Solar Energy Battery Maintenance
Your deep cycle battery can last long if you take good care of it. You need to have a solar service representative check over your battery as part of an annual maintenance routine to check all aspects of your system.
On the other hand, you may want to adopt the alternative energy ethic of taking care of your own energy system. In this case, you would do your own battery maintenance. Some basic steps to ensure the good working condition of your battery would be:
- Fully charge your battery before use.
- Be sure to fully tighten the connectors and properly wire all the cables.
- Fasten vent caps tightly and checked from time to time.
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- Batteries should be wiped free of all corrosion, dust and dirt frequently.
- Water the batteries after extended charging. If the plates have been exposed before charging, cover them with a thin layer of water.
- Check the acid level after charging. Your acid level should be kept " below the bottom of the fill well in the cell cover.
- Never fill or overfill the cells. When the battery charges, the electrolyte can overflow, causing corrosion and other damage.
- Use distilled or treated water. There is a rating for distilled water, counted in total dissolved solids (TDS). Water used should not be higher than 100 TDS.
- A deep cycle battery is designed to withstand a depth of discharge of 80 percent, but if this can be avoided, do so. The best way to avoid this is to keep discharges to a minimum. Properly sizing your battery is one way to do this. Another is to build a battery bank.
Keep close tabs on your battery. As the novelty of your solar or wind energy system wears off, you may lose interest in maintenance. Of course, we caution against this.
System components like the battery actually require more maintenance as they get older.
