Glow lamp discharger

[Christer Lagerstedt]

I am planning to rebuild my discharger to handle batteries with higher number of cells, up to 30.

Anyone knows how many volts a 12 volt car lamp can handle before blowing up?

Christer

[mkirsch1]

If you wire multiple lamps in series, the voltage ratings add up. For 30 cells, 3 lamps wired in series would be about right.

[Ollie]

Most 12 volt rated incandescent lamps are intended for use in automobiles whose alternators put out about 14.6 volts. Operation at such a high voltages shortens the lamps' life but they are still good for many hours of operation. The life of any incandescent lamp is inversely proportional to the 12th or 13th power of the voltage.

If the 12 volt lamp had a rated life of 2000 hours and it was operated at 24 volts its life would be cut to somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes. At 14.6 volts the same lamp would last more than 500 hours.

[Christer Lagerstedt]

Thank you both.
I am going to wire lamps in series but I am using three in paralell now soo I will need 6 or 9 lamps to get the current consumption I want.

Christer