Power supply using a voltage regulator?

[earthwalker]

I would like to inquire if a voltage regulator maybe used as a power supply to a system. I am not very familiar with EE stuffs so any help would be appreciated :)

Our system consists of aluminum metal plates submerged in water. It needs to be supplied with 10A (DC) thru the portion of the plate that is not submerged.

What I have is a voltage regulator with variable output. Its input is 220V and output maybe adjusted thru a knob from 0-250V and with maximum capacity of 12A.

My question is that will it suffice to serve as our power supply? Would the output be DC or AC? And am I right to say that what we are supposed to do is to adjust the voltage output until the current read is 10A? Thanks in advance.

 

[sophiecentaur]

If you are "not very familiar with EE" then I would strongly advise that you steer well clear of building equipment to operate with live 220V parts. What you describe seems potentially dangerous and discussing it is probably contrary to PF rules, I'm afraid

 

[earthwalker]

Hi sophiecentaur, thanks for your concern. However, doing the experiment is a must as it is a research that's pre-requisite for graduation on my engineering degree. What do you suggest then?

 

[jim hardy]

Start with a ten-amp battery charger. It does not make lethal voltage.

It doesn't take hundreds of volts to dissociate water.

Ask the maintenance guys at your school. I'll bet there's a 'dead' golfcart charger around someplace, perhaps security, and repairing it would be a good learning experience. They're typically 30 amps 36 volts do won't "bite" unless you're wet.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Even with a golfcart charger, if used without care, you can easily have a fire with 360VA. I wonder if the OP has considered how necessary FUSES are in a situation like this?

 

[sophiecentaur]

Hi sophiecentaur, thanks for your concern. However, doing the experiment is a must as it is a research that's pre-requisite for graduation on my engineering degree. What do you suggest then?

If this is a lab project then why do you need hundreds of volts and amps? A small scale investigation using a bench power supply should produce all the data you could need about electrolysis with aluminium (unless you are actually considering electrolytic refining).

 

[earthwalker]

Thats what I have on hand. Anyway, maybe I'm just going to ask someone more experienced at the subject matter to assemble it for me. Thanks for your help anyways!