I am considering purchasing a Victron Battery Balancer to add to my system.
My system currently has six 2018 vintage SmartLithium 12.8/150AH batteries in serial-parallel to create a 25.6v/450AH bank on my sailboat. Charging is done via Quattro, Skylla-i 80 and Smartsolar MPPTs.
We persistently have an issue where the series pair battery that is connected to the "positive" is at slightly lower voltage than the other battery. I am thinking a Battery Balancer may help with that since the current SmartLithium manual indicates that we can add it.
4. Installation (victronenergy.com)
However, I'm a little confused after reading the Battery Balancer instructions, which state:
"In case of series-parallel connection, the midpoint interconnecting cables must be sized to at least carry the current that arises when one battery becomes open-circuited. - In case of 2 parallel strings: cross section 50% of the series interconnecting cables. - In case of 3 parallel strings: cross section 33% of the series"
Currently, each series pair (pos to neg for each series pair) is connected using a copper bar. I expect that we may draw up to 500amps (24v) from the bank.
What size should I use between the midpoints and to the Battery Balancer? It seems the maximum size the Battery Balancer will accept is 6mm2 (10AWG).
Thank you!
