Our story so far…

A couple of years ago a friend sold me two good used six-volt deep-cycle marine batteries for a price so low it was virtually charity, and they have done me good service since the big electrical system rebuild of 2012. But all good things must come to an end, and some weeks ago a cell shorted out in one of the batteries and I no longer had a 12-volt system.

Those familiar with the saga of the Secret Lair know that its electrical system is, to put it gently, minimal. And the problem with that is that when one little thing goes wrong, minimal becomes inadequate overnight. In a normal solar battery array, one bad cell is not good news but neither is it the end of the world. Two six-volt batteries in a 12-volt system is not a normal solar battery array.
All righty, then. Some things can be put off and some things can’t. I said earlier that I was sorely tempted to replace one of the two batteries, despite that being against all accepted good practice. Arguments against this are that: a) the existing good 186 Amp/hour battery is probably quite old, and b) it turns out nobody in the area sells a deep-cycle battery smaller than 210 A/h. Nobody in the area STOCKS a battery smaller than 230 A/h.

So I changed my plan. By slightly lying to myself about what’s in the bank, I decided I could afford one (1) new 230 A/h marine battery, and that in a month I should be able to scrape up the money for a second. I’m limping along with what I have and will continue to do so rather than mis-match batteries as badly as I’d have to with the original plan.

The battery I bought is an Interstate……which is probably at least as good as what I’ve been using all this time with pleasure and success. So except for the delay and expense I wasn’t unhappy with this development.

I came home fretting about money. Neighbor D had a whole bunch of stops lined up so I got home later than planned, just in time to check emails before the sun got too low to run the ‘pooter. And there I had a message from a friend of the blog who shall remain nameless, offering to pay for two top of the line batteries.The word of the evening was greed. Y’see, the top of the line in household solar batteries comes from a company named Rolls Surette, and they are spendy. And I laid down that night with visions of tall, expensive batteries dancing in my head.

Once the sun rose and I could do a bit of research, I came to my senses. I can’t install proper 400+ A/h batteries without doubling my panel array and replacing the charge controller, which is unlikely in this lifetime even if it were necessary. Rolls does indeed make a 220 A/h marine battery suitable to my minimal system but it costs the moon, is not sold anywhere locally that I can find, and is not measurably superior to what I already have half of sitting in my powershed waiting for its mate and installation.

So I’m back to the revised original plan. I now own one new battery and hope to have its twin in a month or less. Until then my electrical system will be on soft duty when the sun isn’t high and bright.

BTW, a couple of people have hit the Paypal tip button in the past few days, and I truly appreciate it. For some reason expenses have been coming hard and heavy lately, and just when I’m trying to get my damned eyes fixed. Those donations took some of the load off my mind.

The Jeep is now back from the shop and stopping quite nicely (in my opinion the most important function of a motor vehicle is to stop.) Landlady’s hens are finally laying eggs, and tomorrow if things go according to plan ten older hens will spend a brief, violent retirement at the Fortress of Attitude, which means…So all in all, despite the occasional visit from Uncle Murphy, things could be worse.