Q&A: How to use heat flux for clapton coils

How to use the heat flux in the Wire Wizard to find the optimal watts for a clapton coil?

In a typical clapton coil, the wrapping wire(s) has a much higher resistance than to the core wire(s). Therefore there’s not much current flowing there. This means that the vast majority of the heat is dissipated in the core.

The blue box on the left of the Wire Wizard shows the heat flux per square millimetre. This is an average of the whole coil. With the wrap dragging this average number down, the number you see may be much lower than you would expect, given how hot the vape actually feels.

In order to get the complete picture, find the “Show results for all components” checkbox at the upper right of the Wire Wizard, and check it.

Now you can see the heat flux values for each individual wire. As you can see, the core has a much higher heat flux than the complete coil. The wrap has almost nothing.

Long story short: In order to judge how much power to vape this coil at, you want to focus mainly on the heat flux of the core. This is where most of the action is.

Keep in mind that the wrap is not completely irrelevant. Although the current hardly heats it directly, the wrap wire does dissipate some heat from the core indirectly. So you will still have to rely on some amount of trial and error, and/or experience, in order to achieve that perfect vape.