Need advice on battery bank

[wincrasher]

I've got 4 T-105's, a 1000 watt sine wave inverter, and a 2 bank (5 amp each) charger.

My trailer has a built in converter, like all trailers, and a SC225 12v battery.

I'm thinking of installing this bank of 6 volts as basically a separate system. I could run a drop cord from the inverter to my main power port, shut off the converter and power the trailer from the bank. Compartment will be vented. Or I could use the inverter outlets as a dedicated circuit for specific items, like a tv or a coffee pot.

I only go out for weekends or maybe a 4 day trip. So recharging could be done with my portable generator, but it would take quite awhile at such low amperage. But with such a large bank, it may not really matter. For a weekend, I'd probably not carry the genset at all.

Not interested in a solar investment at this point, considering my use.

Any advice? Too clunky?

[John Hilley]

I think what you are planning would work well for weekends and up to 4 days if you are conservative. If it were rainy and you spent more time inside watching TV, you would probably need the generator.

[ebksafari]

Preliminary, I do not see any advantage of having two separate systems. One system composed of sets of 6 volt golf cart batteries is plenty. Second, you need a bigger, faster, three-stage charger.

Lastly, no matter which system you use, you need to keep amperage draw in mind. Anything with a heating element (like a coffee pot) will eat up your amps in a very, very short time. (If you want coffee, get a percolator and use your gas stove, or instant coffee and use the stove to make hot water.) Also, change to LED lighting.

[Dr4Film]

If your calculate the number of AH's that you can use from the battery bank which is only 50% of the total and then add up the Amps you will be drawing from the devices you want to use, that will give you an approximate length of time you will have BEFORE needing to recharge the battery bank.

Remember that your inverter uses some of the power just for inverting.

You should NOT draw down the battery bank lower than 50% SOC or about 12.2 VDC otherwise you will reduce the longevity of your batteries.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

[wincrasher]

I already have LED lighting that works well. Generally I use instant coffee. Mostly I can see using the TV in the evenings. I don't see using the inverter much at all, but I already have it, so I was thinking to install it just in case I were to need it sometime.

Ideally, I would just wire these batteries into my 12v system, but I don't want to overload my existing converter/charger.

The new charger I bought is a 3 stage. I got the 10 amp unit because, if I were to be on generator power, I didn't want to exceed the capacity of the small generator.

[John Hilley]

How large is your generator?

[wincrasher]

2200 watt Yamaha

[John Hilley]

You could go a lot larger on the charger. That charger only runs about 2 amps on 120 AC.

[wincrasher]

Originally Posted by John Hilley

You could go a lot larger on the charger. That charger only runs about 2 amps on 120 AC.

How do you know that? The specs say 10 amps total, 5 amps per bank.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[John Hilley]

It is 10 amps at 12 volts, 1 amp at 120 volts.

[Scottybdivin]

The 4 x T105's should give you about 225 (50%) usable Ah. I currently have 2 T105's now. I tried running my grind and brew coffee maker and it showed to be using 1200W. It pulled the voltage down and the 3000W inverted cut off before it finished brewing. I will be adding 2 more T105's and upgrading to a high end inverter/charger with auto transfer switch.

[John Hilley]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

How do you know that? The specs say 10 amps total, 5 amps per bank.

Amazon.com: MinnKota MK 210D On-Board Battery Charger (2 Banks, 5 amps per bank): Sports & Outdoors

I didn't mean that particular charger. You could use a 40 to 60 amp converter/charger with the Yamaha generator that you have. The Progressive Dynamics PD9260C converter/charger would draw only 8 to 9 amps and provide relatively fast charging of your battery banks.

If your battery consumption rate were 10 amps/hr, it would take over two hours to charge for every 1 hour of use with the Minnkota charger. With 60 amps, it would be 10 to 12 times faster.

[wincrasher]

My trailer already has a built in converter that is rated 50 amps. Seems overkill when they come with a standard group 24 battery! Guess I wasn't thinking it thru very well. Forgot about the conversion calculation between AC and DC.

So if I just wired into my existing setup, could I expect my existing converter to recharge all these batteries in 3 or 4 hours?

[John Hilley]

Yes, you could.