Cor van de Water wrote:
I know that Lee has posted regularly about his zener+bulb balancer
and today I was finally making the connection while freeing our
Christmas tree from its light strings...
I have no clue why they strung *12* strings of *50* lights each in a
6-ft tree. No wonder it consumed somewhere around 260 Watts.
Maybe they lived in Minnesota. Excess power usage in the winter isn't
waste -- it heats your home! :-)
While unstringing, I was wondering what to do with the removed lights.
These are 2.5V lights that draw about 22W per string, approx 180mA
according to my Kill a Watt meter.
Then it hit me - these are probably perfect to use in balancers.
That's not a bad idea! :-) Though there is one shortcoming: These bulbs
are designed to fail *shorted*. If one burns out, it shorts so the rest
of the string will still light. That would be bad news if it's across a
battery that can supply unlimited current.
You'd have to experiment with a burned-out bulb to see just how high the
current gets, and if it would be a safe failure.
--
"Obsolete" means nothing more than "the salesmen would prefer you buy
something else." -- Dave McGuire
--
Lee Hart -- See my Xmas projects at www.sunrise-ev.com/projects.htm
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