Storing electricity

This second post is about storing the electricity that gets generated.

I'm using a 125VA lead acid battery to store the energy.

To make sure the battery is properly charged i'm using a Morningstar Sunsaver MPPT (http://www.morningstarcorp.com/en/sunsavermppt).
- the best feature is that it adjusts the voltage to the appropriate level, that is necessary as the solar panels go up to 17V and the generator bicycle up to 36V. A battery wouldn't like voltages like that and simply disconnecting when the voltage is too high would be a waste of energy.
- i've hooked up a http://www.morningstarcorp.com/en/pc-meterbus-adapter to have a detailed log of how much energy went in and out,
- the MMPT also switched of the power to the load if the battery voltage gets too low. That came in handy when my old battery died after three years (at the end it needed a twenty hour charge to keep going for four hours at 500 mA).