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Old 04-06-2012, 09:57 AM   #5 (permalink)
Ryland
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The only time I've seen off grid houses run batteries in parallel is when it was due to poor planing and they needed to add more batteries in a pinch, Tesla is right, most people with off grid houses use large 2v cells, more or less forklift batteries.
I would opt for the golf cart batteries because they are a traction battery, they have much heavier plates and can handle a deeper discharge, I haven't priced Torjan T105's in a while, but when I bought my set for my electric car they were $110 each, the thing is, Trojan makes a T105 RE (Renewable Energy) that is designed for deeper cycles at a lower discharge rate I believe, it might be worth doing your own research on those to see if they might last longer.

Are you keeping your regular starting battery? it seems like it would be a good idea if you have the space, an isolation diode will let you charge all of the batteries at the same time but will keep the starting battery from discharging as you run the lights.
You might also check in to getting a DC to DC converter and have your deep cycle pack at a higher voltage then drop it down to 13.7v, you'r lights will be brighter and you will be less likely to burn out any electronics, because as the voltage drops the amp draw goes up, for my electric car I'm planing to hook my DC to DC converter up to a small motorcycle battery that I had to act as a buffer, that way I can push the limits of the size of the converter without having to worry about flipping on the wipers and defrost fan while driving at night, and when I do that my head lights will still be full brightness.
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