12 volt Cell phone tower front access type batteries

junglejoe39
junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
anyone have any luck with them. I found some that are only a little more than the Sams club FLA 6 volt. Maybe Im being silly but Im a little afraid of the FLA batteries because of the off gassing and maintenance. I have turned my master bedroom suite into a tiny home and have the rest of the home mostly unused and the battery bank will be in my living quarters. An unexpected benefit of this is with much lower temps in my kitchen around 50 my fridge is running way less.

Comments

  • mike74820
    mike74820 Registered Users Posts: 44 ✭✭
    im almost doing the same thing here in my house, what i did is put the solar stuff in my bathroom and put the battery under a window and just keep the window open during the day. 
  • Johann
    Johann Solar Expert Posts: 245 ✭✭✭
    The way I understand it is that cell phone tower batteries can be be cycled only a few times. 
  • junglejoe39
    junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
    What I have been hearing is that they last pretty good as long as you do not discharge them more than 20 or 30 %. I guess Im just trying to weigh all my options. Knowing how frugal I am I may just go with the cheaper Sams club golf cart batteries
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,422 admin
    Watch for secondary "issues"...

    Running a standard fridge in a "cold room" (like less than ~55F--Guessing) and your freezer could run warm. The Freezer gets all of the "cooling" when the refrigerator is "warm". In a very cold room, the refrigerator does not get "warm", and the freezer does not cool.

    Another issue... Humidity. All of the moisture in your "warm room where you spend much of the time" can migrate to the cold rooms/exterior walls and give you very bad mildew/mold problems. Make sure your relatively humidity does not exceed ~60% for three days (or more) in a row--That is when the mold spores will become active. (Sorry if this is repeat warning--I gave this same suggestion a couple weeks ago).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • junglejoe39
    junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
    Thank ALL of you guys for any advice you can give. Im exaggerating a little. Prob. been 55-58 in the kitchen most of this winter. Plus Im still doing my cooking in the kitchen and every few days I turn the heat up and do dishes and clean lol. Plus heat whole house 58 whenever its 15 or lower outside. I always monitor my fridge closely and it seems to have been working better than ever fridge stuff is super cold freezer is great and ice maker is keeping up with my whiskey and cokes better than ever lol. Im also heating my warm room with a portable air conditioner/heat pump vented out a window and it seems unusually dry in here, my whiskey and cokes hardly even sweat. Might seem crazy but this seems to be working real well. Between all the elec. usage I cut down on and my 1500 watts solar even with the heat pump my elec. bill is 2/3rds of last year and my propane is 1/3rd. My main concern now is not screwing up by buying the wrong batteries. I found out something new today 18$ core charge each for the Sam,s club batteries. Sam,s is about 40 miles away and useless to me besides the batteries as I do not drive. So I also have to add the 45$ member fee and 50$ or a little more for someone to take me. The cell tower batteries I found are 12v 190ah for 200$ +25$ shipping and have been in stock for 1 year and read 13.1v. Im thinking between less cables needed and less connections and not having to beg someone to take me to get them and being SLA they are my best bet. Will stay grid connected and only use 25% battery b4 recharging and have 570ah bank instead of the 430ah I had planned with Sams. Again any advice is welcomed
  • Psychowolff
    Psychowolff Registered Users Posts: 4
    What are you referring to when you say 'Cell Phone Tower Batteries'?

    My brother an I purchased a bunch of Haze TEL-125 AGM batteries. They are designed to last 12 years on a constant charge/discharge cycle of 2.3VPC down to 1.75VPC.

    Are these not decent batteries?? Anyone have problems with Haze batteries??
  • junglejoe39
    junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
    It seems to me the batteries Im describing are designed for cell phone towers. They are 22 long 5 wide and 12.5 high. Psycho I looked up your Haze batteries and it states they comply with some telcordia regulation # I would guess they are for cell tel-phone tower also. Their shape-size and layout are similar to the 190ah ones Im looking at. I have done a LOT of reading in the last few weeks and what Im hearing is solar peeps are getting 3-5 years out of them. In cell tower apps these are usually linked to a generator and as soon as they go down to a certain point the gen kicks on and charges them which does not happen with solar. Im guessing the solar peeps who are getting 3-5 are discharging them too far and might sit for several cloudy days without being charged much. I watch the weather like a hawk along with the solar index and would not let that happen and Im pretty sure you will be alright if you do the same
  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    .... I have done a LOT of reading in the last few weeks and what Im hearing is solar peeps are getting 3-5 years out of them.....
    Not hearing that from the peeps here.   Mostly, "cell tower battery" are not designed for deep cycles, and won't last very long in solar/deep cycle use.  So, I wish you luck.
    Powerfab top of pole PV mount | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
    || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
    || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

    solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
    gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister ,

  • junglejoe39
    junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
    is there a reason no one else here is telling me that or do they just not like me
  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    you need to post the actual brand, type, voltage and model of those batteries first if you want a factual response...
    mine are AGM telecom batteries for example
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • junglejoe39
    junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
    The batteries are CD TRUE TEL12-180F which appear to be actually 180ah. I also just read another battery article from Free Sun Power that states that the cell tower batts are AGM and will give long life if shallow cycled which is my intent. I plan on running some low constant draw items off my bank and some larger draw items like fridge only during peak solar output
  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    In these parts we rate a battery based on the 20 hr rate, as most makers do not post a 24 hr rate, but yours does, it is 203.3, but for use call it 200Ahr, charge them as indicated on the link you posted and report back as you get experience with them... do NOT start at the high end of the range... good luck
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • junglejoe39
    junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
    westbranch are you using the C&D batteries ?
  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    that's why they are in my sig.
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • junglejoe39
    junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
    Westbranch Im sorry if I seem a little dumb Im not very forum savvy :). I would be very interested in your experience with your C&D batteries as to how you cycle them and the longevity of them.
  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    Mine are very different than yours to extrapolate my use vs yours, they are 900Ahr 2V cells and 12 per stack for 24 volts.  I use them as any normal FLA battery and do not worry about loads just getting them charged up fully within 4 days... I planned it that way as a worst case scenario, so my array is just a tad small at this time, 560W more to add this summer...
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • junglejoe39
    junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
    I understand although I admit it makes me feel a little better knowing you are at least using the same brand. Ill share something with you. My dad was the most avid outdoors man I have ever known. As a child he took me and my brother to the U.P. on many fishing trips. Taught us to build our own fishing rods buying the rod blanks and eyes and thread and cork rings and reel seats. Taught us to tie flies I still have the fly tying vices. Deer hunting in the far north western U.P. at -20 and below sleeping in a van in goose down sleeping bags. We bred raised and trained Brittany Spaniel bird dogs for over 20 years hunting roughed grouse and woodcock in the north west U.P. My dad was awesome and me and my brother got to do things that made us good men. Not many men these days can say they canoed Lake Superior or had some of the best times of their lives carrying a side by side double barrel. Dad had a love for British Columbia and always wanted to live there. As I remember it had to do with being some of the most beautiful land in Canada and some ocean current that made the average temp 68. I now consider myself a bad ass biker have 2 choppers in the garage and I will not be fucked with.
  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    there is something amiss here: some ocean current that made the average temp 68.

    When I did my scuba cert. the water temp was 34F!!!  no warm currents that are that warm... and we get good cold spells in the winter too, -40 F is easy to get in the winter, but it averages ~ -20F .  He must have meant down on the coast, but it is just above freezing most of Dec. to Feb there too...

     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • junglejoe39
    junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
    edited March 2016 #20
    I believe it was on the coast and near the coast that he talked about.I believe Vancouver. He didnt say it was 68 all the time. Only that it did not get extremely  hot or cold and the avg. was around 68. For the 1st 10 months of having solar I kept close records of my electric meter daily including average daily use. Im VERY good at basic math in my head but even I was amazed by the difference in my daily average that a few sunny days or a few cloudy days can make in just a month. Dad was smart and honest. Sadly dumb and dishonest seems to work so well for many these days and smart and dishonest even better. Oh westbranch 34 degree water maybe why just above freezing.

    ...why go there... Deleted. Moderator
  • junglejoe39
    junglejoe39 Registered Users Posts: 34
    Moderator I had to say it. i WILL DO WHAT i WANT