ken smith

paul wheaton wrote:
I have ordered a light meter and a really fancy kill-a-watt. I plan to mount both of those (for the sake of video) and then test several light bulbs to get the lumens per watt and compare it to the packaging. I think the first 30 seconds of use for an incandescent will be very predictable. I think the first 30 seconds of use for a CFL will not comply with what the package says.

As for the test where the lights are kept on for 30 seconds and then off for two minutes. I suspect that the incandescents (labeled for 1000 hours) will outlive the fluorescents (labeled for 10,000 hours). I also think they will all peter out before 500 hours.

Paul,
That is the way to test these. I have found out that on the CFL's when testing them, Let them run for about 3 minutes before shutting them off. I have noticed when using one that in that length of time they get brighter.
Si I would also keep time as another monitor point.

Ken

13 years ago

Hi Rich,
In Paul's testing he don't need a lab test setup. But I don't think I would do what he is attempting to do either. The reason is this. A 60 watt bulb when first turned on will pull a little over 1 amp then will run at around .5 to .6 amps.
A CFL bulb, 15 watt, is just a little under that. Turning on and off an Incandescence bulb is normally the failure rate of the bulb. I would just turn then on and see which last the longest and also measure the lux from each. I will guess that the CFL bulb will lose.
I am glad that there is someone like yourself teaching students electronics. The art of troubleshooting and repairing equipment has been lost. Now its just replace modules and throw the old module away.

Ken

13 years ago

Paul,
You would turn the 2 pots on the board to control the on and off times. Rich's relays are nice but overkill for you.
I have been in electronics for over 35 years and still repair commercial satellite equipment.
The relay that is in that board could be replaced by what is called solid state relay or SSR's.
Here is one such device.
http://www.opto22.com/site/pr_details.aspx?cid=3&item=120D10

This operates on 3 to 32 volts Dc to control the relay and the output is 120 Volts AC at 10 amps. You can get larger amps rating for what ever you want. You could use 2 of these relays on 1 board because these relays pull only about 10 mills of current each when activated.

Ken

13 years ago

Paul
Here is a source for a five minute timer. The on time can be adjusted from 1 second to 5 minutes as well as the off time. Assembled it is $28.95. The output relay is 120 volts ac and 3 amps contact rating. This can be ran into another relay for larger loads.
Here is the source for the board.
http://tinyurl.com/6hgl6sa

Ken

13 years ago

Ernie,
My shop is a large commercial electronics shop. In one of the pictures I sent is a natural gas infrared heater I have used for 8 years. It heated the floor, walls and all the metal electronics in the shop. I could get the floor heated that you could walk around bare footed as the kids would do and it felt like a water bed. Once the concrete floor was heated up it would heat any connecting concrete floor even out side as the snow would melt on it also. That is what I like about this type of heat. Yes it heated people but I was looking at the mass it would also heat.
Back then Natural Gas was around $5 per MCF. Now its $15 and this is now costly for a 4500 sq foot place.
On these you can also use outside air and there is no cause of explosion because everything would then be sealed to the inside.
I intend to build this to see what will happen and will keep you informed. I have built several different type of gasifiers but nothing like this so its a learning curve for me also. Someone here mention that maybe the best idea was to burn the flame in the vertical channel and heavy insulate it up to the horizontal tube. I think thats the way I am going to try it first on my proto type.

Ken

14 years ago

HI Erica,
You may be right that what I intend to do with this, that it cannot be called a Rocket Stove. I don't know about that. If a Rocket Stove is to be constructed a certain way, then no it would not be.

Ken

14 years ago

Thanks John,
Well you gave me a bit of help with this. I was still going to build a test version of this but from all the posts I was starting to think this might not work. But I'm sorta of hard headed and still will build this test version. I have read about this type of stove and many think its the only stove to use.
There may be many modifications that I will have to do when building this to make it work but that is the fun of it.

Ken

14 years ago

Hi Mek and thanks for the insulation info,
I never heard of that before and it seems better than the mix I was looking at as this is flexible.
I think I am in an area that is most confusing to most and I don't understand the rocket stove enough to say for sure what will happen.
I know that if I add the secondary air pipe that I can get a complete burn also but the mixture has to be correct. I think I will have to wait until the weather breaks so I can do some experimenting with the rocket stove first. Here in WV we have had nothing but one storm after another for the last 4 weeks dumping anywhere from 6" to 28" overnight. Today its sleeting on 20" of snow already on the ground and another storm to come sunday.
I will build the rocket stove like you have said on a smaller scale so I can understand it. Then I will modify it and see just what takes place. I purchased one of those IR laser thermometers about 2 years ago but I paid $300 for mine as I needed to be able to change the Emissivity of the metal I was measuring. I think it goes up to 1500 F.

Ken

14 years ago