Community Forums

etcmss · 10-02-2011, 05:16 AM

The 6 volt battery has lots of AH built into it. when you put 2 together and get 12 volts and you still get the service of AH per time, it will provide more power longer.
If you try to do this long service time from a 12 volt battery the size gets bigger...weight..s--ampacity per cell.....
it's back to the design and what you want from the system. you could use a 12 volt vice 2---6 volts but suspect it goes dead sooner.(not enough AH total) volts per cell
notice the 6 volt has 3 cells (where the cap is for water) and each cell has a AH rating....if you did this for the 12volt battery each cell (and the number of plates to do the AH service) makes it really big.
Amp Hour (Ah or ah): A unit of measure for a battery’s storage capacity obtained by the amount of amps a battery can be discharged (typically 1.75vpc) multiplied by the amount of hours @ 80F (26.7C) . Most auto/marine and light truck batteries are tested at a 20-hour discharge rate. Example: A 12-volt 100ah rated marine battery means that 5 amps can be discharged for 20 hours at 80°F (26.7C) before falling below 10.5 volts (6 cells X 1.75v)
Batteries - Interstate Batteries has every battery for every need

bldrbob · 10-02-2011, 06:30 AM

Everyone is comparing two 6 volt to one 12 volt.The two batteries will have more capacity but when you add another 12 volt in parallal the capacity is almost the same.

etcmss · 10-02-2011, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bldrbob

Everyone is comparing two 6 volt to one 12 volt.The two batteries will have more capacity but when you add another 12 volt in parallal the capacity is almost the same.

if i read the initial post it was about 1 12 volt vs. 2 6 volt---right.
sure adding another 12 volt will further improve amps or life. (available service time)

jim81147 · 10-02-2011, 11:25 AM

So if I understand all this correctly , most 12V batteries like you would pick up at walmart or something are really almost quasi deep cycle batteries . The advantages of 6V golf cart batteries are a bit less expensive because they make many , they are also designed for a slower deeper draw down . I am getting that the dis-advantage of 6V is that it takes up double the room and adds weight , maybe just a slight bit more complication on the initial wiring especially if you were going to run 4 batteries . The advantages of 12V are less room and weight , easier initial wiring and the dis-advantages are most are not ideal in terms of design and cost is more for good batteries of the same ratings? Does all that sound right? Something I have not seen talked about is charging . The 5er I bought has a solar panel on the roof and I am not sure what kind of controller . Is there an advantage for charging in either the 12V or the 6V , maybe speed or ??? Sorry for all the questions but thank you for all the input .

paz · 10-02-2011, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim81147

...I am getting that the dis-advantage of 6V is that it takes up double the room and adds weight...The advantages of 12V are less room and weight...

It takes 2 - 6V batteries to equal the voltage of one 12V, but it takes 2 - 12V batteries to approximately equal the amp-hour capacity of 1 - 6V battery. Either way, you need 2 of each to be approximately equal in both voltage and amp-hours.

However, you only need 1 - 12V battery if you can get by with lower amp-hours, but you can't use only 1 -6V battery because you have to have 2 hooked in series to get 12V.

Yellowreef · 10-02-2011, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paz

If 6V isn't better than 12V, maybe you should tell us why. Inquiring minds want to know.

Seems to me based on your last post that you understand the math. It's not about 6v or 12v, its about two batteries versus one battery. Its a flawed proposition to begin with. Of course two batteries of similar ah will give you more hours than just one...

paz · 10-03-2011, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yellowreef

Seems to me based on your last post that you understand the math. It's not about 6v or 12v, its about two batteries versus one battery. Its a flawed proposition to begin with. Of course two batteries of similar ah will give you more hours than just one...

You're right, it's not just about 6V vs. 12V. But to me, it's not even about the number of batteries - it's all about how many amp-hours I can get out of the battery space I have. We have a gasser, and unless I want to go through the difficulty of finding space to add more batteries, I am limited to 2 batteries under the steps. Two 6V batteries will give me a little more amp-hours than two 12V batteries, so I choose to go with 6V.