Patent ID: 6388423
Filing Date: 2002-05-14
Classification: H02J

Abstract:
A battery bank including a plurality of serially connected battery cells making up a bank of standby batteries coupled in parallel with a battery charger and a DC powered load comprising:a plurality of back-biased diodes, each of said diodes connected in parallel with a predetermined number of said battery cells forming designated successive segments of said serially connected battery cells, each segment of cells having a diode connected in parallel with the cells of the segment, the predetermined number of diodes being a whole number divisor of the total number of battery cells, whereby, when at least one of a battery cell in a designated segment becomes an open cell, the diode associated with the segment including the open cell becomes forward biased such that the series connection between the adjacent segments is closed through said diode and the serially connected segments of battery cells remains conductive.