Leave Batteries connected or disconnect when not in use?

1 Posts
Feb 15, 2011 08:53 pm
Leave Batteries connected or disconnect when not in use?

I have a 12 volt solar system on a second home that is in use 4 months of the year (Dec. thru April). Is it best to disconnect the batteries from the system during the off season? If I leave them connected, there is a risk that they will run very low on water since there is no way for me to maintain them.
 
26 Posts
Feb 16, 2011 09:53 pm
Re: Leave Batteries connected or disconnect when not in use?

I'd put some Water Miser caps and a desulphator on them and leave them connected.  You don't want them to sit in a less than 100% charged state for extended periods.  Batteries will naturally leak charge over time, so after 8 months, they could be nearly completely discharged.  They will only lose water through electrolysis (hydrogen & oxygen vented) while charging, so if they're not being discharged beyond leakage, there shouldn't be much water loss.  The solar will merely top-up any leakage and keep them at 100%.  The Water Miser caps will prevent evaporation and the desulphator will prevent crystals from forming from the extremely shallow charging cycles.

This advice is purely theoretical as I've never stored deep cycle batteries for extended periods.  But I think I have a solid grasp of how they work though, and this is what I would do.  If anyone has experience otherwise, please speak up.
 

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