Ballasts and PFC for 15 kVA pig

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi all,

I have a couple of questions to put up to the list for
the expertise advice out there. I have recently tried
replacing my arc welder ballast for the 15 kVA pig
power supply of my Green Monster Tesla system
with a large isolation transformer. I'm not looking at
the iso tranny right now but I think it's a Toshiba
made unit that's rated for 208/240 volt input and 120/
208/240 volt output @ 10 kVA. It also has (2) heavy
output leads that are rated at 10 volts. Although this
unit ia rated at a mere 10 kVA, it tips the scales at
a husky 232 lbs. I am running the 240 volt input wind-
ing of it with the high amperage 10 volt cantacts shorted.
With the old 225 amp welder ballast, I could draw from 70
to 85 amps (according to the control panel meter) with the
variac turned all the way up and could pull 16" to 20" power
arc across the HV bushings of the pig. However with this
monster iso tranny as a ballast in the same configuration
and with the heavy current 10 volt rated leads shorted together,
I can draw over 3 ft. of power arc across the HV bushings
of the pig! WHOOOOOPPEEEEE !!!!! ;^))))) However this
power arc stunt also pegs out the 150 amp scale of the panel
ammeter. Still a couple of seconds of pulling this monster power
arc dosen't trip my 60 amp breaker. Go figure? What I'm wondering
is can I reasonably expect this increase in available power
to increase the spark output of the coil? I haven't yet had a
chance to drag out the coil and fire it up on my driveway
since doing this iso tranny modification but I thought I would see
what you guys thought about it until I can get a chance to
try it out.

Also, since I'm starting to pull currents that even tax my
60 amp 240 volt service, I just ordered (10) 100 uFd, 370
VAC power factor running caps and I was wanting to try
to PFC the input to my pig with them. Bart's Java TC De-
signer states 691 uFd PFC for my setup and I was won-
dering how I should wire these caps with the pig's inputs? I
assume in parallel with the 240 volt inputs of the pig? I guess
I would try 7 of these in parallel with the 240 volt input to
the pig first. I've heard it's a bad thing to OVER power
factor correct with too much capacitance.

Thanks for any comments,
David Rieben