Okay, one of my loser friends blew the fuses out on my stereo. They are right before the speakers. The fuses are 250 volts and 1 amp. The closest thing I have in my house are 250 volt and 1 1/2 amps. Can I use these for now? I don’t usually keep my stereo so loud that it would blow a fuse, so I’m not worried about blowing the speakers.
I’m just curious… What is the relevance of amperage to how much power gets through? Can somebody explain this simple concept to me please?
If you’re not worried about blowing your speakers, you can wrap tin foil around your dead fuses. I guess you’re asking if the 1.5A fuses can be ‘safely’ used, in that they’ll give you SOME protection.
The answer is unknown without knowing the design of the speaker. The fuses could be really close to the destructive threshold of the speakers, or there could be a pretty wide margin.
But sure, they’ll work as long as you never crank your volume up to dangerous levels.
Amp is a measure of current. Power is current multiplied by voltage, so 2 amps at 120V is 240 Watts. Fuses limit current, not power - if that current is exceeded, it will blow. The voltage rating of a fuse is just a safety rating - if you try to use a 250V-rated fuse at 500V it will not necessarily trip (blow), but the insulator in the fuse may short-circuit, or something equally nasty might happen.
So a 250V 1-amp fuse can be safely used with a 250V power supply, and can pass 1 amp. Which means it can pass 250W at most. But if you use it on a 12-volt power supply, it will still blow at 1 amp, so you can only pass 12W of power.
Do not do the tinfoil thing. The higher temp. substitue might be okay, but then again…
When the fuse blew another part was just on the verge of going. You put in a higher rated fuse. The part fails, and since the circuit is not protected as well, Other Stuff starts going up in smoke. So you are risking increasing the collateral damage. Smarter techs (without the right tools) would actually go lower until they could check the circuit out later.
Note that there are “slo-blo” and normal fuses. Use the right type.