LIVING OFF GRID

This blog is about our travels in our solar powered "Airstream" and living off grid, in our passive solar home, near Bancroft, Ontario, Canada.

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Monday 24 September 2018

NEW BATTERIES

Today we are getting sixteen new batteries, YEA!!! Our old batteries lasted 6 years but are done and need replacing. When I say done I mean really done. They wouldn't hold a charge overnight.

While we were waiting for the batteries to arrive Mary made healthy donuts. What's a healthy donut? Ingredients: almond and coconut flour with psyllium, eggs, butter, vanilla, and cocoa powder. These are baked in the oven just like baking bread.

I'll update the blog once all the batteries are in.

5 PM UPDATE

My battery bank consists of sixteen batteries connected in two banks, 8 batteries to a bank. Each bank of batteries sits on two carts with 4 batteries to a cart. This way I can rotate the batteries throughout the year in the hopes of getting another year of use out of them. Check back in 6 years to see how that experiment is working.


All 16 batteries in place and connected. Each cart is coulour coded and each battery labelled so it is easy to keep accurate records on each battery regardless of where it gets moved to.

Mike is double checking the set points for the different stages of charging. The batteries go through 4 stages: Bulk, Absorption, Float and Equalization and each has a different charge level. I need to get the batteries to the float stage at least once a week. Equalization charge is done as required.

Tomorrow I will check the computer and see what stage of charging we reached today. It sounds complicated but once you've done it a few times it becomes quite logical.


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