Battery banks and bank size calculations?
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2015 2:21 pm
It seems battery banks and calculating the size of and figuring out the wiring of battery banks for off grid solar setups is rather complicated. So here is a thread about it lol.
The solar panel thread is here.
I've been considering moving off grid electrically and the timeline is presently by next summer. However I was startled at the high cost of batteries and how many I would need to have any sort of semblance to my current electrical use (100-200kwh a month). If my calculations are correct, I would need about 20-25 200 amp hour (20 hour rate) deep cycle batteries to meet my current demands. At about $100 USD each, I might be better off just getting a big forklift battery. Either way it's going to cost far more than I can afford right now (or in the foreseeable future) and the time needed to recover the investment would be many years.
The point of this thread is to discuss how you (the off gridder, any of you) are doing it. What kind of batteries are you using? How many? What have you had to do to live on your bank and solar setup? Do you miss anything? How much is your bank rated for? How much do you really get out of it? How many and what kind of solar charge controllers do you have? Any brands or types suggested? How did you arrive to where you are now concerning the size of your battery bank? How much did it cost you? So on and so forth.
I want this thread to be all about battery banks and only battery banks. I have created another thread to cover solar panels and everything solar panels.
The solar panel thread is here.
I've been considering moving off grid electrically and the timeline is presently by next summer. However I was startled at the high cost of batteries and how many I would need to have any sort of semblance to my current electrical use (100-200kwh a month). If my calculations are correct, I would need about 20-25 200 amp hour (20 hour rate) deep cycle batteries to meet my current demands. At about $100 USD each, I might be better off just getting a big forklift battery. Either way it's going to cost far more than I can afford right now (or in the foreseeable future) and the time needed to recover the investment would be many years.
The point of this thread is to discuss how you (the off gridder, any of you) are doing it. What kind of batteries are you using? How many? What have you had to do to live on your bank and solar setup? Do you miss anything? How much is your bank rated for? How much do you really get out of it? How many and what kind of solar charge controllers do you have? Any brands or types suggested? How did you arrive to where you are now concerning the size of your battery bank? How much did it cost you? So on and so forth.
I want this thread to be all about battery banks and only battery banks. I have created another thread to cover solar panels and everything solar panels.