you can remember which batteries has been needed to be replaced first, and how they were placed in the connection mesh in the battery bank.
And you might give it some thought to see if there could be a way to do the connection mesh in the bank different (and preferably more optimal). 
And that might take into account, that the batteries might have a different level of internal resistance, and would thus benefit from a specific placement in the battery bank. Meaning; having longer or shorter wires to the central point of power connection.


But perhaps this issue of dealing with a 'high number of paralleled batteries', is too soon to get into.
Perhaps it is more important, for now, to focus on what you feel you have learned so far, and possibly take baby/short steps from there, and forward.

 

[brahmon]

c wolf and mad

no offense taken and i really appreciate the groups excellent and genuine advice. but as an introduction to my prior life as an i banker, inhad never really picked up a hammer or scredriver and had no mechanical skills whatsoever

in short, tinkering around, blowing up batteries is all learning to me. what not to do sorta stuff. and im learning mostly from you kind fellows as well.

thanks!

 

[squire]

Think of a lead acid battery as a cup of strong black coffee and your battery charger as plain water. Take a sip of coffee (amps out of your battery), fill it up with plain water (battery charging to full). You now have a full cup of coffee again, just not as strong as before. Every sip and refill to full and the coffee gets weaker.

 

[Lowdesertpatrol]

I would suggest that some of the things you might have observed is:

- doing a calculation of expected/needed energy going in and out (as has already been mentioned by others), can be a very good, and highly beneficial, exercise.

- monitor (using measuring instruments, preferably watt measuring of what goes in and out) is possibly very good advice. And might be the only way, to make (each) battery survive for as long as possible. And might quite possibly be more and more important, as a paralleled battery bank gets bigger.

- for maintenance and monitoring (if not done automatically and with watt monitoring) at the very least, make a plan to measure and evaluate the state of each battery - and do this with 'short' intervals.



- working with a high number of paralleled batteries has its own set of challenges.

Like; It is typically difficult to 'spread' the energy evenly.
So special thought and design of how to attempt to ie. make all cables equally long, going between power source/use and each battery, is an issue worth giving some thought (especially for battery banks with many batteries in parallel).

So it might be interesting to you, if you can remember which batteries has been needed to be replaced first, and how they were placed in the connection mesh in the battery bank.
And you might give it some thought to see if there could be a way to do the connection mesh in the bank different (and preferably more optimal). 
And that might take into account, that the batteries might have a different level of internal resistance, and would thus benefit from a specific placement in the battery bank. Meaning; having longer or shorter wires to the central point of power connection.


But perhaps this issue of dealing with a 'high number of paralleled batteries', is too soon to get into.
Perhaps it is more important, for now, to focus on what you feel you have learned so far, and possibly take baby/short steps from there, and forward.

This is good advice. And it shows its even more important to get voltages to 14.8v everyday and equalize over 16v. Unfortunately its not possible as the solar is undersized and that part seems to want to be ignored and not understood.

 

[jimindenver]

Search balanced battery wiring. Having too many in Parallel makes it hard to charge and discharge them all the same. Three in parallel is the optimum number which is why I chose three 8-D's.

 

[brahmon]

link please?  i may swap out if i can find a buyer for my wallys.