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Bleh, i'd say forget the batteries all together, go with your solar panels and inverter, and have it hooked up to the grid. I think the most expensive (and dangerous and heavy, etc) things in a solar power system are the batteries. Take all that extra money you save on batteries, buy more solar panels and an nice big inverter, and during the day while your at work your meter will be spinning backwards, then at night in your obs, you'll use less power then what your meter spun backwards. The upside is that you won't have any wasted solar cells (like in the summer when your batteries are fully charged and your regulator says "Nah its ok solar panels, i don't need any more power!!") at least you'll still be getting a benefit from them. =)

(obviously this strategy doesn't apply to people who live on mountains in New Zealand) lol

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Heh! Horses for Courses, Ken. Batteries are a necessary evil for remote sites. (Be they permanent or temporary.) If you must have batteries, I say get the best ones for the job. They say "batteries never die, they're always murdered". The most efficient way to kill a battery is to repeatedly deep discharge it. Even doing it once is enough, like when your engine temp goes into the red: it's never the same again!

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I hope I'm not duplicating a response with this...

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No harm in reiterating important info!

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...A fully charged 12v battery should have approx. 14 volts in it.  It is considered "dead" at about 10v.

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Also, you'll get mor AH in your system by using 2-6volt golf cart, or similar batteries run in series.

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Not necessarily more Ah (six 100Ah 2 volt cells in series = 100Ah @ 12 volts, whereas two 100Ah 12 volt batteries in parallel = 200Ah @ 12 volts), but you will get a battery that will survive for many years if not abused.

The so-called marine "deep-cycle" battery is not designed to supply small loads longterm. It is a starting-type battery (like car and truck ones). The lead plates are designed to supply huge amps over short periods and don't like any other kinds of use. They don't last a whole lot longer than regular car or truck batteries when used in any other way.

There's a lot to batteries. The whole flooded lead-acid v. gel v. AGM v. NiCad v. whatever holy war will probably rage forever. But it's like arguing about Achro refractors v. Apo refractors v. doublets v. triplets v. SCTs v. RCs v. etc. Kind of pointless, but lots of fun and very interesting!

My final word on batteries is if you don't mind rapidly destroying and constantly replacing "cheap" batteries then do so if it's the easiest way to accomplish the task. If you can't afford to burn through batteries, for whatever reason, save some cash then buy long life cells designed for the job.

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