Hi Dave, all,
Point well taken, and I certainly do not wish to appear cavalier when it comes to safety. I probably should also mention that I have somewhat of a "leg up" on the average John Q. Citizen in the realm of fire safety knowledge, as I am a 26+ year professional firefighter for my "day job". Around 20 years ago, I had a little incident where I was running a fair sized coil inside a room of my house. The sparks kept hitting the draywall ceiling and after a bit, I started noticing an odor of smoke. My firefighting experience prompted me to quickly investigate the source of the smoke odor. I discovered that the sparks had ignited the blown-in cellulose insulation in the attic over where I had been running my coil. Fortunately, this type of insulation only smolders and it was easy to extinguish by simply dumping a cooking pot full of water over the smoldering area. Yes, it did leave a water stain on the ceiling beneath, but that's certainly more acceptable than a
full blown attic fire! That's one incident that I chocked to experience and NEVER shared amongst my professional piers (for obvious reasons!) ;^))
Take care,
David Rieben
On Monday, January 12, 2015 7:54 AM, Dave Halliday <dh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi David
I am also operating under the conditions of "keep it safe".
My concern was not having an oil-filled transformer inside a residence if it
was not operating at the time of the fire. If it was on casters and you
assured (and had neighbor's testimony) that it was wheeled out onto the
driveway whenever you fired your coil, that should not be a hassle.
The conditions inside a breaker box are - to put it into one word - sacred.
There is a very limited set of what can be installed and even if your design
and engineering were flawless, the insurance companies do not want to spend
any more money than they can and will look for any and all loopholes.
Dedicated extension cord with a large metal box and mount the thermistors in
the box. No cooling vents, you want the box to get hot.
I live in the rural Pacific Northwest and subscribe to a couple alt.energy
email lists and every year or so, someone has a house fire and the insurance
companies are very reluctant to honor claims where there is anything outside
of code. Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, just relating facts...
Take care and talk with you later!
Dave
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> David Rieben
> Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2015 18:37
> To: Tesla Coil Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [TCML] NTC Thermistor surge suppression
>
> Hi Dave,
>
> Well, truth be told, I think if, God forbid, you, me, or any
> die hard coiler suffers a fire loss of electrical origin,
> there are probably numerous things that most of us do or have
> done to accommodate our insatiable desire for high voltage
> that probably aren't actually "up to code". A prime example
> is operation of an OIL-FILLED transformer inside of a
> permanent dwelling, since the gallons of dielectric oil could
> certainly pose a significant fuel load to complicate an
> active and uncontrolled fire situation, not to mention the
> obvious electrocution hazard. That's why electrically live
> oil-filled transformers are not allowed to be permanently
> installed inside of a permanent dwelling structure - they
> must be the dry type.
>
> Although we must each take responsibility for and accept the
> consequences our own actions, I think it's pretty safe to
> assume that the average subscriber to this forum is at least
> somewhat more electrically literate than the average person
> and many of us can use our discretion to "bend the rules"
> within reason, while maintaining relative safety. Like I
> said, I took precaution to insure that there was adequate
> clearance around the thermistor away from other wires and
> their insulation. I don't think 5 to 10 watts, at the most,
> of intermittent heat dissipation is going to significantly
> heat up the surrounding air space inside the breaker box to
> the point of having to consider the possibility of ignition
> of combustibles, with no direct surface to surface contact
> and a minimum of ~2" clearance around the thermistor body
> that should never exceed 220C. Bottom line is if I did have a
> fire of "electrical origin", I'm thinking that with one
> glance of the inside of
> my shop "man cave" work/play area from the adjuster, that
> thermistor in the service breaker panel would probably be the
> least of my worries! ;^o
>
> Keep it safe,
> David Rieben
>
>
> On Sunday, January 11, 2015 3:12 PM, Dave Halliday
> <dh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>
> Is this to code?
>
> If there is an electrical fire, will your insurance company
> honor your claim
> if they find any non-code items in your breaker panel.
>
> I would do an extension cord with a box with the thermistor
> wired into it.
>
> Dave
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Tesla [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> > David Rieben
> > Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2015 11:44
> > To: Tesla Coil Mailing List; Gary Lau
> > Subject: [TCML] NTC Thermistor surge suppression
> >
> > Hi Gary,
> >
> > Just wanted to thank you for providing me the eBay link to
> > those 1 ohm, 30 amp surge suppression thermistors. I actually
> > opened my breaker box and installed one in series with the 20
> > amp breaker that feeds my outlet that I run my variacs off
> > of, making sure to provided clearance of the thermistor body
> > from any wiring in the breaker box to allow for the surface
> > heating of the thermistor to ~200 - 220C. Virtually
> > eliminates breaker tripping with variac power ups.
> >
> > Thanks again,
> > David
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> > http://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla
>
>
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