"Mark" wrote in message
...

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.

No flames, here, dude. You're probably right about the cost-effectiveness.
Most modern car batteries are far more forgiving of deep discharges then
ones made even ten years ago. If they will only be used once a year, it
makes sense to save some money and use car batteries.

The deep discharge batteries are still best for powerchairs, golfcarts and
other applications that require constant deep discharging and recharging,
but I and others here have used car batteries successfully for things like
battery-backed sump pumps and other occassionally use devices. The only
problem I forsee is what you've noted - that if left on a cheap float
charger, the battery could fail from overcharging. I've seen that happen
more than once )-;. Probably best to charge it and then top it off every
few weeks.

To the OP: I would stick with car batteries and not LiON drill packs,
depending on exactly what you intend to power with the unit.

--
Bobby G.