Thane Heins BI-TOROID TRANSFORMER

[SchubertReijiMaigo]

ok, now I see your point. But wont it take power to saturate the bottom cores in the first place ? Or is this the power that gets returned back ? Well, I don't understand this energy returning back at all, where does it return to ? Does the companys meter measure difference it sees between L and N/ground lines ?

No, when you saturate an inductor it draw reactive power, due to the phase difference of 90° between voltage and current, the current wave form is like in pics in previous post...

The company only measure active power (watts) the real energy, but not reactive (VARS).

In my simplified BTT version I do not saturate the primary core, unless the high number of turns does it somehow. The audio effect I observe is that without load there is some noise and faint light in primary side. When adding load the noise goes down, primary light is dimmed and light in secondary side lights up much brighter that light on primary side. If core is saturated, shouldn't there be lots of noise then ?

In my opinion your primary is slightly saturated: A saturated core make more noise than normal, and the small current in the light in primary prove that some reactive current flow in it !!!
When you load the secondary, the input current goes down and light go off and the trafo become unsaturated then make less noise !!!

So in short: 1° A saturated core make more noise.
                 2° A saturated core draw more (reactive) current.
                 3° When you load a saturated core the input current goes down.
                 4° When you load a saturated core the noise decrease !!!
                 5° When you load a saturated core at certain point it become unsaturated and run   
                     like a normal trafo except providing real power in secondaries !!!   
                 

[broli]

In most the videos I've seen of the BTT there was no sign of saturation, all current waves were nice sine waves. I don't think saturation contributes much to the effect.

[SchubertReijiMaigo]

Look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPo5Ch14jlc&feature=channel_video_title

Ugly sine wave input current (in yellow) inside...

If my memory is correct, in this Topic even Thane (Cranky Pant's) speak about some saturation to produce the effect...

In the video he affirm he must increase voltage then increase current then ugly sine wave (saturation) then third harmonic then more reactive power then two secondary forced to work together instead fighting primary...

But I can have wrong of course !!!

[broli]

Look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPo5Ch14jlc&feature=channel_video_title

Ugly sine wave input current (in yellow) inside...

If my memory is correct, in this Topic even Thane (Cranky Pant's) speak about some saturation to produce the effect...

In the video he affirm he must increase voltage then increase current then ugly sine wave (saturation) then third harmonic then more reactive power then two secondary forced to work together instead fighting primary...

But I can have wrong of course !!!

Sorry but that video doesn't prove your point. Clearly he shows the BITT operates fine in low voltage/current mode, ie it has a powerfactor of 0 on load. Then he just goes to increase the current/volatge beyond saturation and shows that the powerfactor still remains the same, that's all I saw. He even reduces the voltage back down below saturation.
Saturation was not the main subject of that video.

[SchubertReijiMaigo]

OK, saturation is not the only criteria but I think is necessary to increase power on load with no Back Flux...

In this video again at 2:30 an ugly sine wave again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eiu-dCe8bnA&feature=channel_video_title

In a BH curve when you saturate a core it's permeability droop, so if have primary leg with low u and the outer leg not or less saturated why you think the Heins effect should be not here !?