new battery bank. Me likey

OK, just for the record here's the saga:

Early 2010, bought battery bank from wholesalesolar.com . 400 amp hour bank of golf cart batteries that their web site touted as "what we use".  Slightly less than 4K. Used it for not even 3 years, bank wouldn't hold charge over night, supplemented with bank of batteries out of substation that worked for a while but not very long. Emailed wholesalesolar.com for help. Was informed that even though I bought the batteries directly from them they wouldn't help me because I ordered the other equipment through a local electrician friend.

Bastards. Right nasty fucking no helping fucking bastards.

Did 5 days of solid research. Ended up contacting DC Battery in Colorado Springs. They referred me to abrahamsolar.com in Pagosa Springs (One Mick Abrahamson). This all came about because in my research I discovered Rolls Surrette. They're a company out of Canada that have been making the premier bang for the buck solar batteries for years.

Can't say enough good about Mick and all his help. He was happy to trouble shoot my installation over the internet for a small fee, which I thought was the best money I ever spent. Then he got DC Battery driver Joe Worrell to meet me in Del Norte (9 miles from my house) to swap my old battery bank for the new one.

Joe was also wonderful, and did I mention Mike from DC Battery? He was great too.

Joe helped my unload my cores and load up the new batteries. He hauled ass to get to Del Norte so I could finish up as early as possible since he knew we had no power without the new batteries.

I had spent the weekend cleaning and prepping the battery room and getting my new rack built and every thing in place. The installation of the new batteries was flawless (thanks to a nice diagram from Mick). Heck I only put a jumper on one set of connections the wrong way and had a splashing lead fire dance for less than a second. :D No blood no foul.

Speaking of blood.....

Marian came and helped me. Marian is an electrician and one hell of a good friend and worker. She did manage to bleed her own blood on a good bit of the rack but much like my fire dance she just kept working.

At 9 PM the lights came on for what should be a period of 10 to 15 years with good maintenance.


Did I mention that DC Battery (http://dcbattery.com) is gonna give me 25 cents a pound for the returned cores?

Summation of the story? Go see Mick at abrahamsolar.com or contact DC Battery (http://dcbattery.com) in Colorado Springs. Under NO circumstances purchase anything from wholesalesolar.com.