Flooded batteries in winter

[Videocrafters]

It is winter in Michigan. My solar panel is keeping my battery charged. As long as the battery is fully charged is there any reason to bring it inside where it is warm.

[Iowa Dave]

No
Iowa Dave

[gbaglo]

Good site for battery info is Trojan Battery.

[NEWYORKHILLBILLY]

This is one advantage lead acid has they will be happy out in the cold as long as there charged. One thing to watch out for is once that panel gets covered in snow it no longer working. so you might want to sweep it off from time to time. I bring my batteries into the basement because I am to lazy to keep the snow off the panels .

[HABBERDABBER]

A discharged battery can freeze a bit below 0F and become kaput.


https://www.usbattery.com/winter-sto...cid-batteries/


If charged & topped up, then they can tolerate going much colder.


A friend lost a solar array battery bank at his off-the-grid cabin....heavy snow and a record long cloudy spell covered his panels. Forgotten was a cabin compost toilet fan that ran 24/7 and eventually drew the batteries down. They froze, Northern Wisconsin long, cold Winter. Around $2K in loss and learning.


Keep 'em charged, and unless you see a Mega-Polar Vortex coming, they'll likely be OK.

[Iowa Dave]

Our Escape lives in the Escape garage with the New Holland and the John Boat and their kids the rototillers for company. I leave the Escape plugged in to the 30 amp RV circuit and receptacle. While the solar panel on the roof of the Escape might not be enough to keep it the battery charged in the garage, I’ve got one outside that can get that job done at 7.6 kWh. 54 kWh yesterday, today less with rain, snow and clouds all day. Some days are diamonds, some days are coal. The 30 degree angle on the panels keeps snow from accumulating for long.
Iowa Dave

[marsman]

Wow Dave! That's an impressive setup.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by marsman

Wow Dave! That's an impressive setup.

We had considered it for our south lot line for a few years but had a nice row of shade trees there and hated to take them out. Then the August 10 derecho took some out and busted up the rest and the decision was made for us. We could get 26 % Federal and 13% State tax credits yet in 2020. One of the local installation companies is only about 15 miles away and did our geothermal a few years ago and also did my brother’s solar so we went with them. 6.2 year payback so I gotta live a little longer. It has been fun monitoring the output so far with an app on the smartphone. I’m a plant grower at heart and figuring out how I can use the runoff for point irrigation for a little onion and parsnip garden next summer. Sure ended up with a hell of a lot of firewood. Need energy to split it. At 5 bucks for six sticks in the campgrounds I’m approaching being a theoretical millionaire.
Iowa Dave