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6 Volt Golf Cart batteries from Costco

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 11:50 pm
by The Cedar Workshop
Does anyone have some experience with the 6 volt, deep cycle golf cart style of batteries. They sell them up in Canada for $114.00.

Re: 6 Volt Golf Cart batteries from Costco

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2015 8:57 pm
by techman
I myself have not used them but I have heard they are fine. Golf cart batteries are a good starter battery for beginning solar. Then later you move up to bigger and more powerful batteries with longer life.

Read reviews on your specific manufacturer online first and see what others say

Re: 6 Volt Golf Cart batteries from Costco

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2015 2:13 pm
by OutOfPlaceNinja
I was wondering the same thing last night. I was looking into batteries and came to the conclusion that golf cart batteries may be what I should try first. I found the cheapest decently rated ones being at Costco for just shy of $100 USD each and right around 200 amp hours (20 hour rate) each.

Due to my calculations I either need to get a LOT of money for batteries or heavily reduce my electrical need. It's kind of disheartening since I already only use between 100-200kwh a month from the electric company but to match that it would take around 20 200 amp hour batteries or a massive forklift battery (2-4 thousand dollars). I just can't afford that right now. If I cut back to just running my computer for the time I do and one light, it still will require a decent sized battery bank. I have more research to do on batteries.

I would like to know from people using those specific kinds of batteries how well they go. I hear Costco changes out brands for the golf cart batteries from time to time so that may affect things.

Re: 6 Volt Golf Cart batteries from Costco

Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:44 pm
by techman
Golf cart batteries are the way to start out. They are considered "disposable" batteries because a beginner is usually going to ruin their first set of batteries. So they say anyway.

The next step up are L16 batteries but they are very expensive.

The upper limit is forklift batteries.

For the price, I think that a forklift battery gives you the most service life and power output for the money at 20 years on average in solar power usage.

Golf cart batteries last 3 to 5 years or so.

L16 batteries last about 8.

These numbers are off the top of my head and before my coffee break so dont quote me precisely on that.

But with high power consumption, yes, you will need a LOT of batteries.

Best thing is to start with a small system and build it up as you can afford it. Then you learn and make your mistakes as you go.

Learn to save energy and cut costs where you can.

Switch to LED light bulbs through the house. Unplug EVERYTHING when not in use. Most devices these days use power even when turned off.