Sethm Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Hi Guys So i currently have 4 Energiser EC18 102Ah batteries which i think are high and not deep cycle batteries. My setup is quite simple and does not require a large battery reserve. Based on my findings, i am only able to get 25-30 Amps at 24V before the batteries reach the 24V level (50%), this seems to be extremely low from the 100AH i was expecting. The batteries cost R1 350 when i bough them 3 months ago. Does any one have any advise on a better battery that still maintains a low cost? Or i was thinking of spending a bit and getting lead crystal batteries as the increased cost equals a much greater life expectancy. Does anyone have any experience with their own lead crystal bank? How is it lasting and all other relevant information? Looking at a total of maybe R15 000 or less for 200AH at 24V. Tubular plate cells? Calcium Alloy? Valve regulated? Thanks Seth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schicks Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 How about 2 x 12V Omnipower 260Ah AGM/Gel batteries? Around R4,500 each. http://www.sinetech.co.za/battery.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethm Posted August 22, 2015 Author Share Posted August 22, 2015 Could be an option as seems to have a high cycle life. Has anyone been using Lead Crystal that has an opinion on them? Or anything else that they have experience with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McWidowmaker Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 I have decided to go for the lead carbon batteries. This is also the route the US is going with their equalisation plants. Cycle life seems to be high, even higher than gel or lead crystal in solar applications. There is also independent studies backing this, which is why I decided to go this route. Narada Rex-C 200ah batteries comes to roughly about R5 000 per battery excl. They are AGM VRLA batteries with a carbon compounded added to the cathode to prevent sulphation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 A few years ago when I got into this I was a little short on money. I had to go cheap on SOMETHING, so what I did was I went cheap on the batteries. Of course if you actually want your money back you shouldn't do that, but the main purpose of my setup is to keep my home office running during load shedding. At the hourly rate of just about any employee, the recovered productivity pays for even the cheapest batteries.So of course this is not my long term plan, but if you HAVE to save money somewhere, here's my trick: Second hand golf cart batteries. Trojan T105s in other words. Golf carts generally have 6 of them, and often just one develops a bad cell, leaving you with 4 or 5 good ones. Now I have a 24V system, so the idea is to take the 4 best ones. Unfortunately others have caught on to this idea...In any case, I have a set that has the date 1106 stamped on them (June 2011). I have one cell that's now beginning to give notice, SG sits at 1200 or even 1175 most days... the rest are still perfectly fine. Now that's not bad for a 4 year old bank that started in a golf cart... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.