Just a thought on batteries and charging systems.

[Nathan @ XSpower]

Batteries do not store power over their resting voltage. Anything over their resting voltage is a residual charge and will be gone as soon as a load is placed on the battery.

[rockFord_Expedition]

good thread

[Swordlordboy1234]

So nathan, does that mean I'm sort of correct that the charge above 12.9 is being held by the battery but being produced by the alternator? So if you had 1d3100 on one bank and you had 15 d3100's on the other bank. Both tests had 300 amps of draw but a 250a alternator (assume its performing to its full 250a without fail)

would the 1 d3100 hold above 12.9v less time then the 15 d3100's because each of those d3100's was storing a bit of energy from the alternator above what they can produce on their own? Or would you only see a difference if it was below the resting voltage of the battery?

Are you talking as if you were playing a test tone or something? Essentially, you are talking about placing a 50 amp load on a single battery or a bank of 15 right? With a draw of 50 amps on the batteries, the larger bank would take 15 times longer to drop to 12.9 than the single battery, though that amount of time is very minimal. Using a DMM you might not even be able to notice. Obviously in that scenario, the larger bank will stay in the 12V operating range much longer than the single battery though.

Edit: my bad, i see that was directed specifically to Nathan

No problem there man. As RFE said you would be dividing that pull between the 15 batteries v/s pulling it all from 1 battery, so yes the 15 would drop slower, but as also said you may never see it on the dmm that way.

Same basic thing as charging a battery v/s a bank of batteries. Lets say you have a Group 31 battery and a bank of 10 Group 31 batteries you had to charge with a 15amp charger. If you are charging the one battery, then it is going to get the entire 15amps. When you hook that same charger up to the bank of 10 Group 31 batteries, then you are going to get 1.5amps per battery and it will take much longer to charge them up.

But will it also take longer to discharge them is my question.

Once both banks in that example are brought up to 14.4v Will the bank of 1 D3100 take less time to reach 12.9v then the bank of 10 d3100's to reach 12.9v with the same exact draw and the same exact charging rate applied.

edit, answered above.

[deathcards]

Batteries do not store power over their resting voltage. Anything over their resting voltage is a residual charge and will be gone as soon as a load is placed on the battery.

would this be where good capacitors come into play

anyone else refreshing this page like a crackhead

[Nathan @ XSpower]

The amount and quality of lead in the battery determines the capacity of the battery. The grid pattern on the lead plates, intercell connectors, and internal design determines how quickly the battery can discharge that capacity.

For instance our 16V and 14V batteries. We have the light S version and the heavier D versions. They are the same physical size with the same internal design, but the S is lighter. Only weight to lighten the S version was to take lead out of the battery, which in return gives is less reserve capacity. You have a trade off with weight v/s capacity.

You can get more power per battery if you buss a bank of smaller batteries together, because bussing them together optimizes the internal pressure in the batteries. Now this means if you have 5 small batteries and buss them together each of those 5 batteries will individually produce more power than they each would standing by themselves. This however does not increase each individual batteries capacity.

[Nathan @ XSpower]

Batteries do not store power over their resting voltage. Anything over their resting voltage is a residual charge and will be gone as soon as a load is placed on the battery.

would this be where good capacitors come into play

anyone else refreshing this page like a crackhead

Regular capacitors NO. Super Capacitors yes if you pair them correctly with the battery power you have and the amperage draw you have.

[Swordlordboy1234]

Good info nate! Id like to personally thank you for chiming into this thread.

[deathcards]

Batteries do not store power over their resting voltage. Anything over their resting voltage is a residual charge and will be gone as soon as a load is placed on the battery.

would this be where good capacitors come into play

anyone else refreshing this page like a crackhead

Regular capacitors NO. Super Capacitors yes if you pair them correctly with the battery power you have and the amperage draw you have.

thanks nathan i know what i am doing for electrical now

i know this is off topic but will you guys ever start a line of super capacitors

[Nathan @ XSpower]

Good info nate! Id like to personally thank you for chiming into this thread.

No prob man. I love being able to come in and help give info when possible. Use to be able to do it all the time, but the way it is now I have been at work since 7:40am this morning and haven't gotten up from my desk yet today. Bladder is about to splatter...........lol Busy busy.

[Wicks]

Mmmmmmmmmmm, me likey this thread

Keep in mind, as Nathan mentioned, batteries don't charge up to 14.4V.

They have an internal resistance to overcome which is why you need to charge at 14.4V in order to get a resting voltage of ~13V. That 1 volt or so is lost in the charging process.

Also as mentioned, caps (super) don't have this limitation and will hold power at any voltage, within their rating.

So a bank of super caps would be very helpful in the range of 13 - 14.4V to help stabilize your voltage.