@prologic (#mjmb4fa) How true, no such thing as zero maintenance.

(#6ouob5a) @lyse Maybe, have a single computer fan removing the H2S smells from pit compost toilet, a room about 1.5 by 1.0 by 1.5m and this fan works ²⁴⁄₇ has done for 4 years, plus AGM lead acid battery for 4 years, remarkable really. No dead battery after 4 yrs, but it daily cycles to 95% fully charged each day.

I will see how this room stands up, two fans on ²⁴⁄₇, size 4 by 2.8 by 2.0m.

Cheers

Longer view of battery bank set up. All I need now is the cable lugs on the ends, and the copper plate bus bar on the other end, and I am ready to go.

Hopefully this is hooked up OK, hard to confirm this on the Internet, as not much about Ni-Fe battery banks around. But I ran across a few images the same as mine.

Cleaned the posts, spring washers and nuts.
Tightened them with shifting spanner, not too tight, just until spring washer is flat on the post.

So should you use Vaseline to protect your battery terminals from corrosion? I don’t. Clean your battery posts regularly, and remove cause of KOH reaching the terminals, is my answer.

It’s a forum debate out there, over which is best, or better. Maintenance is the best option.
The AGM lead acid batteries are zero maintenance. Is this a good idea? Is there such a thing?

My personal opinion is to maintain your Nickel Iron power system, Sure it gassy, weakly corrosive and needs attention every now and than. More about this once I learn how much maintenance is needed.

I touch the probes inside the gel, the probes are already coated in the gel, yet by pressing the contacts together, some metal to metal surfaces get through, so the ohmmeter records near zero impedance.

The question is asked Does Vaseiline Petroleum Jelly conduct electricity, and useful on battery terminals?
I use a ohmeter with probes in the gel one mm apart. Answer is no. The jelly does not conduct.

Thanks for the comments everyone. Bit worried about humidity inside the room, two computer 12V fans is series, might help remove the stale air trapped inside?

The left side lagged 2.5mm from level, but became level from counter-level principle once other right side is loaded. Both side of the cage are now near level, so the 3mm angle iron spanning 900mm is just enough to carry the weight.

Having trouble sourcing the 20mm diameter hold stud cable lugs, able to carry 200Amps., the image shows them pictured as black leads.

The middle of the bank, turns the corner, and the leads are not black or red, technically white means ‘load’; each post is wired +ve to -ve. This ensures the bank is wired +ve to -ve, but the posts are diagonally opposite, a full 3.8m away, across all 20 cells. This is the most efficient way to join to a battery bank.

The power end of the battery bank, each post is sharing the current load, so a copper plate with holes drilled for each inverter draw-off.

Larger view. Note why the batteries are staged higher than the other, to view topping up with distilled water. Also note the way the batteries go, +ve to -ve posts, along the cage frame.

Couldn’t find a shop to cut sheets, so went with thin but larger angle iron. This is 30 by 30 and 1.2mm thick, fits inside the other angle iron, and allows the plastic feet of battery with support. I suggest welding from the beginning a 50 by 50 angle iron 3mm thick will solve this problem.

Also you cannot source a 20mm stud hole cable lug, only on the Internet, no shop has them. Bother. More delays.

I didn’t know the base of the batteries have round plastic feet to stand on, and these are missing the angel iron, see red arrows. So now I need to place a steel plate into the angel iron channel to support the plastic feet of each battery. Bother you miss so many details when you build and plan, without experience.

Painted the power house green.

@kt84 @prologic (#h4bm4da) Where did this picture come from Kate?

One mistake I apparently made, you cannot draw off a lower DC voltage between the cells of the 24 VDC, such as 9VDV or 12 VDV, as this causes a change to the battery bank internal resistance, interfering with solar charging. So I need a 24 V DC to DC converter, to power 18V computers, 12 V TV and 9V meters.

@lyse (#2ezy3dq) Probably you are right, tube steel posts used for homes do rust on the inside, but the most common oxidation is the outside, where the dew night and day temperatures react with the post going into the concrete. So there I paint them with zinc paint, and hydroseal (bitumen paint) before concreting the posts in place. Re stumping contractors do not do this, and the posts do not last.

Notice four pumps, storage and power areas of the room, and even the cage frame show the staged height of each row of batteries, make it easier to top up distilled water to each battery cell.

Here is the basic floor plan again the each intended use of the room.

Yes the power house has multi purpose functions. It houses our water bore, the most important thing to a property is a source of good bore water, and we finally have that. It also houses all the water pumps, around four of those. It is a storage room for spare water pumps, batteries, lights etc. And finally it houses all the battery power and 240 volt production needs.

@lyse (#2ezy3dq) Good point Lyse. I didn’t paint the welding either, just dropped it into the concrete. Some say iron doesn’t rust further once it has a coating of rust on it, but should the frame fail after 10 years of use, I guess I will have to weld up another one. The KOH electrolyte is corrosive in the batteries, and we use Vaseline to protect the battery rail connectors, so I will try to paint over the ends of the square tubing though they are welded up by the channel that sits over the top of each on.

Side view showing the staged height difference for batteries. Hope it will hold them up, the channel is only 3mm thick, each post holds 100Kg, the spans are 900mm and must hold 100Kg per channel, I suspect a little sagging in worse case?? Overall the batteries will place 800Kg unto this frame.

The finished weld battery cage, concreted into dirt floor.

A close up of the welding position, note the clamp to ensure the width of channels is exactly 285mm, the width of the batteries is 280mm.

Began to weld channels to top of cage frame for batteries, note it is upside down, right to left, and held in place by star pickets and rope, everything level, using three spirit levels. Hard to set up, and weld by yourself.

@prologic (#aieetca) Thanks Son/

@lyse @prologic (#aieetca) Arr yes Lyse there is no kill like overkill. We don’t have a secure storage room on our property, so this room is it.

Cost of paint and the power house is ready for the electrical batteries. Yeah.
Will begin welding the cage frame for the batteries.

Also fitted the insect screen, Red arrow shows the cement render over the roof gaps, making everything insect proof.

The red arrow shows the cement render, vermin proof rafter and roof areas.

The door opened, with lots of steel, so you can’t break in.

Finished the door today. Lots of welding all day.