Comments on: best battery to use for a backup house system?

By: jivepacketrat

jivepacketrat — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:52:33 +0000

I hope that your device to change from the commercial grid to your back up system is a break before make switch. That means that the common connection to the house breaks the connection to commercial or back up before it connects to the other. Otherwise you will have serious problems. Also remember that you require at least 10 times the current from the 12 volt batteries to provide the current required by your lights etc. So you will need a very large string of 12 batteries in parallel to run the house.
You might try contacting car dealerships that have replaced car batteries in new cars because the owner left the battery go dead and did not want to wait until the dealership could deep charge them. These batteries have a lot of life in them, but cannot be sold as new, so they might work out a deal with you. The recommendation that I had was to use marine deep charge batteries as they provide more current for a longer time. They of course are the most expensive batteries. You may find that a generator is less expensive in the long run.

By: Irv S

Irv S — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:58:00 +0000

Too much to post.
Here are two good battery sites;
Any group of batteries you use mush be ‘normalized to work together.
Look it up.

By: Don

Don — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:48:48 +0000

You’re delving into a realm of expensive equipment. I have an off-grid house, and it uses $4000 worth of Trojan L-16 Batteries (considered the best around here), and a $2000 inverter (Xantrex brand). I don’t have any solar panels (I use a waterwheel instead), but figure about $10,000 per 1000 watts peak capacity for those. One of the best sources of information is Home Power magazine; they have a online presence, too.

EDIT: I don’t think a “backup” system, that’s capable of powering a house for 24-48 hours would be much different than a complete off-grid power system. Even people with off-grid systems need to run their backup generators if the sun doesn’t shine for a few days, just as an example. I think this is more a matter of how big (the amp-hour capacity) your battery bank really is.

By: ericscribener

ericscribener — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:12:10 +0000

I use Rolls Surrette batteries - they are the very best available. The solar panels and charger system you use will depend on the voltage of your system (mine is 24-volt).

By: Terry D

Terry D — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:34:46 +0000

Why not just get a whole house generator. They run around $100 per 1000 watts. 10000 watts wil run all of your basic appliances. That willelevate the batteries and their maintenance.