Quote:
Originally Posted by sreeve212
What about this? Boost module solo test no battery: youtu.be/oTi1GWjxeo8
He manages to start a v8, although it has no electronics. I have a 20 watt (14 volts) solar panel I could use to keep it charged during the day although it could drain at night. My car is a wimpy 2.0 liter, 4 cylinder.
Edit: Does anyone know what the cold cranking amps equivalent of this module would be, if it can even be calculated?
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I had forgotten about that video, and more embarrassingly, that I have started my own car with the same exact boost caps. My car has a parasitic drain of 21.5mA, and I guarantee it wouldn't be able to start after a night of discharging if using 350 Farad caps.
Here is some rough math using my car and these formulas:
1 / Quantity_Series_Connected_Capacitors * Capacitor_Farad_Rating = Total_Series_Farad_Capacitance
1 / 6 series connected capacitors * 350 Farads =
58.33 Farads
(Max_Volts - Min_Volts)*Farad_Rating/3600 = Bank_Amp_Hours
(15.5v - 13v) * 58.33 / 3600 =
0.041 Ah
*15.5v is the most you would want to charge the cap bank up to, and 13v is about the lowest voltage that would start the truck in the video.
Amp_Hours/(Multiplier*Draw) = Hours_of_Runtime
0.041 / 0.0215 =
1.9 hours
*
I'd get just shy of 2 hours of parked time before the caps drained so low that it would no longer start my car.
Your first step is still to determine the parasitic draw of your vehicle, which you haven't indicated that you have. It's easy to do with any cheap multimeter. Keep in mind that these figures don't factor in things like having a door open, which turns on the dome light, which rapidly drains the capacitor.
Don't get ahead of yourself. Step 1 is not to buy parts, rather, that is the last step.
The "cold cranking amp" rating is equivalent to the max discharge rating of an individual capacitor. In the case of the BCAP350, the max discharge rating is 170 Amps.
Product comparison is here.