Freetricity.com

Posted by John B on May 06, 2008, 06:49:59 PM

Re: Freetricity.com (Reply #195)
Rich,

That sounds great, I noticed your website up this morning with a page from the freetricity website.

First, to answer your battery questions, maybe you should have a read from Xantrex who made your C-35 controller.
http://www.xantrex.com/support/readfaq.asp?did=267&p=590

This is another good source for learning about batteries:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/

Generally speaking, you do not want to discharge your batteries more than 50%, and 20% (or 80% charged) is much better if you want them to last you a few years.

I am somewhat confused by the information that you have given. You have a 24V system, (and qty 4 times 6V batteries) but you give me a measurement of 12.56V for your battery when charged. Huh? where is that coming from?

You also say that you get 1 full day of use out of 2 days charging time. How does that translate into kilowatt hours? i.e. what is the model number/capacity of your batteries?

What sort of cycles are you running? Can't you just let the system charge the batteries continuously as you are using them instead of charging and discharging the batteries? What's the rated capacity of your Aims 24V inverter? Do you have any means of measuring (say a watt meter) how many kilowatt hours you are getting from the batteries so that you don't over discharge them?

John
 

Posted by Rich Parker on May 06, 2008, 07:40:45 PM

Re: Freetricity.com (Reply #196)

John,

I've already been scolded by Morgan (my account rep at Freetricity) for buying the worst possible deep cycle batteries so I am going to switch to an AGM type later this week. But they are Diehard # 27321. Want to buy them from me:)

I have a cheap digital multi meter I got at a discount house and the voltage setting above 20 VDC doesn't work so I have been reading the battery voltages in two's (sometimes ones) to make up for it. I only read the voltages when the green light on my controller says fully charged.

I have been charging them then dumping into my transfer switch so I could see how long they would last. It's been working for me so far so I'll continue 1 day on two days off until I become a more sophisticated user.

I haven't got an electric bill yet to show what I have saved but I average around 820 KWH's a month and since I am getting one day free out of every three I am expecting to save at least that much and from my thinking if it saves me 33% off my electric bill each month it is a hands down slam dunk success.

I get my meter reading next week so I am hoping I can view the KWH's used online shortly after that.

My inverter is a 1500 watt unit.

Rich
 

Posted by John B on May 07, 2008, 11:40:33 AM

Re: Freetricity.com (Reply #197)
Quote from: rich parker on May 06, 2008, 07:40:45 PM

John,

I've already been scolded by Morgan (my account rep at Freetricity) for buying the worst possible deep cycle batteries so I am going to switch to an AGM type later this week. But they are Diehard # 27321. Want to buy them from me:)

Rich, I'm having a hard time getting the numbers that you have given me to add up. I'm not aware of any Sears DieHard battery that is 6V or any voltage other than 12V. Golf cart batteries are usually 36V or 48V.

Quote
I have a cheap digital multi meter I got at a discount house and the voltage setting above 20 VDC doesn't work so I have been reading the battery voltages in two's (sometimes ones) to make up for it. I only read the voltages when the green light on my controller says fully charged.

Get a good meter so that you can be confident of your readings when you show a customer something.

Quote
I have been charging them then dumping into my transfer switch so I could see how long they would last. It's been working for me so far so I'll continue 1 day on two days off until I become a more sophisticated user.

I haven't got an electric bill yet to show what I have saved but I average around 820 KWH's a month and since I am getting one day free out of every three I am expecting to save at least that much and from my thinking if it saves me 33% off my electric bill each month it is a hands down slam dunk success.

820 KWH's per month is between 25 and 30 kwh per day that you are using. For easy math let's use 24 kwh for what you are getting from a charged battery. That would be 1000 ampere hours (24,000 watt hours divided by 24 volts) from four batteries at 24V, or 4000 ampere hours at 6v. That means that each 6V battery is a 1000 ampere hour battery minimum, or say 2000 ampere hours if you only discharge your batteries by 50%.

Those would be some massive batteries!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that you are in El Paso, but the telephone number on your website is area code 309 which is in Peoria, Illinois. Can I call you in El Paso to get some more details on exactly what you have and what you think it is producing?

John
 

Posted by John B on May 07, 2008, 06:08:23 PM

Re: Freetricity.com (Reply #198)
Quote from: rich parker on May 06, 2008, 07:40:45 PM

John,

I've already been scolded by Morgan (my account rep at Freetricity) for buying the worst possible deep cycle batteries so I am going to switch to an AGM type later this week. But they are Diehard # 27321. Want to buy them from me:)


If you're getting 25 kilowatt hours of energy out of them I might be interested. lol.

I have 8 Concorde PVX-1080T 12V 108 A-H deep cycle solar batteries.

108 ampere hours at 12 volts is 1294 watt hours or 1.294 kilowatt hours at 120V ac without taking any losses into consideration. Eight of them thus gives me 8 x 1.294 or around 10 kilowatt hours of storage.

My electrical usage is a bit less than yours at around 600 kilowatt hours per month or 20 kilowatt hours per day.

I ran my house overnight (without A/C loads) off the batteries to test how long it would go on fully charged batteries after a long day of sunshine and my inverter cut out due to low voltage when the batteries reached 42V about 5am the following morning.

I would estimate that my 8 expensive Concorde deep cycle solar batteries will give me about 5 kilowatt hours before failing, so if you can get four or five times the amount of energy from the "worst possible deep cycle batteries" from Sears them I sure am interested in them.

John
 

Posted by Rich Parker on May 08, 2008, 11:30:21 AM

Re: Freetricity.com (Reply #199)

John:

"Rich, I'm having a hard time getting the numbers that you have given me to add up. I'm not aware of any Sears DieHard battery that is 6V or any voltage other than 12V. Golf cart batteries are usually 36V or 48V."



John,

Most golf carts are 36 volt systems but by 6 six volt batteries.

My Sears 6 volts are comparable to the Trojan 6 volt batteries sold on this site.

They're pretty buff. 6 of those in a clubcar golf cart can carry 2 golfers and clubs for 54 holes of golf before recharging. That's approx 15 hours and almost 12 miles.

Rich
 
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