A control device distributes electric power from a battery to an electric power feed terminal when the remaining level of a battery is equal to or higher than a predetermined value with an ignition off. Therefore, an electronic component can be charged after being connected to the electric power feed terminal, even with the ignition off. When the remaining level of the battery is lower than the predetermined value, the distribution of electric power from the battery to the electric power feed terminal is shut off, so the electric component can be stopped from being charged, even after being connected to the electric power feed terminal. In consequence, even when the electronic component can be charged after being connected to the electric power feed terminal with the ignition off, a battery remaining level that is needed when a vehicle runs next time can be ensured.

A system for generating, storing and managing energy features a solar-power center, a wind-power center, a hydrogen-power center with hydrogen fuel cells, a hydrogen supply center operable for producing hydrogen, and an energy storage center with both hydrogen storage tanks and one or more rechargeable batteries. An energy management subsystem monitors energy consumption from the system and available energy reserves at the power storage center, and manages the different centers based at least partly on the monitored consumption and reserves. A cooling loop circulates hydrogen for cooling of mechanical and electrical equipment, while heating loops use fuel cell waste heat and collected solar thermal energy for heat-requiring applications, such as warming of the battery storage in cold weather climates. Black-out/brown-out restart capability is included, as well as novel wind turbines whose rotor heights are autonomously adjusted to an optimal elevation based on wind conditions.

A system and approach for a self-calculating test of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning load. The test may be run upon meeting predetermined conditions. Thermostatic control of the load may be disabled when the load test starts. If a call for heat or cool is made at the thermostat, response to the call may be delayed until the load test is completed, and if AC power is lost during the test, the test may finish and allow detection of the phantom AC detection device with a loss of AC power. If a voltage of a storage capacitor falls below a battery boost threshold, the test may be cancelled to allow the phantom circuit charge the storage capacitor. The system and approach may incorporate load test states that include an initialize state, start test state, get baseline state, test measure state, stabilize measurement state, calculation state, and finalize results state.

Usage data of a device is maintained over some time period, such as a couple weeks or a couple months. This usage data reflects an amount of energy that is used or stored for different time durations each having a various combinations of different state values of the device, such as a screen state, a power source state, a power mode state, a battery saver state, a processor consumption state, and so forth. This provides a record of a capacity drain rate or capacity charge rate for the battery for each combination of state values. At any given time, the device can determine the current state values of the device. The capacity drain rates or capacity charge rates for previous time durations having the same state values as the current state values are used to determine an estimated capacity drain rate or capacity charge rate for the device.

An apparatus for preventing a battery from being over-discharged according to the present invention includes: a latch relay which connects or disconnects the load of the vehicle; a voltage measuring circuit which measures a voltage of the auxiliary battery for every predetermined period when a ignition of the vehicle is off, and compares the measured voltage of the auxiliary battery with one or more over-discharge reference values that serve as references for determining whether the auxiliary battery is over-discharged; and a control unit which turns off the latch relay when the voltage of the auxiliary battery is equal to or less than the over-discharge reference value as a result of the comparison by the voltage measuring circuit, in which the voltage measuring circuit outputs an enable signal for operating the control unit when the voltage of the auxiliary battery is equal to or less than the over-discharge reference value.

Apparatuses, systems and methods associated with an auxiliary power system design are disclosed herein. In embodiments, an auxiliary power system may be mounted within a vehicle or integrated into a starter battery of the vehicle. The auxiliary power system may include an auxiliary battery and circuitry coupled to the auxiliary battery and a vehicle electrical system of the vehicle. The vehicle electrical system may be used to start an engine of the vehicle. The circuitry may detect a trigger and couple the auxiliary battery to the vehicle electrical system in response to detection of the trigger. The auxiliary battery may provide power to the vehicle electrical system to start the engine of the vehicle when the auxiliary battery is coupled to the vehicle electrical system. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

An agricultural machine for conducting an agricultural working process includes a combustion engine (2), electrical consumers (3-8), a chargeable electrical battery (9) for electrically supplying the consumers (3-8) and a monitor module (10) for monitoring the charging level of the battery (9). It is proposed that some of the electrical consumers (3-8) of the agricultural machine (1) are peripheral consumers (3-8) for providing functions in a parking state of the agricultural machine (1), in which the combustion engine (2) is shut off, that a power management module (11) is provided, which in the parking state of the agricultural machine (1) monitors the charging level of the battery (9) via the monitor module (11) and deactivates at least one peripheral consumer (3-8), when the charging level falls below a threshold level.

A system for generating, storing and managing energy features a solar-power center, a wind-power center, a hydrogen-power center with hydrogen fuel cells, a hydrogen supply center operable for producing hydrogen, and an energy storage center with both hydrogen storage tanks and one or more rechargeable batteries. An energy management subsystem monitors energy consumption from the system and available energy reserves at the power storage center, and manages the different centers based at least partly on the monitored consumption and reserves. A cooling loop circulates hydrogen for cooling of mechanical and electrical equipment, while heating loops use fuel cell waste heat and collected solar thermal energy for heat-requiring applications, such as warming of the battery storage in cold weather climates. Black-out/brown-out restart capability is included, as well as novel wind turbines whose rotor heights are autonomously adjusted to an optimal elevation based on wind conditions.

A request is received for a higher torque from a torque controller than is possible from a power supply. The torque controller is coupled to a motor and the power supply, and the motor is coupled to an actuator. The actuator ultimately establishes resistance for a user in an exercise. An energy storage device is discharged to the motor in order to generate the higher torque, wherein the energy storage device is indirectly coupled to the torque controller.

The present invention relates to a system for protecting a battery, and to a battery protecting system, which obtains state information of a battery through two different state obtaining units and diagnoses whether the battery has a problem based on the two elements of state information obtained through the two state obtaining units and reference state information, thereby more certainly diagnosing a state of the battery and stably protecting a load from the battery in the problem state.