Re: hv connections

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: hv connections
From: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-jpl.nasa.gov> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 12:45:17 -0700
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Date: Sunday, March 05, 2000 6:19 AM
Subject: Re: hv connections

>Original Poster: "Christopher Boden" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
>I was tought incorrectly. My mentor (a list member who I won't embarress)
>vehemently taught us that under normal conditions (like not living in a 90%
>salw water atmosphere) that apprx 600VAC was the bare minimum voltage for
>the breakdown of air. I looked at the wire we use and almost all of it is
>rated at 600VAC so this made perfect sense. Could someone tell me the
>paramiters and such for minimum voltage breakdown of air?

Take a look at http://home.earthlink-dot-net/~jimlux/hv/paschen2.htm  At the
bottom of the page is a table of minimum sparking potentials.  Air is 327
volts.

600VAC is significant in terms of the National Electrical Code (lots of
requirements change at that voltage, and most end-user equipment voltages
are less (e.g. 120, 240, 480), while distribution voltages tend to be higher
(i.e. 2 kV, 14.4kV etc.)

 Other
>dialecterics? I want to make sure I fill these holes im my (and those
around
>me) knowledge before I start blowing holes in my hands. :) I'm terribly
>allergic to pain. And given that Jim works for NASA I would have to assume
>he knows a fair bit more than my mentor. :)

Just because I work at JPL doesn't mean that I know particularly more or
less than anyone else. How do you know that my job isn't in payroll doing
tax withholding calculations...

>