What is Voltage Rating of Capacitors?
Voltage rating of capacitors :Capacitor are designed and manufactured to operate at a certain maximum voltage. This maximum voltage can be regard as working voltage (WV).
A Capacitor (in other words Condenser) is a passive electrical device that can store electrical energy by accumulating electrons on its metallic surface separate by a finite distance filled with dielectric material like air, Bakelite etc. within the space between metallic surfaces.
Nowadays, capacitor is an essential components of each and every circuit that are deign today. Neither of the circuit is complete without the use of capacitor due to its various purpose like as an energy storing device, signal processing, Noise suppressing and many more. So it’s important to protect a capacitor from being damaged. Therefore capacitor are designed and manufactured to operate at a certain maximum voltage. This maximum voltage can be regard as working voltage (WV) as it is the maximum safe voltage to work with it and it is marked on the capacitor.
Thus voltage rating of a capacitor is the maximum amount of voltage that can be applied across it to prevent it from being damaged permanently. Suppose, a capacitor having a voltage rating 10V then this means it can withstand at least 10V when applied across it. If higher voltage is applied across it then it can’t withstand which results in burnout or short across capacitor. Thus the capacitor having appropriate voltage rating must be used.
Suppose we have to choose an electrolytic capacitor for a filter circuit of power supply marked as “250V DC WKg, peak volts 300″. Then it meant for use in filter circuit where the DC voltage is 250V and the peak voltage should not exceed 300V. However, capacitor with a higher voltage rating can’t be replaced by capacitor with a low voltage rating but lower voltage capacitor can be replaced with a higher voltage capacitor.