Do a search on "thermoacoustic". This isn't all that mysterious, and
if you want to get in to computational fluid dynamics computations, it
can all be explained according to the laws of physics. It's
essentially the same as a heat pump, only instead of a mechanical
compressor to create pressure differences, the standing sound waves
set up in the device create areas of higher and lower pressure in the
gas, and transfer heat. I can also be harnessed in the reverse, using
heat to create sound waves, which then operate a linear generator to
generate electricity. I believe it actually operates on the stirling
cycle, but without the very hard to machine pistons/cylinders/seals
required by a mechanical stirling engine. Yes, right now the
efficiency isn't very good now, but the lack of moving parts is
appealing. Lots of interesting reading on the web.
On 2/19/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:
Dear D.M.,
I suppose for now, this machine is one of life's mysteries.
A somewhat larger mystery, however, is why someone would buy
a machine with a coefficient of performance of 1.6 at best when
water source heat pumps are available with a COP of 5.0.
Putting this aside for a moment, I assume that the city
departments are connected to the grid. So, power is delivered to
the device with 30% efficiency or thereabouts.
Let's see .3 X 1.6 = .48 throughput when considering the
inefficiencies of centralized power.
Or the city could use any number of furnace/fuel combinations
to get heat at up to 95 percent efficiency, or so.
Finally, commercial users are usually charged a premium for
electricity based on peak usage for the year. I don't know whether
this is the case for municipalities in general or for those in
Georgia, U.S.A.
Any thoughts?
Regards,
Wendell
>From: "D. Mindock" < [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>
>Date: 2007/02/19 Mon AM 03:12:56 CST
>To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;@unspecified-domain>
>Subject: [Biofuel] Over unity? Shock waves and steam heat
>
> http://www.alternativescience.com/over-unity.htm
>Shock waves and steam heat
>
>For more than two years debate has raged on the Internet about an
ordinary-looking metal drum sitting on the concrete floor of a
factory building in Rome, Georgia, 50 miles from Atlanta. Its
inventor, the man about whom the Internet debate is raging, is
James Griggs, an industrial heating engineer. The invention that
has brought Griggs such notoriety is a device that he began
developing in 1987, that he calls the 'Hydrosonic Pump' and that
many of his supporters believe is over-unity, in that it generates
around 30 per cent more energy as heat than is put in as electricity.
>To the skeptics, the Griggs Gadget is, at best, a case of
self-delusion on a grand scale, and, at worst, a case of
scientific fraud. To his supporters, the pump is the first
unequivocal public demonstration of undoubted over-unity.
>Jim Griggs told me, 'the pump is based on a theory of what takes
place when a shock wave is created in a fluid. We know that when
you create a shock wave in a liquid there is a minute amount of
energy released into the fluid in the form of heat.'
>'Most of the previous studies had been done in how to eliminate
that shock wave, instead of putting the heat to a useful purpose.
We've designed a system to take the shock-wave heat energy,
capture it, and produce hot water or steam.'
>Griggs believes that his device works on perfectly normal
principles and violates no laws of physics. Just what happens when
the Hydrosonic pump is filled up with water and switched on is
described by over-unity investigator Jed Rothwell who conducted a
detailed engineering investigation of the device in January 1994.
>'During one of the demonstrations we watched,' he says, 'over a
20 minute period, 4.80 Kilowatt Hours of electricity was input,
and 19,050 BTUs of heat evolved, which equals 5.58 Kilowatt Hours,
or 117 per cent of input. The actual input to output ratio was
even better than this, when you take into account the
inefficiencies of the electric motor.'
>But if there are kilowatts of excess heat available, why doesn't
Griggs simply use the steam to turn a turbine-generator and
connect the output to the input -- thus getting a perpetual motion
machine?
>One reason is that converting steam into electricity is an
extremely inefficient process. You would be lucky to convert 5 per
cent of the output heat energy back into electricity -- and 2 per
cent might be nearer the mark. The Hydrosonic pump would therefore
have to be massively over-unity before you could recover enough
energy to make it self-sustaining, and at present the margin is a
'modest' 30 per cent.
>More importantly, the excess energy does not actually appear at
the output steam pipe for a constant input of energy. What happens
is this; the pump is started and after five or ten minutes reaches
a steady state where it is converting water at room temperature to
steam. Once this steady state is reached, the pump, according to
Griggs, goes into an over-unity mode where the output temperature
is maintained, but the amount of energy needed at the input to
maintain it, drops by 30 per cent.
>Griggs has been working with a number of physicists and engineers
to try to get to the bottom of just how his device works. As well
as Jed Rothwell's consulting engineering firm in Atlanta he has
worked with Professor Keizios, dean emeritus of the Department of
Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and past
president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Professor Keizos supervised the design of the instrumentation that
measures the energy input and output of the Griggs Gadget.
>In a second test, during which the over-unity effect was
measured, the adjusted co-efficient of power was a remarkable 168
per cent -- the machine produced 1.68 times the energy that was
input. A third test did nearly as well with a Co-efficient of
power of 157 per cent.
>If the only evidence for these claims were the colour brochure
printed by Griggs's company, Hydro Dynamics Corporation Inc., and
reports of his supporters, then most observers might be inclined
to side with the skeptics: Griggs's claims seem fundamentally
improbable. Yet surprisingly, Griggs has not only patented his
device and started manufacturing a commercial version on a small
scale, he has also sold and installed devices to users in the
Atlanta area.
>The customers include the Atlanta Police Department, a fire
station, a dry cleaning plant, and a gymnasium. Interestingly, the
Hydrosonic pump was installed in the public buildings by the
county engineer after evaluating the device. The buildings are
using the device mainly for heating purposes, and they have been
running for more than a year. The customers have bills from their
local electric utility company showing a year on year decrease in
bills equivalent to 30 per cent.
>What precisely causes the claimed excess heat? Griggs himself
rejects the popular idea that his pump has something to do with
so-called 'cold fusion'.
>'We have kind of been lumped into the cold fusion field', he says
wryly, 'because we have experienced excess energy out of the pump.
As far as cold fusion goes, we don't believe that we're
accomplishing any type of nuclear reaction within our system. We
feel that it can be explained through the theory of cavitation or
sonoluminescence.'
>Griggs's gadget has been examined by a steady stream of
investigators, both friendly and skeptical. So far, they have all
gone away mystified. Unlike most 'over-unity' devices, however,
you can buy and install a hydrosonic pump in your own home.
>
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