Capacitor question

[DreamThinkBuild]

Hi,

As others have stated a cap can be charged up near the max voltage, I like to charge it to about 80% of it rated value.

Voltage is the level at which you want the cap and amps is the speed at which is charges.

I have built a pulse heater using solar. This is not over-unity.

Currently using 600watts of solar, pulsing a 800 watt infra-red heater element(pulsed only not constant) using 7x 2600F(2.5v) ultracaps in series(371F).

It's coded to charge to 14.4vdc, this is hooked to a 1000watt inverter which then discharges through to 13.5vdc then cycles again. The full cycle time is around 19seconds in full sun. In an enclosed/insulated room the heating is accumulative and works nicely.

This patent may help you, while it is based on solar any type of DC input may be substituted.

US 6367259 - Battery-less solar power system

https://www.google.com/patents/US6367259

[TinselKoala]

Nicely done!

But have you thought about eliminating the inverter? It's just wasting energy that could be going into the heating element.
But since your final product is heat, maybe the inverter losses (which are also going to heat) are acceptable.

[DreamThinkBuild]

Hi TinselKoala,

Nicely done!

Thank you.

But have you thought about eliminating the inverter?

Absolutely, I have a DC version also using a 480watt 12vdc@40 amp cab heater which works great. I can also use a DC dump load through the charge controller(small range though). The only issue I have with the DC is I want to run the cables about 25feet from the solar charger. Which means heavy duty wiring to minimize the voltage drop/cable heating with DC, with the inverter I can use a standard 12Awg extension cord but then the loss is with switching.

So there are pros and cons with each method.

[magnetman12003]

 

What I am planning to do is run say around 20 DC volts into the large cap and monitor how fast the current charge goes in.  When 12 volts are reached I plan to disconnect the charge and use what's in the cap at that time.

Thanks for your help with this.  I am currently involved with making a free energy from air setup and have successfully made a receiver that actually works.  Will post that when I try a few more parts for better results.  The large cap being one of the parts.

I just purchased 10 Super caps. Each one rated at 1.5 farad and 5 volts.
For me to see a total working voltage of 12 volts placed across 6 of those caps can you tell me if all the caps should be placed in series? What would the total Farad count be then?   How long would a small 300 milliamp  12 volt motor run from that fully charged group of 6 caps?

[ayeaye]

Capacitors in series decreases capacitance. You may consider that it decreases the capacitance to less than the smallest capacitor in series. Capacitors in series are calculated so, 1 / C = 1 / C1 + 1 / C2 + 1 / C3 ... If you have only two capacitors in series, then you can derive from that, that C = C1 * C2 / (C1 + C2) .