Quite a while back I mentioned some of this in the Private Admin Forum. Now I shall come out of the closet (actually, my house is basically a closet).
I live in a well built, well insulated, one room, 16 foot by 10 foot building. I have no connections to any grid. I haul water in 1 gallon jugs, I haul my electricity in a 12 volt battery, and I heat with wood.
Well, I do have a propane heater, but it conked out a couple of years ago so I'm just going with just wood heat. It was 99% wood heat even when the propane heater was working. I do have a propane 4 burner stove/oven.
In the winter, my standard indoor temperature is 80 degrees F. Comfy, as it is a dry heat.
No land-line phone. I do have a cell phone, but my home reception ranges from poor to none. So I don't bother even having it turned on.
Anyway, recently I got a screaming good deal on a solar electric system. $350 for 2 panels, the solar charger controller, a 24volt/1500 watt charger/inverter, and 8 x 6 volt deep cycle batteries. The batteries are about 7 or 8 years old, but in their prime they would have a total battery storage rating of about 1400 amp-hours. I've been SLOWLY coming up with the plan and the construction to get it on line.
I've charged and equalized the batteries at work. There a 4 batteries in series, in parallel with another 4 batteries in series. Doing the voltage and acid specific gravity measurements, I've discovered that one battery has 1 very bad cell, and 1 battery has a little bit bad cell. So right now it looks like I'm going to go with just 4 batteries.
Moose
Correction:
total battery storage rating of about 1400 amp-hours
I didn't really know what I was talking about there. I was thinking 175 amp-hours times 8 batteries - WRONG.
One of the batteries is (it turns out) about 200 amp-hours. 4 of those in series are still 200 amp-hours (although it is x4 the wattage). If I had 2 200 amp-hour batteries (or series of batteries) in parallel, then I would have 400 amp hours.
Edited by Minnemooseus, : Correction at bottom.
Professor, geology, Whatsamatta U
Evolution - Changes in the environment, caused by the interactions of the components of the environment.
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"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." - John Kenneth Galbraith
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"I know a little about a lot of things, and a lot about a few things, but I'm highly ignorant about everything." - Moose 
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