battery rating ?

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KVP

KVP

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Joined
Jul 22, 2012
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35
Hello all,
I've ordered a Tri-metric 2030 and look forward to being able to better monitor my batteries.
If I understand correctly I'll need to program a value for the battery aH rating.
This is normally a 20 hr rating I believe, but I'm confused.
My two 6v batteries in series give me one 12v battery. The battery is marked as 75 amp rating 105 minutes.

Kevin
 
Our 6 volts are 205 Amps, I have 4 in 2 banks so I set 410, your 75Amps sounds low. Get the manufacturers specs on your battery off their website, most 6 volts are 195 to 235. The 2030 pre programmed is 220. Hope this helps.
 
Hi KVP. Determine the total AH capacity of your battery bank and program that number into the Trimetric. If the AH capacity isn't listed on the battery (mine weren't) you may have to find it online or contact the battery manufacturer. 75 AH is pretty low for a 6 volt GC battery. They're usually around 210 to 220. Remember that since your 6 volt batteries are wired in series to get 12 volts, the total AH capacity will be whatever it is for one battery, not two.

Kev
 
KVP......the rating you are referring to is the "capacity in minutes" rating, not the amp/hours at the 20 hr. rate.  An example of the Trojan T105, which I have a pair of in my Toy Hauler is....
75 amps at 115 minutes.
225 amp hours at the 20 hr. rate.

Another example is the Trojan T605
75 amps for 105 minutes
210 A/H at the 20 hour rate

I don't know what brand of battery you have, but if you don't find the data sheet for it, the Trojan data should be fairly close....maybe a little less.  Hope this helps
 
Most any GC2 is going to give you about 200 AH. When you run two gc2 in series you double the volts but the amps stay the same. If you parallel two batteries the volts stay the same but the amps double. Of course you would have no reason to parallel two gc2 but people often parallel two or more 12 v group batteries such as Gp 24, 27, 29, 31. If you parallel two gp 27 100 ah batteries you get 12 volts at 200 ah.
If you use four Gc2 batteries you will then be running them in series parallel. Two banks of two in series and then they are connected in parallel to give about 400 ah. When talking RV batteries most will always go by the 20 hr rate. When talking energy use and replacement they will usually talk Amp Hours.  You will like the Trimetric, just pay attention to the shunt install as ALL draws and charges MUST run through the shunt.
 
There is no direct method of conversion from the Reserve Capacity (RC) minutes rating to the Amp-Hours @ 20 hour rate, but the numbers you gave are consistent with a 210 AH 6v battery.  When you put two 6v's in series, the voltage doubles but the AH remains the same.

The 210 AH estimate will be fine to initialize your TriMetric, since its real value is to monitor amps in & out. You will soon have a real-life picture of your amp capacity and usages instead of the laboratory measure on the battery spec sheet.
 
KVP said:
Hello all,
I've ordered a Tri-metric 2030 and look forward to being able to better monitor my batteries.
If I understand correctly I'll need to program a value for the battery aH rating.
This is normally a 20 hr rating I believe, but I'm confused.
My two 6v batteries in series give me one 12v battery. The battery is marked as 75 amp rating 105 minutes.

Kevin
Click to expand...
I see you already know you have a pair of 6V batteries that you treat like a single 12V battery. 

Assuming you have a pair of Golf Cart batteries, the 20hr amp hour rating is about 200AH so put that value in the Trimetric. 

The AH value for the Trimetric is used to show the percentage of charge of your batteries.  That is a nice to know value, but the really important number is the AH's used or put back in when charging. 

The other really nice value from the Trimetric is the number of amps being discharged or charged at any given moment.  I normally leave my Trimetric on the Amps display.  That way I know at a glance how many amps are going in or out of the batteries.  It also tells me if I left something on that I should have turned off.  Such as when we go to bed, did I leave my 2000 watt inverter on.  Not so much for "did I turn off the 120V devices", but the inverter consumes about 2 amps just being on, even though there are no 120V devices turned on.  Leaving the inverter on while we sleep wastes 16-20AH over night.
 
Thank you all,
These are Energizer GC2 that I think the previous owner bought at Sam's Club.
Sounds like 210ah is what I should use.
Whenever these need to be replaced I'll get four but I don't want to add two new ones now as I've read you shouldn't mix old and new.

Kevin
 
It's a good idea to avoid mixing old & new batteries unless you can verify the condition of the old ones and be sure they are not substantially different than the new ones.
 
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