I did a quick search in here for the Super Capacitor topic and didnt find a whole lot so here I am. Several years ago, I made a 16.2v, 83f super capacitor bank(six 2,7v, 500f capacitors connected in series via charge controller chips). At the time, I had just been experimenting out of curiosity and had no practical use for the capacitor bank. Fast forward to a couple of days ago, I read an article on the benefits of connecting a super capacitor bank in parallel to a solar battery storage bank. In such a configuration, the supercapacitor bank is supposed to supply the brief, high startup current demands of certain appliances (like fridges and vacuum's). After meeting the start up demands of said appliances, the capacitor bank recharges from the battery bank at a slower rate than the appliances would have required for startup. This is supposed to reduce stress on the battery bank that the Capacitor bank is connected to. I'm not stating this as fact. I'm stating it as I understand it from what I read.
So I connected the supercapacitor bank that I made years back to my 900ah AGM battery storage bank. In theory, every time that my fridge compressor starts now, it yanks that first few seconds of high amps that it needs to start up directly from the capacitor bank. I think I understand well enough how that works. My question is related to another phenomenon that I noticed since connecting the Super Capacitor bank to my battery bank. It seems to have "smoothed out" voltage fluctuations in the battery bank. For example, during times of continuous, moderate to highish loads, the voltage of my battery bank use to drop some. In rare instances, it would drop low enough to trigger my inverters low voltage protection causing the inverter to shut off for a moment.
With the Super Capacitor connected, the voltage doesnt drop much and doesnt fluctuate as much when a load is being drawn from the battery bank. Is this a normal "side effect" of using a capacitor bank in such a way? I would also be appreciative of more information or any advice from anyone with experience using supercapacitors in conjunction with their solar power set up. I like what Ive experienced so far but are there downsides that I dont know about? Thanks.
So I connected the supercapacitor bank that I made years back to my 900ah AGM battery storage bank. In theory, every time that my fridge compressor starts now, it yanks that first few seconds of high amps that it needs to start up directly from the capacitor bank. I think I understand well enough how that works. My question is related to another phenomenon that I noticed since connecting the Super Capacitor bank to my battery bank. It seems to have "smoothed out" voltage fluctuations in the battery bank. For example, during times of continuous, moderate to highish loads, the voltage of my battery bank use to drop some. In rare instances, it would drop low enough to trigger my inverters low voltage protection causing the inverter to shut off for a moment.
With the Super Capacitor connected, the voltage doesnt drop much and doesnt fluctuate as much when a load is being drawn from the battery bank. Is this a normal "side effect" of using a capacitor bank in such a way? I would also be appreciative of more information or any advice from anyone with experience using supercapacitors in conjunction with their solar power set up. I like what Ive experienced so far but are there downsides that I dont know about? Thanks.