It could have been much worse though. The paint is probably much less than 20pF. Current is about 0.025-0.050~ limiting current will ultimately decrease voltage too, which I find for not nice. It looses the point of the voltage multiplier ladder inside the generator and I can decrease the output by other means already. And if my skin gets less drier, I will just get back to point A haha

@TonyEErocketscientist You feel something like cold air stream between your hand and the ground (I use glass table as a ground, because of sizes and material and the limiting aspects) as well as small needles sort of sensation. I am not sure to why this feels like so though.

@TonyEErocketscientist Ouch, this sounds unpleasant. Ion can move very well between small particles such as dust and even smoke (it contains small particles) or vapor (it contains water). My generator unit is 40kV, can't imagine 100kV, it gets into dangerous zone. Actually it gets into dangerous zone if it is just 20kV>

@TonyEErocketscientist It is a project mainly for fun and entertainment. I also use copper material tourniquet (because of the lesser resistance and better durability) to connect to my body and I must say that the feeling is amazing. I use 3 LG HG2 batteries in series with balancing BMS and a voltage level indicator. I threw away the step-up DC module, because with the 3 batteries I approximate 12V anyway

If my skin is same voltage than the HV output, I would not get shocked, if material b is 0V I will get zapped, but it will not hurt that much, I will just give electrons, if material b > my skin there is a serious discharge, where supposedly a repelling force is to be excerpted

Also what about the wires coated with enamel

@TonyEErocketscientist No I didn't said I have 0V at the negative lead of a floating 20kV output. In fact the negative output (that goes to ground) is where a number close to 20kV moves through. As far as I know it does not have to be 0, but just different than your skin in order to get shocked, because of the electrons jumping from one another.

Yes the ionized air is highly conductive, especially under my clothes, where the space is very small. I am almost always getting shocked if I put the wires under my clothes.

5kv is surely not sufficient, but if it is outside the wire insulation it could be beneficial at least to keep it from zapping me. hotglue melts easily so it makes sense that it has a fairly subtle breakdown cap

what about optical fiber cable? It is not conductive at all, but surely harder to implement.

@TonyEErocketscientist Yes the negative output is much higher in voltage than my body, because of my body resistance and I get shocked because of the voltage difference.

Yes, thank you all. I was curious to learn why is it so unachievable. I think tech is progressing in the wrong direction sometimes. The world is trying to reduce transistors and other components to invisible sizes, not to create the largest energy containers. They (and we) destroy our planet with all that energy factoring from chemical reactions especially.

Please be more tolerant and less rude, thank you :)

*waves. I have incorrect terminology. I am not a native speaker after all. Like radiowaves. Although they are type of electromagnetic waves.

If a lighting strikes large enough conductive surface (say copper) the discharge is then visible and lasts about 2-3 seconds. Also the energy can be stored in form of static electricity or magnetic field and any other kind of rays for that matter, no need to directly store it as electricity. The storage problem is really a space problem, I know that a super large battery can be invented to store that much electricity. But as wbeaty said, the lighting bolt itself does not store enough power and the power must be collected much higher.

I am not an expert, but the hydroelectric power stations and other kinds of power providers must have means to store a lot of energy.