You've answered more of my questions in 5 minutes then RPS Solar did in the past 2 weeks. After getting conflicting and contradicting answers from them I finally just gave up and started researching this for myself. Thanks for an easy to understand explanation.
You are obviously on track for a successful/lucrative career, whether it’s in a more traditional engineering role, teacher, or TH-cam creator… it’s appreciated when we get this type of content that caters to small financially constrained tinkerers, before high end sponsors are included & most resource constraints are merely a memory.
Good explanation. I understand it's not ideal but I have a few optimas that are different capacity. Now I know where to start and implement safety precautions when locating my bank.
Thank you for this great content! I have questions, Would that be okay if I connected 12v 35ah car battery with 12v 8.2ah ups battery? I'm asking that because my smaller battery is already degraded even though it has 12v it doesn't have the capacity, So even though I said 8.2ah according to the sticker it may only have around 5ah I guess. Thus if I don't mind about this smaller battery's health would that be okay to connect 35ah battery to this combination? I'm connecting these to a 1.2kv computer ups.
Very helpful. I connected 12x2 volt batteries in series = 24 volts. 8x 1000ah + 4x600ah. Knowing it's not quite right, but not knowing exacts. So now I've got buy more of the same ah to match. Hope I can fix before a fire!!
It's a 100A fuse. Not sure what the official name for this size/shape is. It's mainly there just in case I accidentally short circuit the battery pack.
As someone who has no clue about this stuff, I have queries that I would be grateful for answers to. I have a motion sensing light that requires 4x AAA batteries mounted in a single line. As it's not an important light to have, I just use old 1.2v Ni-MH batteries of varying mAh ratings (mostly 900 with a couple 500) that don't last long in the home phones anymore. Based on your explanation, am I correct in saying these are connected in series and therefore is not recommended to mix capacities? Having put 900mAh cells on each end with two 500's in the middle, the light flickers. However if I put the 500's on the ends and the 900's in the middle or alternate with 900, 500, 900, 500 (also 500, 900, 500, 900), the light is stable. I assume this makes no difference to the damage it could do to the cells?
Great content! However, my question is: Would there be problems if I connect an AGM 180AH 12V lead acid battery with a GEL 100AH 12V lead acid battery in SERIES (to give me 24V) then connect a battery equalizer/balancer to ensure that they charge and discharge at equal voltage?
Maybe you'd get away with it, but you need to make sure the charge/discharge current stays within the limit of both batteries. Also, you're not making optimal use of the larger battery. I'd say its far from an ideal setup.
WOW! This is the first video I've watched that's very easy to understands. I have one question though as I have heard conflicting info. Can I connect two 130 ah Lead Acid with a 105 ah Lead Acid battery to have a total of three batteries with a combined amperage of 365?? Thank you so much!
Good morning I have 2 packs of Lifepo with the same voltage but 1 is 24 volt 1120 AH and the other is 24 volt 200AH I would also like to put // both I don't know if a fuse is needed between the two? otherwise my converter is a 4000 watts to 24 volts what do you think about implementing // the 2 packs? busbars between the 2? THANKS laurent
Can lead acid battery be connected together with a mantainace free battery in parallel?
6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2
I agree most of thinks you said but thinks to consider in connecting batteries in parallel also age and capacity effect. - When you connect different age batteries in parallel older batteries will drain the newer ones over time. - When you connect different capacity batteries in parallel, smaller batteries have longer time on charging absoption and bulk. This doesnt have too much effect on 100Ah with 105 Ah battery but it will destroy fast 100 Ah battery with 20Ah battery. - Also different brand batteries even they have the same chemistery they have different plates and different charging charesteristics. This will also increse the chance of 1 battery to supply other battery. - Also when you are discharging, if the batteries has huge difference in capacity and you pull near the limit amps always biggest one tries to compansate the smaller one. This will kill the big one because when you stop discharhing the big one will compansate the smaller one and big one will make work harder which will. Batteries in parallel work as "weakest link" and weak ones damage the strong ones over time. =) But of course if you have batteries lying around and one is not enough, you can parallel them like this and take the most juice out of them. Better than nothing =)
This is true. I had 3 group 31 batteries in parallel and was watching my voltmeter slowly dropping from 14.8 to 13v when car was at idle. I thought it was my alternator but when i disconnected batteries one by one i found that the second battery was affecting charge. All batteries were trying to charge that one battery and the alternator was supplying what voltage it was sensing at the positive terminal of the alternator and not the battery. So voltage was dropping between batteries but alternator was not sensing a large change, so it was not compensating for voltage drop. But my voltage monitor was connected to rear battery. Thats how i was seeing charge drop due to bad battery. I replaced that one battery and charged my other 2 before installing and it was working perfectly
Sorry I have a question, I need to kee my truck battery charged, but in that truck I also have a tennis ball machine that has a battery if different size but both have the sane chemistry. Would this method work to keep not betteries charged with one solar panel Thank you
If they're both 12v lead acid it should be fine. I'm not sure if I'd also keep the batteries in parallel while starting/driving the truck. Perhaps also put a fuse between them so a short on the tennis ball machine won't short out the (big) truck battery.
I have a mightymax 100ah battery paralleled to a group 35 optima yellowtop. Its connected to my car stereo with a battery switch between the amp and the group of batteries. Been working for over a year and a half with the occassional charging in my garage. The problem is if i dont drive it for more than 4 days, voltage gets to 12v. Is it because the mighty max or the yellowtop is charging each other? The mightymax is nearest to my amp and the yellowtop is in the engine bay for starting. Does starting the car drain both batteries?
if it's connected in parallel then yes it would. Don't connect the car starting battery to the other battery. if you want them both to charge at the same time from the alternator then get a dc to dc charger that runs from the split way of your alternator to both batteries. You need to know the amps of your alternator before buying a dc to dc charge to get the right size. Remember starting batteries use high amps for a few seconds when starting your car then get boost up again once the alternator is running.
If you have active balancing, connecting different capacities in series may be safe, but it's still a waste of capacity. With 50 and 100Ah in series, the usable capacity will be 50Ah.
so im building a 6s 24v battery bank and each of those batteries in series will have batteries connected parallel to them would it be ok than to use batteries of different capacity in the parallel array? whatever its called.... i was going with a 6s but 6 in p as well but messed up and bought 2 different capacity batteries. as long as i keep each array in parallel the same capacity as each other i should be good right? be just one battery of much lower capacity at the end of each.... like a 5kma difference. Its my first time..... if the explosions is worth the risk you take it. for science.
I assume you are going to use some sort of balancing system/balance charger to keep the series groups at the same voltage? What you have in mind should work given your series groups have the same capacity.
@@AKIOTV perfect than lol thanks alot. This stuff is not cheap is it? im back into the mountains to get things done than. Take care and thanks again for the help.
This explains why I'm getting hot batteries in the solar setup. This is a 5 year old install. 2 strings 8 x 6 volt deep cycle flooded lead acid batteries making 1 array of 16 6 volt batteries at nominal 48 volts. The "hot" batteries capacities are now very low and are discharging and rechargimg at a much greater percentage of their true capacity than the others in the string. The 2nd string was unable to support any load. Dropping from resting voltage of 52volts to zero in seconds the moment a load was applied
lets say i have old batteries.... they both on label are 12v 50AH.... but one of the batteries from using have loose the capicity... can i wire them in series because on label are printed 12v 50ah on both batteries?
slightly different capacities in series could be done safely if you have active monitoring/balancing during charging and discharging to keep both batteries at safe voltages. It's complicated and messy so I'd avoid it.
I have connected agm batteries @48v parallel to lifepo4 batteries which Re the same 48v and have had them working for 3yrs now, I've also recently seen video from the off grid garage where he paralleled a 100ah(5kw) and a 280ah(14kw) and both ran successfully, what u people should explain is that if ur a novice at this stuff and don't understand batteries it's wise to leave it to the pros
The internet tells me you can not do this. the smaller battery will drain faster than the higher capacity. itl go empty while you still draw from the higher one. and then over charge.
gratulalok a videohoz de lenne kerdesem hogyan kell bekotnom /// szabalyosan /// 1 darab 16v supercapacitor baterry es 1 darab 12 v gel baterry koszonom a valaszt
Not a good engineering practice to connect batteries in parallel for low internal impedance batteries. It is not easy to ensure that the two batteries are in identical state of charge or voltage at any time.
Depends on the use case. Take my battery pack as an example: Could the voltage be different when discharging at 150A continuously? Yes, probably. Will the battery pack be discharged at that rate for long periods of time without interruption? No, typically the load is
@@AKIOTV As an engineer with four decades of experience in this field, my suggestion to you is not to violate a standard rule in engineering practices. You may get by on occasions, but sooner or later Murphy will play an ugly trick. So standard operating procedure is to stay away from paralleling low impedance batteries (or any voltage source for that matter). Just to indicate a potential pitfall (of many), say one of the batteries develop a shorted plate in one of the cells. So suddenly you will have a huge imbalance and a 2V odd difference sees an impedance of milli ohms. You can conclude that the result would be catastrophic - potential fire and explosion not ruled out. All the best and be safe.
as long as your bms is appropriate, and all the batteries are of same capacity and make. There is no such harm. If he bounds himself with standards how he can try on new ideas...
@@northernboy1 With respect, professionally I disagree with your suggestions. There is a difference between engineering professionalism and amateur practices. Think about this, why do pilots go through an extensive check-list of pre-flight tests, and do not go by their 'gut-feel'. It is because the consequences of an error is very large, and therefore you do not take any chances. Have you not seen countless videos of batteries bursting into flames on youtube? So if you are just experimenting to study the consequence of a topology, or perhaps just dealing with a temporary but emergency situation you can sometime take liberty with these standard practices. As I said, anyone who has even done basic electrical / electronics engineering studies (properly) will advise you to not connect low impedance sources in parallel. Hope this helps and be safe.
@@dip-tree if you carefully read my comment,,, I used word BMS ( Battery management system) will cover safety and SOP's must carefully be tackled. Now coming to the point, in order to understand the phenomenon, nature and working of any product it is very important to implement the ideas on small scale. Yes, you are right the safeties and SOP's should not be ignored. But there is a saying we learn from mistakes. And great ideas comes trying stupid things.
🤣 whole video started off with a strt8 up lie, plenty of videos on here with batteries with different chemistry. I have a flood lead acid and agm and lithium all in da same battery bank.
bro what if we have same lead acid batteries with same amp and volts but the one is old(almost 2 years old in using but still have good backup) and the other one is new can we still connect both in series?
You've answered more of my questions in 5 minutes then RPS Solar did in the past 2 weeks. After getting conflicting and contradicting answers from them I finally just gave up and started researching this for myself. Thanks for an easy to understand explanation.
Helpful demo display, thank you. Great teacher.
Yup! just what I needed - brilliant video
Within a minute of you talking I spontaneously Subscribed.. Great explanation and well delivered words.. Keep it up Sir..
Be😊st explanation I've seen brilliant.
Very informative! It is what I needed to know! Thanks
I just need to say thank you for the amazing video. Well explained!
Well done
Interesting and informative
Thanks
Great video thanks. Exactly what I wanted to know.
You are obviously on track for a successful/lucrative career, whether it’s in a more traditional engineering role, teacher, or TH-cam creator… it’s appreciated when we get this type of content that caters to small financially constrained tinkerers, before high end sponsors are included & most resource constraints are merely a memory.
Good explanation. I understand it's not ideal but I have a few optimas that are different capacity. Now I know where to start and implement safety precautions when locating my bank.
Well explained, thank you.
Thank you for this great content!
I have questions, Would that be okay if I connected 12v 35ah car battery with 12v 8.2ah ups battery? I'm asking that because my smaller battery is already degraded even though it has 12v it doesn't have the capacity, So even though I said 8.2ah according to the sticker it may only have around 5ah I guess. Thus if I don't mind about this smaller battery's health would that be okay to connect 35ah battery to this combination?
I'm connecting these to a 1.2kv computer ups.
Excellent, thanks.... I'll get connecting my 12v lead acid batteries in parallel.....
Great job.
Nice info to know now that I'm planning to do the same thing.
Very helpful. I connected 12x2 volt batteries in series = 24 volts. 8x 1000ah + 4x600ah. Knowing it's not quite right, but not knowing exacts. So now I've got buy more of the same ah to match. Hope I can fix before a fire!!
Good explanation very helpful, may I ask what is the yellow inline fuse you are using in your system ?
It's a 100A fuse. Not sure what the official name for this size/shape is. It's mainly there just in case I accidentally short circuit the battery pack.
As someone who has no clue about this stuff, I have queries that I would be grateful for answers to. I have a motion sensing light that requires 4x AAA batteries mounted in a single line. As it's not an important light to have, I just use old 1.2v Ni-MH batteries of varying mAh ratings (mostly 900 with a couple 500) that don't last long in the home phones anymore. Based on your explanation, am I correct in saying these are connected in series and therefore is not recommended to mix capacities?
Having put 900mAh cells on each end with two 500's in the middle, the light flickers. However if I put the 500's on the ends and the 900's in the middle or alternate with 900, 500, 900, 500 (also 500, 900, 500, 900), the light is stable. I assume this makes no difference to the damage it could do to the cells?
Thanks for the info
Good explanation❤❤❤
Thank you for the information
Obrigado, você eliminou todas as minhas dúvidas.
Great content!
However, my question is: Would there be problems if I connect an AGM 180AH 12V lead acid battery with a GEL 100AH 12V lead acid battery in SERIES (to give me 24V) then connect a battery equalizer/balancer to ensure that they charge and discharge at equal voltage?
Maybe you'd get away with it, but you need to make sure the charge/discharge current stays within the limit of both batteries. Also, you're not making optimal use of the larger battery. I'd say its far from an ideal setup.
WOW! This is the first video I've watched that's very easy to understands. I have one question though as I have heard conflicting info. Can I connect two 130 ah Lead Acid with a 105 ah Lead Acid battery to have a total of three batteries with a combined amperage of 365?? Thank you so much!
you probably could so long as they're all in parallel and have the same voltage
Good morning
I have 2 packs of Lifepo with the same voltage but
1 is 24 volt 1120 AH and the other is 24 volt 200AH
I would also like to put // both
I don't know if a fuse is needed between the two?
otherwise my converter is a 4000 watts to 24 volts
what do you think about implementing // the 2 packs?
busbars between the 2?
THANKS
laurent
Can lead acid battery be connected together with a mantainace free battery in parallel?
I agree most of thinks you said but thinks to consider in connecting batteries in parallel also age and capacity effect.
- When you connect different age batteries in parallel older batteries will drain the newer ones over time.
- When you connect different capacity batteries in parallel, smaller batteries have longer time on charging absoption and bulk. This doesnt have too much effect on 100Ah with 105 Ah battery but it will destroy fast 100 Ah battery with 20Ah battery.
- Also different brand batteries even they have the same chemistery they have different plates and different charging charesteristics. This will also increse the chance of 1 battery to supply other battery.
- Also when you are discharging, if the batteries has huge difference in capacity and you pull near the limit amps always biggest one tries to compansate the smaller one. This will kill the big one because when you stop discharhing the big one will compansate the smaller one and big one will make work harder which will.
Batteries in parallel work as "weakest link" and weak ones damage the strong ones over time. =)
But of course if you have batteries lying around and one is not enough, you can parallel them like this and take the most juice out of them. Better than nothing =)
Good information, thanks
This is true. I had 3 group 31 batteries in parallel and was watching my voltmeter slowly dropping from 14.8 to 13v when car was at idle. I thought it was my alternator but when i disconnected batteries one by one i found that the second battery was affecting charge. All batteries were trying to charge that one battery and the alternator was supplying what voltage it was sensing at the positive terminal of the alternator and not the battery. So voltage was dropping between batteries but alternator was not sensing a large change, so it was not compensating for voltage drop. But my voltage monitor was connected to rear battery. Thats how i was seeing charge drop due to bad battery. I replaced that one battery and charged my other 2 before installing and it was working perfectly
All the batteries I have are 12 volt lead acid, and i ha e some that are 12ah and 18ah, do yall think it would be good?
Sealed lead acid battery and flooded lead acid battery can mixing them together in parallel?
Is there a battery isolator?
Sorry I have a question,
I need to kee my truck battery charged, but in that truck I also have a tennis ball machine that has a battery if different size but both have the sane chemistry.
Would this method work to keep not betteries charged with one solar panel
Thank you
If they're both 12v lead acid it should be fine. I'm not sure if I'd also keep the batteries in parallel while starting/driving the truck. Perhaps also put a fuse between them so a short on the tennis ball machine won't short out the (big) truck battery.
Cool
ty i got 120 ah want to put a 100 ah to gether both 12 v same brand so you saying i can conetted it to gether to make 220 ah battery
I have a mightymax 100ah battery paralleled to a group 35 optima yellowtop. Its connected to my car stereo with a battery switch between the amp and the group of batteries. Been working for over a year and a half with the occassional charging in my garage. The problem is if i dont drive it for more than 4 days, voltage gets to 12v. Is it because the mighty max or the yellowtop is charging each other? The mightymax is nearest to my amp and the yellowtop is in the engine bay for starting. Does starting the car drain both batteries?
if it's connected in parallel then yes it would. Don't connect the car starting battery to the other battery. if you want them both to charge at the same time from the alternator then get a dc to dc charger that runs from the split way of your alternator to both batteries. You need to know the amps of your alternator before buying a dc to dc charge to get the right size.
Remember starting batteries use high amps for a few seconds when starting your car then get boost up again once the alternator is running.
Hi, so useful. In case we have the Active Balance, can we connect series 50Ah 12V with 100Ah 12V for real life using?
If you have active balancing, connecting different capacities in series may be safe, but it's still a waste of capacity. With 50 and 100Ah in series, the usable capacity will be 50Ah.
@@AKIOTV thank you so much
so im building a 6s 24v battery bank and each of those batteries in series will have batteries connected parallel to them would it be ok than to use batteries of different capacity in the parallel array? whatever its called.... i was going with a 6s but 6 in p as well but messed up and bought 2 different capacity batteries. as long as i keep each array in parallel the same capacity as each other i should be good right? be just one battery of much lower capacity at the end of each.... like a 5kma difference. Its my first time..... if the explosions is worth the risk you take it. for science.
I assume you are going to use some sort of balancing system/balance charger to keep the series groups at the same voltage?
What you have in mind should work given your series groups have the same capacity.
@@AKIOTV perfect than lol thanks alot. This stuff is not cheap is it? im back into the mountains to get things done than. Take care and thanks again for the help.
How bout low voltage battery mix in new one?
This explains why I'm getting hot batteries in the solar setup. This is a 5 year old install. 2 strings 8 x 6 volt deep cycle flooded lead acid batteries making 1 array of 16 6 volt batteries at nominal 48 volts. The "hot" batteries capacities are now very low and are discharging and rechargimg at a much greater percentage of their true capacity than the others in the string. The 2nd string was unable to support any load. Dropping from resting voltage of 52volts to zero in seconds the moment a load was applied
lets say i have old batteries.... they both on label are 12v 50AH.... but one of the batteries from using have loose the capicity... can i wire them in series because on label are printed 12v 50ah on both batteries?
not a good idea. The actual capacity can be very different
Wat een cutie 🥰
What if you have 2 slightly different capacity batteries in series but you only charge through the smaller one?
slightly different capacities in series could be done safely if you have active monitoring/balancing during charging and discharging to keep both batteries at safe voltages. It's complicated and messy so I'd avoid it.
I have connected agm batteries @48v parallel to lifepo4 batteries which Re the same 48v and have had them working for 3yrs now, I've also recently seen video from the off grid garage where he paralleled a 100ah(5kw) and a 280ah(14kw) and both ran successfully, what u people should explain is that if ur a novice at this stuff and don't understand batteries it's wise to leave it to the pros
The internet tells me you can not do this. the smaller battery will drain faster than the higher capacity. itl go empty while you still draw from the higher one. and then over charge.
The internet is full of both truth and nonsense but hard to tell apart. The author is correct.
gratulalok a videohoz de lenne kerdesem hogyan kell bekotnom /// szabalyosan /// 1 darab 16v supercapacitor baterry es 1 darab 12 v gel baterry koszonom a valaszt
Not a good engineering practice to connect batteries in parallel for low internal impedance batteries. It is not easy to ensure that the two batteries are in identical state of charge or voltage at any time.
Depends on the use case. Take my battery pack as an example: Could the voltage be different when discharging at 150A continuously? Yes, probably. Will the battery pack be discharged at that rate for long periods of time without interruption? No, typically the load is
@@AKIOTV As an engineer with four decades of experience in this field, my suggestion to you is not to violate a standard rule in engineering practices. You may get by on occasions, but sooner or later Murphy will play an ugly trick. So standard operating procedure is to stay away from paralleling low impedance batteries (or any voltage source for that matter). Just to indicate a potential pitfall (of many), say one of the batteries develop a shorted plate in one of the cells. So suddenly you will have a huge imbalance and a 2V odd difference sees an impedance of milli ohms. You can conclude that the result would be catastrophic - potential fire and explosion not ruled out. All the best and be safe.
as long as your bms is appropriate, and all the batteries are of same capacity and make. There is no such harm. If he bounds himself with standards how he can try on new ideas...
@@northernboy1 With respect, professionally I disagree with your suggestions. There is a difference between engineering professionalism and amateur practices. Think about this, why do pilots go through an extensive check-list of pre-flight tests, and do not go by their 'gut-feel'. It is because the consequences of an error is very large, and therefore you do not take any chances. Have you not seen countless videos of batteries bursting into flames on youtube? So if you are just experimenting to study the consequence of a topology, or perhaps just dealing with a temporary but emergency situation you can sometime take liberty with these standard practices. As I said, anyone who has even done basic electrical / electronics engineering studies (properly) will advise you to not connect low impedance sources in parallel. Hope this helps and be safe.
@@dip-tree if you carefully read my comment,,, I used word BMS ( Battery management system)
will cover safety and SOP's must carefully be tackled.
Now coming to the point, in order to understand the phenomenon, nature and working of any product it is very important to implement the ideas on small scale.
Yes, you are right the safeties and SOP's should not be ignored.
But there is a saying we learn from mistakes. And great ideas comes trying stupid things.
Dead battery
🤣 whole video started off with a strt8 up lie, plenty of videos on here with batteries with different chemistry. I have a flood lead acid and agm and lithium all in da same battery bank.
bro what if we have same lead acid batteries with same amp and volts but the one is old(almost 2 years old in using but still have good backup) and the other one is new can we still connect both in series?