One typical mistake made by many amateur designers is using a transformer that has a voltage that’s too low for the combination of rectifier, filter and regulator used. The situation is this: You need 13.8V at the output at all times. Your regulator eats up a certain minimum voltage, which depends on its design. Many regulators need at least 2V across them, so you need 15.8V minimum at the worst time across the filter capacitor.

This is the voltage at the minimum point of the ripple waveform, but the capacitor needs to be charged to the maximum of this ripple voltage. So, the size of the capacitor defines how much additional voltage you need for this. A 60000uF capacitor, used at 20A, and discharging during almost a half cycle at 50Hz (10ms), will drop the voltage by almost 3.3V.

So, you need to charge the capacitor to at least 19.2V under the worst conditions! If you are using a bridge rectifier made from silicon diodes, which loose about 1.2V each at peak current, then you end up having two diodes conducting at the time of charging the capacitor, dropping a total of 2.4V. So, the transformer needs to develop 21.6V peak voltage. This happens under heavy load, as most of the charging of the capacitor happens during a very short time, so there is a lot of voltage drop in the transformer, maybe 10 to 15%, depending on its size.

So, you need to consider a transformer that develops about 24 or 25V peak voltage. Finally, you need to consider that the power line from which your design gets its power is not 100% stable! Allowing for 10% worst case sag in the power line, you end up needing a transformer that at nominal line voltage and small load provides about 27V peak! That would be 19V RMS.

This linear power supply delivers a highly regulated 13.8V, adjustable over a moderate range, at a continuous current of up to 20A. It is current-limited to approximately 25A, and short circuit protected for as long as the heat sink can keep the transistors cool enough. It is probably the simplest design that can accomplish this.

Some notes about this power supply circuit:

• Use a transformer for the primary voltage you need. The 3A fuse is for 220 or 240V primaries. If you use something in the neighborhood of 110V, use a 6A fuse.
• The rather high transformer rating of 35A accounts for the losses that occur due to the capacitive input filter. If your transformer is rated for capacitive input, then a 25A value is enough.
• Of course you can make up C1 by placing several smaller capacitors in parallel. Likewise, the 0.1 Ohm, 5 Watt resistors can be made up by several in parallel, for example by 5 resistors of 0.5 Ohm, 1 Watt each.
• The LM336Z-5.0 voltage reference IC should not be replaced by a zener diode. Zeners are not nearly as stable. A different voltage reference IC can of course be used, if R2 and R3 are modified for the different voltage.
• D1 and Q2 through Q6 need heatsinking. Only Q2 needs insulation. D1 dissipates up to 60W, Q2 up to 25W, while the pass transistors dissipate up to 30W each in normal use, but may reach a level of 130W during short circuit! Take this into account when choosing the heat sink!
• R5 exists only to make sure that the transistors can actually be driven off. The 741 is not a single-supply operational amplifier, so it cannot drive its output very low. If a true single-supply opamp is used, then R5 becomes unnecessary.

Source: 13.8V 20A linear power supply