Re: Safety of Running Coil in Garage

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com>

In a message dated 2/2/03 3:49:02 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:
Hi Alan,
comments interspersed:

>I would like to run it in my
>garage but am worried about damaging the electronics in the house. What can
>I do to be safe in the garage or should I just not run it there? There is a
>garage door unit and a light close to where it would be running.


I use to run a 10 kVA pole pig powered coil in the garage of my old house,
BUT it was a detached building from the main house. It was throwing up
to 10 ft. sparks inside the close confines of the 12 X 24 shop :-0 YEHAW!
However in my new house, I am relegated to an enclosed double garage
complete wtiht the garage door opener, so I don't dare run it inside :-(

<< Also, the
<< family computer is directly behind the garage wall. So, there's not much
<< physical distance between it and the coil(about 10-15ft).

Yea, in my new residence I have the control to the alarm system just
inside the door from the garage to the inside of the house and even when
I run it outside my garage, it makes the alarm system go haywire :-(

<< My second
<< question is: how big should the sparks be from a coil powered by 2
<< 15kv/30ma transformers(15kv/60ma total)?

With optimization and proper tuning, you should be able to obtain  up
to around 5 ft. arcs. This may be pushing it a bit with garage door opener
and all. OTH, I think John Freau does all of his coiling indoors, as in inside
his den or dining room, and he has made sparks up to 5 ft. or more I be-
lieve. I'll let John himself comment any further on this but the bottom
line is that you can coil in confined overhead spaces if you're careful and
the power levels aren't too extreme.

Sparkin' in Memphis,
David Rieben