input transformer trouble

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Andreas by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jolly-at-husum-dot-net>

i am a new coiler and trying to start with 4 MOTs and lots of 125V 18uF
capacitors (i got 900 of them due to a failure in my first calulation,
but no big deals because all 900 together were about $20). my first test
of the transformer (secondary in series) woked but not as i expected. so
i connected only a single MOT to my power line which gives me about
1850V. my power line is 230V. here is my problem:

all 4 MOTs have a power consumption of 8 Amps with secondary open. one
MOT draws 2 Amps. i want to build a tesla coil of 2400 Watts power
consumption. (to make it running on a single phase with 16 Amps max.).
my single MOT draws 2 Amps even without getting warm (not in 30
seconds)!

then i connected my 12-22 multi gap and some of these capacitors in
series (128=0.14uF) to see how much current it draws then. when my multi
gap is too far appart (no sparks) it draws 5 Amps (3 Amps more), which
seems pretty ok.

when i reduce the size of my gap, my single MOT draws about 6 Amps,
which i do not understand yet. if i get them closer together (the sparks
get smooth), i draw about 15 Amps from my power line.

here are my questions:

1. why does my MOT draws 2 Amps?
2. how do i calculate the amount of "more power" when using a sparc gap?
(noone talks about that.)
3. my goal is to use all 4 MOTs (>=600VA each) to make 7400 Volts and
2400VA to run a tesla coil at about 1000000 Volts. (all formulas i found
say that i get 1000000 volts with a 2400VA input transformer) anything i
might not have thought of?

i had no probs of putting 4 MOTs in series. my calculated resonance
frequency will be about 100KHz. the size of the secondary will be about
40 inch high and 10 inch diameter.
the thing is to make it running on a standard power plug (230V 16A in
germany) to be able to show it my grand parents when i visit them :)

mfg...

andreas