With today’s modern deep cycle batteries and sophisticated charge controlling devices, total battery bank failure is rare but they do happen.

They following are 6 tips on how you can maintain the lifespan of a residential home solar energy battery bank.

1) Proper sizing.

When designing your home solar power system, make sure you size the battery bank properly. Here’s a rule of thumb, design the batteries to be able to handle at least 5 days of load.

It is always a good idea to size the battery larger than your home power demand. Reason being your power demand will increase after some time and the deep cycle batteries will lose it power output after a few years. Over designing the system will compensate for battery power loss and increased demand.

2) Invest in premium batteries.

The batteries basically supply all the power when the sun is out. If possible, invest in high-quality batteries. It costs more compared to normal grade batteries but it will worth your investment in the long run.

3) Cut down on parallel stringing.

When designing the battery bank, try not to have more than 3 parallel battery strings. Doing so, it system will lose its equalization thus resulting is rapid battery plates failure.

When you have a problem with the battery system, it is hard to pinpoint which faulty plate is stealing power from surrounding cells and the entire system will suffer.

4) Watch out for corrosion.

Corrosion on battery usually occurs on the terminals and cables. This can be a potential hazard and at the same time increases the resistance on the system.

It is not very difficult to prevent corrosion on battery. All you need to do is apply a non hardening sealant on all the metal parts before connecting them together. The sealant will prevent acid from coming into contact with the metal surface therefore preventing corrosion.

5) Controlling surrounding temperature.

A deep cycle battery will lose up to 25% of its charge capacity when kept in a low surrounding temperate of 30 degree Fahrenheit. When the temperature rises, the battery will deteriorate faster. Therefore, it is best to keep the batteries in an ideal temperature.

6) Compensate for temperature changes.

During winter time, the batteries are cold thus require a higher charge voltage limit in order to reach full charge. During summer, warm batteries require a lower voltage limit to prevent overcharging. This is known as temperature compensation.

The temperature compensation process can be done automatically by many charge controllers in the market. When buying a charge controller, get one with the temperature compensation feature.

DIY Home Solar Power System

Do you want to build your own home solar power system? If you do, download the 30 Solar and Wind Power For Homes Videos e-book.

The e-book consists of videos showing your all the components needed to make your own DIY home solar system and wind generator. Click on the click below to download the e-book for free.

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If you are planning to build your own home solar power system to reduce your monthly electricity bill, you need to understand the key components of the system.

A residential solar power system consists main of 4 key components which are the solar panels, charge controller, battery bank and power inverter. There are other smaller solar parts that support the entire system such as voltage meter, amperage meter, cut off safety fuses, disconnect switch and copper cables.

For a home solar energy setup, you can’t use the power as when you needed it. Meaning, if you need solar power to run your television at night, you won’t be able to because there is no sunlight. The Photovoltaic (PV) cells can only work when the sun is out.

Therefore, the system has to be setup up to harness all the energy during the day and store it in a battery bank so it can be used later.

DIY Domestic Battery Bank

When you are building the battery bank, the best battery for the job is deep cycle type. This kind of battery is mainly found on electric golf carts. They are very durable and can be discharged to a very low level without damaging its internal plates.

One type of battery that I’ve seen to be suitable for a home solar power system is the 12 volt sealed battery from Advanced Gel Technology.

The battery has 105 amp hour which will run your electrical appliances throughout the night. It is made from Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) meaning it is sealed and would not have any spillage.

Size wise, the battery is 12” x 6.6” x 8.2”. The battery measurement is pretty standard. Durability wise, it will last for 3000 charge cycle if you were to use it at 15% Depth Of Discharge (DOD).

How many 12 volt batteries do you need for your home use?

The actual number will depend on your power requirement. If you have multiple electrical appliances connected to the solar power system, you may need 4 – 6 units wired in parallel to provide you all the juice you’ll need.

Because the Advanced Gel Technology is AGM, it costs more compared to other conventional deep cycle battery but it gives you a good level of convenience.

How much does it cost? The battery is selling at $249.99 per unit from Amazon.com with free shipping. To get your unit of the AGM battery from Amazon.com, click here.

DIY Home Solar Power Guide

Do you need some help to build your own home solar system? If you do, check out John Russel’s Power4Home guide. It comes with pdf e-books and High Definition (HD) step by step instructional videos. For more information, click on the link below.

==> Click here to visit Power4Home now!

The kind of battery used for a residential solar power system is the deep cycle type or marine boat batteries. The number of battery needed will depend on your energy requirement.

Since you are going to spend substantial amount of money on the battery bank, it makes sense to take good care of them. One way of doing so is to regularly check the fluid in the battery. In order to do this, you will need to learn how to use a battery hydrometer.

How do you use the hydrometer?

The battery hydrometer is a glass tube with a suction bulb that draws the electrolyte from the battery into the tube. When that happens, the float inside the tube begins to rise.

On the float, you will see some markings on it. You can see a long red strip, a narrow white strip and then a little wider green strip.

How do the markings work?

Well, if it floats off and it’s in the green marking, that means the battery is in pretty good shape. When more of the float sticks out of the electrolyte in the glass tube, meaning the stronger the battery is.

If it floats up until the white strip, that means the battery is only in a fair shape. If the electrolyte goes up into the red strip marking, the battery really needs to be reconditioned.

When that happens, the charge controller may not be able to charge the battery to its full potential with the energy from the solar panel. You may have to pull out the battery and send it for servicing and to get a full recharge.

What will happen if you were leave the battery there?

If you were to do so, the battery will reached a critical level of discharge and it may damage the battery permanently. As a good practice, a battery should not be discharged beyond the 50% mark before recharge.

Although a deep cycle battery can handle deep level discharge, doing it too often will reduce its efficiency.

If you are looking for a battery hydrometer for your home solar system

battery bank, check out the Imperial 5991 Battery Test Hydrometer. You can get it cheaply from Amazon.com.

Related web pages:

1) Michael Harvey Earth 4 Energy Review – Reviewing top selling DIY home solar power system guide on the web.

Next, decide how many electrical appliances you want to connect to the solar power system. That figure will help you to decide how many deep cycle battery you will need for the battery bank.

The batteries can be arranged in different ways to get the voltage you’ll need for your power inverter. If you are using a 1000 watt at12 volt power inverter, you will need 2 units of 6 volts batteries connected in series to come up with the 12 volts.

The most dangerous part of this process is the liquid in the battery. The liquid is sulfuric acid that will seriously burn you. As a safety precocious, always have some baking soda nearby to neutralize the acid in case you spilled some on your body.

You can check the acid in the battery by using a hydrometer. A hydrometer is what you use to measure the actual specific gravity of the acid inside.

On the hydrometer, you can see several discs floating. For example, if you see 3 discs floating with one at the bottom, you’ll know the battery is about 75% charged.

Here’s another safety tip. The gasses that come off from the battery, hydrogen gas (H2), can be hazardous as well. It is highly flammable. Make sure you work with the batteries in an open space and no sparks or open flame nearby.

DIY Home Solar Power Guide

Are you planning to build your own home solar power system? If you are, check out Michael Harvey’s Earth 4 Energy guide.

Michael’s e-book comes with step by step instructions on how to make a DIY solar panel with minimal cost. Check out my review of Earth4Energy on this blog for more information.

==> Click here to visit Earth4Energy now!

If you are planning to use solar energy to reduce your home power requirement, one of your largest investment would be on the battery bank.

The bank will be used to store the power generated by the solar panels. The number of battery needed will depend of your power requirement.

The type of battery most suitable for a residential solar power system is the deep cycle type. Since you will be investing a large amount of money on the battery, it makes sense to take good care of them.

The following is a list of 5 tips to keep your deep cycle batteries in tip top condition.

1) Depth of discharge.

If possible, do not discharge the battery to a very low level. For example, a 100 percent discharge is when the battery is totally dead.

If the battery is discharged to 50 percent everyday it will last twice as long as it would if it’s cycled to 80 percent discharge.

2) Recharge the battery quickly.

The life expectancy of the battery is also depends on how soon a discharged battery is recharged. The sooner it is recharged the better.

This may be a challenge during cloudy days with a solar power system. A solution is to recharge the battery bank using power from the grid.

3) Avoid undercharging.

Undercharging is a result of the battery being repeatedly discharged and not fully recharged between cycles.

If a battery is not recharged the sulfate material that attaches to the discharged portions of the plates begins to harden into crystals.

Over time this sulfate cannot be converted back into active plate material and the battery is ruined.

Sulfation is the number one cause of battery failure.

4) Avoid overcharging.

Overcharging mean charging the batteries even thought it reached its maximum charged capacity. The result in severe water loss and plate corrosion.

5) Use a bigger battery bank.

When you are setting up a battery bank, have more battery units than what you’ll need. With a bigger battery bank, it will reduce the amount of power discharged before recharging.

If the weather at you home has more cloudy days, you may not have sufficient charging time. A large battery bank will provide sufficient power for your requirement.

Deep Cycle Battery Maintenance Guide

When you have invested a large amount of money on the battery bank for your residential solar power system, you want to make sure you spend some time maintaining it.

Not everyone knows how to maintain a battery properly. I did the research on the web and the best manual that I found on deep cycle battery care is the “Electric Golf Cart Battery Guide” from www.golfcartbatteryguide.info.

It also offers the best value for money. The e-book is selling for only $19.95!

If you are keen to know how to take care of your deep cycle battery bank, check out the manual from the link below.

==> Click here to visit the Electric Golf Cart Battery Guide now!

The battery storage for solar panels is very important to the overall home PV system. There a few reasons for that, but the main one is cost.

The batteries can be one of the most expensive components of your entire home solar power system!

So you want to pay close attention when building the battery bank. To help you in the construction process, here are 3 tips you can use.

1) Stay away from automotive battery.

When you are building a battery storage bank for your PV system, do not use car battery! If you use them, you will be wasting your money.

Automotive batteries are not designed for residential solar power system because they are not made for the deep cycle usage that occurs in PV systems.

Car batteries are used for short time interval when you need a large power surge, for example, the high voltage needed to start an engine.

It is then immediately recharged by the vehicle electric alternator.

It does not need to be discharged over a long period like batteries that are tied to a PV system.

Solar system needs battery to discharge small amount of power over a long period of them. The battery will then to be charged on an irregular basis because we can’t be sure if there’s a clear sunny day to charge the Photovoltaic cells.

An automotive battery under these conditions will die after only a couple of discharge and charging cycle.

2) Have more than you need.

The recommended energy discharge for a home solar system battery bank is about 50 percent. So when you have calculated the power requirement needed for the PV system, multiplied it by a factor of 2. Next, build the battery bank based on that figure.

You don’t want the batteries to discharge all its power just to keep up with your home power needs, therefore, have more battery units.

3) The lower rate of discharge the better.

If the batteries are properly sized and maintained, the life span for a PV system battery can be anywhere from 3 years to 10 years or longer. However, the life span will depend on how much you discharge the battery.

For example, if you have a battery that is being discharged at 30 percent of its discharge capacity versus another battery that is discharged at 80 percent, the battery with a higher discharge rate will die much sooner compared the one with lower discharge rate.

To solve this issue, again, it is best to have a larger battery bank than required by your PV system.

DIY Home Solar Power System Guide

Do you want to build your own home solar power system and start reducing your monthly electricity bill? If you do, you will need a DIY residential PV system guide.

For an easy to follow home renewable energy guide, check out the Earth 4 Energy program from Michael Harvey. The program comes with a step by step guide to building a homemade solar panel and 7 High Definition (HD) instructional videos.

For more information, read the Earth 4 Energy review post on this blog.

==> Click here to visit Earth 4 Energy now!

Related web pages:
1) Earth 4 Energy Scam – Is Michael Harvey’s Earth4Energy A Fraud?

2) Green DIY Energy Review – Reviewing the GreenDIYEnergy program

There are generally 3 types of residential solar power system that you can choose from:

1) Grid-intertied solar power system.

2) Grid-intertied solar power system with battery backup.

3) Off-grid solar power setup.

In this post, I am going to write about the battery bank.

Building Your Own Battery Bank

To build a battery bank for your home, firstly, you have to know what type of battery to choose. The type of battery suitable for a residential solar power system is the “deep cycle”.

Deep cycle batteries are more durable and capable of discharging at a slower rate. The battery also discharges at a deeper level without destroying itself.

Deep cycle batteries are direct contrast to conventional lead acid batteries used on automobile. Car battery discharges very fast in order to have sufficient power to crank the engine. It is also not recommended to discharge the battery to a low level or it will damage the battery.

Therefore, if you are planning to make a home battery bank, do not use car batteries.

The video above shows a battery bank made out of 6 volts cells. You may be wandering, why use 6 volts when you can get 12 volts battery?

The answer is simple really. It is because of the “cost”.

6 volts batteries are generally cheaper compared to 12 volts. When you connect 2 units of 6 volts battery together in series, you will get 12 volts anyway. Doing that, you will save you some money.

There are benefits of using a 12 volts battery though. The major advantage is space saving and less power cables to deal with. Secondly, 12 volts battery requires less maintenance. Maintaining 1 unit of battery is easier compared to 2.

Safety First

When building your DIY battery bank, remember, safety first. Batteries are filled with sulfuric acid which is a very nasty stuff.

Always wear protective clothing and safety glasses when working with battery. As a safety precaution, have a box of baking soda nearby. If for any reason you got sulfuric acid on you, use the baking soda to neutralize the acid.

DIY Home Solar Power System

When you have the battery bank all set up, you can now charge it with a solar panel. A DIY solar panel with 36 pieces of Photovoltaic (PV) cell usually will generate 18 volt and approximately 75 watts of electricity on a clear sunny day. The solar panel will be suitable for your battery bank.

How much would it cost to make the solar panel? As a matter of fact, you can get it done for less than $150.

To find out how you can build an inexpensive solar panel, check out the Green DIY Energy program. The program comes with 2 e-books and 6 High Definition (HD) instructional videos showing you step-by-step how to make a solar module at minimal cost.

For more information, read the Green DIY Energy review at www.greendiyenergyreviews.com.

==> Click here to read more about Green DIY Energy now!

Related web pages:
1) Golf Cart Battery – Maintenance Guide To Extend The Life Of Electric Golf Cart Batteries

2) Solar Panels For Homes – Back To Basics

Many people are really keen to use renewable energy source such as solar power to reduce their home energy consumption. When the energy is generate by the solar array, most of the time, it will not be used immediately.

Most people with a Do It Yourself (DIY) solar energy system will build a battery bank to store the electricity generated. The size of the battery bank will be dependent on your household energy requirement.

Power will be drawn from the battery bank at night or when there is heavy cloud coverage. To have sufficient power, it may be a good idea to have 15 – 20 units of battery.

Where To Find Cheap Battery Storage For Home DIY Solar System?

Getting 15 – 20 units of battery can be quite expensive. There are many ways to reduce your budget though.

Want to know where to find cheap batteries? You can actually find them on eBay!

What type of battery should you use? For long lasting and steady power flow, it is recommended to use deep cycle battery for a DIY solar power system.

A deep cycle lead-acid battery is designed to deliver a consistent voltage as the battery discharges. In contrast, starter batteries on most road vehicles are designed to deliver sporadic current spikes. You don’t want this kind of battery or you will experience flickering on your lights or electrical appliances.

The most suitable deep cycle batteries are the one used on electric golf carts. If you want to know how to get your hands on some cheap deep cycle batteries, keep on reading.

Shopping For Cheap Batteries On eBay

The first step is to go to eBay main web site at www.ebay.com. You will see a pull down menu at the center of the page where it show All Categories. Click on the down arrow button and select eBay Motors.

Next, type in “golf cart batteries” in the search box next to it and click on the “Search” button. The web site will now gather all the deep cycle battery listings on eBay.

When the search results are presented, now all you have to do is browse through all the offers and auction and find the one which meets your requirement.

Here’s a tip, you should try doing the battery search couple of times a week on eBay. This is because as time goes by, people will start auctioning some used golf cart battery on eBay. You can to take advantage of this and be on the constant look out.

The screen shots below show some deep cycle batteries listings the last time I did a search on eBay.

Deep Cycle Battery listings on eBay

Building Your Own Home Battery Bank System

Do you want to know how to make your own battery storage system for your home solar panel? If you do, check the Power 4 Home manual by John Russel.

The e-book will show you step-by-step how to set the battery units with relatively low cost. For more information, read the Power 4 Home reviews in this blog.

==> Click here to visit Power 4 Home now!

Related web sites:

1) Deep cycle battery – A deep-cycle lead-acid battery is designed to deliver a consistent voltage as the battery discharges.

DIY Home Battery Bank

When you are setting up a home renewable energy system such as solar or wind power, one of your biggest expenses would be on the batteries.

The number of battery needed will depend on your power requirement. If you are planning to plug-in a lot of electrical equipment to the system, obviously you will need a large battery bank.

The Type Of Battery

What type of battery should you use to store all the energy generated by the solar panels or wind turbine?

It is recommended for you to use deep cycle battery. Deep cycle battery can hold a lot of power and yet it will release the energy over a longer time frame.

Unlike car batteries that release large amount of energy for a very short time in order to crank the engine, deep cycle battery tends to release a steady flow of electricity.

The deep cycle battery can also be discharged to a deeper level hence it is perfect for home solar power system.

Getting The Best Out Of Your Investment

Most deep cycle batteries are quite expensive. Your best option is to use dead deep cycle battery intended for golf carts.

If you are planning to invest money on the batteries, it would be best for you to get the most out of your investment. You want to make sure the battery lasts a long time.

I’ve already did the research for you. The best manual that I found on the internet on deep cycle battery care is the “Electric Golf Cart Battery Guide” from www.golfcartbatteryguide.info.

It also offers the best value for money. The e-book is selling for only $19.95!

If you are keen to know how to take good care of your deep cycle batteries, check out the manual from the link below.

==> Click here to visit the Electric Golf Cart Battery Guide now!