Variable Voltage vs Variable Wattage Devices

Essentially, the difference the difference between variable voltage and variable wattage is a bit like the difference between an automatic and a manual car. With a variable voltage device you manually control the amount of power (voltage) going through your device. The amount of energy that is actually output will depend on how the resistance of your atomiser interacts with that power flowing through it. With a variable wattage device, however, rather than telling the device how much power you want to flow through your atomiser, you tell it how much power (wattage) you want it to output. The variable wattage device will then automatically adjust the power going through the atomiser (the voltage) to produce the power output you need (the wattage).We have talk about what is sub-ohm vaping before, do you know what it is?

To put it another way, watts is essentially how much power the e-cig produces and voltage is how much power is put through the device. So, as you increase the wattage the voltage also increases and vice versa. Voltage is not the only factor which affects wattage – you also need to take into account the resistance of the coils. Lower resistance coils produce more flavour, vapour and heat at a lower voltage than higher ohm coils because they use more watts.

For example, if you have a 1.8ohm coil running on 3.7 volts you’ll get an output of around 7.3 watts – a decent vape. However, if you change the coil to a higher resistance of 2.8ohms you will notice a considerable decrease in flavour, vapour production and heat, as the wattage will be lower (around 4.4 watts) and you will need to increase the voltage to increase the wattage and thus get a better vape. Because lower resistance coils use more wattage, they tend to generate more heat and can burn out quicker than a higher resistance coil would.

What Does mAh in E-Cig Batteries Mean?

You’ve probably seen mAh used to describe electronic cigarette batteries. mAh is important because it measures how long a battery lasts. Going back to our car analogy, if voltage is the fuel then mAh is the size of the fuel tank – the bigger the tank the longer the car will go before it needs refuelling. mAh stands for Milliamps per hour, but we’ll go more into that below.

What Is Sub Ohm Vaping?

So, we’ve seen that by lowering the resistance and increasing the voltage we get more vapour, more throat hit and sometimes more flavor. Sub-ohming takes this to extremes by vaping at a resistance of less than 1 ohm. While this can produce massive amounts of vapor, it also puts stress on both the battery and the coil in your atomizer. It’s often done on a mechanical mod, which has no electrical safety switch and may increase the risk of an exploding battery if not used correctly. Until recently, sub-ohm vaping has been reserved for experienced vapers who want to push the boundaries with rebuidable atomizers.

Advanced Explanation of Voltage, Watts and Ohms for Vapers

Electronic cigarettes are incredibly simple circuits that contain a battery, a switch and a heating coil. The circuit is effectively a controlled short, with the power being output from the battery being used to create heat.

mAh

A milliampere hour (mAh) is 1000th of an ampere hour (Ah). Both are used as a measure of battery capacity, a higher mAh rating means more capacity. mAh only measures capacity and should not be confused with power.

Amps

The Amp (short for ampere) is a measure of current. An ampere is defined as 6.241*10 18 electrons (1 Coulomb) per second passing through a point in a circuit.

Voltage

Voltage is the amount of potential energy between two points in a circuit. One point will have more charge than the other. This difference in electrical charge between the two points is called voltage.

Watts

Watt is a measure of the amount of power consumed by an electrical device.

Ohms Law

Cartoon demonstrating how volts, watts and ohms work. Image above from sengpielaudio.com Ohms law refers to the calculations used to show the relationship between voltage, current and resistance. There are three of them, which we’ve listed below.

• V = Voltage measures in volts
• I = Current measures in amperes (Amps)
• R = Resistance measured in ohms
• By knowing any two of the three values, you can calculate the third using ohms law;

V = I x R (Voltage = Current Multiplied by Resistance)

R = V/I (Resistance = Voltage divided by Current)

I – V/R (Current =Voltage Divided by Resistance)

So, if you are using a 0.5ohm coil on a battery that gives 4.2 volts, you use the following sum to work out how many amps the circuit is draining from the battery.

I = 4.2/0.5 = 8.4A

This is useful for vapers to know, particularly if they are making their own coils. The sum above is the most useful, as you should not be vaping on a coil when you do not know its resistance, or on a battery with unknown voltage output.

tags: Ecigs Principles, ecigs