Luxury Coach Lifestyles - View Single Post - Heart inverter, link monitor problem or maybe battery

NewellCrazy · 05-22-2013, 12:33 AM

John,

Because of the repeated heavy discharge & charging cycles, Golf cart batteries make an excellent choice because they are designed for daily heavy discharge and charging. However, be advised that golf cart batteries are 6 volts and you'll need two wired in series to produce 12 volts; This simply means connecting the positive terminal of one battery to the negative of the second battery. The remaining negative and positive terminals provide you with 12 volts.

Alternatively, you could use 12 volt deep cycle batteries, but their capacity will be roughly half that of a pair of golf cart batteries and you'd need two 12 volt deep cycle batteries to provide the equivalent capacity. The net result is that you'd need the same total number of batteries.

If you have space, four or even six golf batteries would provide additional capacity, allowing the inverter to run for a longer time before battery recharging is necessary. If you use 6 volt golf cart batteries, connect them in series-connected pairs, then connect the "free" positive terminals together and the "free" negative terminals together to produce 12 volts. If you use 12 volt batteries, merely connect all the positive terminals together and connect all the negative terminals together.

One pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries wired as above will have a rated capacity of approximately 220 amp-hours. Since you shouldn't discharge the batteries by more than 50% before recharging, the usable capacity of this pair of batteries will be 110 amp-hours. Four golf cart batteries wired as above will give you a usable capacity of 2 x 110 = 220 amp-hours. We'll use this usable capacity in the next section to determine how long you can run the inverter before having to recharge the batteries.

Do not mix battery types. Because of different charging and discharging characterstics, it's important to use the same battery type for all batteries in the bank. Do not mix lead-acid, gel cell and AGM batteries. You should not mix deep cycle batteries with "combination" or "marine" batteries, nor should you mix 12 volt deep cycle batteries with pairs of 6 volt golf cart batteries.
Take your list of 120 volt appliances, power consumption in watts and estimate of operating hours and calculate the amp-hours of capacity drawn from the batteries in a 24 hour period from the formula:

Amp-hours = (watts x hours)/11 (allowing for efficiency)

Sean

05-22-2013, 12:33 AM	#11
NewellCrazy Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Sugarland, TX or Salida,CO Posts: 1,867	John, Because of the repeated heavy discharge & charging cycles, Golf cart batteries make an excellent choice because they are designed for daily heavy discharge and charging. However, be advised that golf cart batteries are 6 volts and you'll need two wired in series to produce 12 volts; This simply means connecting the positive terminal of one battery to the negative of the second battery. The remaining negative and positive terminals provide you with 12 volts. Alternatively, you could use 12 volt deep cycle batteries, but their capacity will be roughly half that of a pair of golf cart batteries and you'd need two 12 volt deep cycle batteries to provide the equivalent capacity. The net result is that you'd need the same total number of batteries. If you have space, four or even six golf batteries would provide additional capacity, allowing the inverter to run for a longer time before battery recharging is necessary. If you use 6 volt golf cart batteries, connect them in series-connected pairs, then connect the "free" positive terminals together and the "free" negative terminals together to produce 12 volts. If you use 12 volt batteries, merely connect all the positive terminals together and connect all the negative terminals together. One pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries wired as above will have a rated capacity of approximately 220 amp-hours. Since you shouldn't discharge the batteries by more than 50% before recharging, the usable capacity of this pair of batteries will be 110 amp-hours. Four golf cart batteries wired as above will give you a usable capacity of 2 x 110 = 220 amp-hours. We'll use this usable capacity in the next section to determine how long you can run the inverter before having to recharge the batteries. Do not mix battery types. Because of different charging and discharging characterstics, it's important to use the same battery type for all batteries in the bank. Do not mix lead-acid, gel cell and AGM batteries. You should not mix deep cycle batteries with "combination" or "marine" batteries, nor should you mix 12 volt deep cycle batteries with pairs of 6 volt golf cart batteries. Take your list of 120 volt appliances, power consumption in watts and estimate of operating hours and calculate the amp-hours of capacity drawn from the batteries in a 24 hour period from the formula: Amp-hours = (watts x hours)/11 (allowing for efficiency) Sean __________________ Sean If Ain't a Newell, It Ain't Wurt Oonin!