Can anyone please advise me the best places to purchase deep cycle batteries in either Austin or San Antonio, Tx. Any suggestions as to best type/brand and which ones to stay away from.
I will be in that area in a couple of weeks and need these for a solar system.
Thanks in advance.

Anybody ever built their own solar system from scratch?

 

Are you looking for 12 volt deep cycle batteries or 6 volt golf cart batteries? I'm no expert but from what I've read, 6V batteries are usually preferred over the 12V ones for RV and solar purposes.

I can't make specific suggestions since I'm not familiar with either area but I'd suggest looking at places like Sam's Club or Costco.

 

Stan,what is it you are actually building and for what purpose?

 

I am considering getting off the grid, so am going to attempt to go 100% solar. Need the batteries for that purpose.
When I head north in a couple of weeks will be buying all the parts I need to get started, but need to get ready now and know where to go without wasting time.

 

Stan,

The normal deep cycle as we would use in the RV is not the one they recommend for home application. Check this site:

http://www.mrsolar.com/content/batteries-enclosures.php

Much more compatible for home usage - - yeh, and probably more expensive which seems to always be the case. No fumes, no water addition, no explosions - - that might be a good thing.

Bob

 

Thanks Bob, yes, I have already discovered that as I have done a fair amount of research on this matter. Now getting ready to shell out a few bucks and buy the stuff I need at the best price.

 

Mexstan , to get you good info , we need a lot more info , just like working on the truck .
I have been doing many types of alt. energy systems , starting in late 70s - early 80s .
The vast majorty of what your need is going to be not avalable in most any store front , this is almost all specialty sourced .
I would be happy to help / answer / guide you through the most efficient way of doing what you need , but it take a plan , if you do not know upfront what each & every energy consumption device in your home consumes then you need to hold off on any big expenditures .
Again just like the trucks , one of the 1st things to do is get monitoring equipment [ gauges ] .
If someone is not very familiar with all of this , it is best to start out small & cheap , then after using & learning [ during this time , is the most common that misuse of the wrong types of batteries , have an early death ] so only doing the major set up after learning .
I would prefer to do it here on the sight , because many would want to know , albeit , it may be moved to a different thread heading .

 

Thanks for the concern. Appreciate it. I have been doing a LOT of research on this (and other alternative energy) for some time now. I do know that I need special deep cycle batteries and was hoping to pick them up at a place that specializes in these while up north. If I can't then I will have them shipped to a drop off place.
Will PM you later today when I get a few minutes.

 

Stan, In your research, have you studied the Earthship complex in Taos, NM? They are 100% off-grid and I know that when we went through one, they had a battery storage bank to power each home. You can get some info here.

 

That is one I have not looked at. Will now do so, thanks for the info.

 

John, decided not to PM you, but answer here in case others can help me.

My intent is to go off the electrical grid entirely. Down here not even going to consider a grid tied solar system for many reason, so am looking at a 100% off grid system. Unfortunately I thought that I had lots of time to get ready, but now have an unexpected trip to Texas, so have to take advantage of that as I do not know when I am heading north again. Can obtain most of what I need down here, but it is ridiculously expensive.

Yes, I am fully aware that most of what I require is not available in the average store front. There are a few solar power suppliers in the San Antonio and Austin area, so maybe I can get some of what I need from them. Will probably end up ordering most of what I require and having it drop shipped, so only have a few days to decide on who to buy from so that the shipment can get to Austin in time for me to pick them up.

In a nutshell, am fully aware of array DC disconnects, inverters, (still deciding on whether to stay with my existing square wave 12v converter or go for the more efficient 48v converter), kwh meter, charge controller and system meter.

To save money, have decided to purchase solar cells and build my own panels. Think that I know how to do this. This appears to be a good source: http://www.homemadeenergy.org/ebaysolarcells Only thing I am unsure of is what gauge of wire to use to connect the cells.

My electrical bill arrives every two months and from them I see that I use an average of 450 kwh. So that means about 225 kwh per month, so need to size my system to suit that requirement. We do not use A/C or require heating down here, so there are no large power requirements except for the fridge and my 3/4 hp irrigation pump.

If anybody has any suggestions etc, please go ahead. Any and all help will be appreciated.

 

Again to tell you where to get the best price for the best batteries is hard to do with no number / info .
It sounds like you are going to do more that an RV , which would start with oversized golf cart [ in reality they are floor buffing machine batteries ] , but never consider any 12v batteries for almost any solar / deepcycle system .
As far as house hold , again to make the right selection , it could easily be that using some fork lift batteries & maybe a number of them .
As far as off grid , unless the location is so far from a grid source that it would cost too much to run a line , a non grid system in today's market is a bad idea , for a few reasons , 1st if which is , then you can get by with a much smaller battery bank [ just enough for the average outage in your area ] , then use the grid as a battery , once that is done correctly , you can get around a 50% by back from many programs out there , the average middle income family house with all the average use of electric can cost about $25,000-30,000 , with the programs giving back an average of half that .
Next is batteries are the easiest component in the system to damage from misuse , and one of the shortest life units in the system , and the least efficient component in a system .
Again with the lack of info writing like a shotgun to cover a broad spectrum of possibilities is more than can be done here .
With a couple of hints that you have given " wire for making panels " , " 12v square wave " , it would seem that you are talking about a vary small system for house hold use and or have not done enough research yet , making panels [ special use ribbon ] to make the connections in solar panels , and using a square wave inverter is very limited use , not much more than one I keep behind the seat of the truck to run a laptop , even though you can get 1,000-2,500 watt [ Chinese ] inverters , they require more power because of inefficacy and will not run a lot of thing [ as an example I have a 1,200 watt cheap inverter , and it will not start my hand held wetdry vac. , also over time the square wave inverts can shorten the life of a lot of devices .
Do you have an idea of what you are budgeting for this project , and your overall consumption / max draw ?
I have a lot of sources that have good pricing , but without some of that info , I could point you in completely different directions for what ever , as an example batteries , which is where we started , getting some Trojan 6v deepcycle batteries [ about 325 pounds each ] , at BatteriesPlus , then you order with there normal delivery , and pay no shipping , just pick them up at there store , in one of my last systems that I am now up grading , I have four of these in a bus I use as a mobile shop , then run an extension cord from the 3,000 watt syn wave inverter to my RV , because I had an auto repair bis. & did system for others I got a discount from BatteriesPlus & picked up with no shipping .
These in there normal use [ industrial floor machines ] had a normal life of about 4 yrs. , because of my system design , they lasted 14 yrs. , and gave me all the power I needed [ living in the RV with fridge , stereo , color TV ect. ] for 2 1/2 weeks of cloudy weather within the 1st few months of lighting it up .
Also a new company that has been making panels with a new process to industrial only , is spouse to be making avalable to retail / public , panels that cost $1 per watt [ the old from good sources in the past have been anywhere from $3.25 - $7 per watt ] and bad sources $8 - $13 per watt .
You are not going to beat that making your our panels .

 

John, thanks for the indepth answers.
I am on the grid now, but would like to get off, or partially off mainly due to the frequent loss of power and also due to the ever escalating costs. No biggie if I stay on tho, but would like to attempt to take advantage of all the sun we have here most days. Unfortunately can't use a buy back system here.
Never did get into this detail, but was considering 6v batteries and not 12v. Must admit that I did not consider the Trojan batteries.
The inverter I have right now is a new 3000 watt, 6000 watt surge square wave and I am aware that it can shorten the life of some appliances. Long story how I came by that particular one. Was just thinking about using it because I already have it, but am prepared to pay for a good sine wave inverter.
Going to Texas with my truck, so to bring back heavy batteries should not be a problem. Shipping them to Mexico IS a prohibitive problem.
As you can see from my previous email, the system I need is not huge as my total consumption is only about 225 kwh a month. So all I need is something to supply those needs, but unfortunately the heaviest power use is after the sun goes down, but only for about three hours, four at the most every day. My max draw is about 3000 watts.
Panels at $1/watt!!!! That I would be interested in. Perhaps I should delay my purchases for a while until these are available.
Feel free to pm me if you want to.
Going out now for a few hours.

 

The best all around source I know of for the do it yourselfer , Home Power magazine , it has almost anything in info or supplies that someone could use , testing of all the equipment out there , other people systems & designs / plans , free software , I have had a subscription for about 20 yrs.

http://www.homepower.com/

Depending on your situation , its hard to say wait for that source , I have heard lots of promises , here's a link to them also , you can get on an email update from the web site .

http://www.nanosolar.com/index.html

 

http://www.backwoodssolar.com/
Stan,here is some fun 12v reading.Are you going to do a 12v,24,or a 48v system?There are some REALLY BIG battery bank systems out there.