How to Increase the Power Output of Your DC Power Supply

In this article, we show how to increase the power output of your DC power supply.

If you have a multiple output power DC power supply, which is a power supply that has multiple outputs, it likely comes with different modes that allow for independent operation, series operation, or parallel operation.

You can see this in the image above of a triple output DC power supply.

Usually with these DC power supplies, there are 2 outputs that can give up to 30V and 3 amperes of power and the third output gives out a fixed voltage of 5V.

So what we're really concerned about are the 2 outputs that give the 30V and 3 amperes of power.

Independent mode is not the only mode that you should operate the DC power supply in.

In fact, personally, when I first began using DC power supplies, I underutilized their ability because I was only operating them with independent mode. This may be the only mode you may need for many electronic projects and circuits, but at times, you may need more power. And this is where the other modes come in.

I actually became familiar with the other modes when I needed more power.

I was connecting my solar system and trying to power increasingly more power-consumptive devices.

It turns out that basic electrical concepts will suit you very well.

If you need double the current capability, then you would change the DC power supply to parallel mode operation.

This will give you double the current, so that you effectively have double the power.

When I did this, I had more power to power devices.

When you have the DC power supply in parallel mode, it is a very basic configuration.

All you have to do is use one of the outputs.

This is shown below.

Again, this gives you double the power by doubling the current.

The voltage stays the same because voltage in parallel is the same as long as both voltages are at the same level.

Now let's double the power again, this time by putting the DC power supply in series mode operation.

With series connection, instead of doubling the current as in parallel connection, we double the voltage.

So with series mode, with the 2 30V outputs, we can get a little over 60V when the DC power supply is in series mode.

I tested this and it works.

The configuration is a little different but still very simple.

In order to get the 60V of output or the output voltage you desire, you must place one wire on the + terminal of one output and the other wire on the negative terminal of the other output.

This is shown below.

With this setup, we now get double the voltage.

You do not have to max it out to the 60V. You can actually get whatever voltage you want.

Unlike in parallel operation, the voltages do not have to be equal.

This means, that if you want to get 50V, one output can be set to 30V and the other to 20V. The two can be completely uneven and the total output voltage will be the sum of the 2 voltages.

In series connection, the current remains the same.

So if you are working with a multiple output DC power supply, you may be completely underutilizing it if you are not using parallel and series operation modes.

You can get double the power by either doubling the current or doubling the voltage.

This obviously makes this type of DC power supply very useful because it has more power to power more power-hungry devices.

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