Divorced battery bank wiring?

Hi,

If you want perfect balance then modify the system to have bus bars smack dab in the middle of the wire between the two banks. Then run wire from the bus to the OEM load center.

I should have mentioned that there will be no large inverter/ high amp draw situations with this setup. I would like to add a bigger smart charger someday soon, but so far running the generator while making breakfast has been able to keep the batteries up no problem.

My question was more of: if I have 1/2 my batteries seperated which wiring would keep them balanced? I would think the distant pair wired in parraell in series with the local batteries in paraell would be best.

Your inverter input or your converter output wires can be used as double duty for the parallel linkage between the two sets of batteries, if you twin those wires. This can be useful where the inverter or converter is mounted somewhere between the two battery banks.

Make a sketch and play (eraser required) with wiring arrangements. Likely you will see ways to make it work with less wire.

One thing to keep in mind- in my opinion, balancing the batteries is really only advantageous in hi current charge/discharge applications (like a large inverter/charger). In typical low load/~50 amp charge RV setups I doubt it makes enough difference to matter.

I'm not sure of the wire gauge but its at least 2 awg. It may even be 0. There are 2, a red and a black. They're sized for generator starting so they are big. I will have to check closer next time I'm over there. The question was more hypothetical in nature.

KMLsquared wrote:
Than the wire already installed.

Two cables or one?

"Posted: 07/31/13 12:00pm Link | Quote | Print | Notify Moderator
Forgive me if this has been covered, I could not come up with search terms that gave me the answer I was looking for.

If I have 4 6 volt batteries, 2 near the power distrabution center and 2 20 feet away how do I connect them up?

Do I series the remote pair and bring back 12v or do I parallel them and bring back 6V?

Which will give me the most even battery usage?"

TIA!


Musta missed in there somewhere. The gauge. Whatever's in there will have to work I guess, eh?

Than the wire already installed.

"without buying more wire"

than what?

Thanks for the input guys. The batts are so far apart because i dont have room to mount anymore where my current batteries are. If I mount them near my genny and install a dedicated batt for the genny I can use the wires than run to the genny now to tie my battery bank togather. FYI the run is more like ten feet, I was kinda using 20' hypotheticly. So 12 volts it is. I am looking for balanced usage and charging without buying more wire.