Evolving battery technology Silicon salt batterys

Hi all; Been 100 % off grid now since 1983. I have used and abused many batterys, from the sears die hard (turns out they die quite handily) to nickel cadmium , nickel iron and of course the venerable L-16 RE. Lately I have been hearing about the new Tesla home battery ... expensive... must be installed by an electrician.... higher operating voltage than current systems... Think i'm gonna wait a few more years on that one ... Quite by accident as I was cruising my local alt energy supplier (backwoods solar electric) I looked at their battery offerings. A new type battery !!! One that is seemingly impervious to cold !!! How cool is that.... Silicon Salt 6 Vt 220 ah or 2 Vt 550/800 ah at not too bad a cost... Completely non hazardous to ship , seems you can pour out the fluid in your garden when the battery has died. Hmm been thinking about bringing my deep freezer home from the neighbors house. Over the winter I purchased 4 new 150 watt panels and a solar charge controller to go with them. Was considering adding batterys to the house system to cover the extra load. I currently use 475 watts of solar and 120 watts of 24-7 hydro into L-16's , for the house. But cold tolerant batterys , I could set up a spot out in the unheated barn and use my new panels to have a stand alone system for just the freezer ... They haven't been available long enough to know their longevity, the company claims 17-20 years ... L-16's only go 7-10 years ... Is there anybody out there who is using these ? I may have to give these a try ! here are the links http://www.siliconebatteries.ca/gs.html and http://www.backwoodssolar.com/

Nice homestead. We are gonna try the sodium battery. I have not checked in on Backwoods Solar Electric in a while, thanks. They were one of the first catalogs of disruptive technology that i found in the back of Home Power Magazine. When i found home power, i was blown away! The marketing ads and off the shelf equipment, stories about diy solar including schematics, hardware and rental costs, experiences operating off grid, appliance and building tech... oh man, and backwoods solar was a great educational booklet.

20 years, whew! Before i found these resources, i combed libraries and book stores and could only find out of print, out of date 70's publications, like it was hidden or something.

Hi Frank; That's great your going to try them. I think that I am going to as well. Not sure if I want to use them as a stand alone in the barn or if I want to replace the aging L-16's in the house with a new set of 2 volters... Home power is awesome! I was on their mailing list sometime in the their first year. It and the backwoods catalog were my "bible" of alt energy for many years. I am fortunate that backwoods solar is only 60 miles away, I can just drive there to pick things up.