Re: NST Study results

[Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>]

Hi Al,

	The caps have to be rated for continuous duty.  These certainly do sound
like great caps.  You can simply plug them into the 120 VAC for a about 10
minutes (with all due care!) and if they do not get hot or explode they are
the right kind of caps.  It should not affect your coils performance but
will reduce the AC current by about 1/2.  This is really a big help if your
coil draws so much current now that fuses blow and such.  The value is
fine.  As long as you go with less than is recommended, most of the current
reduction is gained early as you add capacitance, so don't worry about
getting too close the the "exact" value.

Cheers,

	Terry

At 02:23 AM 9/12/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Thanks Terry!  So that would mean that I would need about 300mf of PFC
>for my coil, give or take a few mf, does that sound proper?  Would a bank
>of mercury lamp ballast capacitors work?  They are in a metal can and are
>22.5mf each, and are rated at 280vac.  I would parallel them to get the
>desired capacitance using 1/4" quick connect crimp fittings.  I have 14
>of them and can realize a bank of 315mf of PFC.  Do you think this is
>worth trying?  Thank you.   Al.
>
>On Sun, 10 Sep 2000 12:32:35 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>writes:
>> Original poster: Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>
>> 
>> Hi Al,
>> 
>> 	In general, they do add in a linear way.  So if you double 
>> the NSTs, you
>> double the PFC capacitance.  However, that assumes that the primary
>> capacitance doubles too.  If you leave the primary cap the same, 
>> then two
>> transformers will be driving that primary cap value.  So you would 
>> use the
>> chart number for 1/2 the Cprimary.
>> 
>> 	Just think of it as two completely separate primaries that 
>> you are
>> paralleling up.
>> 
>> In general, Adding PFC caps will cut the current draw by about 1/2.  
>> Thus,
>> you can run twice the NST on the same variac and AC line fuse.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> 	Terry
>> 
>> 
>> At 04:12 PM 9/10/00 -0400, you wrote:
>> >Very nice Terry!  Thank you for compiling all this data!  I shall 
>> now use
>> >it to apply PFC to my coil.  Would it hold true then that two 15kv 
>> -at-
>> >60ma. neons would need roughly 340 to 400 mf of PFC (meaning, using 
>> your
>> >chart data for current and pfc for one neon, would it hold true 
>> that the
>> >pfc needed would be double for two neons?).  Al.   
>> >
>> >On Sat, 09 Sep 2000 22:11:59 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>> >writes:
>> >> Original poster: Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>
>> >> 
>> >> Hi All,
>> >> 
>> >> I have posted the results (so far) of my NST study at:
>> >> 
>> >> http://216.160.168.190/TeslaCoils/Misc/NSTStudy/NSTStudy.htm
>> >> 
>> >> The main site is 'now' at:
>> >> http://216.160.168.190/TeslaCoils/TeslaCoils.htm
>> >> Note that this site's address occasionally changes (like it did 
>> >> Thursday ;-))
>> >> 
>> snip... 
>> 
>> 
>