handcrafted
Newbie level 6
My bank of T105's 6 of them in series parallel supplies my house. I took two off and am now operating on 4 instead of 6, reason being I cannot charge at 70 amps + (should be 80) to adequately charge all 6 and figured my 50 amp charger would be more efficient on the 4 bank than the 6 bank and so it appears to be. Subsequently I've had to go back to my 20 year old Honda em3500s which I bought new. My Champion 3500 is still a great genny albeit I think needs a valve job, to many adjustments to the valves and probably well over 1000 hrs if not more on that genset. But the ole Honda em3500s she fired right up after years of non use although I did do a complete service before first start after years of sitting in storage. Anyhow, my question to any of ya'll living off grid is How are your charge times running vs. battery life. I see that my 4 bank can be brought up more efficiently but I'm not so sure about their capacity for holding a charge and their only a year old. I've got anywhere from 13.9 to 14.5 at the end of the evening and I know that's realistically closer 12.9 to 13.5 if I just let them set for couple hours after charging but once the genny is off it's over to batteries. I have a small 13 cb. ft. refrigerator a computer, modem and network extender on and my TV at night for few hours maybe three. And the computer is only on a few hours at a time through out the day. And I'm noticing my batteries dropping to 11.5 after being gone for few hours and nothing but my refer on. So I let them sit for about 45 mins. now and there reading 12.2 which is inspiring but still I think a bank this size should hold up longer than it is and that is why I look to ya'll for your experiences living off grid on a battery bank.
