Well, if you had some reason to limit the weight of the batteries rather than being happy to have the ballast for stability, Lithium chemistry, as found in high end aftermarket motorcycle batteries might make sense. But it would be expensive and a half. And it might not be compatible with your current charge controller.
Since you do not have either a high discharge or charge rate for the size of the bank, going to AGM does not seem necessary, although it would also reduce the weight some compared to flooded.
So it now comes down to marine hybrid (cranking and cycle use combined) batteries versus true RE type deep cycle batteries. The latter weigh more for the same capacity and cost a bundle more, so, at least while you are experimenting, I would not recommend that.
Once you have settled on a battery capacity and panel size and used the boat for a year or two you can revisit the battery question, IMHO.
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I am just asking what my battery type/brand options are.
Sunking:
This boat is already built. It has taken me down the Colombian River on a 5 day/night trip on just solar power already. I traveled 8-9 hours a day everyday. No generators no shore power. Just these 2 panels. I know it works. As you advised me before to switch from a 30amp PWN 30amp meter morningstar controller and gain possible 30% more power out of the controller. I have done that also....I now have a morningstar 15amp sunsaver MPPT controller with a rated 97% efficiency. NOW what I am asking is how or if I can farther improve the the solar system with better "Batteries."
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I can re-post a youtube video of my Columbia River trip if needed to show you the system works and yes I was on "God Green Earth" the whole trip.... This question is about "batteries" I only posted the other components because it could relate to my what would be the "BEST" Batteries for my system.
TomCat58Leave a comment:
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Don't forget that the solar insolation for Spokane is about 5 hours summer (good!), but the flip side is about 1-hour in winter. Sunrise-to-sunset is a different story, but charging is calculated on solar insolation, so this project is going to be really hard / expensive especially if your panels are not fixed on shore.Leave a comment:
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So much wrong here not sure where to start.
You got a trolling motor and they use 12 volts. That mean you need a 12 volt battery period end of story.
With only 260 watts of panel wire either in series or parallel with a MPPT controller is not going to do a lot. So you have a 12 volt battery rated @ 228 AH and with a 9 amp load to discharge down to 50% do is real simple math of H = AH/A = 228 AH / 9 Amps = about 12 hours.
However there is no way on God's Green Earth a 260 watt solar panel will ever generate that much power in a day. At best if you live in Phoenix on 4th of July the best you could generate is 30 amps hour or about 5 hours run time on the motor. In average town USA more like 2 to 3 hours.
Lastly you will not use the LVD on the controller as that is only for small loads and useless. It is made to run low wattage lights. not motors.Leave a comment:
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What are my best possible battery options ?
I have read many of the articles on this forum about storage batteries and find there is so much to take into consideration my head starts spinning like the girl on the "The Exorcist" Movie.. lol
So let me try to find out the answer to my question by explaining my system. Then perhaps it will be simpler to get a answer.
My solar boat project:
(2) 12 volt panels with a total of 260 watts and rated at 7amps each. So 14 amps total @12 volts
(2) Walmart MAX 96 series 29 deep cycle batteries connected in parallel 114 amp hours @ 1AH. each. So a total 228 AH @1AH total. Correct ?
(1) Morningstar sunsaver 15amp MPPT controller. The controller doe s low voltage disconnect at 11 volts and I have that figured out that to be a 20% discharge with 80% of the charge remaining. So that is my targeted max discharge.
The load I will consume is with a small trolling motor at lets say 6 to 9 amps draw continues.
My question is Batteries ? I went with the walmart deep cycle because of cost but now I would like to know if different batteries would be better for my system ?
PS The amount of solar panels will remain the same. The charge controller will remain the same also. The only improvement easily made is with the battery types.
TomCat58
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