Electricity experts required...

team47b

Got a reply from a solar company, they had no problem understanding my system and required capacity, still I guess they have to put up with me if they want their grand

They have suggested...

1 Buy 4 Batteries of 140 Ah and you will be better than in the past, because you will have a bank of 280 Ah.

2 Buy 2 Batteries of 200 Ah - on my opinion this is the best option you have because parallel connection is not good, series is much better.

What do you think?

sungod

unless you have system management to handle each cell in a parallel cluster separately it is better to go for a pure serial config, i.e. option 2, less to go wrong

pinno

Series is always prone to the weakest link, however, battery life is theoretically longer.

Would it not be better to have 2 separate battery banks? One bank being charged and the other for consumption with a switch over at the optimum point. If each bank's output was metered, you could calculate your average consumption, charge time, depletion rate etc to the nth.

Even a brushless motor has back EMF, so i'm not sure about the absence of a 'power surge' in your fridge. It must be nominal, of very short duration and therefore immaterial unless you happened to be using the washing machine, angle grinder, hair dryer and ipad charger simultaneously.

team47b

So Today's question...flooded lead acid or VRLA Gel?

Two gel in series rather than 4 in series/parallel bank flooded.

Site is 14c - 30c.

Draw and DOD you know.

(Regular maintenance or not, is not an issue)

Spec of gel...
http://www.refrisun.pt/pdf/293LVJ20012.pdf

Mr P the steering shafts are all bushed up and I have reassembled

pinno

Maybe you should fit a PTO shaft to the Isetta and power a dynamo?

team47b

pinarello001 wrote:

Maybe you should fit a PTO shaft to the Isetta and power a dynamo?

It's got a 32 teeth single sprocket, what size sprocket for the Dynamo would give me the best watts?

pinno

team47b wrote:

pinarello001 wrote:

Maybe you should fit a PTO shaft to the Isetta and power a dynamo?

It's got a 32 teeth single sprocket, what size sprocket for the Dynamo would give me the best watts?

Connect it to an old Vauxhall Shoveit gearbox. Then you fiddle with the idle screw or put a brick on the throttle pedal.

tyred&weary

team47b wrote:

How 'big' do my batteries need to be?

What size box do they need to fit in?

pinno

Tyred&weary wrote:

team47b wrote:

How 'big' do my batteries need to be?

What size box do they need to fit in?

He's got a point T47.

team47b

He has a point, but I'm still not discussing the size of my box

So gel or flooded?

sungod

if your charging system has a a gel setting, then i'd go for gel

team47b

The charge controller has a gel setting, gel batteries are over twice the price but may last 15 years.

sungod

also more efficient charging, lower self-discharge, low maintenance

your application isn't high current so with the planned usage they should do well

team47b

Thanks for your help, and patience

As two of my four batteries have one dead cell each, I may get the two good ones connected in series giving me 130 x24v as a stop gap until I get the new gel ones.

The gel ones...

http://www.refrisun.pt/pdf/293LVJ20012.pdf

pinno

team47b wrote:

Thanks for your help, and patience

As two of my four batteries have one dead cell each, I may get the two good ones connected in series giving me 130 x24v as a stop gap until I get the new gel ones.

The gel ones...

http://www.refrisun.pt/pdf/293LVJ20012.pdf

Like your old batteries, that link ^ is dud.

team47b

Just tried that link, works fine, must be a problem with the cloud where you are

pinno

A 73kg battery?! That must be a bugger on the hills.

team47b

Gonna need a bigger box