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dave17352's avatar
dave17352
Explorer
Apr 29, 2013

UPG 250 amp hour agm batteries

I just finished up my residential refer install with inverter. I have two 75 amp hour batteries that will suffice for now. But this worked so great and I had so much fun with it, I started searching the net for batteries and I came across this huge UPG 250 ah battery and I was curious, would one large battery like this be better than say 2 125 amp hour batteries in parallel. Would this one large battery take a large power draw better than two, like for instance when the refer kicks on.

Also would you trust these agm batteries that are totally sealed and can be used in any position to be used without venting.

Just curious for now just wonder what you all in the know have to say about this.

33 Replies

  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    Generally the fewer connections in series (or the more in parallel) the lower the over all resistance so less voltage drop.

    You say these batteries are 250 amp hours.. Now that is one of the battery sizes that come in Six Volt (I think it's the "Large" size golf car battery, the standard golf car battery is a "Small) but it's also about a 12 volt size 8-D (Among, I asume other sizes)

    The biggest issue with the 8-D is it's one heavy battery, if you can wrangle it (i can but I'm kind of big too) it's a good battery.

    AGM, however.... They like to brag about the AGM batteries.. I'm not sold. But here are some facts.

    Some brands do, it appears, have lower internal resistance, most notabilly LIfieline, Lifeline recommends a much faster initial charge rate than any other Lead Acid battery out there (Like up to 10 times as fast as the rest) However for "Generic" AGM.. Xasntrex (They make inverters) recommends the exact same re-charge rate as for flooded wet cell. NOTE that I'm attributing the recommendations. you can check it out, The info from Xantrex is in a Prosine 2.0 manual.

    Now personal experience

    I used to have two independent 12 volt systems in this house. The factory installed "House" system consisted of a pair of Interstate U-2200's (These are a GC-2 Golf Car battery, Flooded wet cell) they are now 8 years old and thus the oldest batteries in the house. they still go strong.

    The other consisted initally of a pair of Group 31 AGM's. this is about 250 amp hours total, they were the FIRST TO DIE, they were babied by the Prosine. I later added some Group 29's (Maintenance free) but kept the program on the Prosine set to AGM. The Group 29's were older than the motor home (used for standby power at home) and outlived the AGM's.

    Considering the way way way higher cost of AGM's you can see why I remeain unsold on them.

    However many on the forums say they are the greatest thing since Edison.

    So I leave it up to you..
  • Did you check the weight on that monster battery? Can you lift a 130 pound battery?

    The advantage of using golf cart 6 volt batteris is you get the capacity of a 8D battery in two easy to lift 67 pound peices.

    You will have about equal votlage drop from a 250 amp battery system regardless of it being in a single 12 volt battey, or a pair of 125 AH 12 volt batteries, or a pair of 250 AH 6 volt batteries in series making the 12 volts. There is no real advantage of one over the other.

    My first set of golf cart lead acid Trojan T-105 batteries lasted about 13 years, I took them out when I started full timing and gave them to a friend, they still worked. The replacements lasted only 6.5 years, I was not nearly as dilligent in keeping the water level high enough, and that did them in to a early grave. Prior batteries for me where 12 volt deep cycle, and average life on those was about 2-3 years. So I do like the golf cart batteries.

    AGM should also perform well. They will not last 13 years, but should exceed the 6 years I got from my not so well maintained lead acid batteries. Remember to keep them charged, and not go below about 35% state of charge. It is much better to recharge every day for an hour than to let them discharge a lot, and abuse them.

    Even better is recharging via a 300 - 600 watt solar system. You can get away with a smaller battery system, in part because your daytime needs will be met by the solar system.

    Because of your electric refrigerator using up to 600 watts per night, I would suggest a larger system, like all the space on your roof can handle. The panels are fairly cheap these days, only about $1 per rated watt.

    SunElec.com

    You can ask a whole page of questions just about a solar system, and get lots of advice. I made my own mounts. Would recommend only 100 - 200 watt panels, larger ones do not fit well on the roof, smaller ones make to many holes in the roof. I would recommend wiring 2 like panels in series, providing the battery charge controller can take the voltage, and then wire pairs of panels in parrelle to the controller. That way shading on one panel will not effect the other pair of panels amperage output, and wiring size will be as small as practical.

    If you have a controller like the Solar Boost 50, it can take in a nominal 24 volt input (up to about 45 volts input from the panels) and charge a 12 or 24 volt battery bank. It adjusts automatically to the higher input voltage. Some panels have a 30 or 38 volt output(open circuit) so they are not wired in series like a pair of 12 volt nominal panels would be.

    The SB 50 can put out 50 amps at 12 volts, or about a 600 - 750 rated watts system. If there is more input, the system will "Clip" the output to a maximum of 50 amps, at say 14 volts (700 watts). That should be more than enough to run the refrigerator without drawing down the battey during the day. And when the refrigerator is off, the battery should charge enough to make it through the next night.

    Good luck!

    Fred.

    PS: I hope that you already know that high toque motors like a refrigerator require pure sine wave power, not the lower cost modified sine wave power. It might start fine with no load on MSW, but once it is cold, and the pressure is different between the cold side and hot side, starting current might increase a lot.
  • You'll get less voltage drop and less current per battery with the two 125Ah vs the one 250Ah. So, get two 250Ah instead. :)

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