F1 Terminals

For those who are wondering what F1 terminals are, check out http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/artic...1-f2-tabs.html.
They are "Faston" (TM) terminals for slip-on connectors, usually crimped to the wires. They are ONLY used for very small batteries in the emergency light and small UPS scale. Batteries in the typical RE sizes use traditional automotive conical post terminals (bad), flag terminals (vertical plate with a bolt hole) (better) or integral terminals with just a bolt hole set into the battery case (like the side terminals on modern car batteries).

Read the writeup at the link I provided and buy the appropriate friction fit terminals and crimp them to your wire using the recommended crimping tool or equivalent only. Soldering the terminal to your wire will produce a high stress spot where the wire will be likely to break from flexing over time, even with an attempt at strain relief.

PS: Five minutes from your introductory post to your first question. Not bad!
When you have time, please tell us more about the scale of your small starter system so that we can put our advice into that context.

I agree with inetdog that those batteries with the F1 terminal will be the wrong type to use, so before you purchase any batteries please give us more details on your system including panel type and wattage, charge controller, Battery Ah size (and how you got that number) and inverter.

We will help point you in the correct direction to get the right battery for your system.

Thanks for the replies! To be honest, since I haven't seen these batteries anywhere but online, the battery size never dawned on me. I'm trying to set up a small system that will be somewhere around 50 aH to begin with and I'd like to expand it as I go. To start with, I only want to run a couple of air purifiers and maybe a fan. Nothing too fancy.

Thanks again for the replies! I started this thread at work and couldn't get back on until now.

~Derek

Derek

Here is a real quick way to calculate what a battery system will provide you in watt hours.

Take the battery voltage (say 12volt) times the battery Ah rating (say the 50Ah you want to start with). That gets you about 600 Watt hours. But you should discharge that battery no more than 25% so your usuable watt hour is 600 x 25% or 150 watt hours. So depending on what the wattage of those air purifiers and fan (say 50 watts total) you can only run them 3 hours a day maximum. If they have a higher total wattage then it is less than 3 hours.

One way to know what your true watt hour load will be to use something called a "Kill o watt" meter. This item can measure exactly what that fan or purifier uses in watt hours over a 24 hour period. Once you determine what you true daily watt hour load is you can size your battery system and then your solar panel wattage.

The actual product line name is Kill A Watt (TM) and you can find some general information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_A_Watt. Lots of RE related websites sell them, in several models for various countries.

As seen above, the F1 or F2 terminals are the small "slip-on" type usually found with smaller ups-style agm's. They can also be found with the "NB" designator, which is "Nut and Bolt", which provides a more substantial connection, and the hardware should, but not always, come with the battery.

Thanks for the correction. Funny how when you google something with incorrect spelling you still get what you are looking for.

Thanks again, all!

I actually do have a Kill a Watt. It's how I came to my estimate of the 50 aH for the batteries. I'll do some more research on what kind of battery that I'll use. I'm paying for my wedding, so the only way I could get the bride-to-be to agree to this project is if I can build it small and allow for expansion over the weeks haha Keeping it cheap.

I mainly came across the F1 terminals because I wanted to use an array of 6v batteries connected in series and parallel to give me the desired 12v output for larger amp hours.

~Derek

I understand the desire to start small when you do not have the funds. Just be aware that a solar battery system is a balance of panels, charge controller, batteries and inverter.

If you start small more than likely the batteries are a throw away because you can't add new batteries to an old set. You just need to get a new set of bigger batteries.

Also going with some low wattage panels < 100w will cost more per watt (`$2/w) then going with the higher wattage grid tie panels > 200watt (~$1/w). Adding more low wattage panels just increases your cost so if you are going to start go with a 200watt or larger panel. At least if you expand the cost per watt will be less.

Good luck with the wedding and please continue to ask questions and do some research in the off grid section of this Forum.