DIYbanter - View Single Post - Ideal electrical systems (just idle curiosity)

Tim Watts[_3_]

On 29/07/14 20:47, wrote:
On Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:54:17 +0100, Tim Watts
wrote:

In reality I think the presence of a nearby ground plane (the ground)
plus the fact the helicopter is longer than 2m and has lots of sticky
out bits is likely to push the current a fair bit higher.

Plus some of those lines you speak of may be higher than 440kV.

So on that basis, whilst a small bird can sit on an HV line, if an
ostrich got up there, its feet would probably tingle

See plenty of birds on 11kV and 33kV lines but I don't think I have
ever seen any on the higher voltages. I suppose they must sense the
electrical field as they get close.

G.Harman

Sounds likely...

Anyone who doubts the field strength, take a 4-6ft fluorescent tube and
hold it upright whilst standing under a grid line set, in the dark.

Perhaps not recommended, but Tomorrow's World did it and the tube does
glow - there's that many V/m