You are being literal with that suggestion yet you pass over the real ones. Even water from a well would be cooler than ambient air.
It sounds as if during the month of July that generator would have been the best bet. When money is no object, those batteries could have been kept cool.
I think it would take someone who lives off-grid to understand this - but I'm not about to unhook and drag 2 tons worth of batteries outside in 100+ degree heat to hose them down. Nor am I going to cool them with water in my utility room and flood it, and have water running into the house. We have only two things that managed to stay cool in that weather, and that was the inside of the 'fridge and the freezer. We couldn't get it below 90 degrees in our house even.
We live OFF-GRID. We do not have conveniences like central air conditioning.
Secondly, we tried running the generator when we started up the AC unit, because the AC unit pulls 12 amps 24 hours a day, which is almost 35 kWh per day. Unless the wind is blowing good, that's more power than we can usually generate in a day just to run that window AC unit. But the generator got hot too - it burned a quart of crankcase oil in only 18 hours in the heat because I only had 15W-40 in it and I couldn't buy any SAE 40 oil around here anyplace to save my a$$. Nobody carries it anymore. And the inverters constantly kept spitting it off because it was down on power in the heat and kept lugging down under load so the frequency dropped below spec.
So I backed down the amps that the inverters could draw, and that didn't fix it either. The windings and AVR got so hot the voltage would drift down, and when it got to 219 the inverters didn't like it - generator spit off again.
For somebody who lives with grid power they really don't understand what it's like to be the power company. There's all sorts of "solutions" from the sidelines I suppose. But when you're on the front lines fighting the battle it's a little different perspective.
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Chris
Hate me because I have Air conditioning.... Hate me because I spent $27,000 on electrical poles ( 5k each installed ) and a transformer to have grid power? Sure, go ahead but, I don't refuse to have grid power. Sure, I would have spent more for the comfort of having grid if something happens to me and my wife decides to turn the switch off on all this stuff. Could I have gone strictly OFF GRID, YOU BET, but I do not flame you for being so unfortunate not to have the option.
I'm currently building a solution for my RE components to stay cool, which does include Air conditioning, and I have wasted more money than it can return. So what, money is an object but I know why cool batteries are important. My " July " is from April to October. I just bought more solar to cover the a/c....
Have I blamed you for being OFF GRID? Nope. I made a simple suggestion your batteries are being cooked and you go all crooked over a simple observation. That was not the brunt of the comments to you. You picked ONE which was a past tense.
My main concern * WAS * the charge voltage and battery connections. You have changed part of this since early spring, I * ASSUME *.
So, what happened to your unlimited funds or those 500kw diesel generators? Oh, I bet you never thought you would need one and never implemented that into your contingency plan. Has that hot July influenced your battery longevity? I bet so, but since they are yours, I'm guessing you are ok.
All my concerns and observations came from your comments in various posts. You can be king of the hill all you want, but even you make mistakes and should not be afraid to get help or be criticized. Hell, you've given plenty to others who now appreciate your persistence.