I installed my replacement Battery Bank for the Cabin Inverter, today... Yea, I am done in, those suckers are Dang Heavy... I used the Rhino with the A-Frame to remove the old Batteries, two at a time, and then move the New ones into place. I left the furthest in String in place, so if we had a Power Failure, it would keep things going until I could start the Genset, and only had the 24Vdc disconnected for about a minute, while I swapped the Inverter leads, from Old to New... Then put the other two strings in place and got them wired up, with the Interconnect Jumpers... Took most of the afternoon, to complete the Job, but only about 2 hours to bring the whole Bank, up to Float Voltage of 27.3 VDC...
I just found the Shipping Receipt for the Old Battery Bank on one of the Batteries.... I was purchased in 8/9/2008.... Got 9 Years out of that Bank....
Not bad time , Im still waiting on the battery pull from the 911 towers in Seattle. I run FLA's AGM's & trying the new Li-Pion from Tesla . Code is being written for the B17 & classic . Sloth
9 years - not bad. The batteries I had before these lasted 8 years. But I don't live at the remote property - yet. In the process of upgrading from a 12 volt system to 24 volt. Present 12 volt system has room for just two strings each of T105s. For now I'll just rewire them into a single 24 volt string (will need to rewire the solar panels also - from parallel to series - for the new charge controller) and move them to their new home, a metal box that was originally designed as ... wait for it ... a battery box - two as a matter of fact. They were never used, declared obsolete and being discarded, so they were intercepted before they made it into the dumpster. So now there is enough room for two 24 volt strings. Once the present batteries croak, I'll purchase eight replacements. Also purchased an Outback MPPT charge controller (80A) and I had a 1500 W 24v inverter sitting around that was purchased on flea bay a few years back. Those were both mounted in a rainproof enclosure, wired, and all is bolted to a skid formed from two old I beams. The whole mess goes up to the remote property this weekend for installation / smoke and flame test. The cabinet has room for up to a 3 kw inverter later. Built in some grow room for this one. At present it'll run (just as the old one has done) a 21 ft Travel Trailer - everything except the A/C unit. Taking lots of photos and notes. I'll do writeup when it's up and running. Love all things camo. Must be part redneck. The metal conduit in the background is not attached. It's a left over. Photo taken while still in the process of running the wiring. The wire feeding the inverter is 1/0 ga stranded 105 C insulation coming from each battery box. At present they are protected by 100A ANL fuses in sealed fuse holders, all that's needed for this inverter. Wire from the charge controller is 2 ga, fused at 80A as recommended by the manufacturer. Cabinet is rainproof but vented top and bottom through a dust filter not yet installed. How's that for a tease?
No, those are L16HDs.... The Golf Cart Battery's, BIG BROTHER.... Twice as BIG, Twice the Price, and TWICE the AMPHour... That bank has 1200 AMPHours of capacity..... Just another NOTE, here.... When you get NEW Flooded WetCell Batteries, ALWAYS check the Electrolye Levels in each Cell.... I just checked my New Battery Bank, and had to ADD a Gallon of Distilled Water to each String off four Batteries.... To bring them up to the Full Ring, in each cell... Had I not checked, I would have uncovered the plates in a couple of months of use.... That would NOT have been good for a New Bank....
Low levels can also be a state of NOT FULLY charged , So I always make sure all plates are covered & charge before put into service , and then let sit one day & then do a Hi / equalize charge while checking not to over fill. Then I measure the SG & record as a Base level Sloth
