[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: Ballast Buddy Bill Burns Billions of BTUs...
(big snip from Ballast Bill (the arcstarter's) post)
>There's been talk of resistive vs inductive ballasting. My impression is
>that if you have a particular budget of, say, 70 amps to deal with, and your
>ballast allows you to limit to that value, then it has done it's job. I
>can't see a huge difference between a resistive vs inductive if the load
>(pig) only gets 70 amps through it either way. Personally I don't mind the
>electric meter spinning round and round faster with the resistive ballast.
>I could run a 10 KW JL for an hour for something like $1. Thats cheap
>entertainment!
Hi Bill,
A large inductor in series with the input to a pole pig will cause it to
behave somewhat differently than just a resistor in series. Inductors
store energy after all, so using your example above, even though you may be
limiting to an average of 70 amperes, with an inductor you could be getting
peaks that are much higher. I've used both types of limiting and the
difference at the same current levels is noticeable. An interesting
experiment can be to run a Jacob's ladder using both types and note the
difference in the arc. Resistive limiting creates a nice orange arc that
hums loudly, but with inductive limiting (particularly using something big
like a welder) the arc takes on an entirely different character. It is
much longer, louder, and generally more impressive. On my own coils I have
found that performance increased substantially with the inductive limiter.
There was a dicussion on this list quite a while ago about arc welders and
possible flyback effects when used in Tesla circuits.
Zap!
Charles Brush
http://www.foundrygroup-dot-com/cbrush/fun