Re: The Tabletop Tesla Coil Showdown - OFFICIAL RULES and WEBSITE

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

John C,

I would say the opposite is true; that coils become more
efficient at high powers.  A lot more large coils beat my
formula than do small ones.  

A 6" spark with 5 watts input?   It must have had a very low
rep rate.  At a low enough rep rate, one could get a 5 foot
spark with 5 watts.  

John F.


>
> I agree with Malcolm. Beating John Freau's  1.7 sqrt(VA) is more of a
> challenge to coilers. That is the first rule required. The second rule would
> cover the type of spark. Spark types have never been agreed upon by coilers
> in the past for any kind of test. Because large coils are inefficient only
> small coils could be used. I believe it was R. Hull who said that he was
> able to get a 6 inch spark with 5 watts input. That is a 57% increase over
> the John F. equation. So the challenge is not an impossible goal.
>
> As the input VA of the Tesla coil is increased the overall efficiency
> decreases and the maximum spark length becomes much less than the John F.
> equation. It would be interesting to know the VA input that gives the
> optimum spark length. It looks like 5 VA is the winner at present.
>
> John Couture