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| A VERY Basic Question |
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| Sierra:
Believe it or not, I've searched and am still turning to you for an answer to a very basic, completely rudimentary question. How would I convert amp read on a meter to amp hours? The underlying question is how often is the current I'm measuring actually being drawn and how does it relate to amp hours? As an initial inquiry, meter reads 1.5A A) If it's drawing it every hour the circuit would simply be using 1.5Ah B) If it's drawing it every minute, would we then multiply 1.5 by 60 = 90Ah C) If it's drawing this at every fraction of a second (which makes sense) how do we compute Ah needed to run it? On and on it goes. So the basic question is how do I convert read current into current hours? I hope the above makes sense and thanks in advanced. |
| bdunham7:
--- Quote from: Sierra on July 12, 2023, 03:48:53 pm ---So the basic question is how do I convert read current into current/hours? --- End quote --- To start, it is current X hours, not current / hours. Think of it as a total charge transferred, sort of like gallons of water. An ampere is a rate of flow equal (almost) to one coulomb (a large number of electrons, or charge carriers as the case may be) per second. So one ampere-second is one coulomb. An ampere-hour is literally one ampere for a period of one hour. So one ampere-hour (amperes multiplied by hours, not divided) would be one ampere multiplied by 3600 seconds, or 3600 coulombs. You convert an ampere reading to ampere-hours only by observing it for some time and adding up, or 'integrating' the readings. For example, you could observe it every second, add up all of your observations for one hour and divide the result by 3600 and you would have the number of ampere-hours, or pretty close to it as long as the current wasn't varying wildly. |
| metrologist:
--- Quote from: bdunham7 on July 12, 2023, 03:58:22 pm --- --- Quote from: Sierra on July 12, 2023, 03:48:53 pm ---So the basic question is how do I convert read current into current/hours? --- End quote --- To start, it is current X hours, not current / hours. Think of it as a total charge transferred, sort of like gallons of water. An ampere is a rate of flow equal (almost) to one coulomb (a large number of electrons, or charge carriers as the case may be) per second. So one ampere-second is one coulomb. An ampere-hour is literally one ampere for a period of one hour. So one ampere-hour (amperes multiplied by hours, not divided) would be one ampere multiplied by 3600 seconds, or 3600 coulombs. You convert an ampere reading to ampere-hours only by observing it for some time and adding up, or 'integrating' the readings. For example, you could observe it every second, add up all of your observations for one hour and divide the result by 3600 and you would have the number of ampere-hours, or pretty close to it as long as the current wasn't varying wildly. --- End quote --- What a coulombic post. I like the water flow out of a hose analogy. |
| Sierra:
--- Quote from: bdunham7 on July 12, 2023, 03:58:22 pm --- --- Quote from: Sierra on July 12, 2023, 03:48:53 pm ---So the basic question is how do I convert read current into current/hours? --- End quote --- To start, it is current X hours, not current / hours. Think of it as a total charge transferred, sort of like gallons of water. An ampere is a rate of flow equal (almost) to one coulomb (a large number of electrons, or charge carriers as the case may be) per second. So one ampere-second is one coulomb. An ampere-hour is literally one ampere for a period of one hour. So one ampere-hour (amperes multiplied by hours, not divided) would be one ampere multiplied by 3600 seconds, or 3600 coulombs. You convert an ampere reading to ampere-hours only by observing it for some time and adding up, or 'integrating' the readings. For example, you could observe it every second, add up all of your observations for one hour and divide the result by 3600 and you would have the number of ampere-hours, or pretty close to it as long as the current wasn't varying wildly. --- End quote --- Thanks for the information. The current/hours wasn't intended to be division but instead a statement of current per hours. Edited above for ease of understanding. So, if we were to take 1.5A recorded every second (assuming it does not fluctuate). We would have 1.5 * 3600 (seconds in an hour) = 5400 which we would then divide by 3600 to arrive at 1.5Ah. Alternatively, the current you read on a meter could then be (assuming no fluctuations in current) simply expressed in hours for its Ah. That is a meter reading of 1.5A (assuming the current doesn't fluctuate in an hour) is consuming 1.5Ah, yes? |
| Fungus:
--- Quote from: Sierra on July 12, 2023, 03:48:53 pm ---How would I convert amp read on a meter to amp hours? --- End quote --- You wouldn't. Imagine a circuit is battery powered. A meter can't know how much energy is left in the battery by measuring the current. All the meter knows is how many electrons are coming out of the battery every second ("Amps"). The "energy in the battery" is measured in Amp hours and it lets us know how long the battery will last. --- Quote from: Sierra on July 12, 2023, 03:48:53 pm ---As an initial inquiry, meter reads 1.5A --- End quote --- OK, so 1.5 Amps is the consumption of our circuit. If the circuit runs for an hour then we can say the battery had 1.5 Amp hours of charge in it. If it runs for two hours then we can say the battery had 3 Amp hours of charge in it. |
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