I wrote: cold fusion is not a free lunch. I is a lunch you are paid to eat. >
Not me! *It* is a lunch you are paid to eat. this is how experts describe compact fluorescent light bulbs in Scientific American. their point was that not only to the balls consume less electricity but they're much cheaper to install and maintain because they last so long. In an office building or factory, the main expense associated with light bulbs is electricity, followed by the cost of replacing them. Furthermore, the equipment cost of a compact fluorescent light bulb over the lifetime of the bulb is cheaper than an incandescent bulb. The same kinds of economics will apply to cold fusion. The equipment itself will eventually be cheaper than today's equipment. In my book I estimated the cost of fuel based on the present and likely future cost of heavy water. I reckoned that the cost of fuel would drop from $2,500 per person in the U.S. to around $1. The Rossi device uses hydrogen instead of deuterium, so the cost is so close to zero it is not worth considering. Rossi claims that the nickel will have to be changed out periodically, every six months or so. I doubt it. - Jed
