Hy TS ,i'v done some testing with thiner wire on the chokes,i got the hv with the cell unconected,but when i conect it the voltage droped to 3v.So 0.4mm chokes=10v---03mm chokes=3v=your theory works.Thicker chokes acts like a capacitor when conecting the cell,it is not leting the voltage to drop very much,it oposes the cell with more strenth..Cheers!!