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Safety Capacitor


Guest Yevgenip

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Guest Yevgenip

Hello...
I've seen a cap being put in parallel with a switch's connectors to insure that the spark resulting from the switch would not damage the delicate components. My question is: How do I know what capacitor to use? i.e. What Voltage and Capacitance?

Thanks.

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This is an old (dates back to some time in the 1930's) technique of quenching switch contacts to protect them from arcing, pitting and poor service life.

Most generally, I've seen 0.1uF, ceramic disc capacitors used across the contacts of 120VAC power switches, with working voltage ratings from 250V to 1000V; which leads me to believe that anything over the peak voltage of the switched circuit will work just fine.

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