Re: capacitors in parallel

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "ben_englund"
<ben_englund@t...> wrote:

> What are the capacitors for? Could you alter the circuit to

utilize

> smaller capacitors?
>
>
> Ben Englund

certainly, in fact there are several advantages to that: 1) it's a
lot cheaper - i'm building an amplifier power supply at the moment,
and i have 24 2200uF caps in parallel, and that cost me about £14.60
whereas a single 55000uF one would have cost £42.70 2) you lose less
power due to capacitor leakage. 3) the combination will have a higher
ripple current rating, so the capacitor life will be better.

more is explained at http://sound.westhost.com/power-supplies.htm.
the article goes into great depth on the subject and is specifically
aimed at amplifier power supplies, so such matters as noise and
ripple will not be of such importance to you, but much of the
information there is relevant to any power supply. the section
on "Capacitor Ripple Current" contains a direct comparison of single
caps vs. multiple caps in parallel and should be particularly helpful.

to summarise - as long as you have enough capacitors in parallel to
equal the desired total capacitance (as you know, capacitors add in
parallel) the circuit will perform as well, possibly better, than the
single-cap version.

-jeff.