Hi,

When you connect a capacitor to a battery and the capacitor is charged to the batteries voltage. Is there any power consumed from the battery if it remains connected to the capacitor?

Thanks

 

A very small amount over a period of time, due to leakage of the capacitor. Why would you do such a thing as what you describe?

 

Also from what I read , the leakage amount depends on the type of capacitor with Electrolytics at highest and Film or ceramic (don't remember which one) with the lowest

 

Hi Shortbus,

I am just learning about electronics.

Thanks

 

An "ideal" capacitor has no leakage. A real capacitor has very little DC leakage, so little it could be hard to measure, and it's usually not considered a factor.

 

An "ideal" capacitor has no leakage. A real capacitor has very little DC leakage, so little it could be hard to measure, and it's usually not considered a factor.

Aluminium foil caps are one of the highest leakage types.

Ceramic & polymer foil caps have such low leakage you probably wouldn't notice any shortening of the battery's shelf life.

In other words; the battery's own rate of self discharge is probably greater than almost any non-polarised capacitor.

 

The leakage for a typical aluminum electrolytic is in the low microamp range, depending upon voltage and size, so even those shouldn't significantly affect battery life, expect perhaps for small button cell types.