[SunRescue] An intriguing idea...

[BSD Bob]

> BSD Bob wrote:
> 
> > I have been doing this for 30+ years, running old time Vacuum Tube radio
> > gear off batteries.   IFF you have a choice, run a) wet nicads of around
> > 100ah capacity or better, or b) marine deep cycle batteries.  My nicads
> > are over 20 years old, and still running strong.  The only better
> > battery is a real Edison nickel-iron-alkaline battery, but those are
> > scarce as hen's teeth these days.  They should last 100 years, if you
> > can find them, and know how to maintain them.
> 
> Nicads? Reliable? Tell more!

We are talking wet nicads, 'ere, matey.....  The usual dry nicads are
not long-term reliable.  Wet nicads are.  Wet nicads don't have any
of the usual socalled ``memory'' habits and will take significant
long-term charging or idle time.  They are far better in this regard
than all of the lead cells.

> These `marine deep cycle batteries' people mention: are these just
> normal open-top lead-acids designed to allow deep discharges without
> plate sulphation? I'd been thinking in terms of lead-acids as what
> I wanted: I don't really need the current capability, but capacity
> and reliability are important. If not, what are they? I'd need to
> work out what the UK equivalent is.

Marine cells are better quality lead cells, but designed a little
differently from the usual car battery.  The car battery designs
give lots of power for a very short time, like for cranking cars.
The stationary cells and the marine batteries are designed to give
lesser loads for longer periods of time, just what you need for
the usual standby power use or things like trolling motors, boat
lighting, etc.

Marine deep cycle batteries are the most common to find, and the
cheapest of the better batteries.  Good wet nicads are very
expensive, although, you can find them from standby lighting
system surplus or military surplus (used in aircraft, for example).

My wet cells came from Exide power systems used in LARGE standby
installations.  Lucky for me, the Exide plant was in town, so
there were lots of these things in surplus a few years back.
Not so many now, since the plant closed down that made the batteries
(Edison).  There is a Euro company that makes them, that I think
bought out Edison.  I don't remember the name, right off.

Another source of such batteries is industrial motorized equipment.
Things like fork lifts, cranes, etc., sometimes use nicads or edison
cells in their power systems.  Also, they were used on ships and
in railway systems.  Find a ship scrapper, if one exists in Europe,
as opposed to the Bangladeshi shipbreakers, and you might chance
across some nicads or edison cells.  In this country, the rails
used them on a great many coaches for 32v power, and they were used
on farms for 32v power years ago.  Sometimes those kinds of batteries
can still be found if you look around some.

Good Luck

Bob