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New Battery Bank set up


Barroca Grande 2

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Hi all battery afficionados I am about to take new batteries down to the boat and do the change over.  I have searched the forum and found some interesting things I did not know before.  Now I would like some clarification.  The old set up (six batteries 110Ah) was always a bit higgeldy piggeldy as we couldn't fit all the ends onto the terminals.  When I had to buy new batteries at short notice we basically had to do the same again so

Set 2 comprises 5 leisure batteries 115Ah I will label them A to E.

Positive side

Battery A currently has solar cable and one from the Isolator Switch and link to battery B

Battery B has two links A and C

Battery C has link to B and D as well as smartgauge

Battery D has link to C and E as well as one to the Isolator Switch

Battery E has link to D

 

Negative side

Battery E has link to D and one to Victron and one to the Mikuni

Battery D has links to E and C and one to the smartgauge

Battery C has links to B and D and one to the solar panels

Battery B has links to A and C and one to Victron

Battery A has link to B and one off to the Starter Battery

 

Now the 4 new batteries 160Ah have a M8 bolt type fitting so no need for the terminal clamps as used previously so we hope that it will be easier to fit more cables to a single post.

The proposed layout is going to be

Positive side

Battery A has both the Isolator cables and the link to B

Battery B has link A and C

Battery C has link to B and D

Battery D has Link from C and solar and Mikuni and smartgauge  (ie 4 one large and three small)

Negative side

Battery D has link to C and both large cables to Victron

Battery C has links to  D and B

Battery B has links to A and C

Battery A has link from B then the large one to Starter battery and the negatives to Solar Mikuni and smartgauge.

 

I am reasonably happy with this BUT which order should I pile the cable ends for best connection (thinking smartguage here)

(My reasoning for putting both Isolator switch connections to one and both Victron to the other is I am not 100% sure why there are two or if this is immaterial or not and if material and I put them the wrong way around it could mean that they are not going to pass through the whole bank.  If you get my drift.)

I have printed off the smartgauge info linked to in a previous post about how to correctly interconnect multiple batteries but

a) this doesn't address the issue of all the other items connected to the bank.  I have basically assumed that by having the charger going one way and the solar and everything else going the other way around that that is okay.  Otherwise Everything would have to go onto two diagonally opposite terminals

and b   )  we don't have enough extra cabling to do the fancy Methods 3 or 4.

 

Battery etc.pdf

Schematic, what I drew, of current set up since oct 14.pdf

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8 minutes ago, Barroca Grande 2 said:

this doesn't address the issue of all the other items connected to the bank.  I have basically assumed that by having the charger going one way and the solar and everything else going the other way around that that is okay.  Otherwise Everything would have to go onto two diagonally opposite terminals

Yes, everything should go on diagonally opposite corners as explained on the SmartGauge site. To facilitate this you will probably require a couple of busbars. 

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1 minute ago, WotEver said:

Yes, everything should go on diagonally opposite corners as explained on the SmartGauge site. To facilitate this you will probably require a couple of busbars. 

tittle!  :) not what I wanted to hear.

 

Edited by Barroca Grande 2
enhancing
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http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html

 

So using Method 2 lBattery A will have on the positive side three large cables direct onto the M8 Bolt plus the solarpanels, mikuni and smartgauge cables either direct to M8 bolt or via a bus bar

and Battery D on the negative side has 4 large cables direct onto the M8 bolt plus the solarpanels, Mikuni and smartgauge cables either direct onto the M8 bolt or via a bus bar.  Method 2 not optimum as batteries slightly unbalanced.

Now if we go for Method 4 and have effectively two pairs of battery banks.  Do we then have to have all the above cables onto Batteries B+ and C- as per their diagram or can we move the smaller Solar Panels, Mikuni and smart gauge onto A+ and D-, declutterng the terminals and thereby eliminating the  need for busbars?

33 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Yes, everything should go on diagonally opposite corners as explained on the SmartGauge site. To facilitate this you will probably require a couple of busbars. 

 

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8 minutes ago, Barroca Grande 2 said:

if we go for Method 4 and have effectively two pairs of battery banks.  Do we then have to have all the above cables onto Batteries B+ and C- as per their diagram

Yes. That's why it's drawn like that ;)

I know it's not what you want to hear... :)

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3 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Yes. That's why it's drawn like that ;)

I know it's not what you want to hear... :)

I thought so but I got himself drawn into the argument and he insisted I ask the question  :)  So next question in case the M8 bolt is not long enough for all cables and we need a bus bar can you recommend which size I go for?  I am liking the ones below but they are rated as 210A is that overkill?  To be honest using a bus bar looks like it might help anyway as we were going to have to change all the ends from M6 to M8 and this saves us a job.  Silver lining etc etc

 

http://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/4-point-negative-distribution-block-busbar.html

http://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/4-point-positive-distribution-block-busbar.html

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4 minutes ago, Barroca Grande 2 said:

I am liking the ones below but they are rated as 210A is that overkill?

They look just about right for a 575Ah bank assuming that you don't have a large inverter hung off them. 

Cheers, Tony

1 minute ago, Barroca Grande 2 said:

Mikuni has a 30A fuse, Solar panels and the smartgauge.  I plan on putting the Victron and links direct to the M8 bolt terminal

They'll be fine then. And much neater :)

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1 minute ago, WotEver said:

They look just about right for a 575Ah bank assuming that you don't have a large inverter hung off them. 

Cheers, Tony

Oh good.  The bank is going to be 4 x 160Ah so 640Ah. The inverter is the Victron 3000 but I rarely have it on unless I need to use either the washing machine, or the oven.  I mostly cook on the gas hob.

DSC_0250.JPG

Just now, WotEver said:

Actually, the SmartGauge should go directly to the battery terminals, NOT the busbars. 

ok no problem will make the ends M8 as per previous plan.

 

Thanks Tony for your input most appreciated

 

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2 minutes ago, Barroca Grande 2 said:

Now you are just being mean  ????????  :)

 

Sorry.

 

FWIW I re-arranged our batteries last year, and went through a similar process. I opted for the smartgauge method 4 option and added a negative bus bar and a shunt based battery monitor.

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1 hour ago, Barroca Grande 2 said:

I am liking the ones below but they are rated as 210A is that overkill? 

If you ever happen to load your Inverter to its full rating - either by design or by accident - then you will be drawing 300 amps+ that will make short work of your 210 amp busbars (50% overload).

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4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

If you ever happen to load your Inverter to its full rating - either by design or by accident - then you will be drawing 300 amps+ that will make short work of your 210 amp busbars (50% overload).

Think OP is going directly to the battery with the inverter (hopefully with an appropriately rated fuse in place). 

Edited by rusty69
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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

If you ever happen to load your Inverter to its full rating - either by design or by accident - then you will be drawing 300 amps+ that will make short work of your 210 amp busbars (50% overload).

Not wishing to hijack the OPs` topic but with a similar set-up what size busbar would you recommend please?

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2 minutes ago, jddevel said:

Not wishing to hijack the OPs` topic but with a similar set-up what size busbar would you recommend please?

Simply put 'one that comfortable exceeds the maximum current flow'. So if you have an inverter wired through it that can pull 300A you'd want at least a 400A busbar. 

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11 minutes ago, Robbo said:

A terminal fuse, although more expensive, is a lot less wiring.

Sounds like a good idea. 

Do they go bigger than 300A?

Do the ignition protected ones allow them to be safely  mounted in the battery box (which I guess is the idea). 

Edited by rusty69
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Okay peeps here is my new planned set up for the batteries.  I don't need to worry what is happening at the other ends of my cables as I am not messing with them at all.  All I am doing is removing old leisure batteries, changing the ends/connectors of those cables that need increasing from M6's to M8's to fit on the new M8 screw down studs (himself has the equipment to do this crimps heat shrinks and whatnot).  I have purchased some more new replacement 50m2 cables re new distances between the batteries, a couple of new m6/m8 terminal/connectors for the ends of the new cable going to the busbars, one each of busbars at 210Ah (and covers) which will at least save us having to change the ends of the Mikuni and Solar panel wires.  whoopdedoo shame it doesn't save us having to do it with the smartgauge wires which are tiny wee and not really condusive to an M8 terminal/connector!  Hopefully the new stuff will arrive before we go down to the boat. 

 

Right better actually do some work today!  Toodle pip.

new planned set up re batteries.pdf

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