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Registered Member #316
Joined: Mon Mar 13 2006, 01:30PM
Location: Marietta, GA
Posts: 212
Last night I was running my 4" coil on the back porch. I was using 12kv at 90ma and getting about three foot streamers.
Here's the problem: I'm noticing now that the air conditioner won't turn on in my house. The thermostat is about twenty feet from where the coil was running. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it, but the compressor won't turn on. I checked the breaker for the compressor but everything was fine. Is it possible that my coil fried whatever circuit is supposed to turn on the compressor?
Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
Was it one of the mercury tilt switch thermostats, or the new digital ones? I would pull if off the wall and jump the wires to turn on the compressor (you are on your own to figure out what they are...) as a sanity check...
Registered Member #316
Joined: Mon Mar 13 2006, 01:30PM
Location: Marietta, GA
Posts: 212
It was a new digital thermostat. I'm really REALLY hoping it wasn't the coil but this isn't the first time I've had problems with RF screwing up home electronics. We had to reset our home alarm system because of RF noise.
Registered Member #530
Joined: Sat Feb 17 2007, 07:56AM
Location: Victoria BC, Canada
Posts: 178
Yep, more than likely if you ran a house ground to your tesla coil OR ran the coil close to the digital circuit you can bet you bottom dollar something got messed up. I remember a few year back setting off fire alarms due to RF seeping back into the mains. I used an line filter block that supresses RF noise and all my problems went away after that!
Registered Member #316
Joined: Mon Mar 13 2006, 01:30PM
Location: Marietta, GA
Posts: 212
I'm not using house ground for RF ground, but my ground isn't great. The porch is on the second story, so my ground runs from one of the porch's supports (a 4" steel pipe sunk into the ground) and I also have a 12"x24" piece of sheet metal attached to ground next to the coil as a counterpoise.
I also use a line filter on my coil but it's a cheap surplus one. What kind do you use?
Registered Member #546
Joined: Fri Feb 23 2007, 11:43PM
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Posts: 239
I wouldn't use any steel attached to the building for an RF ground.
I'm having trouble right now with my copper clad stake conducting to the concrete 1" away from it.... I was thinking the moist ground under the driveway would be a better ground... but it seeps into the house ground through the driveway, into the garage, into the water pipes, and into the panel...I blew up my TV tonight with just the spark gap running on it (I get one bright white horizontal line dead through the center... blew out a coil I guess?)... *sigh*
I'll trade you a new AC thermostat for a new 30" TV...
Good luck on the grounding problem. FWIW Home Repot sells Copper clad grounding rods and clamps... drive it to moist soil as far from your house ground as possible. Don't put it under the driveay like I did ... bad mojo.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
Funky, did you try resetting the thermostat? It might have got scrambled. There could be a reset button to press, or you might have to disconnect power from it and take out a backup battery inside the thing, or something.
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Did my coil kill my air conditioning?
