Dan said it pretty well.
All three of those pictures are conceptual. Meaning not schematically correct.
From top to bottom,
the first two drawings are designed to show possible charger current flow paths through a serial / parallel battery bank. Illustrating my point.
The third drawing is a representation of what I did to partially solve that current flow problem.
I donât know crap about this stuff but I did have a link when I was trying to learn. Might help someone.
Great info TomH. thanks.
Try this video;
SteveHâs 7 years experiences with his bought new 48 volt forklift lead acid bank in his remote cabin.
His self-confessed mistakes only getting 7 years useable until needing rebuilt with two bad cells.
His now expectations to get another 10 years now that he knows just how to properly charge, and maintain.
NOTHING beats actual hands on experiences.
If my link does not work. Go to http://offgrid48.com home page to the video there. Enable that as YouTube view.
Click open his name in the lower subscript to open up his youtube channel.
Video is there.
Ha! Non-English speakers use the CC/auto-ranslate trick to get into your own language.
Enjoy and learn from someone elseâs hard-learns
Steve unruh
I requested this guide to help my own Edison battery reconditioning. While I have only skimmed it thus far, Iâd like to publicly applaud the investment and attention to detail invested by @plataoplomo. The manual he has created is an utterly incredible work. Having spent a lot of my own personal effort researching and working with these cells, I feel it is undoubtedly the most complete and modern document on Ni battery maintenance outside of private manufacturer engineering materials.
Nickel chemistry batteries have become niche in 2020, but ⌠for those of us using batteries that are 40-80 years old, that manual is gold.
Just bought 7 off grid acres last month in southern Mo. There is a wet weather stream at the back of the property. Was hoping to power something with it, but I donât think that will be possible. It is too far away, and too far below
my building site. From the N. E. corner to the S.W. corner my property drops almost 450 FtâŚ
There is a big ravine at the very back where the stream runs.( Will be panning for Gold there!)
Whoops pressed reply when I yawned.
So a charcoal powered generator and battery bank will have to do till next summer.
Anybody familiar with Southern Mo.
Where to find reasonably priced Batteries?
For now itâs one a month. I know you are supposed to get all of them at once. But being on limited money means doing some things slower than others. Right now need some input
Building a tiny house. Prolly something like 14X 20. With a small bath in one corner.
Need a few lites and need to power my sonâs X box system and the WiFi stuff. Already have a 12 volt water pump. 4 gals a min⌠I have a dc powered air compressor, to move the water from the holding tank to the faucet, shower.
Can heat water with a wood fired water heater
Your thoughts?
Anyone?
Think cheap for now. Can upgrade later!
Well the back seat of my truck is calling me.
The Sandman is beating on the truck windows,
Iâm going to bed.
Sweet Jesus protect us all through the night
No mountain lions tonight!
My Mastiff wants to chase the damned thing.
Iâd rather just shoot it and say good riddance!
So far we have been able to scare it off!
Nite all!
Cheapest golf cart batteries Iâve found come from Samâs Club. Probably the same from Costco but I donât know for sure.
Used car batteries from a junkyard might get you through a year. I would get LiFeP or LiPo batteries with 10k charge cycles because they are cheaper in the long run, and you are going to want solar panels too. Wifi radios usually suck power. Gonna have to put the kid to work instead of playing xbox. 
Hi Jesse , sounds lovely once your up and running would love to see some photoâs of your property .
Now my middle name is cheap and so google will help you looking for what you need rather than drive everywhere looking , if there are no scrapyardâs close to hand where you might be able to pick up telecom batteryâs as they normally change out every 3 or 4 years or if i lived in your country i wouldnât bother with lead acid and make the change to lifepo4 or the likes these guys seem to be the go to
Dave
Short term the junk yard salvage would be cheapest just try to get batteries all the same size with similar ratings to built the bank as you will be limited by the weakest battery.
Long term I choose the lead acid with carbon fiber wrapped negative plates.
https://www.northstarbattery.com/blue-plus-battery
Those have a 12 year rating and the price was definitely favorable over lithium batteries I could replace that pack at the end of 12 years at the current cost and still pay less then the lithium batteries would cost. Also far less fire risk with lead acid then lithium if the charger doesnât work right. I was experimenting with salvaged lithium laptop cells recently installed them in a lantern that was solar powered with dead rechargeable batteries. I made the mistake of assuming the built in charger wouldnât be able to over charge them after checking the specs on both battery chemistries. I was lucky in that I was able to contain the fire before anything else burned but it was very scary. I decided I wouldnât want lithium in my home in the scale of a full power system. It takes a design failure to damage them but they are very explosive when they bust into flames.
I would definitely start with solar panels and I would look hard at the midnite classic charge controller they are modular in design so you can expand the system later. Not sure what would be a good inverter at low cost small scale.
The absolutely easiest way to save money on batteries is to not buy any more than you need. I would suggest you make a list of every electrical load you plan to run, and for how long each day. The nameplate will tell you how much current each thing pulls, so you can work out the wattage and come up with an energy budget.
Dont forget that inverters use a little power, and if you leave them on 24/7 it can add up to a lot. My 1800watt inverter pulls almost 500wh per day; my chest-freezer-turned-fridge does not even use half that in the summer months.
DC lights are available, and they might be a good call if you are going to try and keep things very lean. Its annoying to go turn on the inverter when you want to flick the lights on for a second at night. They cost more, but with LEDs they should last forever anyway.
As for lithium batteries, they are great, and they should outlast other chemistries, but they are a major up-front outlay. I suggest you start with lead and get your feet wet. They are cheap, readily available, and they tolerate abuse. Not all lithiums are as fire prone as the cylindrical cells they use in laptops - LiFePo for example are basically incapable of thermal runaway. However, they are a lot more touchy than lead, and improper charging can still ruin a very expensive battery bank.
Sounds like you have an adventure ahead of you! It would be fun to hear some updates on how it goes.
There is a wet weather stream at the back of the property. ⌠property drops almost 450 FtâŚ
Sounds ideal for a hydraulic ram pump, if not microhydro. They can absolutely pump water even with high head pressures of several hundred feet.
I donât think there is enough fall in the stream bed to lift the water 400Ft. You only get what 7ft. Of lift per 1ft. of fall to the drive pipe?
Will have to look at the topo map again.
And besides there are bookoo venomous snakes down there in warmer weather
Got lucky when I was 7 yrs. old. Copper heads were not big enough to have venom, when I dug the nest up, looking for worms to go fishing. Got bit about 30 times on my hands.
Thanks for the input
Right 7:1 is the usual rule of thumb, but there are some options to get a higher delivery height depending on what you consider minimum volume at the output. But bottom line, as you said the topography needs to work.
You got very lucky thereâŚouch.
Yes I did! We lived in Mi. and weâre on vacation in WV. on the way to CHARLESTON SC.
If I had it to do over today, I would apply for a credit card with a $6000 limit, a 0%apr for at least a year, purchase protection. I would go to my local Honda dealer and buy a EU7000is. Then I would buy 91 octane gasoline, put it in the generator, and forget about all the cheesy small stuff like LED lights, batteries, solar panels, and all the poormanâs off grid lash ups. I would go to work and get some serious work done. I would pay $500 per month or better to bring that card balance down to zero before the APR goes to high interest. At the end of that payment schedule, I would have an acceptable credit rating that would allow me to get a mortgage to build or buy the house I would really want.
If you canât do thatâŚthen apply for a Chase freedom card and buy charge controllers, LED lights, and solar panels from AliExpress. $79 for a 100w monocrystalline panel delivered. $15 20amp charge controllers. 48smd LED panels 12v 1/4 amp draw ¢50/piece.
If that is too muchâŚ
Buy an inverter and power it with that ford.
You can take batteries with dead cells and jump cells to add up to six cells. Or just series them up to power car head light bulbs.
Find a 3 phase motor 15hp. Build a capacitor network (delta or wye) that matches the motorâs, and spin it with some engine. Tap out the 108vac legs and power your lifestyle. This generator can literally be built for free.
The thing that is not free is time. You are running out.
I donât think it needs to be that big. 5hp single phase is 2 20amp circuits. For running his load you probably need less then half that. You might be able to get it down to a 1hp fan or less fan motor and a lawnmower engine which would require far less fuel and easier for obtanium.
400ft, depending on how it drops. MIGHT allow you to use a gravity battery. Which most likely will be far cheaper then any battery chemistry. Cement blocks and rocks are usually pretty cheap. They arenât as efficient but cheaper then running an engine 24.7. I think they use DC motors so you can spin one way for up, and the other way for down. Treadmill motors are usually like 2-3hp dc motors for obtanium. I havenât looked at gravity systems that closely. but there are a few gravity battery diy videos on youtube.
Hi Dan , lifepo4 are one of the safest batteryâs on the market they do not explode in a ball of fire when over charged, they are not like the li ion batterys they use in cars ,phones, computers , i just bought 16 ,100ah cells second had that came out of a bus with a capacity of 90-95% capacity still left in them i paid $55 each for them and as long as i charge up no more than 14.4 and take them down to around 12.9 they should last around 6000 cycles from new , they are less than half the weight of lead acid and dont gas off when charged and can be used in any orientation .
But being the skin flint i am i will still look out for forklift /traction batteryâs for big power as they can be had a reasonable price
It is good to know that the other lithium chemistry isnât a fire risk.
I question the value of used batteries in general but if the price is right good.
The lead AGM batteries will not out gas and the carbon wrap on the negative plate is suppose to end the sulfation problem which kills lead acid batteries so life span should be very good for that technology as well.
Jesse what county in southern mo are you in.