Snow At The Homestead - Packing - Making Supercapacitor Banks
We got more snow at the off grid homestead the other day. We are packing our homestead up for a move to a new state and a fresh start but will continue homesteading and daily videos. I am making supercapacitor banks for starting vehicles.
A few days ago I started emptying the wood storage tent to make space for all of our belongings. We are going to move from New York to Michigan for multiple reasons. We will continue our off grid homesteading but at a new (secret) location. There has been way too much vandalism and harassment here at our NY location through the years and now with a baby on the way its best that we make a fresh start at a new but hidden location. I plan to continue to make daily YT videos and take our new home off the grid.
Michigan has a lot more freedom than New York too so it will be easier for us to live our lifestyle in peace there.
After removing about a quarter of the wood from the wood storage tent I used the pallet that was already on the ground and put some of our stuff in there. We have a lot of things packed in plastic boxes to protect them from the weather and from rodents. The mice out here are very bad and will make a mess of things in a hurry if you dont use plastic boxes. Cardboard would be ruined in two days out here. I plan to load up all of our gear in the tent for now as we pack so that its all in one central place. When we move it will be easier to cart out boxes from there to the moving van.
I lost all my video footage of this day so all I can do is write from memory.
The next day we got snow again. After a week of 70 degrees and near 80 degrees the temperatures plummeted down to the single digits at night. It has remained cold for days now. We got about three inches of snow in the night which slows us down here for the move.
Snowy day at the off grid homestead
We are trying to sell off all our larger things like trailers, campers and vehicles. The snow messes us up though and slows things down for our move since we are 1/4 mile from the last dirt road and 1 mile from the last paved road.
We do get private snow plow service when there is 6 inches of snow or more. That was on my request since my car is a tank and can drive through a few inches of snow with no problem. But the snow turns to slop which makes it impossible for anything but a 4wd truck to get through the mud path to our place.
We have had some very good solar power output these days. With the sun shining more often and the days getting longer the batteries are in float mode by early afternoon every day. Even with the laptop running all day we still hit float mode each day. The leaves are not yet on the trees and the sun is climbing higher in the sky. This is the absolute best solar power time that we have in a year.
In summer we get less sunlight hours due to the leaves on the trees blocking the sun from hitting our solar panels the entire time. In the fall the sun is sinking and the leaves are starting to drop. In winter it is mostly cloudy and gray and the sun is lower so we get fewer hours overall. But in the spring when the weather is still cooler and the days are getting brighter we get maximum power production here at the off grid homestead.
The cooler temperatures also increase solar power output. Cooler solar panels are more efficient than hot solar panels.
I have been working with supercapacitors recently and experimenting with using them as a vehicle starting battery. I have a bunch of them for experimenting with and on this day I put 25 of them together into a large bank of super capacitors.
Soldering Amperics 3 volt 400 Farad super capacitors together into banks
I am using Amperics supercapacitors which have some advantages over the competition. Most supercapacitors are rated at 2.5 to 2.7 volts and between 300 to 350 Farad. To use supercapacitors as a battery you have to connect them in series to increase their voltage. But when you connect capacitors in series you actually reduce the over-all capacitance. The total actually drops with each capacitor you add. With the lower voltage capacitors you end up with 6 capacitors and about 50 Farad capacity.
But with Amperics supercapacitors rated at 3 volts each you only need 5 supercapacitors for use as a 12 volt battery bank. And with 400 Farad capacity a bank of 5 supercapacitors gives you a total of 80 Farad. This is a serious advantage over the competition.
I am stringing up 5 banks of 5 capacitors to get a total of 400 Farads in the capacitor bank. This is a lot of power. A supercapacitor is capable of providing all of its power in an instant. This adds up to a lot of potential amps. This current is capable of starting a vehicle engine with no problem.
Bank of super capacitors for use as a vehicle starting battery replacement
You can find Amperics supercapacitors here: Amperics.com
Or find them in lesser quantities on Amazon here: Amperics Supercapacitors
I am using 10 gauge household electrical wiring as connectors between the super capacitors. This was cheaper than buying a spool of 10 ga solid wire. I am cutting the wire to fit in between the capacitor terminals and then soldering them on using a helping hands soldering set to hold things in place for me.
I also used the 10 gauge wire to connect all of the sets of capacitors together. This solid heavy gauge wire holds the capacitors together firmly so I can transport them easier.
When I got all 25 super capacitors connected together I called it a night and worked on some electronics for a while. I am working on capacitor balancing circuits to help charge the capacitors evenly. When charging super capacitors one may charge faster than the others. This means that one may end up getting an over voltage which will damage the capacitor. Capacitor balancing circuits prevent this over charging and balance out the charge over the entire capacitor bank.
You can watch today's video here: Fresh Snow & Building SuperCapacitor Banks
While you are over there please subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow our daily videos as we strive to become self sufficient and off the grid on a budget.
About the Author
 |
Troy Reid |
