Helium gas issues

[sblair1290]

Folks,

I am trawling the internet looking for Helium gas suppliers. I work in a school so cost is an issue although we have about £300 et aside for 'launch' consumables.

BOC supply 5.19m3 for in 'Genie' 20L cylinder for £218.23 (vat inc.) + delivery £63.06 (vat.inc)

http://www.boconline.co.uk/en/products- ... 1474638484

also BOC supply 9m3 in a rented gas canister for £298.57 (vat inc.) + delivery £63.06(vat inc.) - seems far more economical but still a huge outlay.
(note this will apparently fill 1250 x 9" balloons)

https://www.boconlineshop.com/webapp/wc ... s-cylinder


The party balloon suppliers unhelpfully list their volumes in terms of 'balloons', which is a comically interesting 'unit'.

Does anybody have any advice on which route to go down. BOC seems very expensive. 3m3 seems like a reasonable volume. It gets a sub 1kg payload to 29Km in about 80 mins (using Hayowee 800). If anything we might need more gas given that we need to keep the time of flight down (if only Scotland was bigger!)

Any help much appreciated. I am sure this info will benefit others given the very unique nature of the product.

thanks,

Stuart

[daveake]

Try http://www.balloonhelium.co.uk and http://www.click4balloons.co.uk/

Either will be much cheaper than going direct to BOC or Air Products. Both show the actual volumes of their cylinders, so no need for the old conversation:

"Hello, I'd like to rent a helium cylinder please"

"Great, how many balloons?"

"Just the one"

[sblair1290]

Ha....yes - I nearly had that very conversation but the sales rep jumped right in and told me where the m3 spec data was. Might be a bit better if it wasn't in the 'small print'.

thanks again!!!

Stuart