[Big Sky]

Originally Posted by trichrider

good luck in co. come back with pics of your new rig.

thanks!
appreciate it-
Love Co-

It will be my 8x4x7'H tent and some other stuff for veg, a 24 site turbo kloner and cloning booth-
all tight, right and clean like a lab-
going to blast some digilux and LED mix-
it will be on the grid-
Then set up a few 4x4 or 3x3 tents for testing booths
do some true side by sides etc-
fun stuff ahead!

[noyd666]

lotsa luck go your way big sky, you deserve some.

[Greenheart]

Inspiring! Sweet setup.

The best battery I have ever purchased was an Optima brand battery. I purchased it seven years ago. Many batteries fail in winter around here so to me that speaks pretty highly for them. It is the low-end red top model even.

[Big Sky]

Originally Posted by Greenheart

Inspiring! Sweet setup.

The best battery I have ever purchased was an Optima brand battery. I purchased it seven years ago. Many batteries fail in winter around here so to me that speaks pretty highly for them. It is the low-end red top model even.

right on..yeah i was debating them-
I have always used those for my rice burners ive build and street cars
Pounded the crap out of every one and usually my yellow OP lasted longer then the race cars did-
1 battery..3 cars lol

Optima are the best battery ive ever laid hands on myself in terms of 12v-
My next setup i do will be in my new home in colorado-
i'll probably just do 12v this time as its easier to find parts for even though im partial to 24-48v systems-
I went with a trojan-T series like generic battery from the auto parts store-
6v golf cart 215 amp hour-
when running solar you really want a true deep cycle battery-
The way it was explained to me by the guys who i bought all my equipment from was..the 6v are made to haul fat guys on golf carts all day, every day, for 18 holes of golf and still make it back to the clubhouse with life to spare-
they have an average of 5-7 year life span , pretty much the OP's are on par with that- but being 12v the deplete faster -
This causes more cycles of charging over a shorter period of time, making the OP run half its normal life span-
Where as in a car- its always charged by a alternator/generator.
So they dont actually get cycled , or depleted then recharged-
They never go through a full cycle.
If they did, they would only last about 1/2 its normal life span-
So 6v are really the best for solar-
OP are anything motor vehicle or RV for sure..go OP all the way
cheers

[Big Sky]

Originally Posted by noyd666

lotsa luck go your way big sky, you deserve some.

hey thanks !
I think its going to be good, found a house, things are looking good-
get to make the long travel next week so i'll be back!
Wife says she loves my hydroponic stuff so thats what you guys will get nxt-
Moms in soil, everything else will be DWC -

Going to be running some fresh clones, probably blue dream.
Planting down seeds so they can veg-
cannaventure selections and Gage Green

[Greenheart]

lol mine has seen quite a few vehicles as well. Good info I did not realize the depletion/charge cycle thing on the 6v vs 12v.


You seem to have done your homework. Can you explain a little more why 6v holds a charge longer than 12v? If the bank was large enough that they didn't deplete before recharge would that make a difference? What makes it a "true" deep cycle battery? Do you think the high-end blue tops would be a good battery for such a system? I would eventually like to set up a homestead situation so I am trying to absorb the offgrid energy info. Have you ever considered using a wood gasifier setup to run a generator to help power the banks at times? The "waste" would be biochar for the garden.

[Big Sky]

its all based on amp hours..the 6v have a real high amp hour rating on them-
Most 12v are much lower-
thats the simple answer lol
now with the optimal, if they have a 200ah+ battery then there is no reason not to use them-
Its really not a matter of 6v vs 12v etc- but more of an amp hour length-
The more amp hours a battery has the longer it takes to deplete-
so my initial answer was a little misleading-
12v do come in high amp hours but a good battery like an optimal with high amp hour ratings are very expensive-230$ + a pop sometimes-
6v golf cart batteries come with high amp hour ratings and long life spans so a lot of folks use them -
under 200$ a battery-

look at it this way- if i had 2 6v batteries in series to make a large 12v battery your having to cycle two batteries at 215ah ea-
where if it was the same system with a 12v battery instead, it would be cycling only one cell and with a lower amp hour rating causing it to loose charge much faster-
also being a 12v, the cell is twice the size, makes it take twice as long as a 6v to recharge-


Now your charge controller and inverter have a lot to do with how you use that power also- my inverter being pure sine wave will not allow anything below 22 V on the charge controller before automatic shutdown-
so if my battery bank is down to 22v instead of 24..an alarm sounds on the inverter- Letting me know the battery bank is to undercharged to run the inverter-
thats when you just shut the inverter and wait for the sunrise- within a hour or two your back up to full power-

if you want the best system go with wind and solar hybrid-
night and day- producing energy to keep the battery bank full-
Or just go solar, and have a large battery bank-
My system was basic 24v-
so i only had 4 x 6v batteries to complete the system-
another 4 added in series would of made a battery bank with over 400 amp hours!
then you just keep adding..
large battery banks take a very long time to deplete so the bigger the better

[Greenheart]

That makes alot of sense. Great explaination!



The bluetops are only 50a/hrs.

[Big Sky]

hey anytime-
i really like the 6v- there almost the same size as a 12v but a little smaller so you can really pack those guys in a hidden battery bank or in the garage in a solar battery cabinet-

i will post up a drawing of my next system-
I always diagram everything before building it, sometimes a year or two in advance , it gives me time to run failure scenarios in my head and better the systems build right out of the gate when i put them together-
My next system will feature a 60amp ac distribution panel for an rv- i'll have to knock a hole in a wall somewhere and make a cabinet to hold it for easy wiring and access-
it will be pretty bad ass-
cause those distribution panels are 120v AC and have built in DC converters for DC and AC appliances! cha!
i would use one anywhere in a house, garage, rv etc-
there the shizzle
and cheap! prewired and warranty-
if you go to develop something to try out hit me up i'll always try and lend a hand-

[Big Sky]

ahh only 50? i was sure they would be at least a hundo-
wow- see what i mean- 6v usually come pretty standard about 200AH-
its all about the AH when picking batteries-
The best known battery out there are 1000$ forklift batteries- those are beasts-
if you can find those even in a junk yard and there dead in the water- buy it cheap have it refurbished
save several hundred bucks and get a monster-