Please note that when placing your order on-line that all shipping prices are to the continental United States. If your order is being shipped else where or there is and asterisk (*) by the price indicating additional freight costs, we will notify you as to what your additional fee will be so you can make your payment before we process your order.
Please note that when placing your order on-line that all shipping prices are to the continental United States. If your order is being shipped else where or there is and asterisk (*) by the price indicating additional freight costs, we will notify you as to what your additional fee will be so you can make your payment before we process your order.
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Solar Storage Batteries
Most off grid solar, wind, and hydro energy systems use batteries to store DC electric which can be used latter when there is no source of energy. Hydro electric which for the most part is almost always on line uses batteries mainly to stabilize the electrical out put. Besides storing electric, this is also true with electric generated by solar and wind which can vary based on the intensity of the source. I would also mentioned that there are battery based grid-tie systems known as grid-interactive systems. Direct Current Electric derived from your PV Modules, DC Wind Turbines, Micro-Hydro Turbines, and also Standby Generators is stored in Deep Cycle Solar Storage Batteries (as mentioned above) where it can be used when your system is not generating electric. Solar Storage Batteries are an intricate component for off-grid electrical systems such as solar, wind, and mini hydroelectric systems. All these systems produce DC electrical which must be stored so that it may be used at a later time. In order to do this at the present time we use deep cycle batteries. Deep cycle batteries are used because they have the ability to be recycled many times. This means that they can go from being charged to being discharged to 50% numerous times without damaging the batteries unlike that of other batteries such as cranking batteries which are used to start vehicles.
When selecting batteries for your system it is important to make sure that you purchase batteries with enough amp hours to meet your electrical needs for at least four days so that you have electric during times when your system is unable to recharge your batteries. You must also have enough charging power from your solar modules, etc to be able to recharge the batteries to back to a state of fullness. A good rule of thumb is that the battery bank size in amp-hours should be 20 times greater than the mppt charging amps of the solar array as shown on the spec sheet of the module. Example: for a 12 volt battery bank consisting of two 225 amp-hour “golf cart” (6V) deep cycle batteries, the overall amp-hour capacity would be 225 amp-hours since they are wired in series. In this case battery voltage doubles when connected in series but amp-hours remains the same. Then the optimum array size would be a charge rate of 11.25 mppt amps. This would indicate something in the range of two 100 watt 12V panels in parallel. This is also known as the 5% rule, i.e., 5% is the same as 1/20. To maintain an already charged battery in “float” status it requires a charge rate of 1/2% to 2% of the amp-hour capacity of the battery bank depending on the condition of the batteries. The two biggest downfalls seen in many off-grid solar electric systems are that the battery systems are either under sized which means that there will be electrical interruptions. The greater problem is when the battery bank is larger then the system's ability to recharge them. This means that the batteries never have a chance to fully recharge, thus shortening the battery's life. More about Solar Storage Batteries and how to maintain them.