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Re: Big coils in/near house : was - Warning on DRSSTC's
Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi William, all,
Well, here's a spot that I can actually offer my
"professional" insight ;^) I have been a profes-
sional firefighter for 17 years now, so I will offer
a few of my comments :^) interspersed below:
Original poster: William Beaty <billb@xxxxxxxxxx>
On Fri, 2 Dec 2005, Tesla list wrote:
> Original poster: Terry Fritz <vardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Gosh!!!
>
> > "I thought this was extremely unwise, but they tried it anyway. (It
> > was raining outside.)"
>
> :o))) Yeah! that's a good excuse :o)) Been there done,
> that... Sometimes Coils are too cool not to run no matter what it
takes ;-))
Infamous quote from just before firing up the coil (which is on videotape
soundtrack of the incident:) "I don't mind. This place is a rental."
Also: if you're standing outside in the rain while crowds of fire trucks
gather on the street, the fire trucks' strobe lights will "freeze" the
raindrops, and you'll see a three dimensional array of sparks hanging in
the air.
Yes, you can but trust me, you don't want to have to catch your house
on fire to lure the fire trucks with all of their "pretty lights" to
your place!
I can tell you first hand, it dosen't really take that much "out of control"
fire to really gut your home and the fire and flame damage is only part of
the equasion. What also comes into play besides fire and smoke damage
is the destruction the firemem will cause to whatever gets in their way of
getting to the seat of the fire (think walls, ceilings, windows, roofing, ect)
Fire is often seated inside of walls or in the attic and tearing throught the
intervening medium is the only option to get to the seat of the
fire in a timely manner. Many civilians don't understand when they see
us tearing up walls or cutting holes in the roof and tend to think that
we are being unduely destructive but I can assure you that it is neces-
sary to properly accomplish extinguishment of the fire and assure that there
is no rekindle.
Also, lets not forget how much 500 gallons of water in your home can
tend to ruin your whole day! Water is the main firefighting tool of the
fireman's arsenal and also the main resource that a fireman has no
qualms about using liberally! Just a little fire can = a whole lot of water
damage to the contents of your home (and your home itself)!
Also: fire crews have really cool FLIR infrared cameras which can see
hotspots in your ceiling.
Yep, and those things have a pretty handsome price tag as well.
Several thousand $$$, I believe. In my department (city of Memphis)
we have only had those IR cameras widely available for most engine
houses for the last year or so. Before that, only the specialized
hazmat companies were issued those.
> I have a good tip to remember. If a coil runs at say 1000
> watts. About %30 of that goes into the gap with 700 watts left
> over. If you don't "see" that 700 watts, be afraid, be very
> afraid!!! It has to go somewhere!!!
>
> Happy to know the damage was not real bad!!! Thanks for sharing
> this. It helps to keep us on our toes!!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Terry
>
> At 05:10 PM 12/2/2005, you wrote:
> >On Tue, 29 Nov 2005, Tesla list wrote:
> >
> > > I finally removed my RF ground system to some 40 ft away
> > > from the house down the driveway and since firing my coil
> > > at this "remote" distance from the house, I have had no
> > > more problems ;^)
> >
> >NEAR a house?!
> >
> >At a Weird Science meeting at a private home, a new coiler fired up his
> >8.5ft coil in the livingroom. 9ft ceilings! I thought this
was > >extremely
> >unwise, but they tried it anyway. (It was raining outside.) Little 6"
> >sparks jumped from the coil (no toroid) to the ceiling.
> >
> >About 15 minutes later I smelled burning rubber. It was
stronger > >outside.
> >Smoke was pouring from the roof eves vents.
> >
> >An hour later, after the FOUR FIRE TRUCKS had left, we knew that
the > >fire
> >had started in the cellulose crawlspace attic insulation far from the
> >coil. The coil arc had landed on a large sheet of aluminum foil
> >insulation in the ceiling, then jumped through the pile of
blown > >cellulose
> >to another piece of foil. The fire had gone out quickly by itself, but
> >the attic crawlspace was full of smoke.
> >
> >So, its actually relatively easy to BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN.
Absolutlely so and I almost pulled this same stunt a number of years ago.
Sparks from my coil that I was firing in the living room of my home
hit the ceiling and some 10 minutes after firing the coil I started noticing
an odor of burnt paper or wood. Being a fellow firefighter I started rea-
lizing what had probably happened and one look outside at the cornice
of the roof rafters verified my fears. There was smoke beginning to drift
out of the cornice and I quickly ran up into the attic and found the attic
already quite filled with acrid, eye watering white smoke. There was
a smoldering spot of the blown-in cellulose insulation about 12" in diameter.
I quickly ran back down stairs and got a pot full of water, ran back up into
the attic, found the smoldering spot and poured the water all over it. I did
manage to put it completely out but it left an ugly water mark on the ceiling
underneath. Nothing a little bit of touch-up paint couldn't take care of
though and certainly a better outcome than letting my fellow firefighters
take a shot at it with their axes and pike poles! Well, being a firefighter,
I chose not to share this story with my fellow workmates for obvious
reasons ;^o Boy, I would have never lived that one down! I thought that I
could share it with you fellow coilers to help keep us on our toes about fire
safety, though.
> >> > >(((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( > >> > > (O) ) ) ) )
)))))))))))))))))))
> >William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
> >billb at amasci com http://amasci.com
> >EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair
> >Seattle, WA 206-789-0775 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
David Rieben