? Best batteries for long lasting Amp Hours ? new and searching for the best choice.

[Eric12325]

I bought a 200 watt solar panel system from Grape solar ,I can add 2 more 100 watt panels when needed. It comes with a C35 controller and a 450 watt inverter by zantrex , I am using 2 UB12350 batteries from my Moms old scooter now and they work well for keeping 2 lights on and my computer all night long ,I live in Pittsburgh PA ,a cloudy city.

I am asking advice on the best batteries I should invest in ,6 volt 210 AMP HOURS , or 12 volt that seams to only have 100 AMP HOURS ?
I ask for any advice that will help me make the right choice ?
Thanks
Eric

[Naptown]

if a 12V system do not put 2 12V batteries in parallel go for the 6V in series.
either way you end up with a 12V approx 200AH battery bank.

[Wired]

We are looking at the Trojan L16RE-B battery...
Also, I want to find out about the Crown batteries, too.

[fernandonh]

Please consider the following scenarios and let me know if one makes more sense or provides more benefits than the other:

I need about 250w of power for about 5 hours after dark using a 250w panel.

A. 4 x 6v batteries (200ah each) connected in series to form 24v and total of 200ah = draws 10 amps to get 250w
B. 4 x 6v batteries (200ah each) each pair connected in parallel then the two pairsconnected in series forming 12v and total of 400ah = draws amps 20 amps

[inetdog]

Please consider the following scenarios and let me know if one makes more sense or provides more benefits than the other:

I need about 250w of power for about 5 hours after dark using a 250w panel.

A. 4 x 6v batteries (200ah each) connected in series to form 24v and total of 200ah = draws 10 amps to get 250w
B. 4 x 6v batteries (200ah each) each pair connected in parallel then the two pairsconnected in series forming 12v and total of 400ah = draws amps 20 amps

All other things being equal, there is a preference to store your energy using only series-connected batteries, so A.

However, if you need 250 watts for five hours (1.25 Kwh), then one 250 watt nominal panel will not be able to reliably produce that much energy in one day.
You need at least twice that. And if you need to be able to recharge your batteries in one day after several cloudy days, you will need even more panel.

[Sunking]

Erric you have a very small system and thus do not need a lot of capacity. In PA location all a 200 watt panel with PWM controller all can support is about a 12 volt 80 to 120 AH battery. No need to get a high quality battery for something so small. No wsif you ditch the PWM controller and get more panels then we can talk.

[fernandonh]

All other things being equal, there is a preference to store your energy using only series-connected batteries, so A.

However, if you need 250 watts for five hours (1.25 Kwh), then one 250 watt nominal panel will not be able to reliably produce that much energy in one day.
You need at least twice that. And if you need to be able to recharge your batteries in one day after several cloudy days, you will need even more panel.

Great, thank you for the info. I just did a test on the speaker I need to power and it turns out it uses a lot less than I expected. With the volume all the way up it drew between the range of about 100 to 190. Considering I will not use the speaker that loud the average would fall around 100 watts. With the 250w panel I will no only be able to power the speaker but also bup some charge back into the batteries.

Will you please take a look at these estimates about stored power and let me know if I am being reasonable?

2 x 6 v batteries connected in series, so 12v and total of 200Ah

Average power usage of 100W
100w / 12 v = 8.33 amp
Battery capacity of 200Ah / 8.33 = 24 hours. Considering that I shouldn't discharge the batteries more than 50% that would give me 12 hours of usage from storage bank. If I also consider efficienty loss of about 20% (inverter + actual performance), would about 9.5 hours be realistic?

[bonaire]

What about cloudy days? You need far more panels to recharge on non-optimal days. Or, will you use grid power on those days when the two modules don't do a recharge? I don't see why you want to do this.

[fernandonh]

What about cloudy days? You need far more panels to recharge on non-optimal days. Or, will you use grid power on those days when the two modules don't do a recharge? I don't see why you want to do this.

The panel and speaker will be installed in an art car, or float, which is taken to Burning Man. It's a 7 day festival in the desert and it's sunny every day. In the event that batteries do not get recharged I will simply not play music that evening.

[bonaire]

I thought burning man when I read your op. yes, some people have done bm solar carts and booths before. I believe I read about one in this month's homepower.com issue.

[Naptown]

Ask Mike 90250 about Burning man or do a search here. He built one called the solar monolith and took it there.

[fernandonh]

Oh great, thank you. We've taken our "teeth" the last couple of years but now the tunes must be incorporated into it.

Did the calculations I posted earlier make sense? Am i understanding the whole thing?

[Mike90250]

The omni-present dust at BRC will reduce your expected power harvest, and your 250w panel, will only make that much power at solar noon, when aimed precisely at the sun. When the sun goes off-axis to the panel, your harvest drops way down. Get 2 panels.
Beware - the 180-250w panels operate at 30- 90V and you need a MPPT charge controller to efficiently harvest their full power. Otherwise you are converting a 200w panel to a 85w panel. Mono_2005_CS_056_c.jpgSGV_3.8.jpg5-13Chart.jpgtree.jpg1502_1_600.jpeg

[fernandonh]

Hey Mike, thank you for the input, that is very helpful, speacially the type of controller to get.

[Eric12325]

Thanks but i do plan on adding more panels

Erric you have a very small system and thus do not need a lot of capacity. In PA location all a 200 watt panel with PWM controller all can support is about a 12 volt 80 to 120 AH battery. No need to get a high quality battery for something so small. No wsif you ditch the PWM controller and get more panels then we can talk.

Yes it is small ,I can keep adding panels in the future and this is my plan ,i would like to ask can I mix different panels from other CO together ? as long as they have the Mc-4 connectors
I am using 2 35AMP ub12350 sealed batteries from my moms old scooter for a total of 70 amp , I thought the more amp hour storage was the way to go , the more panels the more storage i will need ,thanks Sunking