Using the House Batteries

[wjhgolf]

I just had our 12V deep cycle house batteries replaced - the current ones were five years old and hooked up in parallel (by the prior owner) - and the installer hooked them up in series, which he said was better for providing more power and holding their charge longer. Speaking of more power.....what all do any of you run with your house batteries? We have only run our TV and lights, but nothing else.

[cmeadows]

Whether to hookup in series or parallel is a matter of coach voltage requirements. To supply the coach with 12VDC (stock Born Free voltage), two 6V batteries are wired in series, or two 12V batteries are wired in parallel.

[Dallas Baillio]

Seems like you are getting comments and not answers on both your posts. Besides the usual that operate on 12 volts (lights, furnace blower, etc.) I've used 12 volts through a USB connection to charge my cell phone, I-pod, and Internet Wifi connection. Through a small inverter I charge my lap top.

I have a couple of 12 volt fans that I use for cooling. My wife once had a 12 volt hair dryer that was a pitiful excuse for a 120 volt one.

[bcope01]

I hope the new batteries were 6 volt each, otherwise two 12 volt batteries hooked up in series will provide 24 volts to your DC circuits.

Bill

[whemme]

I just had our 12V deep cycle house batteries replaced - the current ones were five years old and hooked up in parallel (by the prior owner) - and the installer hooked them up in series, which he said was better for providing more power and holding their charge longer. Speaking of more power.....what all do any of you run with your house batteries? We have only run our TV and lights, but nothing else.

If your installer used 12V batteries but hooked them up in series, you will have great damage to a multitude of DC powered appliances in your motorhome. The resulting 24V power to appliances designed for 12V will generally cause them to be destroyed.

Hooking batteries in series or in parallel does not in any way change the power that a battery can deliver or cause them to hold their charge longer. Whoever told you that is blowing smoke up you tailpipe!

If your two new Delco M24MF batteries were actually connected up in series, I hope you have not yet turned on the battery master switch yet, because if it is ON, I would expect smoke & flames coming out of at least some of your DC powered appliances.

[shilohdad]

Yes, we have had friends who had 12v batteries installed in series by a supposedly reputable service location. NOT a good thing. Cost them a pretty penny to have things repaired/replaced. Be VERY careful.

[wjhgolf]

So, I went and talked to my installer this morning and everything is hooked up correctly. He had stated "series", but that is not what he meant. he definitely understands that RV's are 12V systems. My prior 12V batteries were not hooked up incorrectly, just not as efficiently as they should have been. The two (-) terminals were connected and the two (+) terminals were connected (before and now), however, both cables to the RV were running off the same battery (before). In his opinion, to be most efficient, one RV cable should come from the (+) terminal on one of the batteries and one RV cable should come from the (-) terminal on the other battery, which agrees with a diagram I found on a website called "rvbasics.com/techtips/RV-batteries-series-parallel.html". Thanks for all of your help!

[Mike Astley]

If the wire connecting the two minus's and the two plus's was stout enough, it wouldn't matter at which point you connected the cables. If they weren't stout enough, you would have a wire issue not a location of the cables issue.

Don't take the diagram literally as the tied points are electrically identical, basically shorted together, as long as the wire is properly rated for the current expected.