Recent content by PBechthold

Ok. I will post back when/if the battery does recharge and we can do some tests. probably will be able to get a new battery though. Thanks for the help :)

-to omcheeto- JESUS MAN! Scary. The battery is inside the garage, i am running the cables for everything through a crack i found in the cinder block foundation. (Old house. don't ask). >I have measured the solar panels voltage to be ( 17.6-18V) >When I test power output of battery I am still...

Just checked voltage after lunch here and it is up to 10.99 V ... I am on the prowl for a new battery though. Brother works at a Mercedes dealership so I am betting they recycle some good enough batteries pretty frequently.

Whoa. I had no idea that was possible. That's freaking cool! But if those cells polarity have been reversed, I guess the battery is permanently damage and will never charge up to 12.5+

Thanks for the tips. I have lots of reading to do about batteries and cycles. Because while I can accept that it is a bad battery. I don't undrstand why this small load would drain it to 4 volts. Is this battery just losing power on it's own? If I left it unplugged from the solar source...

I have worked with 12 volt systems while in vehicles. And then yes, they were 13.8 V. But, with this battery sitting hooked up to trickle solar charge for probably a month unused, it was reading 12.5 volts. So I was assuming that was the charge of this system.

You guys rock! Thanks for your feedback. Interestingly (and concerningly) I woke up to very dim bulbs indeed. So dim I had to check to see they were even on by opening the cover. I checked the battery and it is reading 4.06 Volts. This makes me think there is three possibilities: 1) The math...

-Amperage- That makes sense to me as you put it. V=IR implies current stays constant if resistance and voltage are proportionally changed. This makes me wonder though, What degree could I have pushed the amps to the lights before causing failures? That is, If I used 4 lamps and would thus have...

Hello. First time poster, many-a-year browser. I will describe my current project in the fullest detail I can and follow it with my attempted solution. I will point out off the bat that while I have a BSc in Mathematics, I had a terrible time learning physics in high school and get...