Help with small battery bank hook up.

HypnoDoc · November 14th, 2007, 9:53 PST

I what to hook up the batteries today in my little project. I have 4 golf cart 6 volt bateries I will be hooking togeather in series/parallel (I know how to do that) to run my 12 volt system for lights and pond pumps in the back yard. I will be running 2 sets of wire from the battery set up to th 2 morningstar charge controllers. One controller providing power all the time (eg: PUMPS) and the other to controll the lights on and off the way I want them to. THE QUESTION... When I take power from the battery bank can I take the Pos and Neg legs from the same battery in the bank? AND, should the second set of wires going to the other charge controller be taken from another battery's pos and neg legs? Thanks for the help, I'm getting excited to be so close to "lights on"... Larry

**crewzer** · November 14th, 2007, 10:46 PST

Larry,

See the "Connections Diagram" link for the correct way to wire up your four batteries and the external connections: http://www.trojanbattery.com/Tech-Su...gyLibrary.aspx

HTH,
Jim / crewzer

HypnoDoc · November 14th, 2007, 12:43 PST

Thanks Jim, I made a copy. But what about the second set of wires to the other charge controller. Do they come from the same battery lugs as the first run to the first charge controller? or the direct opposit lugs? or ??? else?
Larry

**crewzer** · November 14th, 2007, 14:40 PST

Larry,

Ideally, all external connections to the battery bank should be made to the same pair of terminals. One solution is to use distribution bars between the battery bank and all sources and loads.

See: http://store.solar-electric.com/tbb.html

For small 12 V systems, you could also consider using a small Square D load center and Square D type QO breakers (rated for 48 VDC, all available from Home Depot) as a "combiner box" between the charge controllers, battery bank, and inverter(s).

If you need/plan to connect the controllers and inverters directly to the battery bank (via fuses / breakers, of course), and if it's getting crowded at the battery terminals, you might use one "diagonal" terminal pair (per the drawing) for the two controllers, and the other diagonal pair for connecting the inverter.

HTH,
Jim / crewzer