How does voltage affect a Silver Cell?

[Alondro]

To which I replied


To better explain

It can (or not) take less then 1 amp of HIGH voltage AC to kill you - at the very least "a few" amp of HIGH voltage AC will shock the living daylights out of you

Example; - touch the bare copper end of 120 volt 15 amp AC wire (what your household outlets are wired with) & it will shock the living daylights out of you

On the other hand with LOW voltage DC you can touch the bare copper (of the positive side of the circuit) with A LOT of amps & you will not even feel it

Example; - I worked (as a contractor) wiring up the DC rectifiers for a very large aluminum anodizing plant

The rectifiers that provided the DC power to the very large anodizing tanks (which are basically the same as a silver or copper cell) had an output of 25 DC volts with the potential of delivering as much as 20,000 amps

The bare copper bus bars that ran from the rectifier to the anodizing tanks where about 8 - 10 inches wide & about 3 - 4 inches thick

You could reach up & grab ahold of those bare copper bus bars & feel absolutely nothing even though there was a huge amount of amps running through them

Kurt

I just didn't realize you were talking about LARGER electrolysis cells such as one would use in medium-sized industry.

Every little garage setup I saw was talking about 1 or 2 amps at the most. I suppose Sreetips cells might use a bit more, since some of those are rather large.

 

[goldshark]

Agreed- but a 300A rectifier isn't cheap!

Maybe use a 6 volt battery charger, for mass produced cheap rectifier. Size the system accordingly so you can use one. Old school non smart chargers are the best, and cheapest, usually at garage sales.

 

[Shark]

Old school non smart chargers are the best, and cheapest, usually at garage sales.

I hate “smart” chargers. Have a brand new one that max’s out at 12.2 volt charges. Our car is computer controlled and won’t allow it to start at that voltage, says the battery is dead. My old “not smart” charger says the battery is dead at 12.2 volts and will charge it further and the car will start great. Kind of like “smart phone” and their “spell check “.

 

[Spaceships]

The whole voltage vs current thing always caused all kinds of fluster for me too. Then throw in fixed current/fixed voltage and all the stuff that is associated with different methods alongside anode/cathode ratios/distances/temperatures/electrolytes and it's very easy to get completely confused. As such I really feel the pain of anybody trying to get their head around this.......