Capacitor Usage

[MelTx]

  Caps are good to use on wind-Alts, to hold up volts, and smooth out the rectifier's D.C. output right? That is where I am useing them, or should the caps be placed paralel on a/c side of the rectifiers.And then hook the rectifier dc output to the batts?  Are there any advantages or disadvantages to adding a capacitor to the output of solar cell chargers? I mean right in between the cell and the batts.Would this harm the P.V. cell? Thank you for your help,check is in the mail...MelTx

[Trivo]

MelTx

Cap are of little or no use in these situations they are of use on the input side of an inverter to help supply the surge currant when heavy loads are switched on but a word of warning, they dont hold currant and will use some of your power just being conected

Trivo

[inode buddha]

For what it's worth, you might want to look at these caps. [partsexpress.com] I might be wrong about this, but I would put these after the batteries, but *before* the inverter. In parallel. I think these could be good for starting a big load like an air compressor, as long as the inverter can handle the surge. They dump quicker than batteries,  so they would kind of "protect" the batteries from the big stuff.

If I am wrong about this, could somebody please tell me?

[scottsAI]

1. Those caps are ridiculously priced.
   
2. The inverter should have internally any caps it needs, install instructions should spelled out the need. Don't buy an inverter if it needs expensive caps.
   
3. The power leads from the battery to the inverter should be as short as possible.
   
   

-Power leads should be next to each other. As much like a lamps zip cord as possible.

-Make sure the power cord is heavy enough to handle the current with little loss. Remember surge current is current, size to handle.

I used too thin of wire once (Ok more than once:-) the inverter kept shutting down when starting a load, even a small load. Input voltage dropped below 10.5. Heaver wire solved the problem. Wire was sized to handle full load, start or surge current was the issue. My load was less than half power, so did not expec surge current to be a problem.

Have fun,

Scott.

[MountainMan]

inode,

Yes, this should work.  The Cap should be extremely close to the inverter.  When your inverter sees a surge from it's load, it draws approx 10 times that surge from the batteries during the surge (for a 12V system).  Even with good battery wiring, 10 times the current during a surge means 10 times the voltage drop in the wiring during the surge.  One of these caps right at the input to the inverter would effectively minimize that effect and allow the inverter to better accomodate the surge.

Note that you should probably set it up such that you can disconnect the Cap when you are equalizing your batteries.  Equalizing voltage can get pretty high and there is a danger of blowing up your Cap.

jp

[MountainMan]

Oops, just noticed I had some of my neurons twisted during the composition of that last post.  The 10 times the current stuff is not strictly accurate.  Let's change that to "during a surge, you get much higher currents on the battery side also, and that means higher voltage drops in the battery side wiring."

jp

[Jerry]

Wow that is a high price. I sell the same 1 farrad cap for $59.95 at my retail store.

I have some 1F caps removed from SPL show car at $50 each. Just a few left.

                  Jk TAS Jerry