Stumbled upon something...

[Blinger101]

Hey all,

It's been a while since I posted. I've been mostly lurking, reading up on Painless' experiments and learning from other people's trials and triumphs. That being said, I think I've stumbled upon something that may or may not be important. Or I'm just being paranoid. Also, I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else.

Ok, so, we're all in agreement that the amount of wattage to put into your system (for most efficiency) is directly relative to the total active surface area (4:1 ratio), correct?

Keeping that in mind, I used that to calculate the total wattage I should be pumping into my dry cell (once it's built) to be at approximately 261.324 Watts. My design has a total active surface area for the entire dry cell is approximately 1045.296 square inches.

I have a total of 25 plates. Two sides per plate is 50, subtract 2 to get a total of 48 active sides (since those two sides from the end plates wont be used for HHO generation). My total active surface area per side of each plate is 21.777 square inches (1045.296 / 48). This is after taking into account the amount of holes (two 1/4" holes at the bottom for electrolyte flow). Keep that number in mind.

So, for bench testing, I have a 12v power supply (yes, I used a PC power supply). It can handle a total of 35 amps on the main 12v line, but that is not important. What IS important is how many amps I need to use to get 261.324 W with 12v. Let's do the math:

261.324 / 12 = 21.777

Cool, so in order to get my target wattage, I need to pump in...hey...waitaminute! 21.777 is EXACTLY the active surface area for one side of a plate! CRAZY!

Has anybody else noticed this? Like I said, I haven't seen it mentioned before (and I've been reading these forums everyday for the last few months). Try it out yourselves. I want to know what I've stumbled upon. Am I crazy?

[H2OPWR]

Hey all,

It's been a while since I posted. I've been mostly lurking, reading up on Painless' experiments and learning from other people's trials and triumphs. That being said, I think I've stumbled upon something that may or may not be important. Or I'm just being paranoid. Also, I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else.

Ok, so, we're all in agreement that the amount of wattage to put into your system (for most efficiency) is directly relative to the total active surface area (4:1 ratio), correct?

Keeping that in mind, I used that to calculate the total wattage I should be pumping into my dry cell (once it's built) to be at approximately 261.324 Watts. My design has a total active surface area for the entire dry cell is approximately 1045.296 square inches.

I have a total of 25 plates. Two sides per plate is 50, subtract 2 to get a total of 48 active sides (since those two sides from the end plates wont be used for HHO generation). My total active surface area per side of each plate is 21.777 square inches (1045.296 / 48). This is after taking into account the amount of holes (two 1/4" holes at the bottom for electrolyte flow). Keep that number in mind.

So, for bench testing, I have a 12v power supply (yes, I used a PC power supply). It can handle a total of 35 amps on the main 12v line, but that is not important. What IS important is how many amps I need to use to get 261.324 W with 12v. Let's do the math:

261.324 / 12 = 21.777

Cool, so in order to get my target wattage, I need to pump in...hey...waitaminute! 21.777 is EXACTLY the active surface area for one side of a plate! CRAZY!

Has anybody else noticed this? Like I said, I haven't seen it mentioned before (and I've been reading these forums everyday for the last few months). Try it out yourselves. I want to know what I've stumbled upon. Am I crazy?

Unless you have more or less plates it works. If you had 35 plates the same size than you would need more watts but the plate size would remain the same.

Larry

[Blinger101]

True, but from what I stumbled upon I've come up with this:

Voltage determine the number of plates.
Amperage determine the plate size.

I was really surprized when I stumbled across this. At first I thought it was too simple, that something didn't add up. But the more I looked into it, the more I realized that it IS just that simple.

So, using this kind of information, you could (and should) design a cell based on how much voltage and amperage you can draw from a given power source (engine, bench supply, etc). Correct?

[H2OPWR]

True, but from what I stumbled upon I've come up with this:

Voltage determine the number of plates.
Amperage determine the plate size.

I was really surprized when I stumbled across this. At first I thought it was too simple, that something didn't add up. But the more I looked into it, the more I realized that it IS just that simple.

So, using this kind of information, you could (and should) design a cell based on how much voltage and amperage you can draw from a given power source (engine, bench supply, etc). Correct?

That is absolutely correct. You should design your cell based on how much power you want to use. Voltage will determine the number of neutral plates anw watts will determine the square inches.

Larry

[Blinger101]

Yes, that's something I already knew. I guess I was just regurgitating known information based on new findings.

I guess I just found it very interesting that you can determine Amps based off the active surface area of one side of one plate. Like I mentioned, it's not something I've seen talked about before. Everybody else has talked about overall wattage and total surface area, but not narrowed down to a specific amperage.

Blah.