Quote:
Originally Posted by kona
You can increase the power handling of a zener by adding a power transistor. I think this is what what'snitro was saying except with a transistor. The transistor should be able to dissipate the power, but if you are afraid of melting wires, you could add a fuse. The nice thing about the zener shunt is that it is completely passive until needed.
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Yup, that should work. Once the output voltage exceeds the zener voltage, there will be enough current flow through the resistor to bias the transistor, which will dump the voltage to ground, which will then blow the fuse.