Oscillating Capacitor Circuit

[gotoluc]

Hi everyone,

today I was playing around with a circuit recommended by YouTube user name: crob227  but I had no luck getting it to work as he recommended. So I took the circuit apart and started testing one component at a time and also added a load to the capacitor. A soon as I did this the load (bulb) started to oscillate. The circuit at that point also had a regular electrical dimmer for home use like crob227 had recommended to use in his circuit. By tuning the dimmer there is a point where the output at the capacitor is at the highest DC voltage to which is also at the point where the circuit is using the least amount of watts according to my new Kill A Watt power consumption meter.

Please have a look at the video which is very complete and post what you think of this simple circuit and effects.

Video: http://www.energetictube.com/play/Energy__Unsorted/Capacitor_Self_Pulsing_Circuit_test_1

Here is the data of the tests:

Bulb only on the 120vac 60hz grid:

Voltage to bulb:            121vac
Amps consumed:          .54a
Watts consumed:           66w
Volt Amps:                    66va
AC frequency:              59.9hz
Power Factor:                1.00
Bulb temperature:   290f. or  143c.

Bulb in circuit supplied by 120vac 60hz grid:

Voltage to circuit:        121vac
Amps consumed:          2.4a
Watts consumed:           37w
Volt Amps:                   290va
AC frequency:              59.9hz
Power Factor:                0.13
Bulb temperature:   275f. or  135c.

The Kill A Watt meter I used for testing also has a Kilowatt/hr. test which I did do also. When you plug in the meter it starts the internal clock at that moment, so I did the test with the bulb to the grid only and kept looking until the first digit appeared in the Killowatt/hr. display and looked at the clock and that took 8 minutes. I unplugged the meter to reset the clock and did the test with the bulb attached to the circuit and it took 15 minutes for the first digit to appear.

Thanks for looking.

Luc

[wattsup]

@gotoluc

I don't know that much about it but from experience selling power factor correction systems way back, meters like the Kill-A-Watt may not be reading the exact conditions due to returning harmonics from your capacitor oscillations. The Kill-A-Watt is usually used to count the load consumption of known appliances and may not react well with devices that are obviously creating some flyback conditions. I would recommend using a real voltmeter and ammeter on the feed line to figure out the watts.

[gotoluc]

@gotoluc

I don't know that much about it but from experience selling power factor correction systems way back, meters like the Kill-A-Watt may not be reading the exact conditions due to returning harmonics from your capacitor oscillations. The Kill-A-Watt is usually used to count the load consumption of known appliances and may not react well with devices that are obviously creating some flyback conditions. I would recommend using a real voltmeter and ammeter on the feed line to figure out the watts.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this wattsup and posting a suggestion as to what could be going on here .

The problem though is power factor is very important to measure when we are dealing with grid power so I don't think just using a regular ammeter will give the complete picture without knowing the power factor. I could be wrong though and would like some more opinions to help solve this.

Humm maybe an isolation transformer

Thanks for taking the time to post.

Luc

[gotoluc]

@everyone,

I think the best test to do to see if this is a Kill A Watt meter measuring problem is to do the test at the homes electrical panel with all the breakers off and use the homes electrical utility meter to measure and see if there is any power saving using the circuit or not.

Hopefully I'll have a chance to do this tomorrow during the day! .. and I'll post my finding.

Stay tuned.

Luc

[Linearfashion]

Power factor is W/VA , and if your using an incondescent bulb it is purley resistive therefore watts and VA  should be about equal thus power factor will be 1.