Battery Bank - wire for 12v, 24v, or 48v?
I have four 12v 100Ah Battle Born lithium drop-ins. I'm looking towards the future using Victron components: - 3,000W inverter w/ hybrid load-support - solar charging Currently I have a built-in ...
Forum Discussion
ependydad wrote:GordonThree wrote:
48 volt. The higher the voltage the better. It will give the most margin between "full" and "empty".
With the lithium batteries, does that reasoning still stand? The drop-off for lithium is sharp with very little in the middle of charged vs. not.
Yes, applicable to any technology. On lithium you can't rely on voltage as an accurate state of charge indication, because of that flat discharge line. However having more margin is still a positive.
Counting amps out vs amps in is even more important, IMHO.
---
Higher voltage also lends itself to more efficient conversion inside the inverter. Instead of having to amplify a 12v source with a gain of 10x to get 120v output, a 48v source only needs to be amplified 2.5x (this is over simplified but works as a demonstration). The amplification (boost) causes heat in the inverters's transformer and switches (transistors). The less work they have to do, the less heat they generate.
