Keep Your Batteries Running Longer

Batteries are a great way of storing the extra solar you generate. They will keep your house powered up all night long and can keep your lights on when a blackout occurs. You can even use them to store excess energy and get money back from your energy company. While you may have heard a lot about the amazing benefits of investing in batteries for your solar power system, what you might not have thought about is how to most effectively keep said batteries alive for as long as possible. Keep reading this article to learn seven new tips on how to best keep your batteries alive and running for as long as possible.

Don’t Get Too Many Batteries

You might be tempted to get a ton of batteries. After all, more batteries equals more energy stored which will be great for you if you want to get credit from a power company, right? However, you’ll actually want to make sure you limit how many batteries you use at a time. This is because the more batteries you have hooked up to your system, the more resistance you’ll be dealing with, which will cause uneven charging and will actually mean you’ll be able to store less and drain your batteries faster. 16 batteries or less is how many you should be shooting for.

Keep Them Moving

While it may sound silly to play ring-around-the-rosy with your batteries, it will actually benefit you greatly. This is because any batteries you have placed in the middle of your storage system are actually going to get less charge than those on the outside, meaning the ones on the outside will die faster and need to be replaced more frequently. You’ll want to keep them balanced out.

Size Matters

When you’re getting your connection cables, you’ll want to ensure you get large enough cables to avoid resistance. The size you’ll want to shoot for is a 4/0 for 12V and a 20 for a 48V system.

Keep Them Charged

While you may be thinking keeping the batteries charged will kill them faster, the opposite is actually true. In actuality, keeping them uncharged is what causes them to die faster.

Isn’t overcharging bad?

On a similar note, a lot of people also believe overcharging is bad for batteries. This train of thought does make sense because overcharging a laptop or a cell phone causes them to die sooner when they’re not being charged. However, when it comes to your solar power battery system, overcharging is actually a good thing. This is because having some cells charged and others not charged for a long period of time can cause serious damage to your batteries.

Keep Them Natural

Battery additives and/or electrolytes are going to hurt your batteries, even though the advertising may say otherwise. You’ll want to avoid adding things like that to your batteries.

Keep It Gassy

You’ve probably heard that a battery “gassing” too much will cause damage. But it’s also true that your battery need to gas regularly, even daily. When does your battery start gassing? If you have a 12V system, it will start at 14.1Vdc. If you have a 24V system, it will start at 28.2Vdc. And if you have a 48V system, it will start at 56.4Vdc. Make sure your batteries have ventilation so that hydrogen will be allowed to escape during the process, as well.

Want to learn more about the different parts of a solar power system and how to add them to your system? Check out the HahaSmart blog!

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