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Reply to "Too much voltage!"

Since the Zener diode will be dropping a lot more voltage, it's also going to be dissipating a lot more power.  The 5V Zener will be dropping the full motor current and dissipating 5V in the process.  Let's assume that the motor voltage peaks at 1A, that's 5 watts of power dissipation in the Zener diode.  If this is in the AC feed line, that's only happening half the time, the other half of the time it's dissipating maybe .7 watts.  So the average power dissipation is around 3 watts in each Zener.  Given the rule of thumb that the component rating should be twice the expected load, the Zener diode should be rated at 6 watts or more.

5W 5.1V Zener Diode

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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