Xantrex Technology 2500, 2000 owner manual Parallel, Batteries

BATTERIES

Parallel

Connecting 2 batteries in parallel will double the Amp-hour rating of the battery bank, while the voltage will be the same as each individual battery. Example, two 12 Volt 105 Amp-hour batteries in parallel will produce one 12 Volt 210 Amp-hour battery bank.

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Parallel

Only similar batteries should be connected together in one bank. Do not connect old and new batteries together or wet and gel cell batteries together. In the above drawing, the load is connected to the positive terminal of the first battery and the negative terminal of the last battery. This practice helps to balance the battery bank and is called cross connecting the battery bank.

Always use proper terminals for your interconnecting battery cables which are appropriate to handle the current.

Battery Bank Ratings and Sizing Deep-cycle batteries are usually rated

in Amp-hours. The Amp-hour rating is based on a 20 hour discharge cycle, there- fore, a 100 Amp-hour battery can deliver 5 Amps for 20 hours. If the discharge rate is greater than 5 Amps, the available Amp- hours are decreased. If the load is in- creased to 100 Amps, only about 45 Amp- hours will be available at this rate of dis- charge.

Another common rating is reserve capacity expressed in minutes. This is derived by placing a 25 Amp load on the battery and measuring the time until the battery voltage reaches 10.5 Volts.

Deep-cycle batteries can be discharged about 80% before permanent damage occurs, though shallower cycling will result in much longer battery life. 50% cycling is generally considered to be a good compro- mise between long battery life and a rea- sonably sized battery bank.

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