Seabee John
New Member
Hi everyone,
I am in the planning stages of adding solar to my 5th wheel RV. Currently I have all the inside components, save solar controllers, hooked up and working for about a year. I will do a few upgrades such as larger inverter, solar controller, etc. I also plan on configuring/re-wiring the new system to 24v when I add solar.
I currently have four lithium 12v 206ah SOK batteries in parallel. These are non-heated batteries. These batteries are less than a year old and very few charging cycles, relatively speaking.
When I add solar I plan on re-wiring and going to 24v DC input to the inverter, I plan on connecting two each of the 12v batteries in series to give me 24v. This will give me two sets of 24v 206ah. I will then parallel the sets together so I would have series-parallel set up with 24v coming into the inverter.
My original plan was to add two more SOK 12v 206ah batteries to the set up and wire them in series-parallel also. This configuration would give me three sets/series of 24v 206ah.
SOK doesn't sell this battery any longer. All of their 12v 206ah are now heated. They state that their heated batteries cannot be configured in series.
Now I am in a bit of a quandary and looking for some guidance a few questions please:
Since I cannot get two more SOKs of the same and just add-on can I safely add one 200ah 24v battery to this mix? This will give me two sets/series of 24v 206ah and one 24v 200ah. I would then parallel these to the inverter to keep 24v. This is my most preferred option as it would be less money out of pocket, since I already have the four 12v SOKs. FYI, SOK doesn't sell a 24v 200Ah. The largest they offer is 100ah at 24v. So, I have to either get two of their 24v 100ah batteries or get a 24v 200ah of another brand...which leads to the second option (Any downside to mix-matching quality battery brands?) >
OR
Should I go with another brand of 12v 200-ish Ah wiring them in series-parallel?
OR
Should I just go with all new 24v 200Ah batteries and try to sell the four 12v 206Ah SOKs. This is my least preferred option as I would have to dish out an additional 3K$+ for all new batteries vs about 1k$ for just the add-on batteries.
OR
Can the heaters get turned off on the batteries so I can wire them in series?
Thanks for your input and guidance.
-JH
I am in the planning stages of adding solar to my 5th wheel RV. Currently I have all the inside components, save solar controllers, hooked up and working for about a year. I will do a few upgrades such as larger inverter, solar controller, etc. I also plan on configuring/re-wiring the new system to 24v when I add solar.
I currently have four lithium 12v 206ah SOK batteries in parallel. These are non-heated batteries. These batteries are less than a year old and very few charging cycles, relatively speaking.
When I add solar I plan on re-wiring and going to 24v DC input to the inverter, I plan on connecting two each of the 12v batteries in series to give me 24v. This will give me two sets of 24v 206ah. I will then parallel the sets together so I would have series-parallel set up with 24v coming into the inverter.
My original plan was to add two more SOK 12v 206ah batteries to the set up and wire them in series-parallel also. This configuration would give me three sets/series of 24v 206ah.
SOK doesn't sell this battery any longer. All of their 12v 206ah are now heated. They state that their heated batteries cannot be configured in series.
Now I am in a bit of a quandary and looking for some guidance a few questions please:
Since I cannot get two more SOKs of the same and just add-on can I safely add one 200ah 24v battery to this mix? This will give me two sets/series of 24v 206ah and one 24v 200ah. I would then parallel these to the inverter to keep 24v. This is my most preferred option as it would be less money out of pocket, since I already have the four 12v SOKs. FYI, SOK doesn't sell a 24v 200Ah. The largest they offer is 100ah at 24v. So, I have to either get two of their 24v 100ah batteries or get a 24v 200ah of another brand...which leads to the second option (Any downside to mix-matching quality battery brands?) >
OR
Should I go with another brand of 12v 200-ish Ah wiring them in series-parallel?
OR
Should I just go with all new 24v 200Ah batteries and try to sell the four 12v 206Ah SOKs. This is my least preferred option as I would have to dish out an additional 3K$+ for all new batteries vs about 1k$ for just the add-on batteries.
OR
Can the heaters get turned off on the batteries so I can wire them in series?
Thanks for your input and guidance.
-JH
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