Re: Over-coupled or under-insulated?

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

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

In a message dated 3/18/03 4:50:01 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:


>Yes, the secondary is grounded via a coil of 14 gauge wire that's at most
>50 feet long. (that way I can simply coil and un-coil the ground rod
>whenever I'm setting it up and putting it away again) It was staked into
>the ground with an aluminium rod when it was at my house but it is at the
>school right now where it leads to a sink drain pipe. The sink is about 20
>feet away. I'm pretty sure it's grounded properly as we are getting the
>same size sparks as when it was staked into the ground, and since I also
>had this problem when it was at my house. Nevertheless, I will be taking
>the coil home tomorrow so I will be able to test it again on a confirmed
>ground. Would the small amount of coiled wire be a problem? (I'm running
>out of reasons of why this thing should be doing this =/ )


Chris,

Of course, there has been a lot of debate on this list regarding ground 
systems, even the requirement for one.  I am a believer.  I have a single 
copper ground rod for my smaller coil and a more substantial system for my 
larger coil.  The length of wire to ground on the small coil is about 15 
feet.  For the larger coil, running at 7 kva, the connection is made with 
copper flashing about 2 feet long to a multiple ground rod system.  You can 
always experiment with a short ground connection with low impedance and see 
if it makes any difference.  My belief is the higher the input power 
levels, the better and shorter the ground connections should be.

Ed Sonderman