How much more capicity will you add to your existing system for possibly less $ than your original battery bank! You can replace your old dying batteries with new high-capacity batteries without having to replace any existing equipment.
| Wet Acid, AGM, & OPZV Batteries | Smart Carbon Batteries | Lithium Batteries | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technology | Old and Inefficient | Advanced Japanese Tech | New, Superior Tech |
| Depth of Discharge | 30% DOD | 70% DOD | 85% DOD |
| Lifetime | Short Life | Design life 15 Years | Better than 10 Years |
| Looses charge ability, "Memory" | Yes, develops a memory | No memory | No memory |
| Vulnerable to partial charge? | Yes, and shortens life | Does not effect life | Does not effect life |
| Charge capacity | Huge % of unusable power | Best value for usable power | Good value for usable power |
| Warranty | 2-3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years |
| Physical Size | Takes up a lot of room | Compact and can be stacked | Smallest physical size |
| Operating Temperature | Suffers over 25 deg temps | More tolerant temp range | 0-50 degree range without effect |
| Sulphate | Sulphates badly | Almost no sulphation | Does not sulphate |
| Value | Old technology and poor value | Lowest price product | Relatively priced for great features |
Click on any of the below common queries to reveal its content.
How long is a piece of string? The amount of storage and type of battery dictates the price. For a home connected to the grid, I have found most households consume at least 6 kw hrs per night, some use 20 KwHrs a night, and more. If you are only a 6 kwhr user then I suggest it is cheaper to simply buy it from the grid while prices stay at 2018 levels. If you consume 10 kwhrs per night then it is worth investigating seriously with a starting budget for around $15,000.
Off grid systems that are designed with a reasonable life span start around this figure also. The design of an off grid system is quiet complex and requires professional input. May I suggest you go to our Off Grid page for more detail.
Technically an AGM battery should be discharged no more than 30% and even at this low level the stated life time is around 5-6 years. Lithium has a warranty for 10 years and may last 15. If you have one lithium battery of 6 KwHrs to have the same available power from AGM will require 6 x 280 amp hour 12v batteries. May I suggest you look at our table re lithium compared to carbon and AGM.
With a grid connect solar the best way to approach it is to determine how much of that 10 Kwh is surplus power. Use that surplus amount as your minimum storage capacity. Rule of thumb is that you can store the amount of your surplus production. What I recommend is that you take a look at how much you draw from the grid each day and decide how much of that you would like to be replacing with your own solar power. That is how much battery storage you require.
In an off grid system I would prefer to have more information about your usage and requirements to make a recommendation. The generalised principal is to have 3 days of storage.
The short answer is YES. How much capacity is best considered in conjunction with how much surplus power you can generate to fill those batteries. If you have a standard grid connect inverter you will need to either upgrade that to a hybrid inverter or add a battery charging unit to be able to store the surplus power in the battery and then retrieve it when you want to use that stored power.
Interesting question! one that requires a lot deeper understanding of you power requirements. How much solar you have to make that power OR use a generator to create the power to be stored is relevant. I have built off gird systems with as little as 5 kw hours of usable storage to over 100 kw hours. I am happy to offer a much more definitive answer in a 20 minute phone call.
Yes it certainly can. The equation is to determine how much draw your air con requires multiplied by how many hours you want to run the air con for from the batteries. This will give you a minimum storage required just for that appliance.
If you are off gird it is vital no matter what the cost. On Grid – Pay back is dependant on how much you pay for your grid power.
Lets assume that the cost is $10,000 for the battery. At 27cents per kilowatt one has to use 37,037Kwhrs for pay back. At 44 cents per Kilowatt one only has to use 22,727 Kwhrs for pay back. I usually find people have other reasons to invest in batteries than cost.