Fun Capacitor Circuit

[pg46]

Hi all-

Had a different Capacitor Set-up for those that want to try it out themselves or for those who just want to think about it.
Take 3 capacitors all the same. I used 35V - 22,000uf caps in this example. All are empty except that I will charge only C1 to 12 volts from source...here we go..
Charge C1 to 12 Volts, hook C1 neg to C2 neg, then take C2 pos and connect to C3 neg and finally take C3 pos back over to C1 pos.
What you get is about 8V left in C1 and you get about 4Volts in each C2 and C3. Where you began with 12volts, now you have a total of 16 volts at 22,000uf - C1+C2+C3. about a 30% gain.
Now, if you then use the stored energy in C2 and C3 to do some work they will now be empty and that leaves only the 8volts of the original charge in C1. So then you charge C1 back to 12 volts(thats only adding in 4 volts of additional energy), connect the ciruit again as described above and once again you end up with about 8 volts in C1 and 4 volts each in C2 and C3 again. Only this time around you only added 4 volts to top off C1 and have gained 8volts on C2 and C3(4 volts each)-thats now a 200% gain.  Use the charge in C2 and C3 to do the work again and repeat the cycle.
I have used my small dc motors to discharge the caps and carefully timed the running times for the various charges and indeed they correspond to the correct charges in each cap - more volts means more runing time.
Not likely,according to the energy formulas, that one has gained in energy but then you can run some motor much much longer than with the original 12 volt charge..hmmmm??...

best,

[hartiberlin]

Hi PG46,
did you test out, if C1 alone at 12 Volts has a shorter running time
than C1 +C2 +C3 in series at 16 Volts ?
As the series capacity is then only 7333 uF with the 16 Volts
it has about 1,7 times less energy stored all in all in C1 +C2 +C3
than 12 Volts in 22000 uF.
As the stored energy is W=0.5 x C x V^2
the 12 Volts cap C1 should run longer...
If not you have found a mysterious energy multiplication...

[pg46]

Hi hartiberlin-

The original C1 cap charged to 12 volts will run far less time then all the caps combined after my ciruit(C1+C2+C3) After the circuit I then reconnect C1,C2 and C3 in parallel which gives me 16volts @ 22,000uf At no point do I connect C1, C2 ad C3 in series excepting between C2 and C3 in the original charging.
Using the energy formula as you posted W=0.5xCxV^2 , the original 12 V cap would have 0.5x.022x144=1.584Joules
Then after my strange circuit I end up with C1 at 8 volts and C2 at 4 volts each
So C1 now has 0.5x.022x64=0.704 Joules  C2&C3 each have 0.5x.022x16=0.176joules
These 3 caps combined now only have 1.056 joules which is far less then the 1.584 joules that was in the original 12volt cap.
See, if we take a single 12 volt cap and connect in parallel with 2 others the same we end up with 3 seperate caps charged to 4 volts each. Even though these are 12 volts combined, according to the energy formula these three combined don't add up to the original 12 volt charge (3 x 0.176=0.528) The original 12 volt cap has 1.584 joules
So, does my little ciruit have any value, I don't know. You surely can run a motor much much longer than when using only the original 12 volts, although I am not testing under any load. Its real interesting after the first round if you use the energy in C2 and C3 and then top off C1 with just 4 additional volts to have 4 volts to use in each C2 and C3 again.

Best,

[pg46]

Then after my strange circuit I end up with C1 at 8 volts and C2 at 4 volts each

oops, this should read- Then after my strange circuit I end up with C1 at 8 volts and C2 and C3 at 4 volts each

Another way one could look at this circuit is where with one 12 volt cap one  normally can get only 3 - 4 volt caps when hooked in parallel with 2 other caps.
Now with my circuit one can begin with a 12 volt cap and end up with 4 seperate 4 volt caps

[Elvis Oswald]

Let me ask so I know... these caps are good either way, so the neg and pos doesn't matter really, right?