Re: Tesla Coil Earthing

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Chris Rutherford" <chrismrutherford@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Pete,

I'm fairly new to building coils too.  When putting down my earth I 
also had some concerns.  My garden was about 15 meters (50ft) from my 
lab so I had the distance to consider.  In the end I used all three 
cores of a good quality mains extension lead to cover the distance 
i.e. (3 core 50/0.25).  I then hammered 4 copper pipes about 2ft deep 
in to the garden and wired them to my 'earth lead', each pipe being 
about 1 ft from the other in line.  This earth worked fine for my 
1KVA system.  Your question depends a lot on power.   I can't really 
comment on anything above 1KVA.

Thanks

Chris

On 4/5/07, Tesla list <<mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Original poster: PeteWoloszyn 
<<mailto:pwoloszy@xxxxxxxxxxx>pwoloszy@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi,

I am new to this list and am in the process of building my first coil.
I am concerned about the earthing arrangement and the amount of
return current that i will be pumping into the ground.

How close (or far) should the electrode be placed from the coil?

Has anyone ever given consideration to touch and step voltage hazards
surrounding the electrode and what the minimum clearances are for
people for a particular configuration?

Cheers,
Peter