If I have the money to lay out, is there any reason not to get 4 of them? I hear lithium batteries are light. I have one of those jump start units with a lithium battery, and I was surprised how light it is.
Turtle and electronics
- Thread starter Billy The Impaler
- Start date
Ok, so like you said, if they're in series, I'd have longer lasting power, right? But if they're parallel, I'd have 12v and could jump my starter battery if necessary. But I'm betting there's no way to change on the fly, throw a switch and go from one to the other, right?
Batteries wired in series will have their voltages added together. Batteries wired in parallel will have their capacities (measured in amp-hours) added together.
For example, wiring two 12-volt batteries with 100 Ah capacities in series will output 24 volts with a 100 Ah capacity. Wiring the same two batteries in parallel will output 12 volts with a 200 Ah capacity.
For example, wiring two 12-volt batteries with 100 Ah capacities in series will output 24 volts with a 100 Ah capacity. Wiring the same two batteries in parallel will output 12 volts with a 200 Ah capacity.
But that can't be easily switched, can it, like normally I have them in series but I need a jump start so I quickly switch them, then back?
Why would you have them in series? Everything you're running inside the van is going to be 12 volts. The van itself is 12 volts. The alternator won't charge the house bank if the bank is 24 or 48 volts.
If you have a bunch of 6 volt batteries, you'd series those in pairs to make one 12 volt battery for each pair, then parallel those into one big 12 volt battery.
If you have to jump start, easiest way is a lithium jump starter.
I thought the idea was to chain them together to have longest lasting power.
You could have 1, 2 or 3 house batteries, for instance. The more you have the longer you have power between recharging. You wouldn't want them each sitting isolated and you have to move your cables from battery to battery, you want them wired in such a way the van doesn't see 3 batteries, it sees 1 really big battery. You can further complicate it by saying each of them is a 12v battery OR each is 2 individual 6v batteries wired together to emulate a single 12v battery. So then you'd have 6 batteries total wired in a way your van thinks it is one really big battery. I don't know all the tech talk of it, just enough to be dangerous. But I'm pretty sure that's the gist of it.
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No, you chain them together to EITHER add the voltages together OR add the amp hours together.
Like LDB said, your house bank is not a bunch of individual batteries, it's one great big battery (once chained together in parallel).
What you have here is three 12-volt batteries of 100 Ah each. (this diagram works for 3, or 2, or 4, or 90 batteries)
One you've connected all of the negative terminals together, and then all of the positive terminals together, you no longer have three individual 12-volt 100 Ah batteries, but rather one big 12-volt 300 Ah battery with one positive and one negative terminal on it.
I'm not sure how that differs from what I said, except your example uses 12v batteries instead of 6. Aren't you connecting them to increase your supply of power? Instead of 1 battery with, say, 100 amp hours, you're using 3 batteries to create a battery with 300 amp hours. Now, if I use those lithium golf cart batteries, they'll be lighter and have more amp hours, right? But from what I've read, I have to hook them up in pairs, so if I have 4, it'll be like 2 12v batteries, right? If I'm not understanding something, I don't know what it is I don't know.
Edit: actually, maybe I have to do both. If I use 6v golf cart batteries but I need my output in 12v, and I have 6 golf cart batteries, wouldn't I connect each pair (parallel?) so now I have 3 pair so it's like I have 3 12v batteries, and THEN I connect each pair serially so the van uses them as one big ass battery?
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So what's "a lot"? I'm guessing 1 battery of any size would be minimal. How many amp hours would be considered a lot to run a fridge, some lights, maybe one of those lunch pail food cookers, and charge the batteries on those eco-flow AC/heat units? I don't want to half-ass this setting it up.
I don't know the answer. I never got a battery setup. I had an Onan Quiet 2800 generator and Coleman low-profile roof air/heat unit. I had plans for other things but never got to them. Keep working your way through thread titles here and you'll find a lot of good info where Turtle and a few others cover it extremely well.
danthewolf00
Veteran Expediter
You can not run a ac long on batteries....think 2 to 6 hours. You NEED a generator to power ac. The espar can run off of batteries because it's so low powered.
The picture above of my battery bank is exactly that - two pairs of 6-volt batteries. The 6-volt batteries are beside each other left/right, and are connected in series with the black and red cables. Each pair of 6-volt batteries equals a single 12-volt battery. The resulting two 12-volt batteries are then connected in parallel to add up the Ah capacities.
Yes, once you connect two 6-volt batteries together in series to create one 12-volt battery, it's best to think of that as a 12-volt battery. But remember, parallel is positive to positive and negative to negative. If you connect those three 12-volt batteries serially as one big ass battery, it'll be one big ass 36-volt battery.