Brandon Hendershot wrote:
Hi all,
I know that it's said that you need an entirely seperate ground rod
when opperating tesla coils because the high voltage grounding
through the house wiring is extremely dangerous to anything plugged
into any other grounded outlet on the same circuit.
Not precisely..
You need a separate RF return for the coil, be it a counterpoise,
good grounding system, etc.
The reason you don't want it interconnected too well with the "house
ground" is that it will propagate HV transients into your house
wiring system (by capacitive and inductive coupling).. those
transients wreak havoc on most consumer electronics.
I wouldn't say "extremely dangerous".. I'd reserve that for
something like juggling chain saws.
But what if you attached the coils
ground wire directly to the ground rod. It would be bypassing the
house wiring, so the high voltage won't be running by any precious
electronics inside the house. It shouldn't be running back up into
the house right?
Exactly.. But there is a problem because at some point, you need to
bond to the "green wire ground" at least for things that are plugged
in or that you might touch (e.g. equipment cases).
I'm trying to be minimalistic so I don't have to try to pound down
a ground rod of my own.
Think counterpoise.. a big conductive sheet.. chicken wire works
well. A circle that has radius = the height of the top load above it.
Hook that to the bottom of your secondary.
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