On 11-10-07 11:03 AM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
I wrote:
You say there was [a 0.1°C bias] between the inlet and outlet
thermocouples. That is also a disgrace. It is ridiculous. Such things
are easily corrected, and should be corrected before the test begins.
[Dedicated, computer-based instruments should have a smaller bias
than that. Handheld instruments usually show only 0.1°C increments.
They may vary by 0.1 or 0.2°C.]
Oops. Excuse me. He said 0.5°C. Quote:
"It should also be noted that after half an hour of water flow, before
starting any heating, the temperature at the inlet and the outlet of
the heat exchanger still showed a difference of 0.5 degrees
centigrade, the outlet water being cooler than the inlet water (at
that time, the primary circuit was still empty as the E-cat was still
filling up)"
I assume this is an instrument bias. The device cannot act as a
refrigerator cooling the water down as it passes through. but perhaps
the water sat in there for a long time and ambient was less than tap
water, and it cooled down. Or the inside of the machine was cold.
I don't know what to make of it, but this kind of problem should be
addressed before you begin the test for crying out loud. You have to
do a calibration. You have to flow water through the thing and prove
that the two thermocouples are less than 0.1°C apart.
Blank runs are nice, too -- you know, leave out the catalyst so there's
no fusion taking place, and measure the heat produced simply from the
electric heaters and from hydrogen adsorbing onto the nickel powder.
That sort of thing. Too bad Rossi's never done one (or at least, never
done one in public).
