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DC,
Just talked to the hubby and I was wrong on the batteries. We have AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) batteries. We have two sets of eight 6 volt batteries are wired in sequence for a 48 volt "battery". With these two "batteries" wired in parallel. They are sealed with no maintenance, other then an automatic equalizing done by the charge controller twice a month. They came in a storage cabinets that looks like a large electrical panel box. We have an energy room that all the equipment is kept out of the elements.No heat problems.
These batteries with proper usage should last 10 years. The key in only discharging them down as little as possible. We only discharge our system to 90% full. Every 10% discharge uses 1 year of the life span of the battery. So if we discharged to 50%, our batteries would only last 5 years. This is what fouls most first time users, they run down the batteries until dead and they only last a year or so. We have seen this on two different houses near us. It is a quite expensive mistake to make.
I hope this helps.

Thanks !


DC

Hey forum,

I have both wind and solar connected (not enough panels yet) at my house and was wondering about batteries.

Is it possible to use golf cart or marine batteries until I save enough money to purchase solar batteries?

Depends how much power your setup is bringing in. If you only have a small setup then a 12 volt (6-Cell) car or truck battery will do the job although it isn't designed for it so I guess you can but at your own risk.

basic safety precausions, use goggles, wear gloves and make sure you're NOT grounded and don't connect it up for 2-3 hours after the batterys last charge as a precausion that hydrogen is still present.