Enhanced Heat Exchange Electric Heater

[dragon]

SkyWatcher, you should see a fairly large increase using a quartz infrared element. Also, you can try the 100 watt halogen bulbs - fairly inexpensive - these perform quite well. They have a wider frequency range and I've found them not quite as efficient as the quartz but still produce lots of heat. These are generally used in shop lamps and have a glass cover to filter out the UV - inside your test rig the UV shouldn't be a problem - never look directly at the light ( any UV producing bulb ).

The oscillating dish's sound interesting, I don't think I've seen that....

Here is a quartz type bulb... Amazon.com: Sylvania 58887 100-Watt 120-Volt Tungsten Halogen Double-Ended T3 Quartz Lamp with Clear Finish: Home Improvement

[SkyWatcher]

Hi dragon, thanks again, you've lots of good ideas.
I rummaged through the light bulb box and I had a 60 watt halogen in there, it also is encased in glass, standard socket.
I plugged it in to see if it still works and it is instant radiant heat at a distance and hot, this will be an interesting comparison until I get a 100 watt version.
Here is what insides look like with halogen bulb on lower right.
Will be testing this next.



peace love light

[BroMikey]

It seems to me that this is not a direct frictional conversion based on the amount of wattage being shoved through a resistor, although, it plays a part. The efficiency at which one can vibrate the metal at an atomic level heating the exchanger indirectly might play a larger part in heat production than simply the wattage. Therefore would not be overunity, simply a more efficient use of a given input.

It's really not the answers we're looking for - it's the right questions. If the right question is asked, the answer becomes obvious.

Not OVERUNITY? 5X output is still not OU

So with this line of reasoning you will say a system operating 5X

output from conventional is just more efficient use of energy?

Sounds good to me whatever we want to call it as long as I get more

than conventional. Asking the right question? Hummm

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, ok dragon, just found the inventors name, how could i forget that name, John Keely.
He is the one that used sound vibrations to make amazing devices.
Oh and I'm not a fearful man, though i notice a helicopter flies low over this house whenever i post something of interest online, probably seeing what were doing hey, kids will be kids i guess.
I think it could be like one said here, the devices they allow us to buy, are built to not compete with the other energy sources, similar to how they put limits on the efficiency of solar cells that can be sold.
peace love light

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, the tests with the 60 watt halogen seem like it might be an improvement, will have to get a true 100 watt input halogen bulb to know for sure.
The dynamic exhaust temp., with fan running, was 121 degrees F., compared to 130 F.
I took into consideration the ambient probe starting temperature, so as to keep the numbers fair in comparison to base line test with regular 100 watt incandescent.
According to specs., the 60 watt halogen is 900 lumens and a standard 100 watt around 1600 lumens.
That is around 56 percent of standard.
Where as the stabilized exhaust temp with fan running is around 93 percent of standard bulb tests.
If the heating is linear such as the numbers suggest, then the 100 watt halogen should create much more heat or maintain a higher exhaust temperature with fan running.
We will see, will be getting a true 100 watt halogen soon to test.
peace love light

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, i decided to try something a little different, i used an almost full roll of aluminum roof flashing, 14" high, measures 1/16" thick side walls and 3" inner diameter.
This time i decided to let the standard 100 watt bulb make direct contact with the inside of the cylinder.
Using ceramic bulb base holder, there is small air gaps on bottom for some air to flow up through the cylinder.
Aluminum taped a meat thermometer to top outside portion of cylinder.
The maximum temperature read 202 degrees F.
A nice slow flow of very hot air can be felt flowing from a good distance from top opening of cylinder.
I know someone in this thread shared their ideas and it makes sense.
That not only are we getting the frictional heat from the electric current, which in this case is the bulb in direct contact with thermal mass and we also have the infrared frequencies, inductively heating the inside of the aluminum cylinder at close range.
Though i intend to make the inner diameter of the cylinder even smaller, so as to make even greater surface contact with the bulb and the air gap around bulb will be even closer to the inner aluminum cylinder.
Seems to be an efficient setup to me so far, your thoughts welcome.
peace love light

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, I made the aluminum cylinder smaller in diameter and it makes a big difference.
The 100 watt bulb is touching almost all around the bulb, with small gaps on either side for some airflow.
The cylinder heats up much quicker, i will time it later and compare the numbers data to the other design with the black paint and multiple air holes.
I need a different thermometer as the meat thermometer is maxing out and going beyond 220 degrees F.
I am not aware of any space heater one can buy, that has the heat element also in direct contact with a thermal mass.
There is one patent I am aware of, that does use a similar method.

It is this one - Electric space heater unit utilizing incandescent lamps as the heat source - PERRON; LEO

I would like to know what you folks think of this patent and what I'm doing.
peace love light

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, this test is not exactly the same, since in this test, the thermometer is placed directly against the aluminum outside cylinder, where as the previous design, the thermometer was placed at surface of exhaust port.
However, the meter is also in the path of the hot air flow and the air flow is definitely equal or greater and the air is much hotter than the exhaust port on the last design.
In the previous design, it took 57 minutes to heat up the airflow to 180 degrees F.

In this design, it takes 6 minutes and 50 seconds total to reach 180 degrees F and it takes 12 minutes and 30 seconds total to reach 220 degrees F. and it continues to rise beyond that, though i cannot measure until i get a higher temp. meter.
peace love light

[dragon]

Skywatcher, If you monitor the inlet temp, outlet temp and know the volume of the fan (cfm) you can roughly calculate the btu/hr rating of your rig

Btu/hr = cfm x 1.08 x ( Tout - Tin )

So if your fan is 5 cfm, inlet temp is 70*F and outlet is 200*F then...

5 x 1.08 x ( 200 - 70 ) = 702 BTU/hr

That assumes the full rated cfm of the fan is moving through the exchanger. Also, a steady outlet temp.

[sprocket]

Skywatcher, If you monitor the inlet temp, outlet temp and know the volume of the fan (cfm) you can roughly calculate the btu/hr rating of your rig

Btu/hr = cfm x 1.08 x ( Tout - Tin )

So if your fan is 5 cfm, inlet temp is 70*F and outlet is 200*F then...

5 x 1.08 x ( 200 - 70 ) = 702 BTU/hr

That assumes the full rated cfm of the fan is moving through the exchanger. Also, a steady outlet temp.

If you plug in the figures quoted in the patent into your formula;

70 * 1.08 * (300 - 70) = 17388 BTU/hr - he's only claiming 11000!

I've been thinking a lot about this patent as well, particularly the air-flow. I've been trawling Ebay and the smallest fan I can find that will give an airflow rate of 70 CFU (1.98m3) is 5" (12cm). Going by this, and the fact that he claims to have used 8" (20cm) IR tubes, I estimate the heater-area to be a rectangle of around 30cm * 15cm *12cm = 5400cm3 max. Deducting the volume of the 8" * 0.75" tubes (pi * 1cm^2 * 30cm) leaves us with 5400 - 94 = 5306, let's call it 5300cm3.

Googling has provided the following particulars;

specific heat capacity of dry air is 1.006 kJ/kgC
Density of air at 30C is 1.165 kg/m³

sticking with SI units, you can convert.
1 m³ weighs 1.165 kg
to heat that by 1 degree C:
E = 1.006 kJ/kgC x 1.165kg x 1C = x kJ

Working in SI units, taking the temperature-change for our 5400cm3 volume to be from 21C (70F) to 149C (300F) = 128C, this becomes;

E = 1.006kJ/KgC * 0.000001165kg/cm3 * 5300 * 128C = 0.795kJ.

Or 795 Joules/sec, or 795W. I thought this surprisingly close to the 600W he claimed to use, and indeed, could be tailor-fit for 600W tubes by just making the enclosure a bit smaller - 30cm * 13cm * 11cm - 94cm3 = 4196cm3 => E = 1.006kJ/KgC * 0.000001165kg/cm3 * 4196 * 128C = 629W.

So, if this thing works, maybe it is crucial that the volume of the heating area be matched to the tubes?

Of course, 70CFM of air equates to 30.48cm^3 * 70 / 60 = 33036cm3/sec. This is still 7.87 times (33036 / 4196) more than our best-fit estimate would theoretically be able to heat by 128C/sec. Anyway, food for thought.

[vidbid]

Patent

An electric space heater includes an exterior case which encloses an insulated heater core housing. Heat is generated in the heater core by elongated incandescent ultraviolet lamps mounted in a frame inside the core housing. A porous aluminum sheet heat exchanger surrounds the lamps on three sides and extends the length of the lamps. A fan mounted in an inlet opening of a rear wall of the case forces air through an opening in the core housing through the heat exchanger and around the lamps, and through outlet openings to the space to be heated. The core housing is U-shaped with curved portions to laminate the air flow.

Thanks for sharing. Interesting idea.

I'll have to give this a close look over.

Here's a link for the patent:

Patent US4900898 - Electric space heater - Google Patents

[SkyWatcher]

Leo Perron based heater

Hi folks, i have been tweaking a model based on Leo Perrons incandescent light bulb heater.
It uses one regular 100 watt incandescent bulb.
The main aluminum roof flashing tube directly touches the bulb.
I used aluminum tape to make large heat sink fins and some heat sink aluminum on top with an aluminum disc blocking most of the infrared from escaping out the top.
The meat thermometer goes beyond 220 degrees, up to 240 degrees F. if it is accurate beyond 220 that is.
I have been testing it in a room of around 300 sq.ft., with vaulted ceilings and 3 lossy sky lights.
The heater was able to raise the temperature from 75 F. up to 80 F., while outside temperature is 56 F.
The heater has been running into the night, as it was a little warmer outside earlier, though the interior temperature continued to climb up to 80 F., even though the outside temp. was dropping.
I am going to add more heat sink fins, since i feel that it needs the surface area to be effective, as this model appears to be showing.
Same as a steam radiator or base board, without a proper radiative surface area, efficiency suffers.
Your thoughts welcome.
peace love light

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, this model is based around this patent for anyone interested.

Electric space heater unit utilizing incandescent lamps as the heat source

peace love light

[BroMikey]

Hi folks, this model is based around this patent for anyone interested.

Electric space heater unit utilizing incandescent lamps as the heat source

peace love light

Thanks SKY

If I am reading this correctly the folks in the New Hampshire home

way up north in cold country said that they kept their rooms

(MORE THAN ONE) around 72 degrees using only a 400 watt set

of regular light bulbs. Also stated is that normally a central heating

unit of 4000 watts had been previously operated to keep the rooms

the same temp. Remember that the 4000 watt unit comes on for

approx. 5 minutes every 30 minutes and shuts off.


Conversely the 400 watt unit runs non stop.

I am still reading but have not found anything stated that will

uncover some sort of free power.

Did you find something like that in the patent? Usually when I look

at Patents I look for something that shows me a process that

is out of the ordinary so that I can save money.


Just a thought. Who knows maybe the bulb heater would work

well with a Gegene since Gegene induction cookers work the best

with these type of bulbs


I think the Gegene and this heater are a good combo.

[SkyWatcher]

Hi mike, the only part i read that may elude to the design being special is this.

"The present invention distinguishes over such prior art by provision of novel structurally simple yet unexpectedly efficient heat transfer arrangements, and such is the major object of the invention.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an unusually efficient space heater wherein heat from a plurality of relatively low wattage electric lamps is efficiently utilized."

I do find one aspect interesting about the design.
The direct contact with the bulb glass, meaning the direct heat emanating from the tungsten element.
Then we have the infrared frequencies of the light emitted, which is also heating the aluminum thermal mass.
This may be cause for the words, "unexpectedly efficient" to be used.
It also has a unique style of convection operating.
Where cooler air is allowed to enter the bottom, though it can only escape back out the bottom, this may add additional efficiency.
I have an idea to use 4 bulbs, similar to how i have it built now, though for the moment, i am intrigued by the performance so far of this simple 100 watt setup and will try tweaking further.
peace love light