Thanks for your comments.
We really like the wrap around deck and it's true, it balances the look of it. More importantly, it really saves getting from one end to the other instead of either walking all the way around the back or down and up those stairs and ramp. It just made sense to do it now. Plus, there was no other place to get the fire wood up to the deck level, other than wheeling it up the ramp or carrying it the front stairs. When I saw what Larry did at his home in New Mexico, I thought that was a good idea so I stole his concept and made that removable gate on the new section. It allows a straight shot in with the tractor(s). I still have to build the custom pallets much like BillBill did, except with wheels on it. I also have to build the fire wood shed or rack somewhere in between the garage and barn. I have tons of wood already cut (4 years worth) but just piled up right now. I'll have to split and stack it once we get the wood shed done. Although we have central air and heating, our goal is to heat with the wood stove as much as possible.
It's funny you brought up adding acid to the batteries. The solar contractor says any batteries that were boiled down might have sulfated and need acid put in to rejuvenate them. That's why he's doing it now. It's supposed to be the method to bring them back ... I don't know?
But the first time we told him they were low, he told us before NOT to add distilled water but acid instead. We (Loretta) read up about the specific gravity and that it tells us the state of battery charge. We found out what you guys are saying. She questioned him about adding acid since we found out you should only add distilled water. So he agreed with us.
Weird. That shows his ambivalence.
We have gotten several different answers from him for the same questions so we really don't know which answer is the correct one. It's like he either really doesn't know or he changes his mind. I know in my profession it's very hard to give a definitive answer because there are usually pros and cons, but there is a "best or better" way to do it and that's what I recommend.
His answers don't do that and we are doubly confused.
The solar panels are not directly connected to the batteries. They are connected to the inverters which control the charge to the batteries. It sets the system in "float" when the batteries say they are full...or when the inverters "think" they are fully charged. The problem is they were NOT really full, so they never got charged properly. That is one of the problems he was working on. Plus, there were only a few batteries that had good specific gravity readings and they were the ones boiled down. They appeared to be the only ones getting a full charge and not the others. He now says it's because of the way he set the system up while we were building the home and forgot to change it over. I will have to check this week if the changes he made really charges all the battery banks fully or not. I don't know enough about it to question him even, but some things are intuative. I know the system has the capacity to run our place if it was put together properly. On Loretta's solar forum where Bruce (Ravensroost) is also a poster, the guys did calculations to show what the system "should" be capable of doing once it's working correctly. They even included parasitic energy use of the inverters themselves. We hope the contractor gets it right this time. I wish I could get a straight, better answer from him so I understand what he's talking about. I can't wrap my mind around it yet.
What about my earlier questions? Hook them all (6 inverters) up together and have the generator feed both house and barn then? Also, was my thinking correct on the batteries needing to be charged up to provide a large load like the "starting the car" example?
