Re: Cap W/ Electret

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

On the other hand, the mechanical stresses on the capacitor due to voltage
reversal might be less (essentially, you wouldn't have any reversal)

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>"
<Gary.Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>
> 
> I see a couple of problems.
> 
> First, polycarbonate and acrylic are fairly lossy dielectrics compared
> to polyethylene or polypropylene.
> 
> More importantly, by "freezing" a static charge into the dielectric, it
> would then have a DC bias.  If an unmodified sheet of the material had a
> nominal static breakdown voltage rating of 10kV and you imparted a 5kV
> bias into it, then it could only withstand a 5kV AC oscillation, whereas
> an unmodified sheet could withstand 10kV..
> 
> I'm not sure what the goal of the electret is in this application.
> You're not going to be getting any "free energy".
> 
> Gary Lau
> MA, USA
>