One of the most expensive parts of a renewable energy system is the batteries. Depending on how much of a backup you want you could be looking at thousands of dollars worth of batteries. What if there were ways to get free deep cycle batteries?

I've found two ways to find free batteries, but I'm sure there are a lot more. If you have any suggestions feel free to leave a comment for others to benefit.

When I was younger I worked at a golf course for 5 years during school. We had a fleet of electric golf carts whose batteries get changed every two years as part of regular maintenance practices. Every year we'd switch out about 20 batteries and just dispose of them. These batteries still had tons of life left in them.

While not the best batteries you can use for your system they are still quite good. These batteries are deep cycle batteries and they have quite a large capacity. All you need to do is call up any local golf courses and ask them if they're getting rid of any of their electric golf cart batteries. If they say yes, just ask whether you could have them.

The other source of deep cycle batteries that I have found also uses regular maintenance practices. In every city there is an industrial section. In many of these places there are forklifts... which run on giant electric batteries. These batteries are massive and are usually switched out every 5 years or so. It's quite sad because these batteries can last 20 years if you continue proper maintenance.

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You'll need to take a kind of shotgun approach. You can simply whip out your phone book and find warehouses or any industrial business. It might take you a little bit to find on, but these batteries are worth their weight in gold.

Now, you might find that these batteries are dead when you get them home. Not to worry... these batteries are lead acids and can sometimes be revived with a battery desulfator/nanopulser. Basically all that happens is little pulses of power are sent to the battery to dislodge the sulfates that have built up over time.

There you have it. Two great ways to find free deep cycle batteries. Remember, if you have any other tips or tricks please leave a comment so we can all benefit.