This is the easiest off-grid solar power system battery bank we could find. We are doing the biggest upgrade to our off-grid solar system we have ever done. We are installing 8 Battle Born Batteries two Victron charge controllers and a new Victron battery monitor. This is a super-easy way to convert from lead-acid batteries to LiFePO4 batteries.
Battle Born Batteries are lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) and are great for RV, marine, or any off-grid situation. Check out Battle Born Batteries battlebornbatteries.com
I just got my 3rd battery bank for my offgrid wind-solar system. First was 4 strings of Trojan 420 amp-hr 6V batteries in a 24V system(i.e. my 7000W of inverters work at 24V) for a total of 1680 ah. They had a lifespan of 5-8 years and croaked at exactly 5 years despite meticulous maintenance. I cycled them down to 80% only per instructions. This bank was my training wheels. My next bank was 3 500 amp-hour Crown Forklift Batteries at 24V. So I traded a 1680 ah bank for a 1500 ah bank, but I cycled theses down to 50% and had a lot more energy(twice). True awesome deep-cycle batteries. They lasted 9 years and when the bank crashed, I went to grid, while I waited to get my new bank, same as the old bank. I kept equalizing the old bank and maintaining it and when my new bank arrived all the cells in my old bank were green again, so I kept them and now have the capacity to switch between 2 banks of 1500 ah each.
I will keep a watch on this technology and see how the batteries behave over time. Batteries need to charge and discharge fast without too much heat, they need to handle temperature extremes if system is located away from the home and not heated, they need to come back from too deep discharges at times, and they all need some maintenance.
All interesting, thanks. How often do you adjust the aim of your solar cells? Every day all day to automatically track the sun? A few times a year as the season changes? Never?
Never change alignment. I used the right ascension axis of my telescope while in good polar alignment to get true astronomical north in 2005 and set my array facing south. My array is 24 panels. Since 2004 the pole has wandered more than anytime in past however.