Which battery?

Better than a Solio

There’s nothing worse than your mobile phone running out of juice when you need to make an important call and when there’s nowhere to power it up. Get the BOOST Emergency Phone Charger �5.95 in the UK Just click here to buy it. This simple little charger is powered by a regular AA battery � you just plug it into your phone and it will give it a good charge. More pricey but good quality is the Freeloader solar-powered charger (pictured) which competes with the Solio, but is cheaper and better.

Sealed Lead acid batteries are not recommended for off-grid use, according to a recent thread on the Yahoo group, offgridlivingandhomesteading . There’s no way to make up the water lost during heavy charging. The valve regulated units are usually done after 2 years max.

Cap top, refillable, deep cycle batteries, on the other hand, are usually good for 10+ years. The sealed AGM deep cycle batteries are also long term winners, and have the advantage of not needing ventilation in small areas like rv’s and boats.

One poster on the group recommends Trojan L-16 and Trojan T-15, as well as Concorde AGM in RV & Boat apps.
A slightly cheaper competitor to Trojan is the I US2200 from Standard. They claim they have a little more lead etc for the price. Another option is 6v golf cart batteries, or if you can find then, nimh 12V batteries.

�I am at my mothers and using her PC because we have never had power for a PC. Now we don’t even have power for lights!” unless we use the generator, says another poster, an off-grid newbie who is using sealed batteries.

Try this one

http://batterysupplyco.com/12ce100.html

The Trojans are 6 v golf cart batteries. NiMH for off grid homes? that would
be pretty pricey. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them installed in this
application. Usually they are installed in vehicle apps where their ability
to dumps large amounts of power quickly is more appropriate.

have to go with the group here, i use AGM and have so much electronic
and other equipment up here and i am fine for days before using
generator if wind/sun do not cooperate

air-x turbine
2-kyrocera 130w panels
morningstar ts-45
trimetric 20-20
iota dls-55/iq4

and Champion generators, 2 of them and they are great starting in cold
and run forever on 4gallons, well with my load about 22-26hrs if i
fire all computers, dish network, starband, lights, ya know, my toys

CB6V-AGM Trojan Sealed AGM 6 Volt Battery

Nimh have been used and are being used for Back-Ups continuous power systems. The systems are designed to come on as soon as the power is turned off, and are available in small, medium, and large commercial units.

Chevron bought the rights to them and is limiting their use in home applications at the moment. They refuse to allow sales of units that are large enough to power a home or a car. You can still get smaller units and link them into larger units, but need to be a bit circumspect about it.

A 100 amp hour battery will cost about 300.00 and they have been chosen as the battery of choice for commercial back-up systems. The biggest change though that you have with these large NiMN batteries is that you are supposed to totally discharge them before recharging. This works extremely well in home applications… with the right type of power distribution you
could run your house on just a few of these things.

An alternative is a commercial battery. Try this one:

http://www.staabbattery.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=staab&Product_Code=829&Category_Code=bcl

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