electrical problem

[brahmon]

i have a feeling this will turn out to be a roast fest but have at it!  lol

 

[brahmon]

ok here's what im just gonna start to deconnect....



plz ad your quips and advice on a live basis. lol

 

[highdesertranger]

please remind me again why you have so many batteries? highdesertranger

 

[B and C]

I can't tell for sure from the pictures but it looks like you are tapping into the batteries wherever you want instead of the opposite ends of the string. They do make buss bars for this purpose and would tidy it up a lot. A smaller string with bigger batteries would be better.

 

[B and C]

With that many batteries wiring each battery to a buss bar would probably work the best.

 

[brahmon]

hdr
i had 1000 watts and it barely ran my ac and nothing else. now, when it worked, incould run ac, fridge, fans, micro, etc

brian
dont have money or patience to swap out to larger batteries butbthx for the busbar tip. is there a more detailed site/schematic for me to study?

 

[brahmon]

i have a cheap 6 way fuse block.   isnt that a busbar?   should i connect the solar to it instead of the batteries ?

 

[B and C]

You are describing a positive 12v buss bar with fuses for each branch circuit without a buss bar for the negative wires as
I would guess from the cheap statement.  The buss bar's I am talking about are solid metal and large. 

Your system is at a size that an electrical engineer should design the system and I am not one of those.  10 - 12v batteries in parallel is a ginormous (scientific word) system compared to anything I have ever seen for a mobile application.

The only systems I have seen personally that are larger were UPS systems for telecommunications.  Those were a big rack of 1.2 volt cells weighing 100+ pounds each and all wired in series with metal bars connecting them together.  The wiring off the ends was 0000 cable.

This is the way I have my three batteries connected (shows 2 but put one more in the middle).

 

[highdesertranger]

those look like Honda starting batteries. highdesertranger

 

[B and C]

Some motorcycle batteries are kinda skinny like that. The site I swiped the picture from: https://caravanchronicles.com/guides/how-to-connect-two-batteries-in-parallel/

 

[regis101]

How do you check the fluid in the cells and when was the last time you did the task ?

Can you take a more clear pic of the battery(ies) ? It looks like you have different ones all going on there.

* edit. No worries. I drug a pic onto desktop and blew it up enough to see deep cycle at least. That's what I was most curious about. *

 

[brahmon]

thx. guys. no they're walmart maxx 27dc and 29dc rv/marine.

in 8 months i never checked. too cramped amd kinda lazy. wally replaced 2 for free anyway.

anyone have pics of a properly wired 10 battery bank?

 

[B and C]

I've searched and no, can;t find one that big.  I did find one with my three though:


The two ends would terminate on buss bars for all the other connections with a fuse in the positive leg.

 

[highdesertranger]

I didn't even realize that someone made a 29 RV/Marine battery that's weird being it's such a small battery.

I hope you realize that those aren't really deep cycle batteries and they won't last long if you try to use them as such.

highdesertranger

 

[regis101]

You definitely have a cornucopia going on there.

Due to the mix of batteries, I'm not sure I'd go after a 10 bank. You might be better off having two different systems using the 27's on one group and the 29's on the other. At least you'd have some similarity.

In this manner, you'd have a redundancy that might save you from total failure at some point.

Checking the water is uber important.

This thread is eight pages along and questions are still coming from both sides. I dunno

 

[highdesertranger]

we are learning something new everyday. highdesertranger

 

[B and C]

Water should be checked once a month until a feel for how much water they take. Only use distilled water.

Your system probably isn't working well because the water is low.

 

[brahmon]

hdr
ive spoken to friends with bignoower boats and rvs and they have them going for years which is whyni bought em. cheap as dirt and free no-questions-asked warranties

regisnand brian
im gonna check the water from now on

i've heard from several battery experts that mixing age and type is myth son who knows.

the hardest part for me is figuring out which wire goes where since i didnt mark them. what a fkn pain

 

[brahmon]

anyone use a combiner box?  im finding larger systems use them.

 

[B and C]

My system is only 400 watts max. I can see where your system could benefit from that.

I don't want to ever check water is one of the main reasons I am using AGM (no off gassing/venting either). You spend your money or spend your time.