{"id":27,"date":"2008-09-11T22:59:37","date_gmt":"2008-09-12T02:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/?p=27"},"modified":"2009-02-21T21:39:34","modified_gmt":"2009-02-22T01:39:34","slug":"how-to-read-capacitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/how-to-read-capacitors\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Read Capacitors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Capacitance Values &#8211; and How to Read Them<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/Capacitors.html\">Capacitors<\/a> are used in a wide range of electronic components and circuits. They form an integral part of electronics. The capacitance of capacitors is measured in a unit known as Farads, represented by the letter \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcF\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. A capacitor that has higher capacitance can be used for storing more charge as compared to one with a smaller capacitance value.<\/p>\n<p>One Farad is a very high value for capacitance and usually smaller units are used, namely pico farad, nano farad etc. And as the capacitors are physically very small in size, their capacitance needs to be identified with a code mentioned on the capacitor itself. The exception to this is electrolytic capacitors that are big enough to have the capacitance value written directly on them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/CeramicDiscCapacitors.html\">Ceramic<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/Film-Capacitors-Radial.html\">film<\/a> capacitors usually have a coded value marked on them. If the value marked on them is a two-digit whole number, then the capacitance is equal to the value mentioned in pico Farads. Thus a code of \u00e2\u20ac\u015310\u00e2\u20ac\u009d implies that the capacitance is equal to 10 pico farads.<\/p>\n<p>A three-digit whole number includes the first two significant digits, and the third digit as the multiplier (indicating the number of zeroes), and gives the value in pico Farads. Thus a code of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153104\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means, 10 multiplied by 10,000, giving the capacitance as 100,000 pF or 0.1 uF.<\/p>\n<p>If a decimal number is used as the code on the capacitor, then the capacitance is equal to value mentioned in micro Farads. For instance, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153.1\u00e2\u20ac\u009d mentioned on the capacitor would imply 0.1 uF.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, a whole number followed by the alphabet \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 means the capacitance is equal to value mentioned in nano Farads.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the capacitance, the code on these electronic components can also be used for indicating the tolerance, voltage, and temperature properties.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/mm5\/graphics\/hvd019.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"470pF 3000V Capacitor\" src=\"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/mm5\/graphics\/hvd019.jpg\" alt=\"470pF 3000V Capacitor\" width=\"450\" height=\"310\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">470pF 3000V Capacitor<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In the example above, the capacitor reads:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">471M<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">3KV<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The 471 is deciphered as 470pF; M=20% tolerance; 3KV=3,000V<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Here are the codes for tolerance:<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>B<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 0.1pF<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>C<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 0.25pF<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>D<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 0.5pF<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>E<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 0.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>F<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>G<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>H<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>J<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>K<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 10%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>M<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 20%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>N<\/td>\n<td>+\/- 0.05%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>P<\/td>\n<td>+100% ,-0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Z<\/td>\n<td>+80%, -20%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Capacitance Values &#8211; and How to Read Them Capacitors are used in a wide range of electronic components and circuits. They form an integral part of electronics. The capacitance of capacitors is measured in a unit known as Farads, represented by the letter \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcF\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. A capacitor that has higher capacitance can be used for storing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,15,16],"tags":[61,1027],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capacitors","category-customer-projects","category-guides","category-ics","tag-capacitance","tag-capacitors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westfloridacomponents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}