Ultracapacitor bank install location and fusing

[MANTI5 10+ year member]

I have my setup going amps, distribution block, fuse, battery. I'm going to install a bank of ultracaps and have no room under the hood of my civic, is it OK for them to be either in the trunk or under the rear seats? How would you wire them in my system and would they need to be fused if they are separate from what's going to the distribution block back to that fuse?

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[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

you can mount them anywhere you want just make sure the positive and negative are kept away from anything that might cause a short. id fuse them just like if they were a battery.

id wire them inline from your front battery/alternator run to your distro to your amp but it really wont make much difference unless we're talking about huge current draw

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

i put ultracap banks in a wood enclosure for insulation, and fuse them immediately. i use a MAXI fuse so i can quickly disconnect them. you treat them like a second battery - disconnecting them when disconnecting the front battery. you charge them slowly, i use 15ohm 50W resistor bank to slowly charge them.

you must keep them fully insulated so you don't get a short. they have enough energy to weld.

i keep the ultracap bank as close to the amp(s) as possible.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Yeah, just fuse like it was a battery.

Wire it parallel with the battery

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

Fuses are a wastep us circuit breakers

 

[MANTI5 10+ year member]

Would it be much less effective if I ran the battery and cap bank each into a distribution block, like one that took 2 1/0 wires and stepped down to the 2 4 awg that go to the amps? The reason for all this is I had a bad back injury and a friend wired this up for me, I usually do everything myself. He didn't do exactly like I wanted so it's now making my life harder as I'm able to work on it and trying to work within what he did. Otherwise I will have to buy a run of 1/0 to go back to where I will put the bank and use what he ran under the seat to go from bank to amp and I really don't want to buy more wire if I don't have to.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

Would it be much less effective if I ran the battery and cap bank each into a distribution block, like one that took 2 1/0 wires and stepped down to the 2 4 awg that go to the amps? The reason for all this is I had a bad back injury and a friend wired this up for me, I usually do everything myself. He didn't do exactly like I wanted so it's now making my life harder as I'm able to work on it and trying to work within what he did. Otherwise I will have to buy a run of 1/0 to go back to where I will put the bank and use what he ran under the seat to go from bank to amp and I really don't want to buy more wire if I don't have to.

I dont see a problem with it. the 4awg wire is going to be pretty short less than 5 feet its fine.. Id wire the cap bank BEFORE the 4awg wire that way it puts a bigger load on the 1/0(like you suggested).. Ie go from the battery to the cap-bank(let the cap load the battery to stabilize voltage money!) with 1/0 then cap bank to the distro with 1/0 then out the distro with 4 awg to the amp.

man i hope you can get your back straight. my brother lived with a broken back for 8 years and they lied about it for 8 ******* years. he ended up overdosing accidentally from the pain/addiction. god be with you..

 

[MANTI5 10+ year member]

Thanks, I'm really sorry to hear about your brother but I honestly can see how it can happen. It's been over 3 years for me and I'm just now in a place where I can work hard to get myself to the point I no longer need the meds as much. I know it's going to be rough as you become dependent so fast but I'm determined.

As far as the suggestion, I wanted to wire the bank between the battery and distro block but doing so will require buying another run of 1/0 as what I have left over isn't long enough. The 4awg is maybe a foot long each, if that, from the block to amps. The easiest solution is getting a new block that takes 2 1/0 in instead of the single 1/0 in the current block has but that would separate the bank from battery and I'm just wondering what the differences would be electrically speaking. If it's just better to wire them parallel I'll try to sell some leftover cable to buy the length I need, but if the new block is equally good and will not effect the bank staying charged then I will go that route.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

Go from the alt to batt to cap to distrobution to amp..