Best Batteries for Solar Power System

flooded batteries agm batteries lithium ion batteries which is the best for my solar power system we're going to be answering that question and much much more in today's [Music] video [Music] hi everyone joe ordia here for solar surge and for the past eight years i've been helping families get their house set up to survive a loss of the electric grid and of course in most cases we're using a renewable energy solar with battery backup system to help accomplish much of that task now in today's video we're going to be comparing three different common battery types that are available for solar systems for this video we're going to be looking at modular batteries only and what i mean is a modular battery where the battery itself is independent from whatever inverter system that you're using with it as opposed to an integrated battery system like a tesla power wall or an en phase ensemble for example those are integrated battery systems where the battery and the inverter are coupled together in one appliance in this video we're looking at modular batteries and we're going to be looking at the three most popular chemistries and where each one might make sense so let's start with the traditional flooded lead acid battery first this is the most common battery out there it's the type of chemistry that's in your car very common to use in rvs and boats for deep cycling and the flooded lead acid battery is basically the cheapest battery you're going to find out there if you're just looking at dollars per unit of energy stored there's nothing low lower cost than the traditional flooded battery however there are a lot of drawbacks and considerations that you need to be aware of if you go this route now as the name implies the flooded battery is flooded so there's actually a liquid liquid electrolyte sulfuric acid in between the lead plates inside this battery and they do require frequent watering service so when these batteries are charged and discharged a lot of the electrolyte can evaporate or the water can evaporate out of there so you do have to add distilled water from time to time to keep the battery cells topped up to make sure that the lead plates stay fully submerged another thing to be aware of with the flooded battery is that these batteries require ventilation they are not safe for indoor use they need ventilation because when they are being rapidly charged or being rapidly discharged they actually will vent off hydrogen gas now the hydrogen itself is not it's not a poisonous so it's not something that would harm you but in high concentrations if hydrogen is flammable and so that's why you cannot use these indoors in an enclosed space unless you have special dedicated venting to the outside so be sure that you're aware of that and then you know one of the other drawbacks with the flooded battery is that it's not as efficient as either of the other two chemistries you're looking at about an 80 percent efficiency with a flooded battery meaning of the energy that you spend getting it charged you know only 80 percent of it is going to come back out in the form of usable energy so there are several downsides with the flooded battery but the big plus is you're never going to find anything cheaper so if you need to get started on a su a shoestring budget you can get yourself set up with a complete battery bank you could take eight eight of these six volt golf cart type batteries string them together in a series for 48 volts and now you have a usable battery bank for about fifteen hundred dollars so that's the flooded battery next on the list here is the agm battery the agm battery that's actually the chemistry that i use on my system here agm stands for absorbed glass mat and unlike the flooded battery where you actually have liquid electrolyte it's kind of sloshing around in there between the lead plates with the absorbed glass mat battery uh the electrolyte is actually absorbed and immobilized in a fiberglass mat so there is no liquid that can spill out or or burn you or hurt you or anything like that and so this battery is very common in mobile applications like on boats where you know you could have a lot of movement and the flooded battery is just not practical or not safe another nice thing about the agm battery is it offers higher efficiency you're looking at up to 90 efficiency out of the agm battery versus only 80 percent with the flooded and it is safe for indoor use as long as it's configured properly the agm battery is not going to have that issue of venting off all this hydrogen gas where it's not going to be safe for indoor use in fact most computer and telecom data centers use agm batteries just like this to back up those computer systems so it's very very safe for indoor use in terms of cost it's going to be middle of the road it's not quite as expensive as the the newer lithium ion or lithium iron phosphate batteries but it's also not as cheap as just the old traditional flooded battery so the agm batteries are right in the middle of the road in terms of cost and in terms of overall life cycle they're going to last pretty much on par with the flooded battery you're looking at flooded battery typically 1200 to 1500 cycle life versus the agm battery you're looking at typically 1500 or even up to 2500 for the super premium agm batteries in terms of the number of times that you can cycle them now when we we talk about cycle life what i'm talking about is you discharge the battery you drain it down and then you recharge it that's one cycle and you know the cycle life is something you want to consider as well because in an off-grid environment where where the the renewable energy or the battery storage is your only means of of energy then you're going to be cycling that battery every day so if you're using a flooded battery off grid plan on replacing your batteries every five years premium agm battery may last you a little bit longer but still plan on replacing your battery i say five maybe up to seven years with a with a super premium agm battery however if you're like me and and you're using your batteries primarily as a backup only uh you may never hit that that cycle life limit you know the batteries may just age out you know after about 10 to 12 years the internal chemistry starts to break down anyway even if you haven't hit that that cycle limit of 1500 um so plan on replacing your battery you know 10 to 12 years for standby service even if you haven't reached that cycle life limit and so the agm battery in my opinion is the best for the standby power application it gives you very good efficiency moderate cost and good good energy storage available when you need it now on the far end of the spectrum is your your premium lithium ion batteries these have become more popular on the market here over the last few years and what the lithium ion gives you is basically the best in terms of cycle life and efficiency you know some lithium batteries you're looking at up to 98 round trip efficiency and cycle life's in many cases three four five thousand cycles so it does last you a lot longer than a traditional battery but it also is going to cost you uh quite a bit more so you know the way i explain it to people is you know the lithium battery will last you four times as long as a as a an old flooded battery but it's also going to cost you four times the price you're going to pay for it up front and then it will pay you back in the form of a longer cycle life and a longer service life now i know many of you watching this video live in areas with time of use energy metering meaning that you can buy electricity for cheap usually in the middle of the night say between midnight and 5 a.m you can buy electricity for cheap because that's the lowest demand period and then to potentially use the battery to run off of during the day to avoid having to purchase during peak hours right now if you're going to use a battery in that manner i would only recommend using a lithium iron or lithium ion or lithium iron phosphate chemistry because it's really going to be the only one that can give you that long enough cycle life to actually get your investment back if you were to cycle an agm battery like that potentially multiple times a day where you're you're charging at night discharging the next day charging it at night you're just gonna you're gonna you're gonna hit the cycle life at the end of the cycle life on your battery too soon for you to recoup your investment so if you're using the battery in that type of application the lithium ion makes a lot of sense also if you're going to be off the grid completely where you have to cycle the battery every day and you know you're going to be at that property for a long time it may make sense for you to go ahead and use the lithium-ion battery you know if you can handle the the higher up front cost it will pay you back over time in the form of a longer cycle life so folks this has been a comparison of the three popular chemistries for modular batteries as always if you're getting good value from the information that we share on the channel make sure you hit that like button and hit the subscribe button also so that youtube and rumble and the other platforms will show the video so more people can see it well folks i thank you for tuning in today as always i'm joe ortea encouraging you to get prepared and be empowered thanks for watching and we'll see you again soon

Channel: Solar Surge

Views: 29,662

Rating: 4.9554181 out of 5

Keywords: solar, prepper, prepping, off grid, powerwall, shelter in place, survival shelter

Id: PEpq-Gs0V0M

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021