What Is Meant By The Wattage Of A Resistor

- March 11, 2019

Semi conductors have a unique property in that they can change their characteristics. Theyll add up to 5 ohms and have exactly the same power rating.

What Is The Power Rating Of A Resistor

Selecting Proper Free Air Wattage

Alternatives To High Wattage Resistors Do Multiple Low

Carbon has a high resistance cross sectional area.

What is meant by the wattage of a resistor. Each will draw 1 amp and dissipate 1 watt. The resistor rated at 2 watts will do so faithfully for years. It will get warm but its resistance will remain relatively stable.

The watt rating of a resistor is the max watts that it can handle. The shape and size of surface mount resistors are standardized most manufacturers use the jedec standards. Place a pair of 1 ohm resistors across a 1 volt source.

The resistor power rating is sometimes called the resistors wattage rating and is defined as the amount of heat that a resistive element can dissipate for an indefinite period of time without degrading its performance. When selecting a proper resistor you must select one that can handle more watts than you will be putting through it. The quarter watt resistor will get hot and deteriorate within a.

So depending on what the material is that is dissipating heat then that material will have a different cross sectional area. Simply put it means the resistor can safely convert electrical energy to heat at the rate of one eighth of a watt forcing above that the resistor will heats up excessively. This code contains the width and height of the package.

Two parallel resistors of say 10 ohms value makes a 5 ohm resistor and the overall power that can be taken is double. So is using 2 series resistors of 25 ohms. The size of smd resistors is indicated by a numerical code such as 0603.

Thus if a resistor has a power rating of 14 watts 14 watts is the maximum amount of power that should be fed into the resistor. But a resistor is a linear device. For example if you know that 4 watts max will be passing through the resistor select a 12 to 99 billion watt rated resistor.

The power rating of a resistor is the specification given with a resistor that serves to tell the maximum amount of power that the resistor can withstand.