Gel Or Agm Batteries For Solar Purpose ?

Q: That is because Johnson does not make AGM batteries, only gelled. In our experience, warranty returns and problems have been less with AGM. We stopped selling the JCI gelled about 4 years ago because of lifespan problems, especially in hot climates.

A: Please comments whether AGM or GEL batteries are best suit the Solar Panels ? Someone from Johnson Control told me that GEL should be more suitable for such a solution, any advice please ? Thanks for all the attention and looking for prompt reply. Speaking strictly for myself I would consider this a bad combination from the start. Too much panel for not enough battery, especially considering that you mention a gell cell battery. My experience with gell cells is somewhat limited and I expect others such as Warren will speak more knowlegably on this. When I was refurbishing and installing computer UPS systems we used Gell cell batts. The manufacturer specified that the battery should not be charged at a rate over C/10 (battery capacity in amp hours divided by 10 to define the maximum amp hour charging rate) and that the battery charge voltage not exceed 13.5-13.6 volts. This was from an engineer at Johnson Controls I met at a conference (REDI conference in Willits CA). For a system such as you propose I would use something like 2 64watt Amorphous UniSolar panels (much less fragile than glass covered panels )(nice inverse temperature response curve too) a Trace C-12 (Morningstar, etc. might be fine or even better..admittedly I have no experience with them), and a 100ah flooded cell battery (prefferably of local manufacture). Not knowing the nature of your application and the environment it's expected to perform in makes it hard to be specific.

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