I use a variac with an AC ammeter in line. I like to heat test kit using a hot air gun on low setting. But for the low heat range, a diode is in series with the mains, the one-sided "switching" 50/60 times a second causes horrendous magnetising current problems that would overheat the variac I'm sure, used on the same mains ring main. Replace that diode with a preset triac for balanced "switching" ? I one time niaively thought putting a 1N4007 in series with a 50W, 24V soldering iron Tx would give a low temperature iron for melting plastic, ended up melting the 24V Tx. What effect , if any , would such diodes in say hot air guns, falsely? register on a moving disc mains kWh meter or the recent "smart" meters / monitors ?
- posted
9 years ago