Bare copper vs tinned copper for battery lugs?

Dave Angelini said:

The test of time is always a good one Solorone!

Time, gives  time to make things work right, even if you do not know what you are doing, but survive anyway.

I see solar expert by my name,  surely do not need that.    Heck I know very little of todays tech, and had to learn some very  very  $ $ lesson along the way.
The prices for solar is cheap as chips today, with the exception of batteries.  It is really cool to have seen the expansion of solar into the main stream of life.  When I first logged on here I really expected to hear from others that had gone off grid in the early 80s or late 70s.  I wonder where they all are ??

So the folks back then going solar were early Prepper's ?? Maybe they moved on from weed to chemicals. I though there would be some normal folks around though.  Well when I think about it I guess I am not normal at all.

I was out trimming back limbs from my road in, and thinking about the solar forum, it dawned on me that, and I am not being sexist here for I am sure the ladies these days may be the instigator/builder of a solar setup,,, but really when you stop and think about it,,, you really need a special lady, frontier type.  heck I never said it, it just happened, but hay lady lets go build  a big house in the woods no power no heat, make do with a 9" TV and make toast on a wire frame over a gas stove, for several years  weekly haul cloths to coin laundry, making do with what we had.  takes a special kind of lady.  I got real lucky.

Geez Dave, 2 volt   L 16 !  I see a 1100 amp setup.   At least they would be easier to move around.  I saw some DEKAs for  about $330 in standard  6 V.  I used L 16s  (Trojans ) 1 time, can't remember how long they lasted, seems like it was short though, maybe 5 years.  We grabbed up 4 sets of telephone batteries, some for friends,  one set was 1000 A   (@220 #  each )  another was 400 A.  Way back when,  before we put such huge demand on our  batteries with inverters, these were the things to get. I salvaged the 2 sets and a set of Rolls about 4.5 tons for .42 and they came and got them. Truth was I would have paid them to take them away .

Early 70s, hum, that movement was starting to die out then. These old hippies were quite successful,  those I knew were not in the criminal arena, most are respected folks and professionals, a few like myself have one foot each in different lives, myself, I am Mr. Tom in my county, and I  am leading a revolt in  county government taking down 3 officers and working on number 4 Nov 8.

True, life with today's solar is awesome,  air conditioning,  big TV like you said,  and a modern kitchen, don't even have to use a percolator for my coffee just wish I had had better vision when we built our home, more AC outlets, and have not wired DC outlets in with  some DC  lights, a  larger area for all this unbelievable hardware.


You are lucky to have an adventurous lady, sailing sounds like fun, mine wife has always been up for most anything we even hiked 220 miles of the AT with a 5 and 7 YO, yes they made it all the way. Here's to your toast to not being normal and our fun loving ladies .

Mike I have never seen a battery cable that was listed with bare copper lugs so you are probably right. The listing is usually the cable part but the terminal could be also involved, I never have looked at the code for this or can't remember.
As for getting rid of copper oxide, if you shine up the bare copper lug with a brush, freshly cut off the end of the cable, use a good tool to crimp the connection and heat shink for a seal, you should be good for a long time. I just can't make them as cheap as my supplier of the cable sells them for, especially with inexpensive world labor sources. Arround 90 systems now and zero problems, other than people telling me they checked the torque and told a white lie.

Also for good appearance, the tops of the battery and the terminal should be wiped off at least by-monthly with a very wet rag on flooded batteries.

Thanks for brining this back on track. I was affraid I was going start my story about seeing the Suppremes instead of the Beatles at the cow palace in the City.

Tom, the moderator is http://forum.solar-electric.com/profile/BB.

BB can help but in your profile are settings for turning on e-mail notifications.  You can do it!

Does anyone silver solder their lug connection after crimping, that would seem to me as the most reliable, is there a problem with that?

Rancher

If you have the time to spend do it. The heat shrink is all I would use. As long as it is done right.
 I just would not want someone within wildfire distance of me making jokes about electrical safety. I am not kidding!

URL link not working. Bummer, this I wanted to see.

Dave Angelini said:

The test of time is always a good one Solorone!

Wisdom in those words!