I am planning to buy some solar panels for my cabin and i want to be able to store the electricity. what kind of batteries should i get? i will be running simple things like a tv and radio. where can i buy these batteries? where should i look for the best batteries?
Deep cycle, Golf Cart Batteries. You can get them at a battery store.
If you will be storing them outdoors, you can use auto batteries. Indoors, use sealed marine batteries. Number and size depends on your needs. You will need a charge controller between the solar panels and the batteries to get the maximum power out of the array and to avoid damage to the batteries. And you will need an inverter to convert the 2 or 24 volts to 20 or 240 VAC. One large lead acid battery will supply about 000 watt-hours of energy, enough for 200 watts for 5 hours. You have to look at your loads and decide on how many batteries you need. Frequently it is cheaper to buy new appliances that use less power, as that power difference can save a lot of money in batteries, inverter, charge controller and solar panels. But it sounds like a few thousand watt-hours will be enough, or 2 large batteries. The real limiting factor is how much money you want to spend for the solar panels themselves. .
