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Old 08-30-2015, 06:23 PM   #185 (permalink)
redpoint5
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Without knowing exactly how stubborn the RV is to start on a cold day, I would still venture to say the capacitors are not beneficial enough to justify their expense or build time. If the RV can be reliably started without causing excessive damage to the batteries, then the capacitors aren't much benefit.

That said, I have had a lot of fun experimenting and learning about super caps. I even had a neighbor that needed a jump due to a dead battery, and my supercap bank easily got them going.

I don't see much point to using supercaps unless vehicle parasitic load is low enough to run only supercaps, or weight can be saved by using a severely undersized battery paired with supercaps.

Update on my projects:

My plan for the Prius when the original battery fails is to replace it with a small LiFePO4 pack since it lives in the passenger compartment where temperatures are less extreme and peak demands are low.

My plan for the Acura when it's battery dies is to build a larger capacity LiFePO4 bank and run an alternator kill switch, recharging at home.

Both plans will not require the use of supercaps.

Finally, despite my instruction to my dad to let me build a supercap solution for the diesel truck, he dropped several hundred dollars on 2 new batteries. I'm still angry about that since I had already spent $200+ on building the supercaps/balance circuits/solar maintainer.

I'll never buy another lead-acid battery again in my lifetime.
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