If you want to replace a defective capacitor but the replacements you find do not have enough capacitance, you can increase their capacitance by:

• A. connecting two or more capacitors in series
• B. connecting two or more capacitors in parallel
• C. increasing the voltage with a potential relay
• D. reducing the motor current with a current relay

Answer: (B)

Capacitances add when you connect capacitors in parallel, so the total capacitance becomes the sum of the individual values. This lets you compensate for not having a single capacitor with enough capacitance by combining several capacitors to reach or exceed the required value, while still across the same supply voltage. If you connected them in series, the effective capacitance would actually decrease, which would not help here. The other ideas about increasing voltage or modifying current don’t change the capacitance at all. So parallel connections are the practical way to raise the total capacitance.