seperate or parrallel for house baterries

[FREDSDOG]

just want to know which would be better for luxury items ie microwave coffee maker etc. i have a 2500 watt inverter and installed two new deep cycle batteries is it better to have them separate and switch if one dies or run them parralel for the power. i dont have them set up to charge off off engine alt only when on shore power looking to get the most use out of them between charges

 

[Drowned Rat]

Re: seperate or parrallel for house baterries

You will get about 30% more run time out of the batteries by hooking them up in parallel that you would by switching from one to the other. By running them in parallel you draw less amperage out of each battery and they like that. Good luck. BTW, a 2500W inverter! <br /><br />You might want to hook up 4 or 5 batteries in parallel.

 

[amirm]

Re: seperate or parrallel for house baterries

You are getting really good advice here. If these are your house batteries and you have another starter battery, then you definitely want to run them in parallel. I would also add a battery monitor so that you know what you are doing to those batteries with this load .<br /><br />Note that you should only drain your batteries to 50% level. So do the math and don't run the microwave more than that amount if you don't have a meter. Power usage for a small microwave should be about 80 amps/hour (800watts/12*1.2).<br /><br />BTW, I doubt that you could ever use the full 2500 watts out of this inverter. That would be 250 amps coming in and I doubt very much your setup would allow that for any lenght of time. So use that as a safety margin. And talking about safety, be sure to tug hard on the battery cables going to the inverter. If they are lose and you pull this much power, they could get very hot and cause a fire (I came close with our 1500 watt intervert).<br /><br />Amir

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: seperate or parrallel for house baterries

I would have thought that a lot more info is needed from fredsdog before any suggestions could be made. For instance - any substantial draw on that monster inverter will kill 2 deepcycles in no time - let alone 50%. Not to mention the safety issue that amir noted.<br /><br />What motor are you running (specifically, alt size)?<br /><br />What amperage will be typically required (add up the microwave, coffee machine etc)?<br /><br />Do the sums, then you MAY discover that 6 x 6v deeps in series will probably be closer to what you need. IMO. <br /><br />Aldo