mix...@bigpond.com wrote: > In reply to Kyle Mcallister's message of Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:53:48 -0700 > (PDT): >> >> /Can we build a damn thing that will make a cup of >> warm coffee or tea?/ If not, why not??? > > I suspect not. CF (or LENR) is finicky, and no one is yet certain of the > precise > requirements (though there are now a few claims of complete replicability). > Those who can achieve it have been trying for quite a while to get it right. > Even then, I think a reasonably well equipped lab is a prerequisite. It's not > something you can do in your garage, and expect to work.
There is something else as well. There are some reproducible, repeatable experiments which work, if not every time, then a good fraction of the time. But reliability is not what stands in the way of making a tea heater. There are two other problems with making a gadget which does something useful. First, the repeatable experiments all produce very low-grade heat; it's hard to do much with it beyond just detect it. Second, and more important, the same bugaboo that plagues hot fusion is at work here: The best of the wet-cell CF experiments is nowhere near breakeven. With that said, I should add that gas-phase CF at room temperature, which operates without a large external energy source, *might* produce enough heat to run a Stirling engine -- but I don't think so. As I said, these experiments produce low-grade heat; I don't think the heat output of the gas-phase experiments is large enough to do that.
