Solar batteries
I am trying to get my solar system up to something useable. Does anyone know anything about Apex batteries? I found a 12v 200ah agm for 240.00. What I’m mostly wondering about is quality. What do you ...
Forum Discussion
No idea of quality, even for the more expensive options. That is a very good price for AGMs!
A note on AGM and solar. AGMs suffer under shallow cycling as with solar, so every so often you must draw them down to 50% SOC and hit them with a high amps (over 20% of AH) charge till full.
That means with a 200AH AGM you need a 40 amp or more charger that will stay at 14.4 or whatever till full, to haul out when you have shore power (not a gen , which can't be run that long).
Also "full" means leaving the charger on at 14.4 or whatever the battery spec says, till amps fall to under 0.5 amps per 100 AH of battery. So now you need an ammeter to tell you when that is. I use my Trimetric for that.
AGMS have their own difficulties besides their advantages!
A note on AGM and solar. AGMs suffer under shallow cycling as with solar, so every so often you must draw them down to 50% SOC and hit them with a high amps (over 20% of AH) charge till full.
That means with a 200AH AGM you need a 40 amp or more charger that will stay at 14.4 or whatever till full, to haul out when you have shore power (not a gen , which can't be run that long).
Also "full" means leaving the charger on at 14.4 or whatever the battery spec says, till amps fall to under 0.5 amps per 100 AH of battery. So now you need an ammeter to tell you when that is. I use my Trimetric for that.
AGMS have their own difficulties besides their advantages!
