sound as though a plasma bubble burst - the average power used goes up, but there doesn't seem to be any outlet that displays where the power is going. - except maybe the electrodes since that is usually when they get so hot that they start melting the plexi disc and
Nick,
I agree that the coil may benefit from thicker electrodes. If the rotary gaps stop firing it may produce bad resonance in the pig and your power factor may become very bad. The true power drawn under this condition might not be that high. Nevertheless this condition can still heat things and destroy them. If the electrodes are too thin, they can run too hot and never quench properly causing a lot of problems such as double firing during each gap presentation. This condition causes extremely inefficient operation of the system.