How to Wire Batteries in Series (or in Parallel)

Get the power you need from the power you have by wiring together different power sources to get the voltage or the current to drive your project. This is a simple insructable which will graphically demonstrate how to wire multiple power sources together to get the voltage and current you need for your project. You will see that this demo uses a couple of my Al/Air fuel cells but you should be able to use any power sources you like. It is not required that all the power sources be the same and this can affect your output. For instance wiring 3V and 9V batteries in series will give you 12V

step 1Bill of Materials

Okay you're going to need some batteries to wire together and some way to wire them together. In this example we will be wiring together two aluminum air batteries so we'…

step 2Wiring two batteries in series

Wiring multiple power sources in series will increase the available voltage. First we measure the voltage from each battery. Then we wire them in series by connecting the …

step 3Wiring two batteries in parallel

Now we'll take a look at what happens when we wire batteries in parallel. Unlike wiring batteries in series when batteries are wired in parallel the voltage does not incre…

step 4More Power - Series wired in parallel for maximum duration

This is how multiple power supplies can be wired together into a series that provide more voltages, these series be wired in series to provide a sustained and reliable powe…

step 5Maximum Power - Wired in Series and Parallel for maximum power

Absolutely the fastest way to drain your batteries in the shortest possible time. This configuration shows the batteries wired together using both serial and parallel conn…