Xantrex Technology PROwatt 600 Battery Types, Automotive Starting Batteries

Battery Types

Battery Types

Automotive Starting Batteries

Purpose

The lead-acid battery you are most familiar with is probably the starting battery in your automobile. An automotive starting battery is designed to deliver a large amount of current for a short period of time (so it can start your engine). Only a small portion of the battery’s capacity is used to start the engine, and it is quickly recharged by the running engine.

This type of battery is not designed for repeated cycles where the battery is almost completely discharged and then recharged. If it is used in this kind of deep discharge service, it will wear out rapidly.

Light Loads

If your installation uses relatively low power loads (that is, power consumption of 300 W or less) and relatively short operating times before recharging (one hour or less), you can connect the PROwatt 600 directly to the vehicle starting battery. See Figure 5.

GROUND TO
	VEHICLE
	CHASSIS
					VEHICLE
					STARTING
					BATTERY
		FROM					FUSE OR
ALTERNATOR							CIRCUIT
						BREAKER
			GROUND TO
				VEHICLE
				CHASSIS
		PROwatt		600

Figure 5 Battery Connection for Light Loads

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