Trying to make a decision on batteries. A couple local possibilities are US battery's 420 amp hour, 6 volt L-16hc xc (
http://www.usbattery.com/usb_usl16hcxc.html) for $191 new with a one year replacement, 2 year prorated warranty and Wal Mart's everstart maxx 29 dual purpose AGM batteries for $80 each, 18 month free replacement.
My setup will be a 187 watt, 24 volt BP solar panel and a 12 volt air X wind turbine (uh, yeah, I've heard all the Air X horror stories, decided to keep it for now, thanks). I have a 3000 watt (6000 surge) 12 volt inverter. I am powering a very small dwelling that uses about 80-100 kWh/month. I am planning to use a tri-star 45 amp charge controller with the solar panel and wire the turbine directly to the batteries. I would like to get a dump load controller as well. Providing temperature controlled environment for batteries is going to be a challenge (do plan to, but it won't be battery nirvana, that's for sure) and I am not exactly the most reliable person in the world when it comes to maintenance on ANYTHING.
I'd like to get more panels and build a turbine on my own down the road. I am perfectly willing to get bigger, better stuff down the road, but am trying to get the system up and running as soon as possible. I have ZERO experience in this stuff. I did wire my place, but am probably lucky there are no building codes out in the country where I live.
I have asked in the Newbie section re: how to handle the 24 and 12 volt power sources, but if you want to weigh in on that one, too, that's be fine. (the junction box on the back of the panel has no apparent screws or anything on it and I can't see how I can open it without sorta ripping things up, so not sure about rewiring for 12 volt X2).
Thank you for any responses.