[Mgs] Two 12 volt batteries

mgamgb mgamgb at ihug.co.nz
Mon Jun 18 02:14:34 MDT 2007


"... connected in parallel which will
still give me 12V but twice the usage time or twice the cranking time...."

Not necessarilary -

Check the Amp hour capacity of the batteries that you have, and the ones
that you intend to use.

A 12V battery and a 6V battery of the same physical size will not have the
same Amp hour capacity.

It is probable that the 12V battery will only have approx half the capacity
of the 6V one. (twice as many cells, but half the number of plates) So if
you were to connect 2 x 6V in series or 2 x 12V in parallel you will have
about that same total stored energy,

There are advantages however in being able to operate 2 x 12V batteries
independently, but you will need to look at your electrical circuits
carefully. Directly connecting a fully charged battery to a fully discharged
one can lead to very high currents and subsequent heating.

Ian F


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