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Because people still pay BB's prices. As more and more pre-made options come out they will have no choice but to compete. There are much cheaper (and better) DIY options, but many people are afraid to DIY.

When the charger is hooked up and plugged in (or PV is producing power) and the full charge is completed, the charger will artificially hold or "float" the battery voltage above resting voltage in order to keep it charged and "healthy". It's only meant for lead acids (FLA, SLA, AGM, GEL) which...

No worries, I have thick skin. And I have many many stupid moments myself at 4am! ;)

You are correct, right now. There are a few things you can get at 24v you probably can't find in 48v...but a 48v-12v converter is efficient enough for me not to worry about that. Today's cars (non-ev) are slowly moving to 48V out of necessity for their "house battery" to power all the...

On second thought...it looks like that can only handle 500w input? Don't order it yet until you confirm your actual load with a meter. The problem is, with a 24/7 500w load you'll need a huge battery, like 12v 500ah just to make it through the night. Then you'll need to charge that battery...

I wonder how many China SCC's and other devices come with a relay just like that inside? I'm the type a guy that usually takes apart my brand new electronics to give them a once over before powering up for the first time (it's a ham radio habit). But I wonder how many posters on this thread...

I've been looking all over for a battery box like that!

I bought a set of these 3 years ago and saw this sale for under 11 bucks for two and had to order more. The ones I have only draw about 6-7 watts each even though they say 18w, but they are plenty bright for the draw. Very well built for the money...

I like the aquarium heater idea. I had a heating mat for my bearded dragon...if it doesn't burn the animals it shouldn't burn the batteries.

I learned when I was about 6 years old by playing with all the experiments on one of those Radio Shack 100-in-1 kits. I think they would still be great for all ages to learn with, as most people learn better with a little hands-on while doing the reading. Something like this...

My local Ace hardware stocks most uncommon things that HD and Lowes don't. I've bought plenty of brass nuts and bolts there before.

My local Lowes stocks them in all large sizes in copper, cheap! I use them a lot when experimenting with different configurations. I usually use dielectric grease on the wire before installing. Sometimes I tin the ends of the wire first.

For something bigger and "up to code" I would just use any one of the standard auto transfer switches that most people use for generators. Just use the batteries (inverter) as the main input, which will shut off with a low voltage protection device, and it will automatically switch to the...

In that article he says he terminated charge when current dropped to 30mA, which most cc/cv charges will do. But if he continued the charge, coulombs would continue to climb very slowly until full capacity is reached. The battery will reach full capacity (in AH) at 3.4v, it will just take a...

Paralleling 2 brand new, equal spec cells turns them into "one cell". As long as they always stay paralleled they will cycle exactly the same, and should, in theory, age exactly the same. Having two 280ah cells in parallel is exactly the same as just one 560ah cell. Just think about them as...

Send those panels to me in Florida and I'll test them in some real sun :).

You may be able to get that 125w/hr figure down if you can disable the auto defrost. Today's fridge/freezers auto-defrost once or twice a day, drawing ~600w for 30-45 minutes every time. I have a garage beer fridge, and its freezer is always full of frozen water bottles (empty two liter soda...

Low frequency inverters use a heavy iron transformer that can typically handle a lot of surge, like double the continuous watt rating (flywheel effect). High frequency inverters (most of the cheap, lightweight inverters) use many small components instead, and can't handle nearly as much surge...

Just came today (within 24 hours of ordering, gotta love Amazon!). So far it reads almost identical to my Flukes. Resistance takes a bit to get a reading but other than that I like it. For the price it feels sturdy enough. AC ammeter seems acceptable. Has a decent english manual! Will...

300w panels have double or more the voltage of a 100w panel.

That won't change the charging amps, only the incoming PV amps (and they will double in parallel). Only way to reduce the amps on the charge side is to increase the voltage of your battery.

See if your inverter is one of these that can maybe be used off grid: https://webosolar.com/blog/grid-tie-solar-home-system-blackout/

It shouldn't be a problem at all, just make sure all connection points are vibration-proof.

Tesla uses Panasonic batteries. Their Gigafactory assembles them into packs, but they are still Chinese batteries.

My Ryobi packs are 2ah and 4ah. That's not enough to do much. I used my drill/impact batteries on the Ryobi weedwacker and they failed from the high draw...if you want them to last for your drill, save them for your drill. They don't handle much abuse.

Panels can output near their rated voltage with a flashlight shining on them at night...but there wont be many watts. You can't go by voltage.

Since we are already way off topic, here is some good research data on charging near or way below freezing: https://www.pnas.org/content/115/28/7266 " Schimpe et al. (11) cycled identical graphite/LiFePO4 cells at different temperatures. Cells at 25 °C lost 8% capacity in 2,800 equivalent full...

In an emergency any inverter hooked to the car battery will work fine to power critical loads or refrigerators for a little while. For long term power outages, just an hour a day on the freezers is enough to keep the ice bottles from melting (lots of pre-frozen ice bottles before a hurricane is...

The only ones I see falsely using the term "float" are the cheapo copycat China re-sellers. We shouldn't allow the chinglish to change our vocabulary ;). Here is what Battleborn says: "We recommend a bulk and absorption voltage of 14.4V. A float is unnecessary, since Li-ion batteries do not...