240 watts of Solar Synergy panels ordered

[birdhouse]

how old are the golf cart batts?  if around 1 year old, i'd add to them with identical batts.  if over 2 years old, i'd start a new bank. 

$/Ah l-16's aren't as good of a buy i've found.  not to say that they aren't more robust ect. 

i run eight trojan t-125's (24v) with ~600w of solar, and an 8.5' wind turbine feeding them.  i only need more power on those gloomy days with no wind. 

sixteen of a similar battery would give you quite a bit at 24v.  maybe 6Kwh usable???  without damaging the bank. 

adam

[Mary B]

bats are from July 21012 so a bit over a year. with 2400 watts of solar I will have a pretty hefty incoming charge, current setup brings the bat bank to full from 40% discharge by 2pm.

[petect]

MaryAlana

I ran across this site.    http://www.vonwentzel.net/Battery/index.html
It's mostly directed at marine batteries, and seems to be a bit of an advertisement, but still contains some good information. It has some good links too.

So far, my best takeaway is to avoid running lead acid storage batteries too low for maximum battery life. This is similar to my experience with deep cycle batteries used to run trolling motors.

Pete

[Mary B]

I typically don't go below 70% discharge. A couple times to 50% in a little over a year. I have the computer app that lets me see the stats from the charge controller plus a remote meter that all I have to do is push a button and I can see the current voltage.