Off-Grid Solar System: Battery Bank

The last post I’ve been meaning to put up is about the battery bank.  This is the final part of our off-grid system, and one of the most important.  There are a whole bunch of reputable battery suppliers out there, such as Trojan and Crown, which are commonly used.  Also available, and what we are going with, are Rolls Surrette – we chose these because they are made out east in Springhill, Nova Scotia – and we like that our money goes towards Canadian jobs (especially out east where they really need them!)  They are also extremely highly rated and have a 7yr warranty (though many people get 10-15yrs out of them).

We are going with the S-1860’s (PDF link) – these are 2V batteries with a 20hr rating of 1445Ah.  To create a 48VDC battery bank we will need to connect 24 of these in series!  These batteries are enormous – weighing in at ~130lbs each, and about 17″ x 7″ x 12″ – we’ll have to construct a fairly large insulated box for them just outside the utility room, to get them as close as possible to the inverter.

Not a particularly exciting topic, however one of great importance to the off-grid system – without the battery bank we would need to run the generator 24×7 – not really practical nor cost effective (though, still cheaper than our standard utility bills for our house back in the city).

Thanks for reading, and I’ll have a more picture heavy post soon (I know people like these more) – we got our main water line installed between the well and the house, and also have the expansion tank connected, so there’ll be an upcoming post on that soon enough.