Mobile Battery Bank?

Good idea, yet- if serious about using the batteries to run both the cart, and other electricity consumables, you might want to limit the usage to a refrigerator, or other occasional usage appliances, because as large as the batteries are in the cart, they were engineered to handle mobility-primarily, and thus may have little reserve for other applications. Efficient systems generally require specific solutions that do not often trade well when more broadly applied. I do like the idea, however, of having multiple stand-alone alternate energy solutions- each specific to a function. IE solar powered Attic vent fans. Solar hot water and pool heaters. Wind generated water pump. Solar paneled car port. thermo operated vents. Each does its job well independently, even when the golf cart has a flat.

Yes, I agree. Thanks,

When we decided to go sustainable, the study of off-the-grid options made me realize how difficult (read expensive) it is to generate electricity at the rate American homes use without burning petrol or other even more polluting fuels. Nevertheless we retired early and found five acres with a trailor and a creek. That was when I found out how, with a micro-hydro , one needs a way to both store and shunt excess electricity when the batteries are full. Being a golfer, next time I played I lifted up the seat and voila! exactly what they described I needed for storage. I could use a golf cart for lots of chores. But what do I do to with excess 12 v dc that is inexhaustible beside the grid?

How about two electric golf carts, Use one ,charge the other, then switch.

Two carts! Why didn't I think of that? Thanks hilltopper.

Corneliusvansant,

I think I speak for all when I say we applaud your efforts to go sustainable - I think we'll get there, even if it's only a few at a time. A few questions, hopefully you have considered: Does the creek flow all year or does it dry up in summer or freeze in winter? You may need to also consider something for the lean times, maybe a wind turbine or solar?

If you only get sporadic lulls instead of a complete dryup or freeze, maybe you could increase the size of the battery bank - hopefully enough to get you through without breaking the bank! I could see where the golf cart might help a little here.

As for current shunting, is there a way to pump the creek water somewhere so that you could store it for possible re-use, maybe irrigation or back through the micro-turbine? A lot of people think it's wierd but some utilities use off-peak power (usually late night) to pump water uphill to temporary storage, then dump it back down during peak demand to reclaim some energy. They even do it at Niagra Falls, on quite a massive scale. Maybe you could run a small pipe uphill to a reservoir to use your otherwise shunted power, then dump it back downhill through the same or another micro-hydro. There are obviously a lot of things to consider here, most of them expensive, but just some thoughts on a system. Of course this might increase wear and tear on your micro-turbine, so you likely need to do some math.

Hello Everyone,
I'm new here so I hope its Ok to chime in with my thoughts ?
While searching for Alternative Energy Products to sell , I've been reading that Fork lift batteries are as good as golf cart batteries for holding electricity and they are much less expensive , perhaps even can be gotten at salvage prices. Sounds really interesting to me as we also sell building materials and the salvage and factory seconds ( in most things) are the to only way to go if you're a small company trying to fight the big box company guys. Has anyone heard of using these batteries as the bank to charge ? A Forklift would be very welcome to lift those big old batteries. Our present lifts are LP gas, but we need another one , I Guess.
We are heading in the Solar direction as a company too and have just added a new supplier for products so we can sell solar equipment and we'll have installers too soon. We will darn sure need to save power in something , as we are also making plans to build a solar tower wind generator here in NE GA , to sell power to the grid .