Good place to by batteries?

 anybody have a good plave to buy decent 12v leadacid batteries, i may need
something in the 100Ah range deep cycle of course.  not sure if deep cycle
just means large reserve or what, cause why cant a leadacid car battery go
thru a deep cycle if used for other applications as long as kept within its
80%.  knowing this will aid me in searching for a battery.  thanks.

 
Get a pair of golf cart batteries at BJs, Sams, Costco, or even Napa.
They'll cost you under $100 for the pair.

--
William Smith
ComputerSmiths Consulting, Inc.    www.compusmiths.com

 wrote:


Deep Cycle refers to how much of a discharge the battery can sustain (or
how deep a discharge) and not suffer much damage.

The deep discharge batteries have much thicker lead plates (and fewer of
them) than does something like an automobile battery.  The latter is
designed to deliver a lot of current in a short period of time, but they
are not designed to sustained deep or prolonged discharges.

You'll get different advice from different people as to how deep to
discharge a deep cycle battery.  50% seems to be a commonly recommended
figure, but you need to do the math.  The deeper the discharge, the shorter
the battery life, but it may be that the total amount of "throughput" will
be greater.  This may translate into cheaper if you don't need to purchase
as many batteries.  You need to look at the specs for the batteries you
choose in order to make that determination.

Relatively inexpensive deep cycle batteries can be purchased at some of the
large discount warehouses like Sam's.  In the range you are interested, you
could look at "golf-cart" batteries.

By the way, it's good that you are asking a lot of questions.  There is a
lot to learn in setting up your own electrical system.  It is also
important to do an energy audit before you start spending "the big bucks".
It is usually much less expensive to conserve than to generate.  And once
you have a good idea of how much electricity you need, then you can figure
out exactly what you need to purchase.

It's certainly easy enough to expand a solar array.  And it's OK to buy a
few panels, and add to the array as you can afford to.  (Just make sure to
use heavier wire than you need, the first time).

However, it is not simple to expand a battery bank.  If you have cells of
different ages, the older one's will drag down the newer ones, so you
really don't get your money's worth by buying a few and adding on as time
goes by.


-- ron  (off the grid in Downeast Maine)

 If you are near a fairly large city, you will probably be able to find a
recycler who may be willing to sell you some reasonably good deep cycle
cells for not much more than their scrap rate. They might get 50 or 100 from
a bank or anyplace with a lot of electronics and critical loads. Most of
those kinds of companies have a backup power supply in the basement to back
up a generator.
Solarguy