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Mtopper

Wiring batteries

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Ok, from what i understand, in most applications you wire your batteries in parallel rather than series because series will turn 2 12 volt batteries into a 24 volt battery correct?

Why parallel though? in theory wouldn't that turn 2 12 volt batteries into a 6 volt battery then?

From what i have found, parallel doesnt change voltage but does change the capacity. This is what makes no sense to me because under every law of electronics i've learned, you would be halving the voltage.

thanks for any info. this isn't an important question that is dire to a job, its just something i've been curious about and no one can give me a straight answer as to why i'm "wrong" for thinking so.

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Ok, from what i understand, in most applications you wire your batteries in parallel rather than series because series will turn 2 12 volt batteries into a 24 volt battery correct?

Why parallel though? in theory wouldn't that turn 2 12 volt batteries into a 6 volt battery then?

From what i have found, parallel doesnt change voltage but does change the capacity. This is what makes no sense to me because under every law of electronics i've learned, you would be halving the voltage.

thanks for any info. this isn't an important question that is dire to a job, its just something i've been curious about and no one can give me a straight answer as to why i'm "wrong" for thinking so.

exactly :)

If you put the batteries in series, then the electrons pick up more potential energy as they go through each battery. For example, pretend you had three 9V batteries lined up in series. If we say that our electrons have 0V of potential energy at the beginning, then they have 9V after the first battery, 18V after the second, and 27V after the third, they gain more energy at each step.

If you put the 3 batteries in parallel, a third of the electrons goes through each battery. But like I said before, it doesn't matter how many electrons go through a battery, it treats them all the same way. Since each electron only goes through one battery, its potential energy is only increased by 9V (not 27V).

Hope that made sense..

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See, it does but logic to me says it doesn't. Its one of those things were the math is correct and makes a good amount of sense but logically its wrong.

i don't know, I just want to have a straight answer because when you talk to an everyday person who isn't on forums and into audio but want to know why you hook up batteries in parallel, i want to give them a direct answer instead of "well, it doesn't increase voltage but it does increase capacity". the next sentence out of their mouth is "why?"

So Julian, from the way i take your explanation, series pulls electrons from battery 1 through battery 2 and battery 3 while picking up more as it goes.

But parallel picks up from battery one and "bounces" over battery 2 and 3. Correct? i'm dumbing this down to every day words for Joe Schmo who sees 4 batteries and asks why rather than talking to you or others on the forum who get whats going on.

Edited by Mtopper

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See, it does but logic to me says it doesn't. Its one of those things were the math is correct and makes a good amount of sense but logically its wrong.

i don't know, I just want to have a straight answer because when you talk to an everyday person who isn't on forums and into audio but want to know why you hook up batteries in parallel, i want to give them a direct answer instead of "well, it doesn't increase voltage but it does increase capacity". the next sentence out of their mouth is "why?"

So Julian, from the way i take your explanation, series pulls electrons from battery 1 through battery 2 and battery 3 while picking up more as it goes.

But parallel picks up from battery one and "bounces" over battery 2 and 3. Correct? i'm dumbing this down to every day words for Joe Schmo who sees 4 batteries and asks why rather than talking to you or others on the forum who get whats going on.

Essentially, A nice analogy to this is a grain elevator. Imagine that a bunch of grain is moving along a conveyor belt and it comes to a grain elevator that moves it up 9 feet. This gives it more (gravitational) potential energy - it has further that it could fall. Then it comes to another 9 foot elevator and another. At the end it's all 27 feet up. The flow of grain up the elevators would be just the same as for one elevator, but it would go higher., just as batteries in series can't supply more current than ones in parallel, but they do supply more voltage. But if the grain went up 3 elevators placed in parallel then after the 3 elevators, all of the grain would only have gone up 9 feet. Of course, the 3 elevators in parallel could carry more grain, just as batteries in parallel can supply more current. But the height it was carried to would be just the same as for one elevator, just like the voltage of batteries in parallel.

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You can double amperage, or double voltage, that is determined by how you wire them.

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You can double amperage, or double voltage, that is determined by how you wire them.

Read what I posted ;)

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You can double amperage, or double voltage, that is determined by how you wire them.

Read what I posted ;)

That was way too much to read :(

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See, it does but logic to me says it doesn't. Its one of those things were the math is correct and makes a good amount of sense but logically its wrong.

i don't know, I just want to have a straight answer because when you talk to an everyday person who isn't on forums and into audio but want to know why you hook up batteries in parallel, i want to give them a direct answer instead of "well, it doesn't increase voltage but it does increase capacity". the next sentence out of their mouth is "why?"

So Julian, from the way i take your explanation, series pulls electrons from battery 1 through battery 2 and battery 3 while picking up more as it goes.

But parallel picks up from battery one and "bounces" over battery 2 and 3. Correct? i'm dumbing this down to every day words for Joe Schmo who sees 4 batteries and asks why rather than talking to you or others on the forum who get whats going on.

Essentially, A nice analogy to this is a grain elevator. Imagine that a bunch of grain is moving along a conveyor belt and it comes to a grain elevator that moves it up 9 feet. This gives it more (gravitational) potential energy - it has further that it could fall. Then it comes to another 9 foot elevator and another. At the end it's all 27 feet up. The flow of grain up the elevators would be just the same as for one elevator, but it would go higher., just as batteries in series can't supply more current than ones in parallel, but they do supply more voltage. But if the grain went up 3 elevators placed in parallel then after the 3 elevators, all of the grain would only have gone up 9 feet. Of course, the 3 elevators in parallel could carry more grain, just as batteries in parallel can supply more current. But the height it was carried to would be just the same as for one elevator, just like the voltage of batteries in parallel.

+1 to you good sir. that analogy works perfect. I can tell a person all day long the math and technical terms of it but when its an every day person who wants to run 3 extra batteries and wants to know why i wired them the way i did, i need to speak english not audio to him. the grain is a perfect way to do so

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You can double amperage, or double voltage, that is determined by how you wire them.

See, i got that much. series will double the voltage but parallel doubles the amperage. It was just one of those things of. a dual 4 ohm subwoofer wired in series presents an 8 ohm load but in parallel creates a 2 ohm load. Why isn't it the same with batteries. Thats all i was asking, i understood the math behind it but it didn't logically make sense.

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^^ It is the same with batteries, if you are talking ESR (resistance)......

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