Tesla Coils

[osci]

Mods please move, if in wrong forum.

I'm looking at the possibility generating my own energy/electricity, for example,

Would it be possible to use a Tesla Coil to power an appliance such as an ordinary household hot water service?

I admit my knowledge about tesla coils or electricity is not great, however I do know these coils can be used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency altenating current.

any thoughts anyone.

[fandtm666]

trash would be the man to ask

[beer4life]

Mods please move, if in wrong forum.

I'm looking at the possibility generating my own energy/electricity, for example,

Would it be possible to use a Tesla Coil to power an appliance such as an ordinary household hot water service?

I admit my knowledge about tesla coils or electricity is not great, however I do know these coils can be used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency altenating current.

any thoughts anyone.

He was indeed a brilliant man.

Ranks alongside Albert Einstein.

[BlackDuck]

Would it be possible to use a Tesla Coil to power an appliance such as an ordinary household hot water service?

Given the HIGH voltage and low current of a Tesla coil I wonder why you would want to use it to power a comparatively low voltage high current machine.

[Security]

Dealing with a very high voltage device such as a Tesla coil is a potentially lethal exercise for the inexperienced. Please be careful if you plan on going down this path.
What would you have power the coil?
How would you obtain the coil? Do you know it's specifications if you have a particular coil in mind?
How far are you transmitting this energy?

[pieces]

Go and visit a science museum some where most have a tesla display .

I think you will change your mind about going this route .

[osci]

I ask, As I came across this website for an unrelated search...



Have always been interested in these devices and the possibility of producing, and this as good a place as any to ask.....there is no way that I would be able to experiment with some of the larger coils on this page, however a few of the smaller ones at the bottom of the page could be a starting point, obviously I have much research to do should I go down this path.

[mobihci]

while resonant systems like that may seem to 'generate' energy, they are still a loss situation. the lower voltage high current input is converted into a high voltage low current output. and really as was mentioned, heating normally requires high current.

still worth playing around with for the fun of it. there is another thread i started somewhere on the modulated coils being used for music, have a look for that.

[osci]

[QUOTE=mobihci;267801]while resonant systems like that may seem to 'generate' energy, they are still a loss situation. the lower voltage high current input is converted into a high voltage low current output. and really as was mentioned, heating normally requires high current.

still worth playing around with for the fun of it. there is another thread i started somewhere on the modulated coils being used for music, have a look for that.[/QUOTE]

Will do, I just happen to be something about this on the net.

[BlackDuck]

If your interested in Tesla coils, google Van de Graaff Generators or Wimshurst machines.

Every home should have one.

[gordon_s1942]

I found the story about the Votage or Power wars, AC vs DC waged between Tesla and Edison absolutely fasinating.
Edison came across as a very formanable, aggresive, determined character whereas Tesla was more reticent? in his appearances.
I have always felt the Edison wasnt so much of an inventor as he was a brilliant organiser and a persistant searcher once he got on a notion.
Like the Light globe was not a single invention but the result of a 100 years of research and persistant experimentation, and 1000 plus attempts later, he MADE it work.
Edison was never backward in blowing his own horn loud and long but if he hadnt, I wonder what the world would be like today.
From what I read of Tesla, he was a scientist happy to work away on his projects out of the public glare but because of Edison's brashness and publicity seeking, Tesla was dragged out of the laboratory because his work on AC challenged Edison's dreams of a DC world.
I wish I had the education to read and understand both of these Great Men's works and how they so dramaticaly changed the path of the World.
It is impossible to imagine a world without AC or DC.

and their Music, ACCADACCA RULES !!!! sorry 'bout dat ..............

[elbee111]

I read once that He was intent on transmitting power like Radio through the air, but Edison says "Rubbish. How do you charge for that?"

Shows one of the differences of these two men.

[osci]

I read once that He was intent on transmitting power like Radio through the air, but Edison says "Rubbish. How do you charge for that?"

Shows one of the differences of these two men.

Wardenclyffe is what your thinking about

[trash]

Yes, there was a recent mention of Tesla and wireless power transmission in the HAARP thread on whingepool. Tesla coils aren't much use for anything these days except for some basic education of electricity and radio, a task which they excel.

They really aren't that hard to build, but the bigger you build them, the better they work and the more spectacular they are. Their construction is tedious.

They are really nothing more than a transformer. Very similar to the kind found in most power supplies, but with a twist. They are resonant devices, they are tuned like a radio and in the same way. The coils form a resonant circuit and when matched correctly for maximum power transfer, the results can be "unexpected".

A tesla coil will work like a normal transformer to a reasonable extent. If you power the primary coil, the secondary will produce a high voltage and throw sparks. This is easy to do and I made my first tesla coil when I was 11. I made a bigger one (about 70cm tall) when I was 12. I improved my primary stages and built (unknown to me) a tuning stage so that I could control the rate of the strikes by tuning the spark gap. The coil would throw 20cm sparks without much effort, and one day as I was tuning it, I tuned it into resonance and a spark about 60cm long struck me on the forehead !
Electricity produces those moments of clarity every now and then.

I built bigger ones by the time I'd finished high school. The biggest that worked was 1.2m secondary coil. The biggest that didn't work was ~2.5m. I made the mistake of using a cardboard former. It caught fire. I couldn't run it without starting a fire, it was a failure.

Using tesla coils for generating or receiving power isn't really possible.
If you're looking to power hot water, well this is large powers, >2kW, so you need to find an actual power source first. This is a lot of power for a hobbiest to generate, it's $10,000 worth of solar panels, so that's a good reference for a budget.

Fuels like Kerosene are a good compact source of energy and relatively safe to tinker with. You can build your own generators, but it's so much cheaper and simpler just to buy them.

Playing with power generating systems, well solar thermal is possible, you might even consider stirling engines etc.

Fuel cells are easy to build, all you need is two paper clips and a glass of water.
Take a glass of water and attach the two paper clips to the rim, one on each side.
Now connect a multimeter to them on the 2V voltage setting. It should read about 0V.
Now connect a 1.5V D cell or a 9V battery to the paper clips and they will start to produce hydrogen and oxygen on each paper clip. It will only be a tiny amount, but enough for the task. Now remove the battery and the paper clips will still appear to have a small voltage on them. To prove it is acting as a fuel cell, take something like a plastic fork and tap one of the electrode and bump the bubbles of gas off it. The voltage on the meter will drop to zero.

That's the basics, to make it more practical, the electrodes need to have a large surface area. The paper clips are often nickel plated, if you can get platinum wire it works much better. And there are a few other causes of problems like bubbles on the electrodes etc.

Another source of power that is easy to capture is wind. Rip out as many small motors from printers etc as you can. Put a propeller on each one, mount them on a fence and capture the electricity they generate to a battery bank.
If you have a long fence line, and lots of motors, well, it can generate an interesting amount of power.

[trash]

Oh, have a play with a Kelvin generator. They're fun. They generate high voltage, but nothing useful.

[elbee111]

Wardenclyffe is what your thinking about

Sounds familiar. Was in an old Silicon Chip mag from decades ago.

Very interesting guy.

[Bluedog]

Tesla the man was an interesting person , i have read a few books about him. the most recent was from the local library and was called "In search of Nikola Tesla" and was a smallish white paperback.
The book came about because the author was asked to investigate the possibility of the power sources Tesla indicated he could produce, as alternatives for conventional energy sources.
His government was under pressure to look into the claims made by Tesla as there was a group of people lobbying to get some experiments done on alternative energy.
Was there scientific fact behind some of his latter claims of death rays etc? Tesla certainly made some great discoveries in his earlier days but seemed to go off the rails a bit as he aged. Its well worth a read, lots of good info
cheers

[Andy Chee]

[trash]

Tesla certainly made some great discoveries in his earlier days but seemed to go off the rails a bit as he aged.

This is one of the reasons why he's also such a magnet for nutters these days.
But don't try to tell them that... they're also very paranoid

[osci]

This is one of the reasons why he's also such a magnet for nutters these days.
But don't try to tell them that... they're also very paranoid

You calling us nutters