Amp hours to Farads conversion

[just.karl]

I was just curious if it would be possible to make my E-bike run on capacitors instead of Lead acid batteries even if the range was much shorter. So how many Farads would equal 1 Amp hour? At 12v let's say for now. Thanks!

 

[DrZoidberg]

1 Farad is 1 Ampere second per Volt. 1 F = 1 As/V.
1 Ah = 3600 As
3600 As / 12V = 300 As/V = 300F
But you need more then that because the voltage will drop as the capacitor discharges. Half the charge means half the voltage.
With a lead acid battery that's different. A battery that is half empty still has nearly the same voltage as it had at the start.
Maybe 600F and some electronics to automatically step up the voltage so it stays at 12V.
So you'd need to buy 160 capacitors with 3V and 60F each.

 

[berkeman]

You will want to calculate each in terms of energy stored:

E = 1/2 C V^2 for a capacitor

E = P * time for a battery (P = V * I)


EDIT -- DrZ was too fast for me!

 

[just.karl]

O... yeah so running it off capacitors was even more impractical than i thought. Thanks for the quick responses! This puts everything into perspective better for me.