Four 6v batteries converted to two 12v?

[tomgauger]

Hi gang,

I have a 2001 Monaco Exec 43DS2. As many older coaches it came with two 12v AGM batteries for the chassis and four 6v wete cell batteries for the house. I'm thinking of getting rid of the 6v batteries in favor of 12v AGM's installed in parallel.

The question is what will the Trace inverter/charger think about this? 

Would love some advice on this.

 

 

[wolfe10]

It will not know or care.  The wired from the battery bank to inverter/charger IS wired 12 VDC.

 

Said another way, two 6 VDC batteries wired in series are  EXACTLY THE SAME as a 12 VDC battery.

[richard5933]

Do the math on the total capacity though - sometimes you get much more bang for the buck with four 6-volt batteries over two 12-volt. To calculate amp-hour capacity on a four battery series/parallel 6v setup you multiple the capacity of one 6v battery x2. The 12v system is just the two 12v batteries added together.

[wolfe10]

Yup, as an example, two 220 ah 6 VDC batteries wired in series= 220 ah  at 12 VDC.

[tomgauger]

Thanks...I get the math on volts & amps. What I was concerned about is the way he Trace senses the battery bank and it's need to be charging or not. Whether four 6v batteries present the same load, resistance, impedance or whatever the Trace uses to sense the need to charge and at what rate.

[wolfe10]

Assuming the same battery technology (wet cell/AGM/gel) and close to the same size (total amp hours @ 12 VDC) I would be very surprised if the inverter/charger knows or cares.

[dickandlois]

7 hours ago, tomgauger said:

Thanks...I get the math on volts & amps. What I was concerned about is the way he Trace senses the battery bank and it's need to be charging or not. Whether four 6v batteries present the same load, resistance, impedance or whatever the Trace uses to sense the need to charge and at what rate.

Tom, this is a copy of the owners manual for tracer units. That might Help. 

There are 2 others on file if needed.

Tracer was a Xantrex product.

Rich

 

Tracer Engreening_ Owners Manual_822-4RC7-RC7GSRevNew.pdf

[richard5933]

From the manual, it looks like you'd only need to tell the Tracer what the total Ah capacity of the battery bank is as well as what type of batteries you're using. It will do the rest of the math.

[tomgauger]

Thanks to everyone for the replies, especially to Rich for the Trace PDF. That's a big addition to the library.

Tom Gauger