Car Battery Capacitor

Charging a car battery is vital to the efficient functioning of your car and its electrical components. Though car batteries are notorious for serving the purpose lately you might have heard the buzz about capacitors. Alike batteries, capacitors also offer energy when required. Capacitors are efficient sources to store electric current. They have low energy density as compared to batteries but they are ideal for electric equipment that needs a small amount of energy. Many people believe that capacitors are a better option than batteries as they can be charged more quickly as compared to batteries. But the quickly they charge, the quicker they discharge which is not adequate for the long-run running of the car. Some may argue that supercapacitors, which offer increased current storing capability can replace batteries. 

That said, it doesn’t mean that capacitors are not worthy. They can be installed with batteries. Let us understand how capacitors differ from batteries and their work in car batteries. 

Car Battery Capacitor Charger

You might be surprised to know that capacitors are used in car chargers. Capacitors are known to store energy in electrical form. Capacitors cannot generate energy but they can dissipate or transfer the stored energy into other components. This dissipating energy quality is why capacitors are used in battery chargers. Commonly the chargers for batteries have a constant voltage internal circuit with a direct current power supply that uses a transformer to minimize the alternate current voltage to ensure a constant supply of DC to the battery. But in some chargers, the direct current is not pure rather the charger offers an uneven DC voltage. To smoothen this pulsating a capacitor is used in such chargers. 

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Some battery chargers use a capacitor as a bypass to maintain low voltage and ensure the stability of the control loop when the battery is not connected. The capacitors can be used in two forms in battery chargers namely input filter capacitors and output filter capacitors. Although these capacitors are mainly used as a regulator chips to maintain the flow of DC voltage. You can deploy capacitors in the input and output terminals of the battery charger. The input capacitor keeps the transformer voltage stable and keeps it from pulsating. The capacitors in output terminals help to dissipate the stored energy in a regulated manner. 

This information is way too technical so let's break it down into an easy and understandable version. As car chargers, capacitors are connected with the electric equipment say audio equipment to refrain pulsation get in way of signal circuitry. Capacitors in such chargers act to bypass alternate current while reserving the direct current and supplying it to the battery. 

Car Battery vs Capacitor

A car battery and a capacitor share some similarities but still have key differences. Some of the most prominent differences include the following:

The capacitor weighs less while the car batteries are heavy in comparison.

The service life of capacitors is much better than that of batteries. 

Car batteries are efficient when it comes to voltage stability in comparison to capacitors.

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The energy in car batteries is stored in chemical form whereas the energy in capacitors exists as an electric field.

Car batteries have a greater energy density implying that you can store more energy per weight on batteries. Whereas capacitors have very low specified energy or capacity to store energy.

As already mentioned the energy in batteries is stored in a chemical form which implies that the discharge rate of batteries is higher because of the conversion of chemical energy into electric energy due to an underlying chemical reaction. Whereas, the energy in the capacitor is stored in the electric form directly on plates which makes the discharging process speedy.

Capacitors store energy directly on plates in an electric form which makes them charge quickly as compared to batteries which take a good amount of time to recharge. 

Batteries have a better leakage current as compared to capacitors. 

Considering all these differences we see that if we compare capacitors vs batteries then for cars batteries are a must. We can change batteries altogether with capacitors in cars as cars need a good supply of stored energy which can be only offered by batteries with great energy density. Cars need a good amount of energy to start and hit the road. Even a very good quality capacitor can offer a few miles of energy to the car which is not sufficient from a practical aspect. This is why in the capacitor vs battery debate, for cars the batteries always win. Although you can use a combination of both. 

Battery Capacitor Installation

To ensure that your car battery won't get drained with a load of attached electric equipment, it is better to put some load on capacitors. The capacitor can act as an accessory that stores and supplies power to attached devices to enhance the functionality of electrical equipment in your car. Although installing a capacitor is not that difficult but you can always take the help of a professional mechanic. You need to follow these steps to install a capacitor in your car:

Choose the right capacitor: The capacitor should be able to provide the required energy for the load. The rule of thumb says that one Farad capacitor is required to supply energy to a 1KW load. 

You need to be assured that the capacitor you are about to install is not charged. This is important because a charged capacitor discharges at a quick pace which you won't be able to handle while connecting. It can cause a hazardous accident so it is preferable to use a discharged capacitor to install. 

Disconnect the battery to shut down the power supply for a while to install the capacitor without any stress of any unfortunate incident.

Connect the positive terminal of the capacitor with the positive terminal of the battery or any other equipment you prefer to power up with the capacitor. Make sure to use a high-quality running wire to connect the two terminals. 

Afterward, connect the negative terminal of the capacitor to the negative terminal of the load.

Reconnect the battery again so that all attached equipment can function again.