For your entertainment on this holiday weekend, here's a water heater,
which you can buy today, which is about a factor of five over unity.
And it is not a heat pump -- that's true 5x OU, _not_ just
garden-variety COP=5.
Well, that's what they claim, anyway. They're selling the things for
use in heating houses or apartments.
Sorry, the pages are in French, and I didn't find anything in English;
I'll summarize (very briefly) below. (I'm afraid it may also be hard to
buy them anywhere outside France.)
Main page:
http://www.aepler.fr/importateur_officiel_ionise_pour_la_france_007.htm
FAQ, with an explanation of how it works:
http://www.aepler.fr/foire_aux_questions_037.htm
A second site -- seems it's being marketed under two names:
http://vulkaninfo.ch/accueil_008.htm
Summary of some stuff from the FAQ page:
---------------------------------------
The approach was developed for use as a heating plant on Russian
submarines back in the days of the USSR. (Why not just use waste heat
from the reactor to keep the sub warm? They don't say.) A 3-phase
version was subsequently used on the MIR space station.
Most recently a 9-phase version has been developed. (WTF?? Nine phases??
French electricity must be weird indeed!)
They've got CE certification, or so they say, along with some other
certificates (no UL listing, but it's not sold in the U.S. so they don't
need that).
The principle of operation:
--------------------------
It's a heating system which is entirely electrically based, and makes
maximal use of the energy available through electrolysis.
In short, instead of running a current through a wire to make it hot,
they run the current through water to heat it directly. This is far
more efficient, because, while electrons in wires travel at only 47 kps,
the electrons in the water travel at speeds up to 280 kps. The friction
which results heats the water violently, a little like what happens in
a microwave oven. However, the speed [of what? -- not clear] in a
microwave oven is still only 150 to 170 kps, so this device is even
higher performance than a microwave oven.
[Somehow this emphasis on speed sounds very familiar -- have these
people been reading Newman's literature?]
There's a diagram of its operation, which doesn't require a lot of
French to understand (if it can be understood at all, which is not clear):
http://www.aepler.fr/Files/ionise_comment_ca_marche.pdf
The most important note on the diagram is "La grand vitesse des
électrons provoque une friction qui augmente la température de l'eau",
or as we would say on this side of the Atlantic, "The great speed of the
electrons causes friction which raises the temperature of the water".
They don't have prices on either website but there's a form you can
submit to get an estimate for setting up your abode (house or apartment)
with their heaters:
http://vulkaninfo.ch/devis_026.htm
as well as a contact form:
http://www.aepler.fr/contact_023.htm
* * *
Enjoy!
