Jul
21
2014

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Off Grid Power Update: Solar Battery Bank Arrives

by Tyler

Today, our new battery bank arrived! We now have eight 6v 370aH Deka L16 batteries with a total storage capacity of 17.6 kWh. Taking losses into account, and not wanting to drain the batteries below 50% (it shortens their lifespan), this gives us about 8kWh of usable storage. If we meet our goal of 2kWh of usage per day in the cottage, these should keep us running for four days without any sun!

Delivery Guy Opening Pallet of Solar Batteries

I'm really looking forward to hooking these up so we can replace the two crappy 12v marine batteries we're using now. They're supposed to have about 2.6kWh of storage but we've abused them to the point that they can hardly charge a laptop before they are spent.

Here are some pictures from the future showing how we're installing them in the solar shed:

Tara Making Box for Solar Batteries Tyler Cutting Foam for Box for Solar Batteries Deka L16 Deep Cycle Batteries
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