RE: Variac blowing fuses (another newbie questin)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx>

On a tangent to this topic:

> - The fuse blows after I've dialed the variac up to full power from
> zero. It didn't blow immediately - rather, the coil ran for maybe
> 10-20 seconds.  I believe the variac was up to full power.  Both
> times, the fuse blew during strong continuous arc to grounded
> target.  Hasn't happened when streamers were not striking
> anything.  I always power up starting the variac at zero.

I have heard many reports that the mains current draw is highest when
streamers connect to a grounded target, but I can't think of any
explanation that would change the primary-side dynamics as a function of
whether the streamers find a target.  I monitored the current to my mini
coil, but couldn't see any change as I moved the target.  I have not
tried this with my big coil.

Can anyone suggest an explanation?  I can see that it will quench sooner
with a connected streamer, and this in theory would allow a higher
percentage of time that the cap can charge, and slightly higher break
rate, but I would guess this would be negligible.  I'll have to try that
with my big coil with a sync gap some time.

Thanks, Gary Lau
MA, USA