If a number of fuses are series connected, with the intention to achieve a higher voltage rating, what is the overall voltage rating?
For example if we place two identical fuses that are rated for 120V dc in series. I suspect the overall rating will not be 240V dc as one fuse will blow before the other.
Is the actual rating closer to 120V or to 240V? Is there some mathematical rule?
The example given is two fuses in series but what about n fuses connected in series?
Best Answer
The voltage issue with fuses is limiting the energy available to the arc as the fuse opens, it is not uncommon to see inappropriately chosen glass fuses explode when overloaded from a sufficiently butch source. Fuses have limits on safe breaking capacity, and for small glass examples these can be as low as a hundred amps or so, which is also due to arc energy limits.
If seen in these terms the voltage rating of a series chain is clearly that of the lowest voltage fuse.
An important thing to note is that fuse voltage ratings for DC service are often very much lower then the rated voltage for AC service as the DC arc will not self quench.
Where series connected fuses can be useful is when you have a very stiff supply, like say a telecomms battery bank, if you want to fuse something close to the batteries at say 0.1A, you have a problem, because the prospective short circuit current can far exceed the rating of the biggest 0.1A fuse you can find. Lets say you have a PSC of 50kA... What you do is place a much higher current fuse before the little one, coordinated such that the big fuse will catch nearly direct short circuits and limit the energy delivered to the arc in the much smaller fuse.
Fuses are NOT simple devices, read the datasheets carefully.