Originally posted by luc2010
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- How you are charging that capacitor.
- If the input power charging the capacitor is affected by the load.
- How quickly you discharging the capacitor
A charging capacitor is a huge load, a charged capacitor is not. You pay for the charging. If you use the grid that way.
In my EVG replaction, I charged a 450V/460uF cap to 400V using grid current. It used between 2 to 3 Amps at 400VDC. I was pulling 800 to 1200 watts to charge that capacitor and discharge the cap fast enough to provide continuous motion of a crankshaft. That is real power that is turning the meter.
However there are more efficient ways to charge a capacitor (HV/HF). You can do it by radiant energy, and the input won't see the output load. In the case of a tesla coil RX/TX perhaps. Think of yourself living next to a radio station transmitter.
You can get a tuned circuit to ring to the station frequency, and then place a diode bridge to drive your load. The radio station doesn't feel you leeching off their transmission. The downside is it's hard to scale up if you are making a TX yourself.
Be safe if you are working on the grid, use an isolation transformer, and proper fusing.
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