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<blockquote data-quote="Mike6158" data-source="post: 2815891" data-attributes="member: 1039"><p>5-6 years is about right for battery life. Less if it gets cold. Not Texas cold where freezing starts at 50 degrees. Cold like sub zero. Also less if the thermal cycling gradient is wide (like 100 in the summer and sub zero in the winter). </p><p></p><p>I spent about 5 years in NW New Mexico. I got back home about a year ago. We have at least 8,000 solar panels and batteries deployed in and around the canyons and mesas up there. We buy batteries by the pallet(s) every month. Sometimes more frequently than that. When I got there I took one of our batteries destined for the recycler home and charged it. Then I used my Rigol DL3021 to load test it. The battery was within spec. I asked them how they determined that the battery was bad. Answer: it had low voltage. :/ I asked if they checked the solar panel or charge controller? Nope. The charge controllers are not MPPT. They work but aren't the best way to charge a battery with solar panels. We cut our battery replacement by about 20% just by having one of the two warehouse people use a good charger and simple Autozone load tester on the "bad" batteries before we sent them to the recycler. The voltage was low for a number of different reasons. Solar panel was too small for the load. The location didn't have full sun all day. Equipment was added without taking added load into account. Bad panels were rare. Those usually had bullet holes in them from out of state hunters. Why out of state? The locals wouldn't shoot them, the would rather steal them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mike6158, post: 2815891, member: 1039"] 5-6 years is about right for battery life. Less if it gets cold. Not Texas cold where freezing starts at 50 degrees. Cold like sub zero. Also less if the thermal cycling gradient is wide (like 100 in the summer and sub zero in the winter). I spent about 5 years in NW New Mexico. I got back home about a year ago. We have at least 8,000 solar panels and batteries deployed in and around the canyons and mesas up there. We buy batteries by the pallet(s) every month. Sometimes more frequently than that. When I got there I took one of our batteries destined for the recycler home and charged it. Then I used my Rigol DL3021 to load test it. The battery was within spec. I asked them how they determined that the battery was bad. Answer: it had low voltage. :/ I asked if they checked the solar panel or charge controller? Nope. The charge controllers are not MPPT. They work but aren't the best way to charge a battery with solar panels. We cut our battery replacement by about 20% just by having one of the two warehouse people use a good charger and simple Autozone load tester on the "bad" batteries before we sent them to the recycler. The voltage was low for a number of different reasons. Solar panel was too small for the load. The location didn't have full sun all day. Equipment was added without taking added load into account. Bad panels were rare. Those usually had bullet holes in them from out of state hunters. Why out of state? The locals wouldn't shoot them, the would rather steal them. [/QUOTE]
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