battery questions...

[whitebassman]

1) any one use solar power to keep the wheelhouse batteries charged? Would a 15W panel be sufficient? The intent is just to keep batteries charging during the day.

2) I have a second battery tray in my Ice Castle. Is it possible to hook up a second 12v deep cycle battery and use it in parallel with the first battery? Does both batteries have to be the same in terms of specs, amps, etc. or is it okay to mix a new battery with an old one. and of course, how would one hook up two 12v deep cycle batteries in parallel with the provided clamps?

[slipperybob]

The reason for not mixing batteries is that the whole system will run pretty much at the efficiency of the bad one. In other words the good battery will hindered by the bad one.

[whitebassman]

If I have a 12v 7 amp-hour battery, pretty standard here. Can I really expect to be able to get 7 amps out of it before the battery dies? Reason I ask, is that I measured my aqua vu camera's amp draw at 0.85 amps, and if my math is right, a 7 amp-hour battery should have lasted me 8.2 hours. Which it only lasted 3 hours at best.

So did I not get the full 7 amp-hours, or was it possible the battery was not charged sufficiently, even though the digital battery charge reader was at 100%?

Sorry I'm not a great electricity mind.

[slipperybob]

Ideally a fresh new battery will give you the full charge capacity as listed. However as it's used and ages it will have less charge capacity overtime. Another thing that really shorten battery life is using it to the point of it basically dies out on the electronic. Do this a few times and the battery will show less and less charge capacity.

[Norm1980]

I am not the most knowledgeable when it comes charging batteries, but I have always waited to recharge my battery until it's charge was down to almost nothing VS putting it on the charger every time i get done using it. I do the same with the deep cycle battery for my trolling motor/ice house.

[BobT]

I am not the most knowledgeable when it comes charging batteries, but I have always waited to recharge my battery until it's charge was down to almost nothing VS putting it on the charger every time i get done using it. I do the same with the deep cycle battery for my trolling motor/ice house.

Old school practice was as you describe however, today the usual recommendation is to recharge as soon as possible after use. A battery left at a low charge state for long periods of time is not very happy. To counter the effects of charge memory you can apply a load and let it run down once in a while and then recharge but don't let it run down to the point of totally dead as this is not usually recommended either.

[BobT]

Quote:

1) any one use solar power to keep the wheelhouse batteries charged? Would a 15W panel be sufficient? The intent is just to keep batteries charging during the day.

If the 15W panel can deliver 15w/hr and you are not using that much power then it should be fine. In fact, you should be able to power your device off the panel without the battery if it supplies that much power. 15w @ 24vdc = .625A

[BobT]

Quote:

2) I have a second battery tray in my Ice Castle. Is it possible to hook up a second 12v deep cycle battery and use it in parallel with the first battery? Does both batteries have to be the same in terms of specs, amps, etc. or is it okay to mix a new battery with an old one. and of course, how would one hook up two 12v deep cycle batteries in parallel with the provided clamps?

Both batteries do not have to be same except in voltage output. However, as already stated, a bad battery connected in parallel with a good one can damage the good one or affect the actual results. When two batteries are connected in parallel, the voltage output remains the same but the amp-hours add together. For example, if I have two 24vdc batteries rated for 105AH each, and I connect them in parallel, the total amp-hours will be approximately 210 @ 24v. Actually the result will be slightly less due to energy loss in the system but close enough.