Forum Discussion

capacitor's avatar
capacitor
Explorer
Jan 03, 2021

Batteries in parallel and series

There is a current thread discussing 6 6V batteries to provide 12V. I drew up a picture but someone said it will work but there is a better way. I did not want to hijack the thread so I figured I would ask in another one. Here is the diagram I came up with. Let me know what your thoughts are. Thanks.

  • Here's how to interconnect multiple 12V batteries together for the proper current balancing between them. The diagrams are for 12V batteries, but for a battery bank made up of 6V batteries just substitue two 6V batteries connected in series with each other to represent each rectangle in the diagrams:
    http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html
  • Only way to improve would be to connect the three pairs to a bus bar to distribute the power.
    For practical RV use the diagram is fine and US Battery recommends same.
  • This works well enough in practice, but it isn't theoretically perfect. The middle pair of batteries shares a bit less of the load than the outer two. Probably the simplest way to get theoretically perfect balancing is to run each of the three battery pair leads separately to a bus bar or other common connection point, using equal length wires for each battery.

    In practice, though, I'm pretty sure what's shown would work very well.
  • POS to Coach from one end
    NEG to coach from opposite end

    Balanced draw and charging