Re: Ballasts and PFC for 15 kVA pig

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Yurtle Turtle <yurtle_t@xxxxxxxxx>

I bought a 100 amp breaker and ran a dedicated service
to my disconnect. That ought to solve any problems
your 60 amp breaker may cause, if the PFC thing
doesn't do enough. That's assuming your house has a
200 amp service.

Adam

--- Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Original poster: "David Rieben"
> <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I have a couple of questions to put up to the list
> for
> the expertise advice out there. I have recently
> tried
> replacing my arc welder ballast for the 15 kVA pig
> power supply of my Green Monster Tesla system
> with a large isolation transformer. I'm not looking
> at
> the iso tranny right now but I think it's a Toshiba
> made unit that's rated for 208/240 volt input and
> 120/
> 208/240 volt output @ 10 kVA. It also has (2) heavy
> output leads that are rated at 10 volts. Although
> this
> unit ia rated at a mere 10 kVA, it tips the scales
> at
> a husky 232 lbs. I am running the 240 volt input
> wind-
> ing of it with the high amperage 10 volt cantacts
> shorted.
> With the old 225 amp welder ballast, I could draw
> from 70
> to 85 amps (according to the control panel meter)
> with the
> variac turned all the way up and could pull 16" to
> 20" power
> arc across the HV bushings of the pig. However with
> this
> monster iso tranny as a ballast in the same
> configuration
> and with the heavy current 10 volt rated leads
> shorted together,
> I can draw over 3 ft. of power arc across the HV
> bushings
> of the pig! WHOOOOOPPEEEEE !!!!! ;^))))) However
> this
> power arc stunt also pegs out the 150 amp scale of
> the panel
> ammeter. Still a couple of seconds of pulling this
> monster power
> arc dosen't trip my 60 amp breaker. Go figure? What
> I'm wondering
> is can I reasonably expect this increase in
> available power
> to increase the spark output of the coil? I haven't
> yet had a
> chance to drag out the coil and fire it up on my
> driveway
> since doing this iso tranny modification but I
> thought I would see
> what you guys thought about it until I can get a
> chance to
> try it out.
>
> Also, since I'm starting to pull currents that even
> tax my
> 60 amp 240 volt service, I just ordered (10) 100
> uFd, 370
> VAC power factor running caps and I was wanting to
> try
> to PFC the input to my pig with them. Bart's Java TC
> De-
> signer states 691 uFd PFC for my setup and I was
> won-
> dering how I should wire these caps with the pig's
> inputs? I
> assume in parallel with the 240 volt inputs of the
> pig? I guess
> I would try 7 of these in parallel with the 240 volt
> input to
> the pig first. I've heard it's a bad thing to OVER
> power
> factor correct with too much capacitance.
>
> Thanks for any comments,
> David Rieben
>
>
>