I was able to purchase this “Lawn and Garden” Lead-Acid battery for less than at Wal*Mart. So, I thought it would be worth experimenting with since its size and capacity will probably reduce the number of times I need to charge it (compared to the smaller gel cells I featured in my previous video: www.youtube.com The battery is rated at 275 “Cold-cranking” amps, which isn’t of much value to me since I’m not starting a motor or anything. Although it doesn’t say, a quick internet search suggests this battery is rated at about 18 amp-hours – which puts it at about one third the cost of a comparable gel cell. Problem is, it’s probably not rated for much of a deep discharge since lawn equipment provides a continuous trickle charge. Nevertheless, I’ll keep experimenting with it to see if it’s cost-effective. I use an in-line “Watts Up” meter to monitor the voltage. So far, I’ve allowed it to drop below 12 volts (the QRP radio gear I power with it is very voltage tolerant). With a half day of full sunlight I’m able to bring it back up to well over 13 volts – which last many days of lower power communications on my amateur radio station. In the video I also mention that I’m now using Anderson “Power-Pole” connectors to eliminate a lot of the clip leads I’ve been using. Actually, I’ve been using these connectors for over a year now but just got around to introducing them to my simple solar stuff. They’re great connectors and seem to be growing in popularity as a low voltage …
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Lenmar PPUS20 PowerPort Solar Charger & External Portable Lithium Ion Battery for Cell Phone/iPhone 3G/MP3/USB Charging Cable/Device Tip Adapters 
The PowerPort Solar Charger and Battery has been designed to harness the sun’s energy, shortening the process of transforming it i…
@jbohbot1
Yes, $20 was (and still is) a great price for this small application battery. However, for about $30 more WalMart sells some big deep cycle marine batteries that last a whole lot longer…
wow 20 bucks?! thats a really good deal.
No, I don’t deep cycle any of my batteries – I like to keep their output voltage at a relatively constant level (within a volt or so) as some of my older amateur radio equipment is sensitive to bigger voltage drops. Either way, thanks much for sharing the info you provided!
Not bad, do you deep cycle that battery at all ? I know your not supposed to, but I deep cycle my normal lead acid batteries sometimes (power outage emergency to run a small dc fan) (tiny 2.8 ah and ranging up to 10 ah). I started to notice some internal resistance, but I easily reverse it before it gets too bad with a desulfator. My batteries are still going strong after 4 years. I have to get a decent solar panel like yours some day.
Tnx es 72s!
qsl sir
but it takes more space and wireing(dunno how to spell it O:). and i had got this one for free from an alarm installation since it “wasnt ok anymore” (i cant find wut is wrong with it btw).
I Know lead acid lasts longer, the batteries that I have here are Lead Acid 12V 3 Amp Hr. You can always wire a few of these in parallel and would have almost the same specs as your battery but it weights alot less.
true true but the lead acid works much longer
I got a lead acid battery also from my math teacher, it is 12V 3 A Hours. But I can always buy a few batteries and connect them in parallel.
Yes, connect + to + if it’s a standard charger or solar panel. If it’s somebody’s private wiring job be careful and check it out first! Treat it just like jumping a car battery – the big red clips connect to the positive pole on the battery being charged and the positive pole on the battery providing the charge. Hope that helps!
@zeekzilch should i connect + to + and – to – or the other way around?
Yes, be careful the correct “plus” and “minus” connections are made or you could blow fuses or even burn-up the wires and create a fire or explosion.
can i also connect a + and – to the right poles to charge it?
@NerdForMIT i got an lead acid battery 12v 7.2Ah and it weighs a lot O:
Not bad so 18 amps for 1 hour roughly. I went to Lowes today that had that similar battery for 35 I was like the hell with that.
Thanks
It’s rated at 18 ampere hours. 275 “Cold Cranking Amps” which isn’t of much value for this application…
Battery for under 20 bucks hmm, How many amps?
just wanted you to know its not lead acid if you think so (: its Sulfuric Acid but probably called Lead-Acid Battery in usa or where youre from (:
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I charged my battery’s free, it’s easy to do, just one wire from the negative to a stainless steel peg into the ground, let stand for a day or so. This is like harnessing lightning but on a small scale. to view my work go to area51mohDOTcom, forums, water cooler debate, an update on my experiment.
thanks Zeekzilch.good info i have one of these batteries Barelly started playing with solar. we all gotta learn of It somehow.
Thanks!
Thank you for the battery info – what you say makes perfect sense. I think one thing to my “advantage” is that I don’t allow the batteries to discharge too deeply. Since this video was posted I’ve been experimenting with other gell-cell and deep cycle marine batteries as well…
youre using a starting battery as a deep cycle. and i know you know that, that is less than ideal for you.
They have more pores than a deep cycle so every single discharge compromises the integrity of the plates. Its only capable of probably less than twenty deep discharges. Sometimes people lucky though
Keep in mind that the less you discharge it the longer that life expectancy will be. (more cycles)
Good Luck Cheif….keep us posted