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Super-capacitor Batteries


Sethm

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I also got that email this morning from GW Store. Looks interesting! Hopefully when my battery bank has expired, supercapacitiers will be cheap and reliable. The problem cost wise may be replacing all of our normal battery chargers, mppts etc.

 

I see they say this :  Best deployed with the Centauri Energy Server. Information coming soon.

http://www.kilowattlabs.com/energy-server-advantage.html

 

The Centauri Energy Server is a plug-and-play, modular, hardware and software device, that accepts simultaneous, multiple energy inputs from both renewable and non-renewable sources, manages distribution of the energy inputs to load and storage (and grid if required), and from storage to load during nighttime, regulates output power quality, manages intermittency, balances the batteries and delivers stable and reliable electricity, 24 hours a day, at or below grid parity in selected territories.

The Centauri is available from kilowatts to megawatts with a design life of 20 years.

Centauri enables energy independence in the true sense.

The Centauri accepts a wide range of battery technologies which can be integrated and operated simultaneously. This provides unmatched flexibility to operators. A proprietary charging algorithm increases the capacity of selected battery chemistries by up to 40% and eliminates the limitation of DOD, thus optimizing operational cost of storage. An inbuilt battery balancing system actively monitors batteries at the individual cell level and prevents overcharging, thereby maximizing cell life.

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1 hour ago, Chris Hobson said:

I had a look at this and it makes absolute sense. In my situation if it discharges over a couple of days no problem- basically so long as it can last 16 hours or so.

I wonder what the feasibility of running capacitors in parallel with a normal battery bank will be to extend the life of the batteries?

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16 minutes ago, DeepBass9 said:

I see they say this :  Best deployed with the Centauri Energy Server. Information coming soon.

http://www.kilowattlabs.com/energy-server-advantage.html

They also say "Deployable for any type of energy application."

 

So if you remove the industry speak this means  "This technology will work with any application. However we are not content with just getting you hard earn bucks for the supercapacitors we would like you to buy our Centauri Energy Server." 

If battery technology is still needed by the time my batteries are finished I am going to look at this. Plan to build a small one to power farm tractor and see for myself. If it works just upscale.

6 minutes ago, DeepBass9 said:

I wonder what the feasibility of running capacitors in parallel with a normal battery bank will be to extend the life of the batteries?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8D7sNKNu-8

DBass have a look at this.

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Since this is non chemical one could, in theory, expand one's bank modularly. 15000 cycles in an EV and 500 000 cycles in a renewable energy app. At that price I think most would be happy with 15000 cycles. I use between 3-4 kWh overnight so for R60k I could double my bank and it should last 40 odd years.

They embed Li batteries to reduce self discharge to 14 days. I would be happy with 3 days which seems doable just with supercapacitors.

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IF this is for real, I will rob a bank.

29 minutes ago, DeepBass9 said:

As far as I understand capacitors, an MPPT would be redundant (?)

I would hope that if the MPPT can be set to the voltages required to charge the bank fast, you would still need / use it, unless you can connect the panels direct to the bank?

But MPPT has a sweet advantage in that it gives the best the panels can give.

And daytime you still want to use all the power they generate, so a MPPT could be required to stay?

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The MPPT's job is to match the impedance of the battery to the solar panel. An empty capacitor has a low impedance and a charged capacitor has a high impedance. So the impedance of the capacitor will only briefly match the panel somewhere in the middle of the cycle. Hence I think you'll still need the MPPT.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

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22 minutes ago, Chris Hobson said:

Since this is non chemical one could, in theory, expand one's bank modularly. 15000 cycles in an EV and 500 000 cycles in a renewable energy app. At that price I think most would be happy with 15000 cycles

Plus 100% DOD which means 1/2 the bank immediately.

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No clue but if a 350F unit can start a 1.6l engine then surely 500F will swing a tractor. Ordered on ebay (R360). I am a little concerned that the component's leads are a bit too thin but I just want a proof of concept. If it works I will naturally buy better components.

I saw this about 9 months ago but shelved it. The post has renewed my interest and I am sure one could make something cheaper than the Killawatt Labs product.

Addition

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Some random thoughts. First thing I thought of: http://aquionenergy.com/

The problem with these salt water batteries are that they 1) take a lot of space and 2) can't power large loads unless you have LOTS of them.

But combine them with supercapacitors, and that might just be the ticket. End of first thought.

Second thought, how much is a Farad? Well, it's one coulomb stored at one volt. An ampere is one coulomb per second. Let me ponder that and see if I can come up with an answer in Amp-hour. Looking at the units, you'll probably work out the number of seconds that you can draw some current before the voltage drops too low, and then you'll turn that into hours and multiply it by the amps and you're done.

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24 minutes ago, Chris Hobson said:

No clue but if a 350F unit can start a 1.6l engine then surely 500F will swing a tractor. Ordered on ebay (R360). I am a little concerned that the component's leads are a bit too thin but I just want a proof of concept. If it works I will naturally buy better components.

I saw this about 9 months ago but shelved it. The post has renewed my interest and I am sure one could make something cheaper than the Killawatt Labs product.

Addition

Was that each or all inclusive...

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