Battery Bank Wiring

All solar energy systems need a battery to store the collected energy and the larger the system, the larger the battery. The largest single batteries are about 250-300Ah and to increase battery capacity, we need to connect more than one battery together into a bank. We may also want to change the voltage from 12V to 24/48V and this too is done by wiring multiple batteries together. To calculate the size of the battery bank you require, please visit our advice page: Battery Bank Size Calculation.

There are various ways that you may choose to wire together a number of batteries in order to create a battery bank to suit your requirements. Visit our "Renewable Energy" section for full details about our range of solar energy products and wind power generators.

What follows is a series of three simple examples detailing the different possible wiring methods.

Parallel Battery Connections

Used to increase the Amp hour rating (Ah)i.e. the Capacity of your battery bank to the sum of the individual batteries without increasing the voltage...

All the positive (+) terminals are connected together and then (separately) the negative (-) terminals are also connected together.

Batteries Connected in Series

Used to increase the voltage to the sum of the individual batteries while the capacity (Ah) remains the same as an individual battery. For example two 12v batteries wired in series will effectively create a 24v battery.

The positive (+) terminal of the first battery is connected to the negative terminal (-) of the next battery and so on...

Series/Parallel Battery Connections

Used to increase both the voltage and the amp hour rating (capacity) of the battery bank.

As you might guess, this is a combination of both series and parallel wiring and results in an increase in both capacity and voltage...