Hi

 

Was just wondering, would it be ok to use a bank of calcium batteries with a bank of deep cycles, if the voltages are at full and discharge the same.

Pro and cons?

From everything I have read about batteries and charging regimens, it don’t think it would be a good idea. Even batteries that are of the same type and brand vary in their abilities to charge / discharge, and it’s not recommended typically to add a battery bank of the same type to a bank that is the same but more than 6 months older than the existing bank.

If you have two different types of batteries calcium and deep cycle they will most likely have different charging and discharging characteristics. And when the calcium’s fail, probably before the deep cycles then the deep cycles will not be correctly charged and potentially could get damaged as the calcium’s probably start to create more resistance in the two battery banks. 

I think either way you will shorten the lives of both banks, in the long run.

Rather sell the calcium’s and get a larger bank of the same model / brand / age batteries for a reliable solution, and without risking  replacing your batteries prematurely, they are expensive to replace.

 

 

Pros: You will have a bigger battery bank for now..

Cons: You will almost always have bleeding over from one bank to another. They will try to balance themselves out, but probably not get balanced. 

I had a bank of four 200ah Shoto VRLA’s and after around 6 months I added a second bank of the exact same battery. After about a year I had problems with the first bank. Even after being in parallel for a year the first bank still rested at 51.1v, while the second bank rested at 52.6v. Then two batteries died in the first bank. 

At that time I gave up on Lead Acid

Well they can all do 13.6 volts, after fully charged, and not discharging too much.

Also it should only be for a month or 2.

So not worried too much about life span.

Busy saving.mony for lithiums.

Seems like a 100ah lithium will run the house the whole night.