Hi Rob C
If we use the guidlines of the car audio industry the amount of capacitor needed is determind by the load. They say an amplifier of 100 watts rms should be conected in perelell with a 100,000 UF capacitor.
200 amps at 12 volts = 2400 watts, 24 X 100,000 = 2,400,000 or 2.4 farad UF capacitor.
As for a boost. I think its more like stableizing. I think of it this way. When there is a heavy load on a battery the voltage sags or drops.
Its just like halling a 2 tun load in your half tun PU it sags.
The capacitor is like an overload spring. It helps maintain the higher voltage with puls type loads. This is why the car stereo industry calls these large caps Stiffnig Capacitors. These caps fill in the voids between pulses faster than batteries can. Capacitors charge and discharge very fast. They can acept charge fast and release charge fast. This is why they are used in capacitor discharge ingition, wich is good up to about 50,000 rpm.
60 hertz is much slower than this so a larger value cap is needed.
Try this sinple expiriment. Take a small low voltage transformer with a bridge diode. Or even easyer yet a small low amperage battery charger. With nothing conected to the charger measure the dc voltage comming out. Now add a 20 volt capacitor of 1,000 or higher and watch the voltage increase a bunch. If this was done with a battery conected the amperage and voltage will increase very slightly.
But the caps help the battery with hadling load.
Hey every little bit helps. Kinda makes up for diode looses.
I hear you about the catalog. I'm trying abit hard to squeeze time in but keep me motivated.
JK TAS Jerry
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