Hah- the lights just went out here at work, predictably while I was in the can....
Hard to say what's the cause.
Hard to say what's the cause.
My wife thought that the temp gauge was the gas gauge. It was always in the middle!
Speaking of power -- the last time I was in Benares the sky was dark with DIY electrical hookups!
I live in Northern New Jersey where long outages are common due to hurricanes and floods.The 2010-2012 hurricane seasons gave us 5 floods and many power outages. One of the worst outages was caused by a freak snow storm in late October, 2011 that dumped 1.5 feet of wet snow onto trees that still had all their leaves. Trees down on nearly every block of every street. During the storm all you could hear was the cracking of branches and falling trees. No power for 11 days. Didn't even see a utility truck for 6 days, then it was complete chaos between the power guys and the tree guys, saying they couldn't do anything until the other guys did their job first. Even though repair crews came from all over the country, some areas were out for 3 weeks. Fortunately, I had a 6 KW generator to keep my essentials going and a couple of extension cords to assist the neighbors. A year later Hurricane Sandy comes along with even more damage, especially along the coast. Gas was rationed since many stations had no power and no back-up generator. Since then, no hurricanes or floods..... go figure>
The state where Benares is located is famous for scofflaws, they don't feel metered power has to be paid for, they just tap the street light wires.
In my state, there is a meter on the transformer, if the difference between power delivered and metered exceed 3%, a special squad comes to investigate, and if you are found stealing power, they make you deposit a year's worth of assessed power, less what you paid for.
There is an appeal process after that, the cause may be whatever, but it is a lot of money for most people, as they consider that all the equipment was being used all the time.
Sometimes they credit the money back if there was a genuine mistake.
Most meters are solid state, less errors, more reliable.
Until you deposit the amount they disconnect the power, and they have police powers.
So nobody really tries that any more.
In my state, there is a meter on the transformer, if the difference between power delivered and metered exceed 3%, a special squad comes to investigate, and if you are found stealing power, they make you deposit a year's worth of assessed power, less what you paid for.
There is an appeal process after that, the cause may be whatever, but it is a lot of money for most people, as they consider that all the equipment was being used all the time.
Sometimes they credit the money back if there was a genuine mistake.
Most meters are solid state, less errors, more reliable.
Until you deposit the amount they disconnect the power, and they have police powers.
So nobody really tries that any more.
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So does anyone try the big 50 foot diameter coil of wire under the 220kV transmission lines trick?
That means induced power?
Now the long distance lines are about 750 kV DC, 220 is for local lines, and the lines pass through city limits, so a 50 foot coil would attract attention.
DC has lower losses, and you cannot induce current with it.
And people get greedy, one phase drawing more power also causes alarms at the control rooms.
Long back somebody proposed an American design to string 11 kV lines under 66 kV lines, they would pick up stray power, so a saving would be achieved. The power companies were not convinced, it went nowhere.
Now the long distance lines are about 750 kV DC, 220 is for local lines, and the lines pass through city limits, so a 50 foot coil would attract attention.
DC has lower losses, and you cannot induce current with it.
And people get greedy, one phase drawing more power also causes alarms at the control rooms.
Long back somebody proposed an American design to string 11 kV lines under 66 kV lines, they would pick up stray power, so a saving would be achieved. The power companies were not convinced, it went nowhere.
We have nothing but AC around here, but we had some 500kV not too far away from where I grew up. The induction coil trick has been tried, but people eventually get caught - sometimes electrocuted. Open circuit voltages can get pretty crazy. I’ve gotten the living $#** shocked out of me lighting up 8 foot fluorescent tubes under power lines. Just holding the two test leads of a typical DMM 4 feet apart on the 750 VAC range and it reads overvoltage.
No savings is achieved by co-locating the wires. Still shows up as a load on the system regardless of the coupling mechanism. That’s *how* people get caught. Somebody gets sent to investigate where it’s going.
No savings is achieved by co-locating the wires. Still shows up as a load on the system regardless of the coupling mechanism. That’s *how* people get caught. Somebody gets sent to investigate where it’s going.
The American proposal was to collect the corona discharges from higher voltage lines.
And thereby collect the power otherwise lost, and to be able to supply it to consumers.
The low voltage line was to be installed on the same towers / poles as the higher voltage lines, close enough to induce power, a sort of air core transformer would be a description maybe.
As I said, it went nowhere.
And thereby collect the power otherwise lost, and to be able to supply it to consumers.
The low voltage line was to be installed on the same towers / poles as the higher voltage lines, close enough to induce power, a sort of air core transformer would be a description maybe.
As I said, it went nowhere.
Corona discharges are true power losses - energy is radiated at a much higher frequency than 60 Hz (at a 120 Hz pulse rep rate, though). You can get x-rays. Collecting it and making use of it requires more than an “air core transformer”. Makes a nice high frequency crackling or hissing sound when it gets going. You can always tell when they’ve got that line energized and when they don’t.
The air core transformer operates at 60 Hz, and all the energy is actually used (less I^2R losses). Might not be going where you would expect or where it is supposed to, but it isn’t just radiated into the ether never to be seen again.
The air core transformer operates at 60 Hz, and all the energy is actually used (less I^2R losses). Might not be going where you would expect or where it is supposed to, but it isn’t just radiated into the ether never to be seen again.
The better solution is to avoid the corona issue in the first place wherever possible, though at 750 kV that starts getting pretty hard.
Most of the energy lost in corona discharge isn't something that will easily be collected. They'd have better luck using heat from copper losses in transformers to generate energy.
The same thing goes for some of the HV equipment I deal with. Much, much lower current, but still quite eerie and will definitely have you on your toes.
This was years ago, 1992-93 in fact.
So memory is not detailed.
The basic idea was that the higher voltage line would induce voltage in the lower voltage line strung near it, and it would have a useful amount of energy to recover from going waste.
But you seem to know your stuff, and are skeptical.
So were the local power companies, and they did not take interest.
My city is a center for transformer manufacturing, and also cardboard boxes, so I get to know of some useful, and not so useful things...
Aluminum winding in 11kV / 440 V transformers is something I heard of...
So memory is not detailed.
The basic idea was that the higher voltage line would induce voltage in the lower voltage line strung near it, and it would have a useful amount of energy to recover from going waste.
But you seem to know your stuff, and are skeptical.
So were the local power companies, and they did not take interest.
My city is a center for transformer manufacturing, and also cardboard boxes, so I get to know of some useful, and not so useful things...
Aluminum winding in 11kV / 440 V transformers is something I heard of...
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The reason is that the 60 Hz magnetic field around the lines does not actually cause an energy loss. Energy is stored in the field - everywhere along the length of the line. It can be transferred to some other circuit when a coupling mechanism exists. When that coupling exists it shows up as resistor loading instead of reactance. The input impedance will change.
Eddy currents can get induced into things you don’t want it to - like chain link fences or large iron structures on the ground (even the towers) but it’s not very many turns and not very long so it’s probably pretty limited. It would act like a weekly coupled shorted turn with some I^2R loss in the metal itself.
Eddy currents can get induced into things you don’t want it to - like chain link fences or large iron structures on the ground (even the towers) but it’s not very many turns and not very long so it’s probably pretty limited. It would act like a weekly coupled shorted turn with some I^2R loss in the metal itself.
I have heard of small amounts of energy being got from capacitive coupling between steel roofs and power cables.
The building obviously needs a non conductive frame.
The building obviously needs a non conductive frame.
Don’t touch that roof….. Just like the jolt I got down my arm when I held up held up that 8 foot fluorescent tube up high under the 500kV line. In the end, there can be only one….ZZ ZZ ZZAP!
Who needs a power line. The guy in the shadows holding up a fluorescent tube is me. There is a big tube amp in the trunk of the Road Runner boosting up the power of the CB radio a bit.
You could drive under the overhang of a closed gas station, key up the radio and the lights would come one. A bit over 1 KW on 27 MHz will do that.
You could drive under the overhang of a closed gas station, key up the radio and the lights would come one. A bit over 1 KW on 27 MHz will do that.
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I don't think it'll help much. But it is very inconvenient and dangerous. It is very inconvenient to service low-voltage lines under higher voltage lines. And if it'll shot circuit between high and low voltage wires - the low voltage equipment will have troubles.
So, I think the downsides are larger than the positives.
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Megawatts will do more. With an old bed spring, antenna tuner and some schottky rectifiers you can steal electricity from TV and radio stations too. if you can get it close enough to the tower without anyone noticing.
I grew up in a rural area west of Miami Florida. We had a 5 KW AM radio station about 1/4 mile from our house. It was always getting into the phone system on rainy days.
When I was very young I connected a wire to the back yard fence and another wire to the metal swing set. Connecting each wire across a speaker did nothing except make a faint 60 Hz hum until a germanium diode was touched across the speaker. The speaker / diode radio made enough sound to be plainly audible in a quiet room. Too bad that the station played only elevator music. My father liked it though.
My guess is that this contraption made a few milliwatts of audio. The speaker came from an old tube radio, probably 3.2 ohms. There were no tuned circuits or impedance matching. Maybe a watt or two could be obtained with a resonant antenna and a matched load.
When I was very young I connected a wire to the back yard fence and another wire to the metal swing set. Connecting each wire across a speaker did nothing except make a faint 60 Hz hum until a germanium diode was touched across the speaker. The speaker / diode radio made enough sound to be plainly audible in a quiet room. Too bad that the station played only elevator music. My father liked it though.
My guess is that this contraption made a few milliwatts of audio. The speaker came from an old tube radio, probably 3.2 ohms. There were no tuned circuits or impedance matching. Maybe a watt or two could be obtained with a resonant antenna and a matched load.
For the third time in 17 years, the storm here in Philly last night caused me to lose power for about 45 minutes.
Laying in bed, listening to the thunder and rains from Fred..... almost dozing off, air conditioner on...feeling comfortable.
Then BANG!!!!....... everything goes off.... including me jumping out of bed.
Must have hit the nearby transformer around the corner.
Thankfully, no electronics were harmed, whew!
Laying in bed, listening to the thunder and rains from Fred..... almost dozing off, air conditioner on...feeling comfortable.
Then BANG!!!!....... everything goes off.... including me jumping out of bed.
Must have hit the nearby transformer around the corner.
Thankfully, no electronics were harmed, whew!