Battery Daisy chain

[Budgieboy]

Hi all .... Upping my battery bank and need to daisy chain the 3 of them together , they are sitting side by side with a normal car battery connection but need to link them together , does anyone know of a place to get these leads ? ..... :encouragement:

 

[VicS]

Hi all .... Upping my battery bank and need to daisy chain the 3 of them together , they are sitting side by side with a normal car battery connection but need to link them together , does anyone know of a place to get these leads ? ..... :encouragement:

Connect in parallel (not daisy chained in series)!

Furneaux Riddall may have ready made cables but the sensible thing to do is to get them custom made by your local Auto electrician

Note the advice on the" technical info" tab of the Smartgauge website regarding connecting batteries in parallel http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html

 

[rogerthebodger]

This is how each of my banks are connected

 

[sarabande]

err, some plastic (perhaps old ice cream cartons) under the cables where they cross over the metal frame, might stop fireworks one day ?

 

[Stemar]

err, some plastic (perhaps old ice cream cartons) under the cables where they cross over the metal frame, might stop fireworks one day ?

Good idea - or thread some plastic pipe on the cables to provide an extra layer. I rather like the spiral wound type of pipe for that.

 

[theoldsalt]

This is how each of my banks are connected.........

It would be better to wire each battery separately to + &- bus bars and not link the batteries as shown.

 

[rogerthebodger]

It would be better to wire each battery separately to + &- bus bars and not link the batteries as shown.

Why? That is how its shown in the web site VicS posted. The cables are 70 sq mm welding cable so very flexible with thick insulation. I could thread some plastic flexible conduit for belt an braceses

 

[VicS]

Why? That is how its shown in the web site VicS posted. The cables are 70 sq mm welding cable so very flexible with thick insulation. I could thread some plastic flexible conduit for belt an braceses

Well you should read the written writing as well as looking at the pictures. Its still not ideal as explained but personally I would be happy enough with the arrangement for only three batteries, as I am sure Roger is.

The advice on Smartgauge, although sound, must be viewed in its context which is a liveaboard, Chris Gibson, on a canal boat with very significant loads and charging currents on his DC system.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I have 4 banks of 3 batteries each and 2 of the banks are wired as shown and the other 2 are wired in a star setup each pair of battery being connected to a single point on the buss bars.

The point is to try to keep the effective length of the cables a equal as possible to match up the small resistance to each battery from a common point. The interconnection of my battery banks is done with 40 mm x 20 mm buss bars through fuses and hall effect current sensors.

This shows the buss bars and connections

 

[RichardS]

I have 4 banks of 3 batteries each and 2 of the banks are wired as shown and the other 2 are wired in a star setup each pair of battery being connected to a single point on the buss bars.

The point is to try to keep the effective length of the cables a equal as possible to match up the small resistance to each battery from a common point. The interconnection of my battery banks is done with 40 mm x 20 mm buss bars through fuses and hall effect current sensors.

This shows the buss bars and connections

You seemed to be describing the battery wiring on my boat but your photo is not like my boat at all.

I have three 180 ah house batteries and each one has a completely separate negative and positive cable fitted. All the negative cables go through the bulkhead to a negative busbar and the positive cables through a different bulkhead grommet to a positive busbar.

I understand this to be the ideal arrangement but it is expensive because it uses a lot of thick cable and takes up a lot of space!

Richard

 

[William_H]

I would suggest that in making up leads etc that you have in mind that you may want to disconnect one or more batteries at some time because inevitably one battery will fail before the others so an easy isolation method would be appreciated at that time. good luck olewill

 

[rogerthebodger]

In fact if you look at the centre battery in the last pic I posted is disconnected at the positive terminal as it had failed.

That bank has now been replaced and now using the old ones at home for when we get power cuts like we used to have in the UK during the "winter of discontent".

 

[JumbleDuck]

I have just two batteries connected together. I used stud terminals (ie there is an M8 stud on them instead of an 'ole with clamp screws) and made up the leads myself with a borrowed hand crimper.