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FW: Power versus Spark Length
From: FutureT-at-aol-dot-com[SMTP:FutureT-at-aol-dot-com]
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 1997 4:30 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Power versus Spark Length
>snip
> To find the efficiency of a Tesla coil the "energy in" and "energy out"
> must be found. I will use watt seconds because this also is energy. The
> "watt seconds in" can be found by electronic meters and the "watt second
> out" can be found by using an incandescent lamp and light meter. Note that
> the lamp and meter could also be used for the input. The lamp and light
> meter give reasonable accuracy from DC to RF frequencies.
> There are several possible methods of rating a Tesla coil using the
> secondary terminal output spark. The input could be the same as for the
> efficiency rating. The output rating could be either the maximum free air
> spark length or the continuous spark length. This could also be used to
give
> the TC a rating in watts per foot of spark. The input watt seconds could
> also be devided by the breaks per second to give a watt second per spark
rating.
John C,
Yes, we can use two different ratings as you suggest.
> The importance of accurate ratings of TC's is to ensure that the TC
> improvement is actually a gain in TC output over input to compare various
> coils including magnifiers. This would also show a true increase in
> efficiency or input to spark length.
A coil could be more efficient in the true energy is vs, energy out, but
still not give longer sparks. It depends on what the energy is
accomplishing. The energy could be radiating, or producing numerous
short sparks, or creating a giant (but short) plasma flame, or producing
short really thick hot sparks.
>Without these standards the estimating
> of what a builder thinks is an improvement in his coil cannot be verified
> because different tests give different results..
It would be nice to know what kind of energy throughput we're obtaining
in our coils, in addition to knowing our spark lengths.
> Regarding your 15 KV, 60 ma neon coil, how long did you run it and was
> there overheating? I made a JHCTES printout of your coil with a 2600 watt
> input and the program showed a 55 inch continuous spark. This is in close
> agreement with your 65 inch free air spark.
I did not run it for longer than 1 minute bursts. The unpotted neon
transformer did get warm eventually. I generally find a MUCH greater
difference between continuous spark length and free air spark length.
I believe that my 65" sparks would reach only 20" or less in continuous
spark length.
John Freau
> As for computer simulation the JHCTES computer program is flexible enough
> to be modified to agree with the empirical data as it comes in from coilers
> using the above standards. The program would then become public property.
> The program now includes most of the necessary TC parameters including
> toroid size.
John Couture
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