Boosted

I came across a site where water turbines are sold. I was wondering - for all you electricians in the group - if a steady 2 Amp output could be used to power something, like for instance a board full of LEDs? Would it be somehow possible to crank up the power output? I am not technical, as some others, so perhaps not using the electrician's jargon would help.

Offered by Michel.

Depends on what you mean by power output. Electrical power (watts) is a product of voltage and ampere (Watts = volts x ampere) so by decreasing one you can increase the other. The simplest way of doing this would be with a few resistors in series or parallel (series divides voltage, parallel divides amperage). You would of course loose a little power in the conversion. For instance 3 equally sized resistors in series with 12V 2A going into the circuit, you take out 4 volts at 2A over each resistor connect this in parallel and presto you have 6A at 4 volts. My recommendation would be to start stock-piling DC motors, motor mounts and water wheels to connect them to, then use a group of resistors in parallel/series (depending what your amp/volt needs are). Used DC motors are fairly cheap (12/24 volt type would be preferable) from scrap-yards and as surplus (search the web, easy to find).

Offered by Thomas.