If you have or are planning to have a solar powered electrical system at home, wouldn’t you want to know how big you have to build it to meet your entire household electricity requirement? To do this, you will need to consider the storage capacity required for maximum discharge rate, the maximum charge rate and the minimum temperature the battery bank will store it.

The capacity rate is directly related to the size of the battery. You will to have to remember that the temperature is critical factor where the batteries are stored as this is the main reason that the batteries performance gets affected.

The performance of the battery will be only 75% capacity at 40 degrees and at zero degree it will be only 50% capacity. The battery which does not get affected is the one known as Concorde PVX. This battery has been designed in a manner to withstand the temperature differences.

If your batteries are stored outdoor, you must use sealed gel type battery. You must keep the place well insulated even if the batteries are temperature resistant.

To determine the number of battery needed you’re your home Photovoltaic (PV) system, first you must calculate the total consumption of wattage hours in your home or office. This can be done easily by looking at the wattage rating of the electrical appliances of your home.

You then multiply it by the numbers of hours of each unit used per day, if there is no wattage rating available use the amps rating and multiply it by 120 volts and you will get the watts.

Here is a word of caution, if you are using an appliance with large wattage consumption, it will drain the battery reserve very fast. The best thing is those appliances which have wattage of 1500 watts or more should not be included.

Once you done that, add all the appliances wattage and you must do it separately for each day, you must multiply it by three, so that in case you use these appliances for three days you will come to know the size which would suffice your power needs.

To find the capacity of the battery, multiply daily watt hours by two, meaning you are actually using 50% of the battery capacity. The size of the battery bank in hours can be determined by dividing the total watt hours by size of the battery system you are using, it could be 12, 24, 48 volts.

If you have a 25,200 watt hours requirement, 25,200 / 12 volts = 2100 mps hours then divide by whatever is the battery amp hour rating and you can calculate how many battery unit you actually require for the system. You may require 12 volt system, for the consumption of 25,200 watt hours a total of 20 batteries.

The number will go on changing with the size of the batteries you use in your system. You must hook the batteries properly by making sure positive is connected to positive and negative to negative. This will increase the efficiency of your batteries. You can also wire your batteries in series to enhance the battery ampere capacity.

One thing is for certain, energy is only going to continue to become more expensive as the years go by. People are always looking at different ways to reduce their home monthly bills, and one way is to generate energy from solar panels.

Renewable energy projects at home can be expensive. The time recouping these costs can take quite a while but the end result is cheap energy. A major expense in the process of solar energy panel installation is the storage battery bank.

The battery bank will be used when the sun is not shining. It is possible to find cheap deep cycle battery storage and if you follow the 5 points outlined below, you will be able to keep the costs of purchasing the batteries relatively low.

1. Free or cheap.

The types of battery used in the storage bank are lead-acid deep cycle batteries. These batteries are designed to recharge and discharge quite frequently. These types of batteries are very expensive when bought brand new. There is a way that you may be able to pick up cheap ones, or even free ones.

You can find these types of batteries used on electric golf carts, wheelchairs, and even boats. Golf clubs or boat yards will often times have discarded batteries and in many cases be glad to get the batteries off of their hands.

2. Testing.

The first thing you will have to do once you have procured your batteries is to test them. There are certain issues or faults that will make them useless. Testing them is quite simple. All you have to do is connect them to a charger and charge them. As soon as you have charged them, you will need to take a measurement of the voltage with a multi-meter.

The meter should have a reading near 12 volts. If your reading is a lot lower than 12 volts, it could be an indication that there is a bad cell or bad cells. Mark it and put it to the side to test further later. You will want to focus your priorities on the batteries that reach the 12 volt reading.

3. Cleaning the plates.

The lead plates that are located inside the cells are more than likely to be contaminated. This is a result of a process called sulfation.

Sulfation is when the lead plates have a layer of lead sulfate crystals on them even when the unit is fully charged. This process of sulfation is what prevents the batteries from holding a charge. You will then need to remove the contamination by using a different charger.

This special charger is sends a high current pulse out to the battery that will break down the crystals, thus reducing the contamination. I know there is concern about the cost of the charger, but the money you will save on new batteries will make up for the initial investment for the charger and locating cheap or free batteries.

4. Renewing the electrolyte.

Next you will have to renew the electrolyte inside of the cells. The electrolyte is the fluid that is located in the case between the lead plates.

Deionzed water should be used for this step. This water should be refilled to cover the lead plates located inside the battery cell. An electrolyte conditioner may also be added to the cells. This conditioner can be found online or at a local auto parts store.

5. Recharging the battery.

The lasts step is to recharge the recently restored battery and then test the voltage again. After you have done the reconditioning process, the second hand should be able to hold the electric charge from the Photovoltaic (PV) panels.

The 5 steps above may seem tedious, nonetheless, doing so will save you a lot of money when you are setting up a home battery storage bank. This is how you will be able to find a cheap or free battery cell for your own personal home solar power plant.

Following these steps you will be able to make renewable energy a much more viable option. It will also make the process more of a cost effective idea. By finding these deep cycle batteries cheap, you will reduce the initial investment and shorten the time it takes for you to notice the savings that using a renewable, green energy such as solar power.

There are few things we can be sure of besides death and taxes, and that include the rising cost of electricity. One potential solution that could be utilized is a self-generated solar power system.

Although costs associated with setting up such a project seem impractical, the long-term returns are more than worth it. A large chunk of the setup costs comes from the storage battery bank, which supplements the power supply under less-than-optimal sunlight conditions.

Cheap solar deep cycle battery storage is an attainable prospect nowadays. Here are 5 ways to minimize such costs:

1. Affordable or free batteries.

A bank of lead-acid deep cycle batteries store energy derived from solar power. These batteries are specifically created for frequent recharge and discharges, as opposed to the ones found in automobiles. Although a brand new battery is pricey, low-cost or even free ones can be obtained if you look hard enough. These can be found in golf carts, wheelchairs and boat generators.

In essence, golf clubs and boat yards are potential gold mines for discarded batteries, and have a good chance of procuring one for free.

2. Evaluation.

The next step that comes after acquiring a battery would be to make sure that they work well enough for reconditioning. Testing these batteries is as simple as connecting them to a charger and waiting for them to charge.

After that is complete, you will need to measure the voltage output, which should be within the region of 12 volts. Faulty cells are suspect if the voltage is noticeably lower than this.

These should be put aside for further evaluation, and you should look specifically for those that achieve the 12 volt mark.

3. Clean plates.

Sulfation could affect the cell’s lead plates by coating them with a layer of lead sulfate crystals and reducing their effectiveness, even on a full charge. This would affect your battery’s charge retention.

Fortunately, this could be remedied via a specially designed charger. Investing in one would be prudent, as restoring old batteries could save you from actually purchasing costly new ones.

4. Replenish electrolyte.

Following that, the electrolyte has to be replenished. This is the liquid that fills the gaps between the lead plates.

First, inspect the electrolyte level, and top up with deionized water until it begins to cover the plates. Electrolyte conditioners can be used as well, and they are easily obtainable from specialized stores.

5. Recharge the battery.

Once again, recharge the reconditioned battery and test its voltage output. You can now feel proud of yourself for coming up with a virtually free solution for your solar project. The cost-effective reconditioned rechargeable battery makes the project extra viable and will shorten the time it takes for you to enjoy the savings gained via this environmentally-friendly energy source.