Altitude vs. Streamer length.

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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