What’s the Difference between Quick Charge and Smart Charge?
It seems a new charging technology is announced every few months. The phases we're most commonly hearing these days are "Quick Charge" and "Smart Charge". What are they, and how are they different? Let's dive right in.
What is Smart Charge?
Nowadays many utilities are moving towards time-of-use (TOU) pricing schemes for their residential customers. Under the TOU model, residents are billed for electricity based on the time of day that it is consumed.
And while this transformation can help shift demand to off-peak periods in the short-term, utilities will need to adapt to the impact electric vehicles will pose on the grid as they gain mainstream attention.
If residents are motivated to charge during off-peak hours, it’s likely that peak demand will simply be shifted to those off-peak hours. Instead of plugging in at 6pm when they arrive from work, Electronic vehicle (VE) owners will all plug-in at 9pm, shedding a significant load on the grid.
Smart Charging Coming into Picture
A simple solution to mitigate this issue is called smart charging. Smart charging is the intelligent charging of EVs, where charging can be shifted based on grid loads and in accordance to the vehicle owner’s needs. The utility can offer EV owners monetary and/or non-monetary benefits in exchange for enrollment in a program that permits controlled charging at the times when curtailment capacity is needed for the grid.
What is Quick Charge?
“Quick Charge” is a feature in select Qualcomm chipsets that allows a device to accept more power than the standard USB protocol would define.
Quick Charge tech is used in many charging devices such as car chargers, USB wall chargers, power banks etc.
Made from a tech company called Qualcomm, Quick Charge is seen to be the messiah of the charging world because Quick Charge technology is able to charge compatible devices at fast speeds. It is notable that Quick Charge tech is compatible with only select devices that feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Processors. This is good news because many devices use the Snapdragon processor.
A standard USB 1.0 or 2.0 port is capable of a continuous output of 5V at 0.5A. While a Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 compatible port can provide two different power outputs. Usually, it will output 5V at 2A (10W), however if it detects a Quick Charge 2.0 compliant device, it will output 9V at 2A (18W).
Quick Charge is designed to give you a fast charge from 0% to 50%. After that, the charge rate is standard.
How Quick Charge Works
The tech works by knowing the current condition of your battery and intelligently regulating the power your device is receiving. As a result, your phone will not charge from 70 percent to 100 percent nearly as fast as it will from 0 percent to 60 percent. This is why you see almost every Quick Charge ad brag about the ability to go from "dead" to over "half-charged" in as little as 30 minutes. As you can see from the power options offered by the Droid Turbo charger, topping off the battery uses the more common charging mode of 5V at 1.6A output. This isn't a bad thing. In fact, it's a vital safety measure to keep your phone from overheating.
Recommended Quick Charge Devices
As we mentioned before, it’s not a rare thing to apply Quick Charge tech in digital devices nowadays. Today we’d like to recommend you a Quick Charge power bank, Zendure A8 QC.
The A8 QC is one of the fastest charging external batteries on the market for its capacity, thanks to the certified Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Technology. With 26,800 mAh capacity, this monster juice box can easily extend your phone usage 7-9 times, and takes only 10-12 hours to charge using a QC 3.0 charger.
With multiple USB ports, you are able to charge four devices simultaneously. The accurate LED digital readout allows you to get an exact readout of how much capacity remains, so you won't get caught short. This user-friendly feature is absolutely necessary for high capacity portable phone chargers.
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