On Monday, August 5, 2019 at 7:20:59 PM UTC-4, L Thorpe wrote:
Let me begin by saying that I do not advocate the stealing of power
from the electrical companies. I am just curious about how it possibly
could be done and I would never put such knowledge into practice.

Power thieves usually (always?) bypass the power meter and
connect directly to the power line.

But what about induction? What about an inductive coupling
to the power line?

Electric power, I believe, is distributed to residential areas
as 2200 Volt lines. Before entering the home, this voltage is
stepped down to 220 Volts with a pole-mounted transformer.

It's actually several times that at the typical utility pole.




Wrapping an inductive coil around a 2200 Volt line could create
a circuit that would deliver power to the home, and the power
company would never know it (unless a technician actually spotted
the strange coil).

Of course, it would be bit risky to climb a power pole and wrap
an inductive coil but we are discussing only what is theoretically
possible.

Would this scheme work?

I can't see why it would not.

The amount of power you can transfer depends on the strength of the magnetic
flux and how many coils of wire you have in the flux. A single wire on
the electric pole isn't going to produce much flux, which is why transformers and similar use many turns on both sides and are bulky. Aside from that,
if I was trying to steal power I'd much rather try to hide what I was doing
at or near the house, not up on a pole in full view with wires running back
to my house.
turns on