What are they?
Power capacitors work by acting as a reserve power bank; they store the charge rather than being the source of power such as the battery. When you are listening to your music, and playing a heavy sub-bass note, the power will draw from the capacitor rather than from the battery so to ensure that the rest of the car will not be starved of power i.e. the headlights dimming. It will act as a buffer so that that the power being delivered to the amplifiers will not drop below the recommended voltages and be steady therefore reducing the risk of damage to the components.
So what power capacitor to choose?
After doing a bit of research, the general rule seems to be 1 farad per 1000 watts of power that your system is running at. So using that, a 1.5 farad power capacitor should be ideally suited to a 1500 watt system. There is a large selection of power capacitors available out there, for example, this power capacitor is a 2 farad power capacitor designed for smaller systems, this is not to say however that it will have a reduction in performance, however for those systems that require more power, a power capacitor with a higher farad will be able to deliver for longer and will usually be of a higher build quality.
How to install the capacitor
Ideally the capacitor needs to be installed as close to the amplifiers as possible. The capacitor requires a 12 volt positive from the battery and a separate ground, to the amplifier; so that the 12 volt positive is ‘inline’ with the terminal from the battery and the amplifier. The amplifier 12 volt positive is then taken from the capacitor while the amplifier is usually grounded separately as it is important to use as short a ground cable as possible to reduce any potential ground interference.
When you need to consider other alternatives
Power capacitors will not always be of help when you are listening to music, if the lights for example dim down, and stay dim, this indicates there is a deficiency of power and there are other methods of solving the problem, it could potentially be that the battery is not able to generate a charge sufficient enough to meet the demands, so installing a higher cranking battery is usually the common solution however it is possible that upgrading “The Big Three” may also solve the issue(see below for more details). It is also important to check that the current alternator can produce a charge that will be sufficient with a larger battery.
‘The Big Three’
The big three is a popular upgrade. It consists of upgrading three wires in the car to ones that are much thicker. As a result of using much thicker wire, more current is allowed to flow through; hence the overall effect seen will be that the voltage running through the car will be higher. The three wires that are upgraded are the wire from the alternator to the battery, the engine ground to the chassis and the battery ground to the chassis. It is common, but not always, that people will choose 0 gauge power wire when going about the big three upgrade. This is vital again to ensure that the voltage delivered to the amplifiers does not drop so low that the risk of damage is possible.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, there is no hard or fast answer to if a capacitor is necessary or not. However capacitors may have benefits if used appropriately. There are large selections of capacitors; some come with digital volt meters, distribution blocks etc., while others are purely chosen for aesthetic pleasure, I myself went for a 4 farad power capacitor with a built in digital volt meter with an LCD display so that it was something I was able to display and looks pretty damn cool.
If you need more details about power capacitors and capacitor supplier, welcome to visit our website and feel free to send inquiries to YUHCHANG – the outstanding and professional power capacitor manufacturer in Taiwan.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Neil_Patel/563675
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