I don't think Penon's competency is an issue at all here. Anyone can measure 50x cop.
On Wednesday, April 6, 2016, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > I have been complaining that Penon seems incompetent. It is a little > unfair for me to grouse without substantiating my complaints. Let me > briefly describe why I am not impressed. > > The report is here: > > http://coldfusionnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/105322688-Penon4-1.pdf > > As I wrote previously: > > "It says output was 2.5 ~ 3.7 kW, and input was 3.6 kW." > > That's a BIG PROBLEM. Red flag! If I did a study and came up with an > answer somewhere between 2.5 and 3.7 kW I would not publish it. That is an > absurdly wide error margin. Narrowing it down in this case is easy. It is > trivial. You calibrate. You step the cell through 8 or 10 steps at power > levels ranging from 4 to 8 kW. That range covers the lowest to the highest > power levels you think the cell is producing. > > I also said: > > "I do not think much of the methodology. I recommend calibrations and the > use of thermocouple to augment the IR camera." > > I just explained why calibrations are important. I do not see them in this > report. A thermocouple to confirm the IR camera is essential. > > "I admit I have not looked as closely as I did to the Levi reports, but I > am not impressed. . . ." > > When I saw that gigantic error margin I thought, "What the hell is going > on? Why didn't he get a better answer than that?!?" Basically I tossed it > aside after that. > > The method of using an IR camera is crude but it can be done reasonably > well, with calibrations and a thermocouple and some other precautions. It > is not a bad start. But I would follow up with flow calorimetry, probably > air-flow rather than water. > > A person who screws up a test on this scale can probably screw up a > megawatt test too. Measuring megawatts is harder than you might think. It > is actually easier to measure, say, 100 W with confidence than it is to > measure a megawatt. > > > Jones Beene also got a bad impression from this report. Maybe he tell us > his reasons. > > - Jed > >
