Fwd: Re: Current regulation for Variac

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

Original poster: "Skip Malley by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <skipmalley-at-catskill-dot-net>

Matt,
I do not know what you have in your house for an electrical system, but, in 
the US, we have circuit breakers that will blow much slower than a slow 
blow fuse.  The house is protected by these breakers.  If your electrical 
system is anything like our's , then you will not burn down the house.  It 
is probably the variac itself that is blowing the breaker.  These things 
can have an large initial turn-on current spike.  I would trust the 
electrical system in the house to protect itself.  The circuit breakers in 
a house electrical system are meant to protect the house from long term 
over heating of the wires and electrical outlets.  If you go to the next 
larger size fuse that will not blow, you will be OK.

Skip



>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?"