Quote:
Originally Posted by bandit86
I got 13 years out of my OEM dodge ram battery at 14.5'volts. My friend got 10 years out of his Interstate at whatever an ML320 charges at.
Battery inefficiency will be offset by electronics inefficiency at lower voltage. I had 24 volt machines that at 23.9 volts got right stupid. If your mileage varies, go with wha works for you. It's is just a good advice. Fuel pumps won't like lower voltage either.
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It's not a case of what works for you. It's proven fact.
Old cars ran plain lead acid batteries at 14+ volts. Reason for the higher voltages was to improve battery life at the expense of fuel economy.
New cars use AGM batteries and run at under 13 volts, battery life is shorter but fuel consumption improves.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to prolong the life of a $100 battery to ten years ($10 a year), if it costs you significantly more than $10 a year in fuel to do so, even if part of the rationale is to make the car look good on the official cycle, and not to save the owner any actual money (AGM batteries are expensive).
Car electronics are designed to run as low as 10v, ie while cranking in cold weather. Lab equipment or whatever might be unstable at lower voltages, but auto systems have to be tolerant of a much less stable voltage supply.
You can buy 16v automotive batteries intended for race applications and that would be the best of both worlds, assuming of course you didn't damage some expensive components in the process.