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Odd primary caps??
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From: Jim Lux [SMTP:James.P.Lux-at-jpl.nasa.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 1998 10:01 AM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Re: Odd primary caps??
Tesla List wrote:
>
> ----------
> From: Bill the arcstarter [SMTP:arcstarter-at-hotmail-dot-com]
> Sent: Monday, June 15, 1998 6:45 AM
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com; bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-com
> Subject: Re: Odd primary caps??
>
> It was written:
>
> >> are metal-can, case ground, GE "Dielectrol" units, picked up for five
> bucks
> >> at the power company surplus yard. The protection circuit is a pair
> of...
>
> >Nice catch! Power Factor Correction (PFC) caps that power
> >companies use are considerably more robust than most other caps
> >you'll encounter, since they have to withstand high amplitude
> >switching spikes, lightning transients, and tough environmental
> ...
>
> Hmm - I wouldn't have thought those caps would have tolerated seeing
> large currents at ~250 KHz, as found in a typical tesla coil... I would
> have thought these guys were optimized for 60Hz use only?
>
> I'll have to get me some of those... :)
>
> -Bill
I think that PFC caps have low loss (good for the utility), but I would
question how low their series inductance is. At 60 Hz, you wouldn't care
much about the series L, but at a few hundred kHz, it would make a big
difference. However, in small sizes, they might work just fine.