Re: MOT current draw question

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

Original poster: "J Whyte by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <xoom321-at-hotmail-dot-com>




>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: MOT current draw question
>Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002 16:11:02 -0700
>
>Original poster: "Marry Krutsch by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
><u236-at-earthlink-dot-net>
>
>Hi all.
>
>	I just got a new current xfmr, and used it to measure the current draw
>on all my HV xfmrs.  My copier trannies measured acuratly at 8.4 amps,
>but my MOTs were a different story.  According to the current xfmr and
>Fluke meter they pull between 20 and 40 amps!  That can't be right,
>since I did the test on a 15 amp breaker which is supposed to trip at
>17.5 amps.  What is happening?  How can I get an accurate measurment?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Winston K.
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
JW replied:

Hey, I'm also having the same problem....I was doing a 2 MOT series...and it 
looked like I was pulling 120V -at- 20A out of a 15A plug! I got a 13" arc at 4 
kV....then "BANG!" I overloaded the 15A breaker. My peak output would be 4kV 
-at- 600 mA!!
...my smallr MOT's are only sucking 6.6A on 120V.....but they can draw 3 X 
that amount in series!