Re: VERY HIGH BPS at 6kw! 240 V into the 120 V

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

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

On 15 May 2003, at 21:37, Tesla list wrote:

 > Original poster: "G by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
<bog-at-cinci.rr-dot-com>
 >
 >
 > >Very funny (but true) If you pump more than the rated voltage into a power
 > >transformer then the core just saturates and the transformer starts
 > >looking like a short circuit. So in the few seconds before your setup
 > >incinerates, you won't get much more than 14.4kV :( Otherwise we'd all be
 > >doing it! Of course if you double the frequency, you can double the
 > >voltage too with no saturation troubles. But good luck getting the power
 > >company to bring a 120Hz supply to your house :D
 > >
 > >Of course, potential transformers are an exception, they are built with a
 > >bit of headroom to read overvoltages accurately. The nameplate voltage is
 > >about 57V but everyone overdrives them to 120V.
 > >
 > >Steve C.
 >
 > All I can say is that I ran the system like this over 10 occasions last
 > season, and the runs were anywhere from 30 seconds to over 5 minutes at a
 > time, and the transformer was still ice cold. The ballast early in the
 > season was set to 25 amps, and later in the season, I ran a new circuit and
 > increased the current to 35.
 >
 > cya,
 > Gregory

Ballasting the primary is *not* the same thing as slamming 240V on
the primary of a 120V transformer.

Malcolm