Car Batteries are a bit crap for this type of application, especially if there is a constant load like with a pump. A lot of people use them in their DIY setups cause they are readily available and the serious guys get them from dumps for next to nothing and recondition them, so the dont care if they only last a year. If your going to have to buy new batteries your much better of with forklift truck batteries. They have much thicker plates and more of them so withstand being emptied and recharged better. They are more expensive but will last forever, over time they are much cheaper.JayK1320;1544529; said:
My green house for fish
- Thread starter severum1
- Start date
Or if your american, keep an eye on the military surplus classifieds. From time to time you see submarine batteries come up... If you get one of them, its party time!!!!!
It is my dream that one day I will find one in Europe, I'll hook it up to a wind turbine, a solar panel and a biogas generator and create the worlds fist environmentally friendly Tesla Coil!!!!! Then I can create my own tropical storms over my giant amazon pond! How cool would having a storm generator in your greenhouse be??????????
It is my dream that one day I will find one in Europe, I'll hook it up to a wind turbine, a solar panel and a biogas generator and create the worlds fist environmentally friendly Tesla Coil!!!!! Then I can create my own tropical storms over my giant amazon pond! How cool would having a storm generator in your greenhouse be??????????
I only go there at weekends. So it's better like that.LondonDragon;1546433; said:
I've tried it 3 years ago and my conclusion were:
- €€€ of the glass;
- It's more dificult to maintain the temperature;
- Cleaning the glass. Lots of algae;
- The water turned green and the tank as lots of plants.
If i was living there it was more easier, but not beeing there limits my maintenance. And i believe that the colors and the behavior of the fishes are totally diferent if they don't have nobody looking at them.
What do you think?
It depends largely on how the batteries are used. The max life for a lead acid battery is ~5yrs before they need reconditioning, to get 3/4yrs manufacturers recommend to recharge the batteries to full before they are 50% discharged. If they go below 25% you'll be lucky if they last a year. Thats why they are a bit crap for alt energy. If you draw power overnight its easy to drop below this mark before the sun comes back out. Forklifttruck batteries are designed to be used till they are near empty and then recharged. Any deep discharge battery is good.
There are problems with fork truck battiers. I agree with you that they hold a much more substantial charge and will last a longer time.
The issues: they weight a ton. Litterally haha. They are huge, rediculously heaving and you need a fork truck to move one. They are incredidibly heavy and they are quite expensive. Especially right now with the price of copper being so high. I work in the material handling industry and quite honestly see the battery prices go up every week.
I think if you had concern over draining the batter you could use more than one car battery. There is no reason you could not tie two or more battiers together in such a system. Also, if it was hooked up to a windmill it will recharge as long as there is wind. Obviously if there is no wind they will not recharge at all. But with enough battiers you could more than cover enough time so you wouldnt have to worry about total drain before the windmill will recharge the batteries.
Just trying to think of inexpensive rather easy set-up. The windmill we use is made from some thing metal blades, attached to a hub, all held together with a basic 1" OD metal pipe in a tri-pod stance. Wire runs over to the battery and it maintains the charge. I do not know a lot of details on it but could find out.
Probably over-kill for what you are trying to accomplish right now, but in the future if you wanted to power heat or filter or light it would leave you with some possibilties.
Cant wait to see some more progress on this.
The issues: they weight a ton. Litterally haha. They are huge, rediculously heaving and you need a fork truck to move one. They are incredidibly heavy and they are quite expensive. Especially right now with the price of copper being so high. I work in the material handling industry and quite honestly see the battery prices go up every week.
I think if you had concern over draining the batter you could use more than one car battery. There is no reason you could not tie two or more battiers together in such a system. Also, if it was hooked up to a windmill it will recharge as long as there is wind. Obviously if there is no wind they will not recharge at all. But with enough battiers you could more than cover enough time so you wouldnt have to worry about total drain before the windmill will recharge the batteries.
Just trying to think of inexpensive rather easy set-up. The windmill we use is made from some thing metal blades, attached to a hub, all held together with a basic 1" OD metal pipe in a tri-pod stance. Wire runs over to the battery and it maintains the charge. I do not know a lot of details on it but could find out.
Probably over-kill for what you are trying to accomplish right now, but in the future if you wanted to power heat or filter or light it would leave you with some possibilties.
Cant wait to see some more progress on this.
Thank you very much for your input.JayK1320;1555641; said:
I'm going to do something. I don't know yet what. I'm still studying. If you can find more details i would thank you, because i don't know yet what kind of motor to use in the wind turbine. That's my problem for the moment. Here it's not easy to find them (motors) and i don't want to buy one already done, because they are to expensive. I want to make one.
Thank you
If your after a motor to generate elctricity from a windmill, and dont want to pay too much, you could try winding your own. Your obviously a capable guy, and its not very difficult, most hobby electronics magazines have frequent articles on winding your own transformers and the like. Its not very different. Otherwise its not to hard to modify some existing leccy motor to run backwards. They advertise the leccy motors in the mags too. Heres the one I get,
http://www.elektor-electronics.co.uk/
Forklift batteries are very heavy, true, which is a pain installing them, but in a static system, once in place, it doesnt matter. If you are buying car batteries new, here its around £45 for a decent one, so for an array of 6 thats £270... add that to the fact they are not ideal... In the end it comes down to personal choice, local availability and budget. Your right about the price though...its upsetting!!!!!
http://www.elektor-electronics.co.uk/
Forklift batteries are very heavy, true, which is a pain installing them, but in a static system, once in place, it doesnt matter. If you are buying car batteries new, here its around £45 for a decent one, so for an array of 6 thats £270... add that to the fact they are not ideal... In the end it comes down to personal choice, local availability and budget. Your right about the price though...its upsetting!!!!!
King Edward is right about regular car batteries. What you want if they are within the budget are deep cycle batteries. They last for years and can be recharged over and over. Regular car batteries will give out a lot sooner even if trickle charged. That may be what the forklift batteries are--I am not familiar with them. Most deep cycles I have seen are in use as marine batteries. I have them in my fishing boat to run my electric motor.King Edward;1546440; said:
