Electric question

What is the result of hooking up one device to two separate 12v sources?
( 2 red, 2 black but not wired in parallel or series. )

Thanks



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Without knowing your situation, nothing beneficial comes to mind unless your wanting to switch power sources from one battery to the next (I.e. have a switch located in each battery’s positive circuit to disconnect the load and transfer to the next battery).

What you are describing is a parallel circuit. It doesn’t matter if you connect the two (+) and two (-) leads at the battery or at the end device, it’s still parallel.

The problem with the setup you describe is voltage drop. Voltage is pressure in the electrical sense. Therefore, higher pressure always wins. If you have two sets of power wires that are of different length and/or AWG, they will almost certainly have different wire resistances. Therefore different voltage drops. When the end device (whatever load you’re powering) is turned on, the supply with the higher voltage will always win and you will not be equally loading each battery.

Will it work? Yes. Would I do it? No.

:hesaid beat me to it.

Waste of time and energy to accomplish nothing.


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I agree with the above but bottom line is your device will run longer. Its common to connect 2 batteries in parallel to get longer running time for your trolling motor.

This may help:
Attachment 378391

Just kidding, but it is a decent book. If you connect one load to two sources, you have connected the two sources in parallel, as previously pointed out. This is OK for batteries of the same voltage and type, preferably a set of two identical batteries of same age, but a strict no-no when using power supplies - in general.