I've been wanting to buy/use a marine battery as a 1vdc
power source for emergencies such as ice storms etc


I know this will start a flame war, and I'm not going to respond to it
but...

if you want this battery only for EMERGENCY power meaning that you are
going to deep discharge it once or twice a year, then you are better
off cost wise buying a standard car battery not a deep discharge
battery. Deep discharge batterys ARE needed for applications where
they will be deeply discharged over and over. A regular car battery
will survive just fine a few dozen deep discharges. Since there is a
large cost savings, you can probably buy two regular car batteries for
the price of one deep discharge.

In any case, as was said, the important thing is not to over or under
charge it. Even a small unregulated charger if left on long enough
will overcharge the battery and shorten it's life.

Mark