Reposting from mid-October, in response, Todd:
We have one off-grid customer who is well into his seventies. He has an old/upgraded 12V system, originally installed by Windy in the late 1980s. (He’s the only customer we care for who is still using his original basic Trace 1512 – the original black box from 1988, not the DR1512 – inverter; “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.) The system uses about 800W of mixed panels, an FM60 and a DC generator with a Mark VI Field Controller from the old days of Home Power homebrew articles. He does not want battery maintenance in his life. After going through several sets of other batteries, including the recycled GNB Absolyte IIs that Northwest Energy Storage offered in the late 1990s, we installed four Concorde PVX-2580s (12V, 258 A/hr @24 hr. rate) in parallel for him in April 2004. They continue to work well 6½ years later, in daily home use year-round. He also has a rental house next door, with 450W of PV, a DR2424 and SB50 that we installed in 2000. This system has two of the same Concorde PVX-2580s in series, for 255 A/hr at 24V. These batteries also continue to perform well after nearly ten (!) years of operation. Both systems have E-Meters, and both the owner and the stable, long-term tenant know how to use the basic functions to live within their energy budgets, so I am sure that this has contributed to consistent good performance. Like Warren of NAW&S, we have never had a failure of a Concorde, other than user error. Allan Sindelar [email protected] NABCEP Certified Photovoltaic Installer EE98J Journeyman Electrician Positive Energy, Inc. 3201 Calle Marie Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507 505 424-1112 www.PositiveEnergySolar.com <http://www.positiveenergysolar.com/> As someone who has been doing off grid systems since 1985 I can say from experience, ALL sealed batteries are CRAP... especially in off grid applications. They are too fragile and do not last. Todd
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