There are eight deep cycle six-volt batteries that live under the landing of the stairs that are wired up with two banks of four in parallel to give 24 VDC. They are accessed through a swing up door in the outdoor closet where the hot water heater is. The batteries can be serviced (basically checking acid levels and topping off water) from inside the house by lifting up the carpet on the landing, unscrewing the flooring and swinging the floor up out of the way.
There is a closet underneath the stairs where there is another little lift up panel where the batteries are visible but I'm not sure why the panel is there. The controls for all the house power reside in that closet.
Just after we moved in the batteries pretty much crapped out so we finally replaced them after a couple weeks of using the generator almost exclusively.
First the old batteries had to come out. The old cart the batteries were living on didn't want to slide out too well so we dragged them out using a come along. The batteries are quite heavy so it took my neighbor and I to lift one battery and carry it off the deck. Doing that eight times was fun!
The batteries were old and cracked and had leaked battery acid so we junked the cart and my neighbor replaced an old section of flooring while I built a new battery cart and aligned the wheels so it would slide well. The cart is covered with some tar paper that hopefully will protect the floor if these new batteries leak. Oh yeah, the new batteries had removeable handles so they were alot easier to move than the old ones.
Next, the new batteries were placed on the new cart and the four banks were wired up. This is the time to begin being very careful. Four of these batteries wired in series is a whole lotta current!
We pushed the cart into the hole and then went inside to hook them up to the solar panels and the inverter. Watch your step coming down the stairs!
Everything worked with no glitches on the first try so the only thing left to do was to put the floor back together, close up the door in the outside closet, clean up the tools and put the old batteries on a pallet to get hauled off later in the week.
One last thing, if you are a crazy person, don't be crazy around battery acid, it likes to destroy clothes!
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