Question on house batteries 6 volt vs. 12 volt?

[DR]

hello everyone, question on building a strong house system.  I know looking a amp hours, deep cycle, but my question is there an advantage of 6 volt or 12 volt batteries?  This is for a 84 eagle 12 volt system on bus but looking for house system.  Putting 6-6volt batteries together would that equate 3-12volt batteries or would I have a larger system of 6-12volt batteries tied together?  So the question is should I try to look for 6 volt or 12 volt deep cycle batteries for the house system? Please advise because my thinking is all screwed up!! Thankyou for the help. DR

[TomCat]

Something else to consider is whether or not you want to have to maintain your batteries (Wet), or get some (AGM) that need very little in the way of attention.

Jay
87 SaftLiner

[kyle4501]

There are so many choices in batteries because there are so many different applications (not to mention marketing hype).

Generally speaking, the Trojan T-105 6V are the most amp-hour per $.

But you have to evaluate some other areas first before deciding to run out & getting those -
- how much space is available for the house batteries?
- (like TomCat said) do you want to maintain them?
- what type (wet, agm, ?? ) of battery do you NEED?
- how much power do you NEED out of the battery bank?
- how much do you want to spend?
- etc

There' lots of good info available in the archives - good luck! 

[jjrbus]

When I did my system the conventional wisdom was the Sam's cClub 6 volt golf cart batterys were the biggest bang for the buck. The 6 volt are also easy to move around, not that you will be moving them everyday.

[TomC]

The largest 12v battery is the 8D. My AGM 8D puts out 255 amp hours.  You can get 6v golf cart type batteries that are taller that are higher in amp hours, plus they are much easier to handle than the 155lb 8D.  Consider AGM batteries, even though they are twice as expensive.  They never have to be serviced, can operate in any position, and won't corode the terminals since there is no gassing.  Good Luck, TomC

[Sean]

Before you make any decisions (6 vs. 12 volt, or others), there are some things you should read.

In addition to doing your own search of the archives here and on the other boards, read this thread:
http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=4329.0

Also, as I recommended in that thread, you should read these sites:
http://www.phrannie.org/battery.html
http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm

That should be enough material to get you started.  As others have already pointed out, there are several decisions to be made, 6 vs. 12 volt being just one of them (and not even the most significant).

HTH.

-Sean
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com

[DR]

Thankyou for the help!!  The search begins.  DR

[jjrbus]

Happy hunting!  Let us know how you do.