Re: battery theory (NIL Audi content)

[Paul Kraus <pfk@unifiedtech.com>]

On Thu, 15 Apr 1999, Christopher P. Locke wrote:

>Wiring 3 batteries in parallel is not a problem.  The only word of
>caution i will give is:
>
>be sure the wires connecting the batteries to a common terminal block
>are sized with respect to the total capacity of each battery:  i.e. a
>larger battery should have larger wires.  The batteries will share the
>load, however unequally due to the capacity of each battery.  A larger
>battery will stay at a particular voltage longer than a smaller battery,
>so, since the smaller battery would like to discharge quicker, it will
>provide less current to the load, and allow the larger battery to supply
>more current.  There is no problem in making these types of
>connections.  I would not mix "gell cells" with "flooded lead acid" or
>any other types.  Just make sure they're all the same technology battery
>(all maintenance free, or gell, or deep discharge, etc)

What the end result is, is that the battery with the highest capacity
discharges first, then as they all reach similar capacities, they
discharge together.

As Chris said, DO NOT MIX Technologies ! Each chemical combination has
a slightly different voltage, and if mixed, the one with the higher
voltage with 'charge' the one with the lower. The lower voltage unit
will act primarilly as a load and only provide minimal assist.

The only other issue is with chargeing. The better condition battery
will charge first, and in may cases the battery in the poorer
condition will not charge at all !

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 Paul Kraus                           email Paul.Kraus@unifiedtech.com 
 Senior Network Computing Engineer               voice +1 518 283 1003 
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