This is my new 12v battery bank made of ten Interstate 29D Deep Cycle batteries totaling 1,250 amps for reserve capacity or 2,150 reserve minutes. In a couple of weeks I will be adding another ten batteries to finish this part of the project. That will give me 2,500 amp capacity and close to 5,000 reserve minutes at 25A continuous draw. I got the batteries from Sam's club for $75 dollars each and after comparing many batteries it was not the cheapest but the best battery for the money. These are true deep cycle batteries and not the new thin plate compromise of the deep cycle/cranking battery combination.
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You have the largest bank of batteries wired in parallel that I have ever seen. It is very impressive and clearly you have the room to utilize the battery array. I notice the carefull space separation between each battery. Is the space separation your arrangement preference or are you complying with a good practice standard that is understood in the electrical community?
ReplyDeleteCongradulations on your wonderfull project.
Werner Janer
The separation is there for two reasons, one is to allow good air circulation when a lot of current is flowing and allow proper cooling and two is to allow for ease of maintenance. Cleaning the battery tops prior to servicing, taking hydrometer readings and filling out the cells is easier when there is some separation between the batteries.
ReplyDeleteAs far having many in parallel, it is not a big deal, the trick is to have the positive on one end of the string and the negative on the positive end of the strip. This way all batteries are drawn equally and maintain the same charge as power draw has to flow through all ten.
Econewpower
Impressive indeed. I'm personally in favor of the the more robust HuP Solar-One batteries because they can last about 20 years and the price per kW-Hr goes down to about $.09 vs $0.34 for even good grade marine batteries. But then I do mostly all my preparations with overkill. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteI put together an article on the topic, in case you're interested:
Batteries for Solar Power
at http://solardiypanel.com/2010/09/batteries-for-solar-power/
-Seahorse