widespread misconception (pig kVA)

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Pyrotrons-at-aol-dot-com>

Hi All.

I think there is some misconception dealing with pig ratings.

I see a lot of pig powered Tesla coils on the web, in which their builders 
state something like "I'm running XXX amount of kVA into my coil, and my pig 
is only rated half of that! Sometimes, the builder is a little surprised that 
the pig is not killed due to pulling much more juice out of it than it is 
"rated".

The faceplate rating of a pig, in kVA, is definately NOT the power that it 
can handle. I mean, the pig feeding 225A -at- 240V into most houses is rated 
10kVA....................

It must be the dissipative power rating. How much (I^2) R loss the pig can 
dissipate as raw heat. Or something, I don't know. But it can't be its rated 
input/output power, no way, 225 * 240 is so far from10kVA.

My main point is, you're not overdriving a pig until you're pulling upwards 
of 225 amps from the primary. A pig CAN be overdriven voltage-wise......Aron 
and I have done this a million times, putting 240V on the 120V terminals. 
This causes the core to saturate, but since it's externally current limited, 
this is okay. Although we can actually hear corona on the inside it hasn't 
hurt anything. They're dang near indestructible. Notice I said dang 
near.....I'd like to shake the guy's hand who has killed a pig with his Tesla 
coil ; ) I heard it has been done.

My 2 * (10^-18) attocents on pig rating ; )

Justin Hays
KC5PNP
G-3 #1150
Email: pyrotrons-at-aol-dot-com
Website: www.hvguy-dot-com