Re: Current regulation for Variac

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

Original poster: "Tesla by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <tesla-at-tezla-dot-com>

At 12:01 2001-10-07 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: "Skip Malley by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><skipmalley-at-catskill-dot-net>
>
>Maybe I am silly but why not change the fuse to a larger slow blow 
>fuse.  10A is certainly small for 3.5KVA.  Try 15A slow blow.  The larger 
>the fuse, the slower it will blow.  If you really want a 10A fuse, try a 
>smaller variac.  The larger the inductor, the larger the initial turn on

No, i don't think that's silly but there are some practical limitations to what
you
are suggesting. First of all changing to a bigger fuse requires some
modification
to the fusebox, wich is an easy task. But the wiring would not be too happy
with
that kind of load. Don't wanna burn down the house.

The fuse i am using IS a slow fuse. Doesn't help.

I have two of these variacs sitting around so why not use them. They can handle
3.5kVA but i'm certainly not going to use their full capacity wich of course
would
cause the fuse to pop. Even if i move one of these to the next standardized
fuse(16A) it still blows the fuse once in a while. I have tried that.

If people around here in Sweden were as happy to arrange hamfests as in the US
i could probably buy a load of (smaller)variacs but; that isn't so.
Even a small variac here costs about 100-150$ wich my wallet don't like.
Yeah, i know. Taxes are really bad in Sweden(as is the surplus component
market)
Anyone else who know what i mean? =)

Many things around here use far bigger components than my "puny" variac and
still doesn't
blow a 10A fuse so changing the variac is just going around the problem(in an
expensive/tideous way)
wich as i've seen in previous posts can be fixed rather easily.

Just thought that i would explain. (Am i going of topic now?)

Cheers!

//Matt




Matthias "Tesla" Andersson 
http://www.tezla-dot-com
tesla-at-tezla-dot-com
-"Why Am I Glowing In The Dark?"