RE: FW: Re: Tesla Coil Efficiency Test

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

Original poster: "John H. Couture by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <couturejh-at-mgte-dot-com>


Matt -

There are no standards I know of for finding the efficiency of a Tesla coil.
You can do this test in any way you wish. Then  publish your results with
details of the test. For the past hundred years the test has been a spark
test. It is now time to be more specific.

Your question brings up another question "How many losses do you want to
leave out of the test? The more losses you leave out the higher the
efficiency. For a Tesla coil the overall efficiency would include all the
losses starting at the input of the power transformer and ending just before
the load. For the lamp test this point would be at the input of the lamp.
The energy to light the lamp is found by multiplying the voltage and current
to light the lamp at the same brightness.

Another possible method is to calculate the capacitance energy in the
primary and secondary circuits using the  0.5CV^2  equation. The TC
efficiency is found by dividing the secondary energy by the primary energy.
This, however, leaves out some of the losses.

The above is only for classical type Tesla coils. Nowadays there are many
different electrical devices that are incorrectly called Tesla coils. These
devices do not meet the theoretical concepts of a classical TC. The most
important are the air core, dampened wave, and the Tesla's unique circuit.

John Couture

--------------------------


-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 6:27 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: FW: Re: Tesla Coil Efficiency Test


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

In the discussion of the complexities of TC efficiency even the simple
definition of output/Input is muddied in trying to achieve a consensus of
just
what constitutes the "output load". But this  brings up another question on
the
input side: Where does the Tesla Coil begin; just where is the "input
point"?
At the wall plug? At the Variac output (if it exists)? At the HV
transformer/PFC input? At the HV transformer output? Filter system output?
How
much of the control cabinet (if it exists),  or the power cabinet (if it
exists), or the protection filter system (if it exists) , etc., are part of
the
"input" in the efficiency equation?
With muddy feet,
Matt D.