Thor Forums

[Chance]

Originally Posted by JamieGeek

Like this guy:
https://www.solar-electric.com/trl111ah2dec.html
I can see cost being a factor ($353 x 6 yikes) and space required (says on that page that the 2-volt "fits in the space" of a 6 volt thus you'd need more space).

You're basically just getting the same number of cells: whether you're buying X amp hours of 12V batteries, 6V batteries, or 2V batteries its still just X amp hours (if you get them all rated at the same discharge rate).

I would think the advantage of 2V batteries would be easier replacement when a cell dies since each battery is a cell you are only replacing a single cell instead of multiples (e.g. if only 1 cell goes bad it is more cost effective to replace only that cell).

Jamie, that particular battery example is quite a bit larger than I was evaluating (comparing). Six of those would yield 1,110 Amp-hours at 12-Volts, which is the equivalent of about 12 standard-size batteries -- hence why cost is much higher than you'd expect.

The main advantages I see are two (no pun intended): You'd buy 6 batteries of whatever size you want/need, then wire them in pure series. Because of that, wiring is simple and location wouldn't be critical. Since they'd be in series all batteries get same current no matter where they get placed or how long/short the cables are.

The other main advantage I was considering is the lower weight of each battery compared to using fewer but larger 12-Volt batteries; otherwise you get into too many 6-volt batteries (on very large systems) or fewer 12-volt batteries that are each too heavy or requiring too many parallel strings.

I'm not sure I follow your number of cells comment. As I understand it (which isn't in much depth), each battery is essentially one large 2-Volt cell, so there would be a total of 6 cells. By comparison, 8 X 6-Volt batteries would have 24 cells, as would 4 X 12-Volt batteries.



For what it's worth, I started looking for around 680 Amp-hours at 12-Volts (design goal). At this lower end of battery-bank size it's also possible to use 6 X 6-Volt, 8 X 6-Volt or 3 X 12-Volt (large 8D batteries). Comparing costs of AGM from Lifeline each option was close in price and total weight.

http://bdbatteries.com/marinebatteries.php