Re: [Vo]:diathermic oil for heat transfer

2011-10-21 Thread Michele Comitini
Tom,
Thank you.
I think the amessage was for all vorticians not just me! So I reply back to
the list.

I was looking for a comparison of heat transfer fluids specs, do you know if
there is any?
What is the Max operating temperature in particular?

I understand that if you want to keep liquid phase with glycole you need
high pressures at temperature  above 200°.  Some oil seem to have a much
higher boiling point.

mic
 Il giorno 21/ott/2011 01:02, Tom Andersen tom.ander...@gmail.com ha
scritto:

 The heat capacity is 1/2 that of water for these materials, but they can
 run hotter, so for instance oil at 500C is taking away about 3 times the
 heat of water at 99C.

 --Tom


RE: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Hoyt A. Stearns Jr.



-Original Message-
From: ecat builder [mailto:ecatbuil...@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 8:36 PM
A few quick comments:

Hoyt: Are you sure the electric company will want unsynchronized AC?
That might make the meter run backwards, but it seems
counter-intuitive. Also, $200K/year might be today's price, but that
number should quickly approach zero. Once a small fraction of their
users have negative bills, the electricity company is going to be in
serious fiscal trouble. How will the governments keep the electric
companies in business?

The beauty of an induction motor/generator is that is is self synchronizing
and symmetrical around synchronous speed. You just run it as a motor then
spin the shaft a little faster.

The $200k/year would eventually go away, but getting that for a couple of
years seems like a pretty good investment.   This is very disruptive so
we'll just see what happens, I guess.

The power company tariffs are quasi-politically set by public utility
commisions or corporation commissions so they'd be slow to change as they
have meetings, time for public input pro and con, dealing with state
legislatures etc. so they're bound to be rather slowly responding.  If the
power company in Phoenix wants a rate increase it seems they come only every
few years, but I haven't really kept records, just an impression.


Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Robert Lynn
Supercritical CO2 is very interesting in MW sizes, but it doesn't scale down
well to 50kW machines due to high fluid density that makes the compressors
and turbines unfeasably tiny, and very high pressures that make the bearing,
seal and heat exchanger very difficult or impossible to do cheaply.

On 20 October 2011 16:40, Axil Axil janap...@gmail.com wrote:

 In terms of micro turbines, a good fit for the Rossi reactor would be the
 supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton-cycle micro turbines.
 The supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle provides the same efficiency as helium
 Brayton systems but at a considerably lower temperature (250-300 C). The
 S-CO2 equipment is also more compact than that of the helium cycle, which in
 turn is more compact than the conventional steam cycle.
  The size of such a micro turbine operating at 65% efficiency might be
 comparable to that that of an auto water pump matching  the power production
 of a Rossi reactor in the megawatt range.

 On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 2:47 PM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.comwrote:

 Robert Lynn robert.gulliver.l...@gmail.com wrote:

 -Micro-turbines (capstone et al) have low efficiency compressor and
 turbines and under 100kW probably won't work at all until the temperatures
 are 600°C, and then only with very low efficiency (15%).


 I have heard that a Rossi reactor can go to 600°C. It works well at that
 temperature. Most cold fusion reactions work better at higher temperatures.
 Proton conductor-types do not work at all at lower temperatures. They do not
 conduct protons (load).

 Anyway, efficiency does not matter much with cold fusion because the heat
 costs nothing. The only reason you need a modicum of efficiency is to keep
 the waste heat down to a reasonable level. You would not want a 30 kW home
 generator that produces 300 kW of waste heat. It would make the air around
 the house too hot. If it was compact, it would be dangerously hot, and might
 burn someone or start a fire, and if it was not compact it would take up a
 lot of space.



 -Micro steam turbines are very inefficient, (steam's high specific heat
 requires multi-stage due to blade speed limits) and with small sizes are far
 more prone to water erosion damage.


 As I said, efficiency does not matter, but longevity and the lifetime cost
 of the equipment does matter. See chapter 14 of my book.

 - Jed





[Vo]:New articles on the September 6th E-Cat test

2011-10-21 Thread Akira Shirakawa

Hello group,

NyTeknik and Focus.it today published several additional analyses on the 
September 6th E-Cat Test.



- NyTeknik (in English)
By Horace Heffner, David Roberson, Robert J. Higgins
http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/energi_miljo/energi/article3295411.ece

- Focus.it (in Italian)
By prof. Christos Stremmenos
http://www.focus.it/scienza/e-cat-test-6102011-la-relazione-di-christos-stremmenos_C12.aspx


Cheers,
S.A.



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell
On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 11:36 PM, ecat builder ecatbuil...@gmail.comwrote:


 Hoyt: Are you sure the electric company will want unsynchronized AC?


I predict that home generators will produce direct current, not AC. DC is
safer because it is less prone to cause electrocution. Electric power
companies will not purchase this power for two reasons:

1. They will all go out of business.

2. Electric power will be worthless. Selling it would be like trying to rent
out 10 MB of hard disk space. This is not an imaginary example. In the 1970s
time-share companies rented out hard disk space in increments as small as
this. Nowadays, 10 MB of hard disk space can be purchased for about
one-tenth of a penny, I think. Unless I dropped one or two orders of
magnitude.



 How will the governments keep the electric
 companies in business?


Why would governments do this? This would be like trying to keep the vacuum
tube computer industry in business.

I expect there will be some initial attempts to keep power companies, and
perhaps even oil companies, in business, but everyone will soon see that
this is a futile waste of money.

- Jed


Re: [Vo]:New articles on the September 6th E-Cat test

2011-10-21 Thread fznidarsic
Horace made the news.  Its about time.


Frank



-Original Message-
From: Akira Shirakawa shirakawa.ak...@gmail.com
To: vortex-l vortex-l@eskimo.com
Sent: Fri, Oct 21, 2011 2:39 am
Subject: [Vo]:New articles on the September 6th E-Cat test


Hello group,

NyTeknik and Focus.it today published several additional analyses on the 
September 6th E-Cat Test.


- NyTeknik (in English)
By Horace Heffner, David Roberson, Robert J. Higgins
http://www.nyteknik.se/nyheter/energi_miljo/energi/article3295411.ece

- Focus.it (in Italian)
By prof. Christos Stremmenos
http://www.focus.it/scienza/e-cat-test-6102011-la-relazione-di-christos-stremmenos_C12.aspx


Cheers,
S.A.


 


Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Robert Lynn
I am afraid household electricity is just not going to get much cheaper -
maybe 20-30% drop, but it probably will drop far more for industry.

The cost of ownership and maintainence of in-house LENR based electrical
power generation will still make it marginal as to whether it is worth
doing.  Problem being the extreme spikiness of loads with average of
500-1000 watts and peaks of 5-10kW.  Having a household system that can
deliver such peak power while also not being excessively wasteful for normal
use is expensive.  Batteries cost at least $0.05/kWh for electricity (due to
high up front cost and limited cycle life) - which is about what a power
company charges to deliver power anyway.  Also small heat engines and LENR
are high maintenance and expensive (probably 1-2 times a year needed) - and
any maintenance callout will be a large fraction of a house's yearly
electricity bill.

So it is very hard to pick whether it will be:
1/ Current Utilities
2/ Smaller neighbourhood schemes that are possibly best as they can smooth
loads out over say 20-30 houses while saving the cost of most grid
infrastructure and reducing overall maintenance costs
3/ A more capital expensive home system with some future cheaper battery
storage and a very long-life reliable and cheap heat engine.

I think probably neighbourhood 100kW-1MW will win, but there will still be
niches for all three options.

I also agree that DC is the ultimate solution.  New inverters/converters
(particularly using SiC JFETS) have efficiency that equals transformers, and
if you look around a house there are not many appliances that really need AC
- most could utilise DC quite happily at no extra cost, DC also simplifies
battery backup.


On 21 October 2011 15:17, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.com wrote:



 On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 11:36 PM, ecat builder ecatbuil...@gmail.comwrote:


 Hoyt: Are you sure the electric company will want unsynchronized AC?


 I predict that home generators will produce direct current, not AC. DC is
 safer because it is less prone to cause electrocution. Electric power
 companies will not purchase this power for two reasons:

 1. They will all go out of business.

 2. Electric power will be worthless. Selling it would be like trying to
 rent out 10 MB of hard disk space. This is not an imaginary example. In the
 1970s time-share companies rented out hard disk space in increments as small
 as this. Nowadays, 10 MB of hard disk space can be purchased for about
 one-tenth of a penny, I think. Unless I dropped one or two orders of
 magnitude.



 How will the governments keep the electric
 companies in business?


 Why would governments do this? This would be like trying to keep the vacuum
 tube computer industry in business.

 I expect there will be some initial attempts to keep power companies, and
 perhaps even oil companies, in business, but everyone will soon see that
 this is a futile waste of money.

 - Jed




Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread ecat builder
Most DC appliances use from 5 to 48VDC. Going from one DC voltage to
another is difficult. A friend of mine has a pure solar/battery house
wired for 12VDC, 24VDC, and 120VAC. It is complex and a little
daunting for the average visitor.

A simple low-voltage 48VDC source (like POE 802.3af) would be a nice
standard, but for really powering bigger things, you need 380VDC (not
much safer than 120VAC).

This report shows only 5-7% efficiencies are achieved by going to DC
in a data center:
http://hightech.lbl.gov/documents/data_centers/DCDemoFinalReport.pdf

- Brad



RE: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Hoyt A. Stearns Jr.
All devices will  be self contained with E-ORBO's, M-ORBO's, HephaHeat
heaters or as yet uninvented devices-- no connection to any external power
sources will be needed at all. They'll be AA batteries that last forever
etc.

Induction generators are for the near term -- a couple of years, helping to
pay for the initial equipment.  They'll quicken the phase out the dirty coal
plants.

All generators (Alternators)  are inherently AC which must be rectified
unless you want carbon brushes ( you don't ).

DC is good for many things, but it has its problems with metal and ion
migration, polarization etc.  Induction motors don't run on it and they're
the cheapest motors.The new Phoenix rapid transit system uses DC but they
put in special corrosion mitigation systems.

Power companies will fade away and all those ugly high-tension lines will
dissappear :-) .

Hoyt Stearns
Scottsdale, Arizona




  -Original Message-
  From: Jed Rothwell [mailto:jedrothw...@gmail.com]
  Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 7:18 AM
  To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
  Subject: Re: [Vo]:Steam engines





  On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 11:36 PM, ecat builder ecatbuil...@gmail.com
wrote:

Hoyt: Are you sure the electric company will want unsynchronized AC?



  I predict that home generators will produce direct current, not AC. DC is
safer because it is less prone to cause electrocution. Electric power
companies will not purchase this power for two reasons:


  1. They will all go out of business.


  2. Electric power will be worthless. Selling it would be like trying to
rent out 10 MB of hard disk space. This is not an imaginary example. In the
1970s time-share companies rented out hard disk space in increments as small
as this. Nowadays, 10 MB of hard disk space can be purchased for about
one-tenth of a penny, I think. Unless I dropped one or two orders of
magnitude.



How will the governments keep the electric
companies in business?



  Why would governments do this? This would be like trying to keep the
vacuum tube computer industry in business.


  I expect there will be some initial attempts to keep power companies, and
perhaps even oil companies, in business, but everyone will soon see that
this is a futile waste of money.


  - Jed



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Bruno Santos
Nearly 1/3 of energy consumption is spent in transporting energy itself. It
just doesn't make any sense to keep spending money on expensive
infrastructure when it is cheaper to generate your own energy.

For many energy-intensive industries adopting the new technology will be
mandatory. Energy is the  largest cost in production for many industries. If
they do not adopt it as soon as possible, they'll be out of business in no
time.

The big question is: what will happen next? Old-technology energy prices
will drop sharply. Oil and coal (60% of world's energy) will become very
cheap. It may take a long time before it is both affordable and cost-saving
to have your own e-cat at home, less-intensive industries and offices,
because most of the time you won't use it's full power and the power grid
will offer cheaper energy.

 It is very unlikely that those countries with large surplus in oil and/or
coal production would just abandon these energies sources in a short time.
It'll be both available and cheaper. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Canada,
Norway, Australia, China, Iran, Iraq and Russia come to mind.

Power grids will still be around for a long time.

2011/10/21 Hoyt A. Stearns Jr. hoyt.stea...@gmail.com

 **

 Power companies will fade away and all those ugly high-tension lines will
 dissappear :-) .

 Hoyt Stearns
 Scottsdale, Arizona






RE: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Higgins Bob-CBH003
My PV system uses a 5kW grid tie DC-AC inverter that is all solid state,
no moving parts (not even a fan), and is 96% efficient.  It has been
working beautifully for the last 3 years.
 
Note that unless you make a provision to throttle the E-cat, you will
have to at least provide a sacrificial load into which you can dump the
excess electricity when the house demand is not as much as the E-cat is
producing.  This would be the benefit of having the community or large
scale grid system - the grid can become your sacrificial load.  That's
what my PV system does today.  I produce far more power during the day
than I am using and the excess is pumped into the grid, for which I
receive credit.  I then can take it back from the grid at night (or any
time - when a cloud comes) at the same price as I was credited for
putting it in (this is called net metering and is required by the
Florida Public Service Commission), resulting in 100% perfect storage in
the grid (from my perspective) with no batteries required.
 
Overall, the distributed generation system is more robust against
failure and more efficient even if the wires are present because the
current in the wires is reduced by your local generation.  But if you
use even a community system, you still have to deal with the
distribution wire problem, cost, and undesirable appearance.
 
The cool new product category is the concept of CHP - cogeneration of
heat and power.  There is already an industry forming around this for
producing power from concentrated solar or some other high grade heat,
producing electricity for the home, and then using the waste heat to
heat the home.
Bob Higgins 




From: Hoyt A. Stearns Jr. [mailto:hoyt.stea...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 12:32 PM
To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
Subject: RE: [Vo]:Steam engines
 
All devices will  be self contained with E-ORBO's, M-ORBO's, HephaHeat
heaters or as yet uninvented devices-- no connection to any external
power sources will be needed at all. They'll be AA batteries that last
forever etc.
 
Induction generators are for the near term -- a couple of years, helping
to pay for the initial equipment.  They'll quicken the phase out the
dirty coal plants.
 
All generators (Alternators)  are inherently AC which must be rectified
unless you want carbon brushes ( you don't ).
 
DC is good for many things, but it has its problems with metal and ion
migration, polarization etc.  Induction motors don't run on it and
they're the cheapest motors.The new Phoenix rapid transit system uses DC
but they put in special corrosion mitigation systems.
 
Power companies will fade away and all those ugly high-tension lines
will dissappear :-) .
 
Hoyt Stearns
Scottsdale, Arizona
 
 
 
 
-Original Message-
From: Jed Rothwell [mailto:jedrothw...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 7:18 AM
To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
Subject: Re: [Vo]:Steam engines
 
On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 11:36 PM, ecat builder
ecatbuil...@gmail.com wrote:
  
Hoyt: Are you sure the electric company will want unsynchronized
AC?
 
I predict that home generators will produce direct current, not
AC. DC is safer because it is less prone to cause electrocution.
Electric power companies will not purchase this power for two reasons:
 
1. They will all go out of business.
 
2. Electric power will be worthless. Selling it would be like
trying to rent out 10 MB of hard disk space. This is not an imaginary
example. In the 1970s time-share companies rented out hard disk space in
increments as small as this. Nowadays, 10 MB of hard disk space can be
purchased for about one-tenth of a penny, I think. Unless I dropped one
or two orders of magnitude.
 
 
How will the governments keep the electric
companies in business?
 
Why would governments do this? This would be like trying to keep
the vacuum tube computer industry in business.
 
I expect there will be some initial attempts to keep power
companies, and perhaps even oil companies, in business, but everyone
will soon see that this is a futile waste of money.
 
- Jed
 


Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Peter Heckert

Am 21.10.2011 18:32, schrieb Hoyt A. Stearns Jr.:
All devices will  be self contained with E-ORBO's, M-ORBO's, HephaHeat 
heaters or as yet uninvented devices-- no connection to any external 
power sources will be needed at all. They'll be AA batteries that last 
forever etc.

Dont forget the Brilloun boiler. It is announced for early 2009.
SCNR
Power companies will fade away and all those ugly high-tension lines 
will dissappear :-) .
The cables will anyway disappear. An sub-earth 10 kV superconductive 
cable is cheaper and more efficient than a 100 kV HV line in air.
Superconductive cables are ready for use now and industrial plants to 
produce them are currently built.
I have read this in an industrial professional electronics magazine 1/2 
year ago.
This makes also more efficient wind generators possible without 
permanent magnets and ultra high current limiters without explosive 
destruction mechanisms.


Peter



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Terry Blanton
On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 12:59 PM, Bruno Santos besantos1...@gmail.com wrote:
 Nearly 1/3 of energy consumption is spent in transporting energy itself.

That figure is a little high.  Legacy Transmission and Distribution
systems have a loss factor of about 15%.  Today's modernized systems
suffer half that loss.

http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/handouts/Electric%20Transmission%20and%20Distribution%20Efficiency_Ranade92710.pdf

http://goo.gl/XVNU2

T



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Michele Comitini
Good for the eye and for the health: http://goo.gl/L56Hg

mic

 Power companies will fade away and all those ugly high-tension lines will
 dissappear :-) .

 Hoyt Stearns
 Scottsdale, Arizona





 -Original Message-
 From: Jed Rothwell [mailto:jedrothw...@gmail.com]
 Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 7:18 AM
 To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
 Subject: Re: [Vo]:Steam engines



 On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 11:36 PM, ecat builder ecatbuil...@gmail.com
 wrote:


 Hoyt: Are you sure the electric company will want unsynchronized AC?

 I predict that home generators will produce direct current, not AC. DC is
 safer because it is less prone to cause electrocution. Electric power
 companies will not purchase this power for two reasons:
 1. They will all go out of business.
 2. Electric power will be worthless. Selling it would be like trying to rent
 out 10 MB of hard disk space. This is not an imaginary example. In the 1970s
 time-share companies rented out hard disk space in increments as small as
 this. Nowadays, 10 MB of hard disk space can be purchased for about
 one-tenth of a penny, I think. Unless I dropped one or two orders of
 magnitude.


 How will the governments keep the electric
 companies in business?

 Why would governments do this? This would be like trying to keep the vacuum
 tube computer industry in business.
 I expect there will be some initial attempts to keep power companies, and
 perhaps even oil companies, in business, but everyone will soon see that
 this is a futile waste of money.
 - Jed




Re: [Vo]:A red letter day ?

2011-10-21 Thread Terry Blanton
On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 11:10 AM, Jones Beene jone...@pacbell.net wrote:

 ... err  Well, let's hope that this is not the one time in a billion
 (consecutive false predictions) where the unrecognized prophet finally got
 it right :-)

Most of us made it:

http://youtu.be/1LXuNpF6NVg

T



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell
Robert Lynn robert.gulliver.l...@gmail.com wrote:

I am afraid household electricity is just not going to get much cheaper -
 maybe 20-30% drop, but it probably will drop far more for industry.


I disagree.

As I described in my book cost will drop by 60% at first and later by more
than 100%. That is to say, the overall cost of equipment will be less than
we now pay. Cold fusion generators will also serve as cogenerators,
replacing heating and air-conditioning equipment. When the technology
matures, the total cost of a cold fusion generator will be less than the
heating and air-conditioning equipment it replaces.

This is not a free lunch; it is a lunch you are paid to eat.

This will also eliminate the cost of natural gas.

Furthermore, as I show in chapter 15, many applications that now call for
electricity will use cold fusion heat directly instead, so overall demand
for electricity will be reduced by roughly 8% in the home and much more in
industry.



 The cost of ownership and maintainence of in-house LENR based electrical
 power generation will still make it marginal as to whether it is worth
 doing.


It will cost less to maintain the equipment than it costs to maintain our
present HVAC equipment. This is inevitable, as I show in chapter 14. When
the core technology cost component falls, the others must follow. For
example, when cheap microprocessors are developed, it is inevitable that
cheap hard disks and printers will follow. When Henry Ford lowers the cost
of automobiles, it is inevitable that tire manufacturers will find ways to
make much cheaper tires.


  Problem being the extreme spikiness of loads with average of 500-1000
 watts and peaks of 5-10kW.


In chapter 15 I show why the spikiness will be reduced. Most of the heavy
duty demand for power will be eliminated by the use of heat instead of
electricity.

- Jed


Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Bruno Santos
Sorry, I couldn't make myself clear enough. 1/3 accounts for all energy
transportation, not only electric power. One must transport coal from mines
to thermoelectric generators, and then electricity to houses and
industries.

How much energy does it take to transport all that coal? Oil? And energy
burnt in oil refineries? Energy to pump natural gas and oil for thousands of
miles? Supertankers can burn a LOT of diesel oil.

Even nuclear power... there is a lot of energy input before you can harvest
that energy.



2011/10/21 Terry Blanton hohlr...@gmail.com

 On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 12:59 PM, Bruno Santos besantos1...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  Nearly 1/3 of energy consumption is spent in transporting energy itself.

 That figure is a little high.  Legacy Transmission and Distribution
 systems have a loss factor of about 15%.  Today's modernized systems
 suffer half that loss.

 T




RE: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Alan J Fletcher


At 10:04 AM 10/21/2011, Higgins Bob-CBH003 wrote:
The
cool new product category is the concept of CHP – cogeneration of heat
and power. There is already an industry forming around this for
producing power from concentrated solar or some other high grade heat,
producing electricity for the home, and then using the waste heat to heat
the home. 
Heat-to-cooling is also fairly efficient (I grew up with kerosine-fired
refrigerators). 
And I think you can get more efficient electrical generation from the
cold side : see

http://www.ammonia21.com/files/papers/ammonia-combined-power-refrigeration-cycle.pdf

and/or  google Goswami
I don't know if it would be more efficient to distribute
power/heat/cold from a central neighborhood facility, or deliver
power/heat and do the cold in-home.





Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell
Bruno Santos besantos1...@gmail.com wrote:

 It is very unlikely that those countries with large surplus in oil and/or
 coal production would just abandon these energies sources in a short time.
 It'll be both available and cheaper. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Canada,
 Norway, Australia, China, Iran, Iraq and Russia come to mind.


Why would they continue using energy that costs far more than cold fusion?
This is like suggesting that a nation that happens to have a lot of silicon
to make glass will go on using vacuum tube computers long after transistors
are invented. Or that a nation that has lots of grass will go on using
horses rather than automobiles.

Eventually, cold fusion will be 100 times cheaper, and later 100,000 times
cheaper than fossil fuel, hydro, or wind power. The US cost of fuel for
energy works out to be roughly $2000 per person per annum. That includes
energy expended by industry, the military and so on. With deuterium-based
cold fusion I estimated this would be reduced to a few dollars per year. If
hydrogen cold fusion works, this cost will be a fraction of one penny. That
is the cost of the fuel. The cost of equipment will be considerably less
than our present day equipment, for reasons I described in the book.



 Power grids will still be around for a long time.


Let me quote the keynote speaker in the 1908 annual meeting of the National
Association of Carriage Builders:

Eighty-five percent of the horse-drawn vehicle industry of the country is
untouched by the automobile. In proof of the foregoing permit me to say that
in 1906 - 7, and coincident with an enormous demand for automobiles, the
demand for buggies reached the highest tide of its history. The man who
predicts the downfall of the automobile is a fool; the man who denies its
great necessity and general adoption for many uses is a bigger fool; and the
man who predicts the general annihilation of the horse and his vehicle is
the greatest fool of all.

When a new technology is far cheaper and more convenient for everyone, the
old technology vanishes within a generation. Power grids will be no
exception. The power companies will have no customers and no revenues.

- Jed


Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell
Alan J Fletcher a...@well.com wrote:


 Heat-to-cooling is also fairly efficient (I grew up with kerosine-fired
 refrigerators).


Ah, but it would not matter if it was terribly inefficient, because the heat
will cost nothing. As long as your refrigerator does not make the rest of
the house uncomfortably hot, you will not care how much heat it takes to
keep the thing going. You pay nothing either way. In fact, gas-fired thermal
refrigerators produce little more waste heat than electric ones.



 I don't know if it would be more efficient to distribute power/heat/cold
 from a central neighborhood facility, or deliver power/heat and do the cold
 in-home.


This is like asking whether it makes more sense to put individual water
heaters in houses, or whether we should have a large water heater on each
city block. The answer is, it is cheaper and more practical to have
individual heaters because the cost of running pipes between a neighborhood
water heater and the home would defeat any economics of pooling equipment.
Also as I said, the heat costs nothing so there are no savings in fuel,
which is the main advantage of large boilers. Hotels have large central
boilers because this reduces fuel costs. If the fuel costs nothing then they
would install individual on demand heaters under every sink and bathtub.
This would probably be cheaper in the long run.

Also, most people are not inclined to share equipment with their neighbors.
We do not share lawnmowers even though lawnmowers usually sit idle 99% of
the time. We do not share automobiles, also services such as Zip car are
becoming popular.

Some cities in Russia use district heating which is large-scale
distribution of steam for space heating from a central steam generation
plant. This is also done in New York City and at Cornell University. It
makes sense where there is high population density was present day
technology. It would make no sense at all with cold fusion. The cost of
maintaining the infrastructure of pipes under New York City is considerable,
and the pipes sometimes explode.

- Jed


[Vo]:Inverse Rydberg Hydrogen form of Dynamic Casimir effect

2011-10-21 Thread Roarty, Francis X
This year we witnessed the first observation of the dynamic Casimir effect 
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26813/  where the requisite motion 
of the Casimir plates relative to each other must approach a certain percentage 
of C such that virtual particle pairs become separated and are unable to 
annihilate [becoming real photons]. In the experiment,  Instead of a 
conventional mirror, they've used a transmission line connected to a 
superconducting quantum interference device or SQUID. Fiddling with the SQUID 
changes the effective electrical length of the line and this change is 
equivalent to the movement of an electromagnetic mirror. Inside many of the 
anomalous reactions being discussed here on vortex where nano powder or 
skeletal cats of Nickel are loaded with hydrogen we may have another similar 
vehicle of producing an equivalent motion like the SQUID. When you think of the 
relative motion of hydrogen to the Casimir geometry formed in a skeletal 
catalyst it is not just a smooth parallel formation but rather a random 
tapestry of steps and slopes that rapidly vary the energy density felt by the 
migrating hydrogen. I am not suggesting this spatial migration is anywhere near 
such velocity but rather that the Inverse Rydberg hydrogen is actually the same 
as fractional hydrogen or hydrino and that the posit of Jan Naudts that the 
hydrino is actually relativistic inside the catalyst is correct. If so then the 
127 fractional states of the hydrino are each an inertial frame steadily 
approaching an equivalent acceleration [gravity] of C. The only need for 
spatial velocity to vary the hydrogen position between different geometries is 
supplied by gas law [itself ZPE in the form of HUP]. The gas law motion may 
initially take the path of least resistance but as pressure and temperature 
increase the fractional hydrogen becomes accelerated between different regions 
faster than it can react to changes in energy density such that it experiences 
equivalent alternating accelerations [gravitational jerk] instead of motion. We 
see the hydrogen getting smaller but if Naudts is correct about this being 
relativistic then the perspective from the hydrogen is that the distance 
between the plates increases.. I am suggesting that most active region for 
Casimir effect is thereby extended downwards into the pico region where the 
hydrino continues to still see itself at or near the optimum Casimir 
displacement in the nano range. It even opens the door for a true Doctor Who 
situation where a fractional hydrogen atom approaching h/127 could reside 
between material plates that in our inertial frame are spaced closer than then 
the atomic diameter of normal hydrogen. My point here is that these rapid 
changes in Casimir and sub Casimir geometry supply equivalent accelerations and 
slewing rates that might rival the SQUID in orphaning virtual particles from 
the perspective of the IRH [fractional hydrogen].
Fran


[Vo]:NREL document is a good guide to overall energy generation and consumption

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell
If you want to know how much energy it takes to generate and transmit
electricity, and how much energy is used in transportation versus industry
or residential, please see:

NREL, *Energy Overview from NREL*. 2006, NREL.

http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/NRELenergyover.pdf

The only thing this does not cover is energy overhead; that is, the energy
cost of producing energy.

Here is the abstract I wrote for this document:

Pages 2 – 16 are from the U.S. DoE Office of Conservation and Renewable
Energy (NREL), Hydrogen Program Plan--FY 1993--FY 1997, June 1992,
Appendixes A and C.

Page 17 shows a graph published by the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in 2001. The graph shows that most energy is lost as “rejected
energy” (waste heat), especially in Electricity generation (70% waste) and
Transportation (80% waste). Better technology would greatly reduce this
waste. Most generators convert only 33% of the heat from burning coal or gas
into electricity; advanced generators convert 40%. Most automobiles convert
only 15% of the heat from gasoline into useful vehicle propulsion; hybrid
and electric automobiles convert 30% or more. This graph is based on the DoE
Energy Information Administration *Annual Energy Review*. This review is an
excellent, comprehensive source of online information.

The *Annual Energy Review* is here:

http://205.254.135.24/totalenergy/data/annual/index.cfm

This is one of the few books that is so useful, I print it on paper
periodically and keep it on the shelf.

- Jed


Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Alan J Fletcher

At 10:54 AM 10/21/2011, Jed Rothwell wrote:

This is like suggesting that a nation that happens to have a lot of 
silicon to make glass will go on using vacuum tube computers long 
after transistors are invented.


Bad analogy : excepting Galium Arsenide, most chips are made up of 
Silicon, Oxygen and Aluminum ... the three most abundant elements in 
the earth's crust:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth%27s_crust

I was unpacking an old trunk recently, and came across a slide 
presentation I made called The future of sand -- pointing out that 
chips and optical cables are made from refined sand. (Must have been 
about 1975).






Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell

Alan J Fletcher wrote:

This is like suggesting that a nation that happens to have a lot of 
silicon to make glass will go on using vacuum tube computers long 
after transistors are invented.


Bad analogy : excepting Galium Arsenide, most chips are made up of 
Silicon, Oxygen and Aluminum ... 


It was a pretend analogy. No one would think of using discrete vacuum 
tubes instead of integrated circuits. That would be economical lunacy. 
Imagine trying make a Pentium Dual Core CPU with 167 million discrete 
components.


Using a source of energy that costs your nation billions of dollars a 
year, when you can 10 times more energy, or 100 times more, for zero 
dollars per year would also be economic lunacy. No one would do that.


This is not even taking into account the fact that conventional energy 
causes tremendous damage. The use of coal in the United States kills 
roughly 20,000 people per year. And that is not even taking into account 
global warming.


Imagine a containership company trying to run oil-fired ships competing 
cold fusion powered ones. The oil fired ship costs about $100,000 per 
day for fuel. The cold fusion ship fuel cost is zero dollars to five 
significant decimal places over the entire life of the ship. the cold 
fusion powered engines themselves are much cheaper than the oil powered 
ones, because they are simpler and do not require pollution controls, 
and they do not require optimization for efficiency, because it does not 
matter how much heat you waste.


If you have a fleet of 20 ships you pay $2 million a day more than the 
competition, plus your ships cost about millions more to construct and 
maintain. You think any business could compete on that basis?


Here is a containership engine:

http://www.emma-maersk.com/engine/Wartsila_Sulzer_RTA96-C.htm


My second analogy is somewhat more realistic. In fact, poor nations with 
lots of open grassland, bad roads, and low population still do use 
horses. You see this in South America and Mongolia for example. They use 
automobiles too, of course.


- Jed



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Stephen A. Lawrence



On 11-10-21 02:37 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote:

Here is a containership engine:

http://www.emma-maersk.com/engine/Wartsila_Sulzer_RTA96-C.htm


Very cool!

It appears to be an internal combustion engine, which seems bizarre.  I 
thought super high scale power was all generated with external 
combustion, and some variant on a steam engine (turbine or piston) to 
convert the heat to torque.  OTOH getting 50% efficiency out of any kind 
of heat engine is pretty darn good.


The name sounds vaguely Polish to me, but the lettering on the wall in 
what I guess is the factory looks Korean.   Any idea where the beast is 
actually made?






My second analogy is somewhat more realistic. In fact, poor nations 
with lots of open grassland, bad roads, and low population still do 
use horses. You see this in South America and Mongolia for example. 
They use automobiles too, of course.


- Jed






Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Bruno Santos
Well, my scenario was thought from a perspective of e-cat technology, not
deuterium-based cold fusion.
And I do agree with almost everything you say about costs. The point is: how
long does it take? Not every family, company nor country is wealth enough to
just give it up on old technology and adopt new ones, even if the new one is
way much cheaper to mantain. There is a sunk cost that needs to be
recovered.

That's why companies who have a large amount of it's costs related to energy
much more likely to adopt the technology first. Then old-fashioned
technology prices will drop, making it less urgent for other energy
consumers to rush into the new technology.

Real cost of oil to Saudi Arabia is not US$ 100 per barrel. It's way, way
cheaper. It's just that they make more money selling it to USA, Europe or
China than burning it on their backyards. Opportunity cost is what makes oil
expensive to saudis and russians, not real cost of obtaining oil.
Eventually, when the technology goes mature, we'll see e-cats used in large
scale in Saudi Arabia.

As to the keynote speaker on the National Association of Carriage Builders,
he was not wrong. Cars were very expensive those days. What made his speech
stupid was not the car itself, but the astonishing productivity of Ford's
assembly line.

Of course, cars were much more efficient than carriage. *Carriages were
doomed anyway*, but what made their market disappear so fast was Henry Ford,
not Ford Model T.

Best regards,

Bruno


2011/10/21 Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.com




 Why would they continue using energy that costs far more than cold fusion?
 This is like suggesting that a nation that happens to have a lot of silicon
 to make glass will go on using vacuum tube computers long after transistors
 are invented. Or that a nation that has lots of grass will go on using
 horses rather than automobiles.
 (...)
 When a new technology is far cheaper and more convenient for everyone, the
 old technology vanishes within a generation. Power grids will be no
 exception. The power companies will have no customers and no revenues.

 - Jed




Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Terry Blanton
On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 2:59 PM, Stephen A. Lawrence sa...@pobox.com wrote:
 Any idea where the beast is actually
 made?

Would you believe Finland?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4

T



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell
Bruno Santos besantos1...@gmail.com wrote:


 And I do agree with almost everything you say about costs. The point is:
 how long does it take?


That's easy to estimate. It takes 10 years for automobiles, and 20 years for
heating and cooling equipment (HVAC -- heating ventilation and air
conditioning).

That is how long the equipment lasts. It wear out. You have to replace it
anyway after that time. Cold fusion equipment will soon be cheaper than
old-fashioned gas-fired equipment, so when it comes time to replace
equipment, everyone will select cold fusion version.



 Not every family, company nor country is wealth enough to just give it up
 on old technology and adopt new ones . . .


As I said, every family company and country has to replace all equipment
anyway, every 20 years.



 , even if the new one is way much cheaper to mantain. There is a sunk cost
 that needs to be recovered.


Consumers never recover sunk costs. When your car wears out you buy a new
one. That's all there is to it.

The power company needs to recover its sunk costs if it is going to make a
profit. But consumers do not care whether the power company makes a profit.
We couldn't care less if it goes out of business. If the power company is
left with $1 trillion worth of useless obsolete infrastructure and rusting
equipment . . . Why would I care? I'm not a stockholder. I am not going to
pay the power company and gas companies $150 a month for something I can get
for free. That would be like paying for punchcard equipment when I can buy a
2 TB hard disk for $100.

The people manufacturing vacuum tubes had sunk costs in their glassblowing
and fabrication machinery. The customers went ahead and bought transistors
instead of vacuum tubes, because customers did not care at all that vacuum
tube manufacturers were losing money and going out of business.

We don't care whether the power company goes bankrupt or not. As for OPEC,
BP, Exxon and the other oil companies, I think many people would be pleased
to see them go bankrupt. We would pay extra for cold fusion just to help
make that happen.



 Real cost of oil to Saudi Arabia is not US$ 100 per barrel. It's way, way
 cheaper. It's just that they make more money selling it to USA, Europe or
 China than burning it on their backyards.


Hydrogen in cold fusion produces millions times more energy than oil and it
costs nothing.

There will not even be a market for oil used as raw material in plastics. It
will be cheaper and safer to manufacture hydrocarbons from hydrogen and
carbon locally. That takes more energy than you get from burning the stuff,
but no one will care because the energy will cost nothing.

I discuss all of this in my book, by the way.

- Jed


Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Terry Blanton
On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 3:39 PM, Terry Blanton hohlr...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 2:59 PM, Stephen A. Lawrence sa...@pobox.com wrote:
 Any idea where the beast is actually
 made?

 Would you believe Finland?

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4

Designed in Finland; but, actually constructed in Japan:

http://www.aksturgeon.com/2009/04/20/wartsila-sulzer-rta96-c-diesel-engine/

T



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Stephen A. Lawrence



On 11-10-21 03:39 PM, Terry Blanton wrote:

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 2:59 PM, Stephen A. Lawrencesa...@pobox.com  wrote:

Any idea where the beast is actually
made?

Would you believe Finland?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4


No way!  That's a surprise, all right!

And the shipper on the page appeared to be Danish.

So what's that stuff written on the wall in this shot?

http://www.emma-maersk.com/gallery/photo/engine_10.jpg

Doesn't look like Norse runes to me!



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Stephen A. Lawrence



On 11-10-21 03:45 PM, Terry Blanton wrote:

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 3:39 PM, Terry Blantonhohlr...@gmail.com  wrote:

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 2:59 PM, Stephen A. Lawrencesa...@pobox.com  wrote:

Any idea where the beast is actually
made?

Would you believe Finland?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4

Designed in Finland; but, actually constructed in Japan:

http://www.aksturgeon.com/2009/04/20/wartsila-sulzer-rta96-c-diesel-engine/


Ain't Japanese, neither, I don't think.  (But if Jed disagrees and says 
it is, then I concede, of course...)


Looks to me like yet another Japanese manufacturer which has farmed 
manufacturing out to someplace overseas.




Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Terry Blanton
On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 3:53 PM, Stephen A. Lawrence sa...@pobox.com wrote:

 Looks to me like yet another Japanese manufacturer which has farmed
 manufacturing out to someplace overseas.


Good eye, Stephen.  The History Channel says that the engine was
manufactured in Korea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXHvY-zY9hA

Global Economy, doncha love it?

T



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell
I wrote:


 And I do agree with almost everything you say about costs. The point is:
 how long does it take?


 That's easy to estimate. It takes 10 years for automobiles, and 20 years
 for heating and cooling equipment (HVAC -- heating ventilation and air
 conditioning).


Naturally, some cars last longer than 10 years. I have one that is 17 years
old. I think the half-life for automobiles is around six years.

There are a few antique ones that are 40, 50 or even 100 years old. These
are collector's items rather than practical machines.

If you look around you will find some buildings with HVAC equipment older
than 20 years. However, running such equipment is not cost effective. It is
cheaper to replace it with modern equipment.

In countries such as China you sometimes see old, obsolete factory equipment
and coal fired furnaces. A few years ago they were still using coal-fired
locomotives. This is a terrific waste of money. They cannot afford to
replace the equipment with more modern machinery. that is why Chinese energy
efficiency with was much lower than the US or Europe decades ago. I believe
it is catching up now.

It is a horrible thing that Chinese and Third World energy efficiency is so
low. They end up paying more for goods and services than we do, in some
cases. The worst thing by far is the cost of illumination (lighting). In the
Third World, many people use kerosene lamps. These are horrible for the
environment, for the people. They are dangerous. The cost per lumen for the
light is astronomically more than electric lighting, even Edison-style
incandescent lights.

They use kerosene lamps because they have no electric power service,
obviously. Fortunately, nowadays LED lighting and solar battery systems are
beginning to replace kerosene.

- Jed


Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Robert Lynn

 I am afraid household electricity is just not going to get much cheaper -
 maybe 20-30% drop, but it probably will drop far more for industry.


 I disagree.

 As I described in my book cost will drop by 60% at first and later by more
 than 100%. That is to say, the overall cost of equipment will be less than
 we now pay. Cold fusion generators will also serve as cogenerators,
 replacing heating and air-conditioning equipment. When the technology
 matures, the total cost of a cold fusion generator will be less than the
 heating and air-conditioning equipment it replaces.

 - Jed


We'll I've worked and researched in the utility electricity, and micro CHP
(combined heat and power) industry off and on over the last 20 years, so if
you want to argue the point you are going to need to justify your
disagreement a whole lot better than by an appeal to (your own) authority :)

Grid Supply:
For current European prices check:
http://www.energy.eu/#Industrial-Gas
Of the european median small consumer price of electricity $0.24/kWh only
about 30% of it is actual fuel cost ($0.08/kWh assuming 60% generation
efficiency with $0.05/kWh gas price) - meaning about 70% of the home
electricity cost is in generation and distribution.  That won't change if
the utility is still doing the production, after all the grid and generation
is expensive to maintain, so even if the heat is free it still wouldn't drop
the price by more than 30%.

Domestic Supply:
Currently MicroCHP (eg Whispergen or Microgen stirling) costs $10k+ for a
house and requires at least annual maintenance, costing $1000/year in
capital depreciation and maintenance costs.  Economics dictate that Micro
CHP is sized and run according to heating load, with electricity a useful by
product.  However even with household gas prices ~30% of electricity prices
($0.075kWh vs $0.24kWh median) micro CHP it is not economic without large
subsidies (I did an industry survey and report for my job last year).
Yearly costs are similar to current electricity bill, hence poor uptake, and
they still needing to pay for a grid connection as well to handle peaks.

There is absolutely no way that you can make a domestic cold fusion device
that can supply the 1kW average 10kW peak electrical power you need for less
than the $700 per year (capital and maintenance cost) that your 60% price
drop would require, even a conventional gas boiler costs not much less than
that.  On top of that you will need the grid or an expensive, limited life
battery pack (required for emergencies and startup anyway if not grid
connected), neither of which options is going to cost you less than
$200/year.  Capital costs for a mass produced LENR CHP system might halve
from the $10k+ of current gas powered stirling engine CHPs, but you are
still looking at replacing the heat source twice a year, and controlling a
finicky and dangerous pressurised hydrogen system, so don't imagine you are
going to drop price much if you go for in-house CHP LENR generation.

Also if you think 5% efficient thermoelectric converters might be a cheaper
option than heat engines then check the price of 5% efficient Bismuth
Telluride thermoelectrics ($10k/kW) and imagine what a massive demand
increase for very rare Tellurium would do for their economics.

Nowhere in these numbers does there exist the margins required to drop
consumer electricity prices by 60% even if the heat were free.


Re: [Vo]:New articles on the September 6th E-Cat test

2011-10-21 Thread Terry Blanton
On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 6:38 AM, Akira Shirakawa
shirakawa.ak...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hello group,

 NyTeknik and Focus.it today published several additional analyses on the
 September 6th E-Cat Test.

I'm not sure if this update was present when you first viewed the
NyTeknik article:

UPDATE (Oct 21, 16:45): Defkalion confirms this information with the
following statement: Price for exclusive license is 40.5 million
Euros which includes blue prints, transfer of knowledge, and training
to establish an operating factory producing up to 300.000 Hyperion
[Defkalion's product name] units annually. Potential licensees contact
Defkalion with an interest to assume this exclusive license. They are
invited to perform independent tests on our products with their own
instruments. The 500,000 Euros in an Escrow Account is payable only on
the condition that they are satisfied by the results of their
measurements and they wish to proceed in the signing of a full
contract. (End of update)

DGT has confirmed this on their forum.

T



[Vo]:Possible mechanism-Excess Power Reading of ECAT

2011-10-21 Thread David Roberson



The ECAT measurements conducted on October 6, 2011 have several discrepancies 
that have made it extremely difficult for us to understand.  I would like to 
offer the following possible mechanism for consideration to the group of 
experts assembled on the edge of the vortex.
As I think about the structure of the system consisting of the ECAT and heat 
exchanger, an interesting thought occurs to me.  We can be reasonably safe in 
assuming that any space remaining within the ECAT enclosure is full of pure 
water vapor.  Furthermore, after passing through a probable check valve, the 
vapor continues down the pipe and into the port of the heat exchanger.  Now 
this is where it becomes interesting.  I suspect that the vapor starts to 
condense as soon as it goes into the exchanger, but does not totally liquefy 
until somewhere within.  The distance from the beginning of the exchanger to 
the point where the vapor consists of mainly hot water may be highly variable.  
This demarcation point must be moving closer and then further away from the 
entrance.  Of course any hot water that has been condensed proceeds toward the 
exit of the device and cools down totally.
Water vapor does not transfer heat well to cooler surfaces since it has a low 
density.  For this reason, I suspect that only a small portion of the vapor 
energy is transferred to the manifold where the secondary output and 
thermocouple resides.  One good feature associated this configuration is that 
readings made during this period of the test when output power is high and 
increasing should be relatively accurate.  I assume that once the steam passes 
a distance within the exchanger, its effects on the thermocouple are 
overwhelmed by the much larger secondary water flow.  On the other hand, if 
much steam condenses within the small manifold, plenty of heat is released and 
the thermocouple reading gets seriously degraded.
I think most of the above information has been discussed previously within the 
vortex by various persons.  My new concept (as far as I know) is that a subtle 
thing is occurring.  Instead of water being expelled through the ECAT output 
valve due to overflow or percolation, etc I suggest that it is being pulled 
backwards by a vacuum mechanism.  Consider this, as the temperature within the 
ECAT drops as measured by the thermocouple at its output, the pressure inside 
is reduced according to water saturation tables.  The output valve closes a 
small amount to compensate.  Less vapor is released through the valve and the 
pressure must fall within the feed line to the heat exchanger and within the 
heat exchanger itself.  The heat exchanger is now able to condense the vapor 
closer to the entrance and the water backs up potentially all the way into the 
manifold with the thermocouple attached.  I suspect that the water can climb a 
very short way into the ECAT output tubing when subjected to rapid pressure 
dropping conditions within the ECAT.  Since there can be no significant 
condensation within the tubing, it is unlikely that the water would ever reach 
as far as the output valve.
It should be apparent that as long as boiling is occurring within the ECAT 
there should always be vapor escaping through the output valve which, of 
course, keeps and vacuum drawn water past the point where that vapor can 
condense.
This new model might solve a few of the mysteries that have dogged us for so 
long.   For example, as the power into the ECAT increases by turning on the 
internal heating device or by extra LENR energy production you will observe the 
temperature reading (T2) rise.  This results in an increase of the pressures 
and more vapor generation which moves the water/vapor line further into the 
exchanger.  The thermocouple (Tout) sees less water and more vapor inside the 
manifold and reads lower.  I noticed this effect showing up well at 15:42 just 
before the device went into self-sustaining mode.  At that temperature Tout – 
Tin is only 3 degrees while the internal temperature of the ECAT was reaching 
its value of 121.8 degrees, up from 119.2 degrees, its previous value.  Take 
some time to review the excellent information supplied by Mats in his October 
report and look for this phenomenon.  I see pretty good correlation to the data.
Another thorn is our paws has been the unusual behavior when the total power 
has been shut down and water flow maximized at the end of the test run.  Look 
at the data from 19:22.  About 14 minutes before this time the power was shut 
down, hydrogen eliminated and input water flow rapidly increased.  A nice 2.1 
degree drop is seen in the ECAT output temperature from the last reading.  My 
thought is that the increased water input flow quickly reduces the rapid 
boiling within the ECAT and allows the vacuum effect to draw the exchanger hot 
water into the manifold.  This water then leads to a large apparent power 
increase (Tout – Tin = 8.6 degrees) which is an illusion.  Temperature 

Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell
Robert Lynn robert.gulliver.l...@gmail.com wrote:


 We'll I've worked and researched in the utility electricity, and micro CHP
 (combined heat and power) industry off and on over the last 20 years, so if
 you want to argue the point you are going to need to justify your
 disagreement a whole lot better than by an appeal to (your own) authority :)


Hey, I did not make this stuff up. I do not know enough about electricity to
do that. I got these ideas from people at EPRI and in various books.

Your experience is with present day technology which is expensive because it
is optimized for high fuel efficiency. Cold fusion technology will be as
different as the automobile is to the railroad locomotive. The goal will not
be to optimize equipment to produce the greatest fuel efficiency, but rather
to produce the lowest lifetime equipment cost.


Of the european median small consumer price of electricity $0.24/kWh only
 about 30% of it is actual fuel cost . . .


Yes, that is what I said in chapter 14. but cold fusion devices would save
much more than merely the cost of fuel. That's just the start.


($0.08/kWh assuming 60% generation efficiency with $0.05/kWh gas price) -
 meaning about 70% of the home electricity cost is in generation and
 distribution.


Distribution costs with cold fusion will cogenerators would be zero. They
are right there, in your house.



   That won't change if the utility is still doing the production, after all
 the grid and generation is expensive to maintain, so even if the heat is
 free it still wouldn't drop the price by more than 30%.


Why would the utility still be doing production?



 However even with household gas prices ~30% of electricity prices
 ($0.075kWh vs $0.24kWh median) micro CHP it is not economic without large
 subsidies (I did an industry survey and report for my job last year).


This is CHP technology optimized to work with high-cost fuels. Technology
designed from the ground up with the goal of making the equipment itself
cheap would have entirely different characteristics. There is no reason why
a first-generation device should cost more than today's standby gas
generators, which costs $6,000 for a unit with way more power than my house
would ever need. These devices are not intended to run full-time but they
could be improved.

The actual machines are the size of an air conditioner. See the photo on p.
116. Later it will cost ~$2000 and it will replace the furnace as well as
the power company.



 Yearly costs are similar to current electricity bill, hence poor uptake,
 and they still needing to pay for a grid connection as well to handle peaks.


No, there is no need for this. See chapter 15. There will not long be a grid
to connect to, in any case.



 There is absolutely no way that you can make a domestic cold fusion device
 that can supply the 1kW average 10kW peak electrical power you need for less
 than the $700 per year (capital and maintenance cost) . . .


There may not be now but there soon will be. This is a lot like saying in
1979 that there is no way you could make a 12 MB hard disk for less than
$3000. That was true back then. A few years later it was not. It is like
saying in 1908 at automobile tires will never cost less than $50 each
(equivalent to about $1000 today).

Once the core technology drops in price, incentive is created and people
will soon find ways to make cheap peripheral technology to go along with the
core technology. A market for billions of small generators will open, and
someone will find a way to meet it. Once you get zero cost energy, people
will find ways to make small cheap generators and cheap thermal
refrigerators and other equipment. It will be as cheap as today's automobile
engines per unit of power. That is to say, about 4 times cheaper than power
company equipment. (Cheaper but far less efficient and with a shorter
lifespan.)



 that your 60% price drop would require, even a conventional gas boiler
 costs not much less than that.


That is because conventional gas boilers have to be efficient and they have
to have pollution control.



 Also if you think 5% efficient thermoelectric converters might be a cheaper
 option than heat engines then check the price of 5% efficient Bismuth
 Telluride thermoelectrics ($10k/kW) . . .


What do you think it would cost to build a 2 TB hard disk in 1979? It
couldn't be done but if someone did it would cost tens of millions of
dollars. Now it costs $100.

Bismuth costs $13 a pound. The cost of this and all other materials will
plummet when cold fusion mining and extraction techniques become common. If
thermoelectric converters are expensive now that is because the technology
has not been developed or mass-produced yet. When the market for billions of
thermoelectric devices worldwide opens up, the cost will fall.

- Jed


Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread David Roberson

This is what I call an engine!  Now, how can I get it into my hot rod?

Dave


-Original Message-
From: Terry Blanton hohlr...@gmail.com
To: vortex-l vortex-l@eskimo.com
Sent: Fri, Oct 21, 2011 3:46 pm
Subject: Re: [Vo]:Steam engines


On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 3:39 PM, Terry Blanton hohlr...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 2:59 PM, Stephen A. Lawrence sa...@pobox.com wrote:
 Any idea where the beast is actually
 made?

 Would you believe Finland?

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4
Designed in Finland; but, actually constructed in Japan:
http://www.aksturgeon.com/2009/04/20/wartsila-sulzer-rta96-c-diesel-engine/
T



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell
I wrote:


 What do you think it would cost to build a 2 TB hard disk in 1979? It
 couldn't be done but if someone did it would cost tens of millions of
 dollars. Now it costs $100.


Correction, it would have cost roughly $400 million, in 1979 dollars. That
is based on the cheapest hard disks available at that time which cost $193
per megabyte. 2 TB equals roughly 2 million MB * 193 = 384 million bucks.
See:

http://ns1758.ca/winch/winchest.html

Regarding thermoelectric devices, however difficult it is to manufacture
them today, it cannot be more difficult than making semiconductors or NiCad
batteries, which are cheap. my point about the cost of bismuth is that
material cost is modest.

Heck, even if you make them out of gold the material costs will soon be
cheaper than they are now. Extraction and recycling costs will fall with
cold fusion. People say the amount of gold in the world is limited, but
there is plenty of low grade ore, and -- to take the long view -- probably
much more elsewhere in the solar system.

- Jed


Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Bastiaan Bergman
A car running on 10kW electric from a cold fusion device connected to
a 5% efficient heat to electric converter (steam or bismut or
whatever) would spit out 200kW of waste heat, that is equivalent to 15
strong patio heaters. Are you really sure, Jed, we don't have to
worry?



On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 2:33 PM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.com wrote:
 I wrote:


 What do you think it would cost to build a 2 TB hard disk in 1979? It
 couldn't be done but if someone did it would cost tens of millions of
 dollars. Now it costs $100.

 Correction, it would have cost roughly $400 million, in 1979 dollars. That
 is based on the cheapest hard disks available at that time which cost $193
 per megabyte. 2 TB equals roughly 2 million MB * 193 = 384 million bucks.
 See:
 http://ns1758.ca/winch/winchest.html
 Regarding thermoelectric devices, however difficult it is to manufacture
 them today, it cannot be more difficult than making semiconductors or NiCad
 batteries, which are cheap. my point about the cost of bismuth is that
 material cost is modest.
 Heck, even if you make them out of gold the material costs will soon be
 cheaper than they are now. Extraction and recycling costs will fall with
 cold fusion. People say the amount of gold in the world is limited, but
 there is plenty of low grade ore, and -- to take the long view -- probably
 much more elsewhere in the solar system.
 - Jed




Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Jed Rothwell
Bastiaan Bergman bastiaan.berg...@gmail.com wrote:

A car running on 10kW electric from a cold fusion device connected to
 a 5% efficient heat to electric converter (steam or bismut or
 whatever) would spit out 200kW of waste heat . . .


That would be a Rube Goldberg machine! Why would you do it that way? Put the
cold fusion reactor in the car and use a heat engine to convert the heat
directly to mechanical force.

When the technology is first introduced it might be cheaper to make the car
a hybrid like a Prius, where the mechanical force is sometimes converted to
electric power and stored.

Also, even small steam turbines are better than 5% efficient.

Thermoelectric devices will not come into widespread use for cold fusion
until efficiency is more like 20% I suppose. Present day ones are ~10%
efficient at 500°C. See:

http://www.electrochem.org/dl/interface/fal/fal08/fal08_p54-56.pdf

In the 1960s and 70s, thermoelectric devices were used with plutonium in
pacemakers, so they can be scaled down. In a pacemaker, wristwatch battery
or earphone battery you need only a tiny trickle of electric power so
efficiency does not matter.

- Jed


[Vo]:Lego patent expired

2011-10-21 Thread Michele Comitini
Childhood (and fatherhood) memories...

http://boingboing.net/2011/10/21/expired-patent-of-the-day-lego.html

Now anyone can make those bricks like the real stuff not just cheap
imitations! ;-)

mic



Re: [Vo]:Steam engines

2011-10-21 Thread Bastiaan Bergman
 Why would you do it that way?

However you do it, it's hard to beat the 5-10%.
The point is that efficiency does matter.



On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 3:16 PM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.com wrote:
 Bastiaan Bergman bastiaan.berg...@gmail.com wrote:

 A car running on 10kW electric from a cold fusion device connected to
 a 5% efficient heat to electric converter (steam or bismut or
 whatever) would spit out 200kW of waste heat . . .

 That would be a Rube Goldberg machine! Why would you do it that way? Put the
 cold fusion reactor in the car and use a heat engine to convert the heat
 directly to mechanical force.
 When the technology is first introduced it might be cheaper to make the car
 a hybrid like a Prius, where the mechanical force is sometimes converted to
 electric power and stored.
 Also, even small steam turbines are better than 5% efficient.
 Thermoelectric devices will not come into widespread use for cold fusion
 until efficiency is more like 20% I suppose. Present day ones are ~10%
 efficient at 500°C. See:
 http://www.electrochem.org/dl/interface/fal/fal08/fal08_p54-56.pdf
 In the 1960s and 70s, thermoelectric devices were used with plutonium in
 pacemakers, so they can be scaled down. In a pacemaker, wristwatch battery
 or earphone battery you need only a tiny trickle of electric power so
 efficiency does not matter.
 - Jed




Re: [Vo]:Lego patent expired

2011-10-21 Thread Man on Bridges

Hi,

On 22-10-2011 0:33, Michele Comitini wrote:

Childhood (and fatherhood) memories...

http://boingboing.net/2011/10/21/expired-patent-of-the-day-lego.html

Now anyone can make those bricks like the real stuff not just cheap
imitations! ;-)

mic


As an AFOL I can only say: you are wrong ;-) !

Yes, the BASIC patents may have expired, but that was already known for 
some time.
Step in to a toy store and you may find the answer to why it's almost 
impossible to compete with Lego.
First of all talk to some true AFOL adepts and find out that all of them 
want the real thing and no cheap Chinese imitation because of rigorous 
quality control, excellent name branding and innovative designs.
Second Lego has made some very very important deals with companies such 
as Ferrari, Lucas Film Industries and so on and you know why other cheap 
imitations won't be able to take a significant part of the pie ;-)


Kind regards,

MoB




Re: [Vo]:Possible mechanism-Excess Power Reading of ECAT

2011-10-21 Thread Peter Gluck
Very interesting, thanks!
And a reason more to use a simple steam water mixing device (valve) to
condensate steam in the place of this finicky heat exchanger- as I have
 suggested
months ago, Rossi has ignored this idea, complexity is part of his game.
Peter



On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 12:16 AM, David Roberson dlrober...@aol.com wrote:

   The ECAT measurements conducted on October 6, 2011 have several
 discrepancies that have made it extremely difficult for us to understand.
 I would like to offer the following possible mechanism for consideration to
 the group of experts assembled on the edge of the vortex.
 As I think about the structure of the system consisting of the ECAT and
 heat exchanger, an interesting thought occurs to me.  We can be reasonably
 safe in assuming that any space remaining within the ECAT enclosure is full
 of pure water vapor.  Furthermore, after passing through a probable check
 valve, the vapor continues down the pipe and into the port of the heat
 exchanger.  Now this is where it becomes interesting.  I suspect that the
 vapor starts to condense as soon as it goes into the exchanger, but does not
 totally liquefy until somewhere within.  The distance from the beginning
 of the exchanger to the point where the vapor consists of mainly hot water
 may be highly variable.  This demarcation point must be moving closer and
 then further away from the entrance.  Of course any hot water that has
 been condensed proceeds toward the exit of the device and cools down
 totally.
 Water vapor does not transfer heat well to cooler surfaces since it has a
 low density.  For this reason, I suspect that only a small portion of the
 vapor energy is transferred to the manifold where the secondary output and
 thermocouple resides.  One good feature associated this configuration is
 that readings made during this period of the test when output power is high
 and increasing should be relatively accurate.  I assume that once the
 steam passes a distance within the exchanger, its effects on the
 thermocouple are overwhelmed by the much larger secondary water flow.  On
 the other hand, if much steam condenses within the small manifold, plenty of
 heat is released and the thermocouple reading gets seriously degraded.
 I think most of the above information has been discussed previously within
 the vortex by various persons.  My new concept (as far as I know) is that
 a subtle thing is occurring.  Instead of water being expelled through the
 ECAT output valve due to overflow or percolation, etc I suggest that it is
 being pulled backwards by a vacuum mechanism.  Consider this, as the
 temperature within the ECAT drops as measured by the thermocouple at its
 output, the pressure inside is reduced according to water saturation tables.
 The output valve closes a small amount to compensate.  Less vapor is
 released through the valve and the pressure must fall within the feed line
 to the heat exchanger and within the heat exchanger itself.  The heat
 exchanger is now able to condense the vapor closer to the entrance and the
 water backs up potentially all the way into the manifold with the
 thermocouple attached.  I suspect that the water can climb a very short
 way into the ECAT output tubing when subjected to rapid pressure dropping
 conditions within the ECAT.  Since there can be no significant
 condensation within the tubing, it is unlikely that the water would ever
 reach as far as the output valve.
 It should be apparent that as long as boiling is occurring within the ECAT
 there should always be vapor escaping through the output valve which, of
 course, keeps and vacuum drawn water past the point where that vapor can
 condense.
 This new model might solve a few of the mysteries that have dogged us for
 so long.   For example, as the power into the ECAT increases by turning on
 the internal heating device or by extra LENR energy production you will
 observe the temperature reading (T2) rise.  This results in an increase of
 the pressures and more vapor generation which moves the water/vapor line
 further into the exchanger.  The thermocouple (Tout) sees less water and
 more vapor inside the manifold and reads lower.  I noticed this effect
 showing up well at 15:42 just before the device went into self-sustaining
 mode.  At that temperature Tout – Tin is only 3 degrees while the internal
 temperature of the ECAT was reaching its value of 121.8 degrees, up from
 119.2 degrees, its previous value.  Take some time to review the excellent
 information supplied by Mats in his October report and look for this
 phenomenon.  I see pretty good correlation to the data.
 Another thorn is our paws has been the unusual behavior when the total
 power has been shut down and water flow maximized at the end of the test
 run.  Look at the data from 19:22.  About 14 minutes before this time the
 power was shut down, hydrogen eliminated and input water flow rapidly
 increased.  A nice 2.1 degree drop is seen in the ECAT