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Altitude vs. Streamer length.



Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

I forgot what thread this was about 0:-)

But I asked Bill about commercial coils arcing longer at low altitude:

BTW - I think you said that the commercial coils arced further at low altitude.

Yes, that's what was reported by our customers, much to my surprise.
Some were delighted, some were annoyed because they hadn't planned on the distance and had to rebuild their haunt rooms to cope. Only one of them actually took strike measurements for me. His strike distances in Texas were 50% greater than we had gotten from the same coil in Boulder, on the same power input. I was getting six to eight feet in Boulder (not very good for a 12kW machine!) and he was getting 10-12 feet. I never looked at humidity however...


The thought is that arcs are shorter at low altitude.

How many people have actually tested this? I have read logical sounding arguments for both outcomes.


They were thinking that the primary gap voltage increased with the higher air pressure and that was the real cause of the better performance. Does that sound reasonable to you?

It's certainly possible!


Cheers,

        Terry