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Now on to our choice of battery and at the end I will as well give several suggestions to look at for big or small just reference the companies emphasized. Realizing, this is for my 2 boys and our science project we decided some batteries might be too heavy to control. Some may spill if dropped or some may even catch on fire if left out in the blaring Idaho sun. Cost was a major factor also, remember this is one of the 2 items of the most expensive on the list. The safest and best bet was going to be the lifepo4. was light weight, can handle a charge for long periods of time and can discharge to give power when needed for a longer time frame as well. It is also safer in the heat than straight up lithium batteries and the only downside is the 32 degree rule but usually if it is that cold it will only be used inside where it is always above 32. Next is the size factor. If you plan on using a milk crate then you can safely use a 50ah battery and still have ample room for the other components. If using a ammo can, you can probably fit in a 28ah or 20 ah battery size. Now we know what size and how much we want to spend as well how much amperage we will need. The dc items are all trivial but we did have a inverter 200 watt to use thus it had to be more watts then this needs. Now it is time to search, and everything was quite expensive. After reviewing 100's literally YouTube videos of different companies and battery tear downs like from DIY Solar Power with Will Prose, LithiumSolar and DC Guy to name a few helped you not feel so overwhelmed on the number of companies building batteries. We Actually Found a company that was affordable and sold the battery size we were looking for Battery Evo was its name and they had a 28ah lifepo4 battery, perfect size for 99.00. This was fabulous. 28ah x 12 volts gave us 336 watt hours well enough to run everything we had wanted for our other components and run the 200 watt inverter as well. I called them and they quickly answered the phone and quite nice to answer my questions. We purchased it and was on our way to creating the solar generator. If you wish to follow our battery choice, especially when you see, we choose to have 2 of these and gave us 56 ah and still less than a 50ah battery. Here is the link: https://batteryevo.com/?msclkid=7a802bd38dc31a23e5ed49b0cb8ea187&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=**LP%20-%20TM%20-%20General&utm_term=Battery%20Evo&utm_content=Battery%20Evo and if you decide to order anything, they have been kind enough to offer a discount to you at 7%. If you enter Guardianwill at the checkout where it says coupon code the 7% discount will be added. Anyway, we decided to raise the inverter to 300 watts and the single battery would have lasted but we wanted to double to 56 ah and be able to run the boys 2 laptops even if the power was out all day or we were gone for the whole day and yet could easily be recharged with our gas generator or through the Sun or even gris power if it were on. Its hard to find reputable companies selling batteries they promise a lot and yet they do not work out to be as great as they say. Build quality is one item as well. Yes, we are on a budget but something you don't want to skimp on to save a dollar now. BatteryEvo is located here in CA. They also work closely with Battery One a company that was built here as well. We will be using them again on our second project where we will be building the battery from the cells and Battery Management System. Another company is Renogy which was started here I believe in Philidelphia. My only complaints with them is it takes a long time to have something delivered from them and they are not known for great customer service. It could take days to weeks to get a response from them as like their delivery. I had ordered a few items for controllers that was shipped by them and it took 2 -3 weeks to have something get to me after following up on the order. Now, the shipment part is over rided by ordering through Amazon if Amazon is shipping. 50 Ah lifepo4 battery Renogy: https://amzn.to/3EHlSt1 Other well built batteries are from: Chins: https://amzn.to/3MkYsfq Zooms: https://amzn.to/3LbWnT6 Dakota 54ah: https://amzn.to/3vEtAjt Battleborn: https://amzn.to/3MmtELu As you can see, at first when searching we about fainted from the prices. There are other companies but many of them after watching the guys on youtube tear them apart and noticing many flaws in craftmanship or design to cut corners or just not thought through. Yes, you can order from the companies and sometimes they have nice deals but most of the time not. And yes, you can order from ebay or alibaba but if you have a problem you are most of the time responsible to ship back and shipping lithium products is quite costly especially if they are overseas. Now that we have our crate and source of energy storage we now need to charge it up. I still suggest batteryevo for cost effectiveness and good customer service. Don't forget to use Guardianwill when you check out to save 7% -- Thank you and Thank you Battery Evo! If you can help, we would truly appreciate and need it -- Thank you https://gofund.me/5b4a16c6 Any little bit helps and we truly are grateful. these posts may contain affiliate links, and yes, we will earn a small commission but no cost to you. This helps us to purchase further things for testing so you don't have to.