Jorge Rodriguez's posts

Thanks Ken for your reply,

My systems are 12 volts each, and are in two places apart. The  one with four 8D truck batteries is in my house and the one with eight 6 volts golf cart batteries is in my old man cabin, so batteries never got mixed.

I know battery banks are sized upon loads, the reason I did not minded about sizing was because I rode that if I am going to be off grid and count with a generator, then the size of the bank does not necessarily need to be precisely calculated.

Anyway, my electricity bill states that I use
13 kWatts/day. That is using a 8000 Btu A/C daily (only at nights)and a 11500 Btu A/C occasionally, and both will not run with the PV array.

I installed the golf cart batteries last February, and it is used to drive a 4 amps, 115 volts water pump for 15 minutes, twice a week and a 4.3 cu.ft. compact refrigerator from time to time. That is why I thought to expand the bank with new batteries, let me know if it still is no good idea. And in the case I have to buy a new bank, which battery best suit my needs. I think forklift ones are good, but want to hear what you have to say.

Thanks,
Jorge

Hi,
Currently, I have two battery banks, one that smoked away (consisting of four 8D truck batteries, 3 of them got sulfated)and the other consisting of eight 6 Volt golf cart batteries (they read that are 225Ah 'Trace' batteries for UPS, and inverters, but as long as I know, Trace do not make batteries)and are working pretty well. The thing is I will be moving to a new home that will be off-grid, and can no longer count with the 8D batteries. So I need to get new batteries for the whole new system which will consist of 12 Kyocera KC-130 Watts solar panels. Right now I am considering one of the following options:
 
1. Expand the golf cart battery bank to 16 batteries total.

 2. Buy forklift batteries, like the 12-85-13.

Please, let me know which one of those options is the best, or if there is another option I should consider. I do live in Puerto Rico, where I have plenty of sun, but getting batteries such as Deka or Rolls is something like impossible and costs will be out of this world.

Thanks,

Jorge

Hi,
Currently, I have two battery banks, one that smoked away (consisting of four 8D truck batteries, 3 of them got sulfated)and the other consisting of eight 6 Volt golf cart batteries (they read that are 225Ah 'Trace' batteries for UPS, and inverters, but as long as I know, Trace do not make batteries)and are working pretty well. The thing is I will be moving to a new home that will be off-grid, and can no longer count with the 8D batteries. So I am getting new batteries for  the whole new system which will consist of 12 Kyocera KC-130 Watts solar panels. Right now I am considering one of the following options:
 
1. Expand the golf cart battery bank to 16 batteries total.

 2. Buy forklift batteries, like the 12-85-13.

Please, let me know if which one of those options is the best, or if there is another option I should consider. I do live in Puerto Rico, where I have plenty of sun, but getting batteries such as Deka or Rolls is something like impossible and costs will be out of this world.

Thanks,

Jorge

Hi,

I recently connected my PV array to my house. I am using 4 8D batteries but they are the cranking type. What I want to know is how much will 4 8D deep cycle batteries last in comparison  to the cranking ones under the same load conditions. Can I connect deep cycles batteries to that cranking ones?

Thanks,
Jorge

I had recently installed a PV system at my house. I am using a
60A Flexcharge controller and 4 8D batteries with 3
130W Kyocera panels. The thing is that the panels are making about 20 volts when they are not connected to the batteries, but when they are, meter reads between 13 and 14 volts (that is before going into the controller). A friend that have the same brand controller but 25A instead of 60A tells me that he has at the controller input the whole output of his panels. Can anyone explain me why is the difference?