Newbie; Question About Batteries For Backup Power

Tank216
Tank216 Registered Users Posts: 1
Hello All Names John,
Well Here The Thing.. I Live In A Apartment & Considering A Small Battery Backup System
I Been Reading That 6volt Golf Cart Batteries Are The Preferred Thing Next To Trojan Batteries
Question is How Do I Wire 6volt Batteries To Get 12volt System? Also Increase The Amp Hour's

I Know A lot People Have The Means & Money & Insane Amount Of Gear But I'm On A Budget and
Trying To Have Something Vs Nothing,, I currently Have A Wal-mart Marine Battery 125ah And
300w Pure Sinewave Inverter and Looking To Up Things To 700 Amp hour's,

I Know Marine Batteries Really not To Safe To Keep Indoor's So I Thought Id Step Up To Theses
Duracell® Golf Car Battery - Group Size 230 Seeing How They Have AH I Need But I Cant Find Anything
on How To Wire 3 of Them Up In 12volt's With Increased AH ..... So Can Some one Help Me?
Thank you

Comments

  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    Re: Newbie; Question About Batteries For Backup Power

    Welcome to the forum John.

    Your Marine/RV battery and a golf cart battery have something in common; they are both flooded lead-acid batteries and therefor aren't safe inside a dwelling area because they release hydrogen & oxygen as a normal part of operation. The same goes for the famous Trojan T105's. What you need to avoid that problem is an AGM type battery, and they are more expensive for the equivalent amount of power.

    As for wiring to increase battery Voltage, that is done by connecting them in series:
    (-)BATTERY(+)---(-)BATTERY(+)

    To increase available Amp hours you wire in parallel (negative to negative, positive to positive).

    The diagram here shows how four 6 Volt 220 Amp hour batteries would be wired to give 12 Volts and 440 Amp hours.

    Why do you feel you need 700 Amp hours? That is a lot of power and a lot of current for a 12 Volt system.
  • ButchDeal
    ButchDeal Solar Expert Posts: 35
    Re: Newbie; Question About Batteries For Backup Power
    Tank216 wrote: »
    Hello All Names John,
    Well Here The Thing.. I Live In A Apartment & Considering A Small Battery Backup System
    I Been Reading That 6volt Golf Cart Batteries Are The Preferred Thing Next To Trojan Batteries
    Question is How Do I Wire 6volt Batteries To Get 12volt System? Also Increase The Amp Hour's

    I Know A lot People Have The Means & Money & Insane Amount Of Gear But I'm On A Budget and
    Trying To Have Something Vs Nothing,, I currently Have A Wal-mart Marine Battery 125ah And
    300w Pure Sinewave Inverter and Looking To Up Things To 700 Amp hour's,

    I Know Marine Batteries Really not To Safe To Keep Indoor's So I Thought Id Step Up To Theses
    Duracell® Golf Car Battery - Group Size 230 Seeing How They Have AH I Need But I Cant Find Anything
    on How To Wire 3 of Them Up In 12volt's With Increased AH ..... So Can Some one Help Me?
    Thank you


    not sure how you are going to wire up THREE 6V batteries to get 12. here is some reading for you http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles/battery-articles/battery-bank-tutorial.html
  • Alaska Man
    Alaska Man Solar Expert Posts: 252 ✭✭
    Re: Newbie; Question About Batteries For Backup Power

    I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record, but I wish someone had told me this when I got started. You only can use 50% of your total AH. If you repeatedly discharge below 50% you are damaging your batteries like, "Oh crap!! why are my batteries going dead so fast"? or "why are they dead"? It should also be noted that if you want to extend the life of your battery it is best to recharge around 25% depth of discharge especially if you are going with an AGM, which in your case is a must.

    a 700ah bank = 350ah of usable storage and if your anal about getting the most you can in life expectancy, it's really around 175ah.
  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: Newbie; Question About Batteries For Backup Power

    Attachment not found.Life vs Discharge depth chart
    Powerfab top of pole PV mount | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
    || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
    || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

    solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
    gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister ,