the incredibly simple, cheap, sturdy friction heater.

[winner]

The trick here of course is rigging something that produces more energy out than in. I've been following discussions and websites regarding the Frenette heater scheme and so far I haven't seen that anyone's been successful.

Easy enough to build I suppose, but one would have to do accurate measurements to see if this is really any more effective than a commercial space heater.
 

[resonanceman]

You know what a really good friction heater is... an automatic transmission. That's why it NEEDS a cooler to keep it from overheating. Don't believe me? Plug up your tranny cooler lines and take a 20 minute drive on the highway, you'll be sitting on the side of the road with a smoking transmission!
That's what happened to me when my external cooler plugged up. Got it working...$2100 later!

So try using transmission fluid and maybe putting some metallic filings in the oil to create more friction. I know when I change my fluid I have magnets in the pan and they're always covered in metallic filings. Hey...Just change your transmission fluid and use THAT! It already has enough metal fillings and crap in it to ruin your transmission, but perfect for a heater!! Plus you'll be doing your vehicle a favour!

Also adding a flywheel would help out the motor spinning all that mass.

I am not  sure  if the metal  particles are a good idea  but  transmission fluid  could  take   the heat .....but  it would also  make less heat .   It is low  viscosity in part to limit  the heat  that it  creates . 


gary

[nitinnun]

the models i saw online, claimed to produce more heat-energy, than they took energy to run.
it is a question of having great enough friction, and light enough spinning metal.

but i am not greedy. so i will settle for a very efficient electricity to heat conversion rate.

[winner]

Yeah, I like this idea, but what would burning tranny oil smell like indoors? Isn't there some sort of oil lubricant that would smell nice? If the oil was scented that would be an added bonus.

Can you make one with tropical smells, maybe coconut and sea salt? Hehehe

[nitinnun]

nitinnun

If I remember right in another  post you said   you  usually get  the  general  part right but might  be off on the details .     
Getting  something  built  the first time is all about the details .

No  I am not  British   


Although   in general   the  basic  concepts seem  sound  actually  gettnig everthing  working together   presents some problems .

If  you removed the  fan  blade  and  made a " lid " for the inner  pan that was  strong  enough to  support  the weight  of the pan the   chances of success  would  go  up  quite a bit .

The  fan blade  has no  flat  surface  that it  convienient to   attach  something to .  even  if  you   got   your pan  bolted on with enough  accuracy to  spin easily    plastic   that  holds weight  tends to " creep"     it  will slowly deform so  it will not  stay  in  allignment .   adding  heat would make  the  creep worse .   

  One   detail  that might make it  more likely to work  is to   plan on  not using much oil.
By this I mean  design  it with the  inner pan SETTING inside the outer pan .   Not suspended  above the  bottom.   Just  add enough   oil to  provide some lubrication  ( maybe a teaspoon  of oil at the  most )
The   large pan   will  carry the weight  of the  inner pan  all that you  would have to do is  make sure the inner  pan is centered well enough  and attached strong enough .

Any metal to metal friction  will make it  work more like the heating  device that  uses  wood for  friction ...... except  the   metal   will  last along longer than the wood  .

Using  water in place of oil might  be a possibility but  would make things  difficult . The  water  would have to be replaced at the proper rate . 


gary

when i am creating new theorives, that might be true.
when i am building things, there are far less unknowns. so my efficiency is higher.


a person learns more from mistakes, than they learn from doing things "correctly".

a builder who makes 1,000 different mistakes, and learns from them, knows far more than a builder who did it "sufficiently" 1,000 times.

or at least the builder does, if they are able to learn from experience.
and their learning ability isn't limited to sheer pre-calculation, of their plans.



most of the time, i can "see" the mistake in my mind, before i make it.
and choose a better building method instead.

sometimes i see a "mistake" that i was not going to make. yet learn from it.
sometimes that mistake is a part of a revolutionary new way of building.

you could describe my building style as "rapid construction evolution".