Deep cycle discharge batterys?

[giggler]

Hi,

A friend of mine works for a mobility specialist near Watford, UK. They have government contracts for the NHS to service and support individual's mobility needs.

They service wheel chairs all the time and simply replace batterys and motors on a periodic basis, irrispective of need. They have a skip filled with working batterys and motors that they send off to recyciling centres in Europe.

I got 11 good deep cycle batterys from their skip at lunch time, 12v, 40Amp/hour German made cells as used by most wheel chairs, a working mains charger and 4 working motors + joy stick drives (3off).

Figure this, the motors are really powerful (90Lb/in torque) so I thought maybe I could use them to move solar cells on a platten in the garden but ignore my ramblings for a minute as I have a question about the batterys.

Are deep cycle batterys good for use in DIY solar systems? or am I wasting my time playing with them? Before I got them they put a large shunt meter on them and measured the amps (lots of sparks!). I've charged 5 of them on the charger I got and all seem to hold a charge, dropping down to trickle charage.

thanks

g

[Mike90250]

Deep cycle batteries are the recomended batteries for solar applications. And in your case, the price you pay, makes them perfect.

[Sunking]

I agree with Mike Deep Cycle batteries are the only choice for RE applications. I also agree the price you paid is excellent. But here is the kicker; those batteries were discarded because they have failed in service and their capacity has been seriously degraded. so you get what you pay for.

[danielhenry31]

The deep cycle lead-acid batteries are designed to produce a voltage of 6V or 12V. Think of voltage relative to the pressure from the garden hose that produce 12V which is the double pressure of 6V.Amps is the flow of electricity. Think of 10A and 0.1 demon than a trickle.