[Test-Equipment] Question about series/parallel capacitors

[Brian Clarke]

Hello Barry,

Simple answer to your end question - no.

Are there no 470 nF 1 kV capacitors where you are? They are available in 
Australia - but expensive. A cheaper way is to put two 220 nf 1 kV 
capacitors in parallel - only costs a coupla bucks here.

What you are suggesting is bound to fail. The failure Voltage of capacitors 
and their leakage currents are all different - even if they all look the 
same on the outside. So, putting them in series is bound to cook some. To 
equalise the Voltage across those in series, you could add resistors - but 
why chuck away power when with my solution you have no such problems?

73 de Brian, VK2GCE.

On Saturday, May 14, 2011 8:59 AM, "Barry" <n4buq at knology.net> said:


>I need a 0.5uF capacitor that's capable of handling 600VDC.  I have several 
>0.5uF that are rated at 250V so I plan to connect them in series/parallel 
>to get 0.5uF at 750V.
> The question I have is does it matter how these are connected?
>
> I have the choice of:
> A. Connecting three sets of three capacitors each in parallel to produce 
> 1.5uF and then connecting the three sets in series yielding 0.5uF.
> or
> B. Connecting three sets of capacitors in series and then connecting the 
> resulting 1/6uF capacitors in parallel to again make 0.5uF.
>
> Both methods will give me 0.5uF but it I'm wondering if one way has any 
> advantages.