Battery connections
Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 11, 2012 at 23:36
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Chopperdog (WA)
Went away recently with 80 A/H of
battery power charged from a roof 100 w solar panel running Led lights inside van and a 1500w inverter to power TV ... After the first day of beautiful sunshine we had 2 1/2 days of thick cloud cover ..Battery battled but supplemented by connecting to car battery with motor running to boost battery for night time entertainment .
Have purchased a 120 A/H battery ..
My question (s) ......I wish to connect up to 5 Anderson plugs to the battery to supply power to Inverter,smart charger,led lights,solar panel,etc ...Is it possible to connect the Ando's together Pos To Pos and Neg to Neg and carry the Pos and Neg from last Ando to battery or do i need to run Pos and Neg from each Ando to Battery ??????
Cheers in advance for you help
Hilary
Reply By: Member - John and Val - Thursday, Jan 12, 2012 at 08:02
Thursday, Jan 12, 2012 at 08:02
Hi Hilary,
Anderson plugs are required for connecting high current stuff such as your 1500W inverter, but is it a semi permanent installation? If so a direct connection to the battery (via a fuse) is probably better. (Is 1500W a typo? It's a very big inverter just to run a tv and will be very inefficient. Suggest consider a 12V tv to run direct from the battery if it really is 1500W.)
If you have purchased a second battery of a similar type to your 80 Ah one, they can be connected together (positive to positive, negative to negative) to give you effectively a 200 Ah battery.
It's important to have a fuse right at the battery/s to protect the wiring, but not too sure why you want all the anderson plugs. Suggest you can probably share them if needed at all.
Can you daisy chain them or should each connect directly to the battery/s? I would ALWAYS use a fuse at the battery and from there feed individually to the plugs. Electrically either way is fine, but in practice daisy chaining is more difficult and will call for heavier wire.
Cheers
John | J and V
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
- Albert Einstein
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Follow Up By: Member - Kevin S (QLD) - Thursday, Jan 12, 2012 at 16:31
Thursday, Jan 12, 2012 at 16:31
Quote: Suggest consider a 12V tv to run direct from the battery if it really is 1500W
Hi
John. I was researching running a TV with a 12V socket directly from the 12V supply on Explore Oz this morning. There seems to be some opinion that it is not a good practice. I would value your comment. Thanks.
Kevin
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749696
Follow Up By: Member - John and Val - Thursday, Jan 12, 2012 at 18:19
Thursday, Jan 12, 2012 at 18:19
Hi Kevin,
Increasing numbers of small tv's are appearing on the market powered by an external 12V plug pack. Those plug packs are pretty rough 12 volts, usually about 12-14V and not much regulation. The 12V in our vehicles is actually about 12.6V or more at the battery, rising to 14 or rarely 15V when charging, so again, pretty rough 12V! These plugpack TV's often come with a car (cigarette lighter) connector cable, so I reckon they are fair game to attach straight to vehicle electrics. I wouldn't connect a TV to the vehicle 12V without first checking what it is actually supposed to accept (measure the voltage delivered by its plugpack), but if its got a car adapter (ie cigarette lighter plug) supplied, I wouldn't hesitate.
Cheers
John | J and V
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
- Albert Einstein
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Follow Up By: Member - Kevin S (QLD) - Friday, Jan 13, 2012 at 20:21
Friday, Jan 13, 2012 at 20:21
Thanks
John. I guess I will need to talk to Teac. There was no 12V plug with the TV but the option described in the user manual is for a devise with a transformer that plugs into 240V. Since it has a normal 240V as standard I can't see why two 240V supplies are required even if one does convert to 12V.
Cheers,
Kevin
FollowupID:
749792
Reply By: The Bantam - Thursday, Jan 12, 2012 at 23:30
Thursday, Jan 12, 2012 at 23:30
I've got a couple of serious questions here.
The whole inverter thing...yeh
well there are less and less reasons to run inveters these days..and they are hell thirsty things.
all that aside.
you have a charger, and inverter and a solar pannel...um one socket would probably be enough for all 3...because its unlikly you will need any of those plugged in together.
You DO unplug your inverter when it isn't running.....hmmmm
I know lots of people use anderson plugs for light loads... but I don't think it is a good idea.
In my view, if you have a 50 amp anderson it should be able to deliver 50 amps, and have a 50 amp breaker or fuse in line.
If you connect a light load device with a light feed cable ( say 10 amp cable) to a 50 amps anderson that is capable of delivereing 50 amps......that light feed cable has no effective overload protection at all.
Conversely, if you have a 50 amps anderson that is not capable of delivering 50 amps safely, what happens when someone plugs a device that requires, more than the plug is wired for...Hmmmm
additionaly fitting light cable to a rediculously heavy plug is a silly game.
SO.....better to use a lighter format plug like a merit or one of the many other plugs available for things like ya LED lights.
now back to the original question..if you do want multiple andersons.....remember the plug will be rated at 50 amps....and good practice requires it is wired to deliver 50 amps...........
unless you are running very short cables and therfore can get away with light wire..ya wont get two adequate wires into an anderson terminal.
so ya far better off running back to some sort of terminal block to do your commons on...remember you need a fues or breaker in there somewhere
sorry but its oulds like ya need to think a bit more about ya whole DC power set up....and a properly built switch board is what you need.
cheers
AnswerID:
474775