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TESTING
DATA
• I found
the flame characteristics to be identical to my
electrolyzer gas. See my "Brown's Gas, Book
2".
•
Preliminary testing of total wattage efficiency
showed close to 5 watt hours to a liter of gas.
This is total machine power draw to make a liter
of gas; includes the fan and computer power as
well as the transformer and diode losses. These
kind of losses are fully explained in "Brown's
Gas, Book 2" as are the reasons I choose to have
an electrolyzer design that doesn't have a
transformer.
We put a 100 amp
watt-meter (Kh=7.2) in line, to measure the
watts drawn from the wall.
We first
measured the "stand-by" wattage, used by the fan
and electronics with no gas production. It took
145 seconds to make one revolution of the
watt-meter wheel. So (7.2 x 1 x 3600)/145 = 178
watts "stand-by" power. (Very efficient
fan!)
The wall power
available is 240 VAC and the electrolyzer was
pulsing about once a second, drawing up to 36
AAC then settling down to a steady 30 AAC till
the computer shut off the SCR. This made the
watt-meter move fast, then nearly stop and it
was difficult (but not impossible) to get an
accurate reading.
To measure total
machine efficiency, we used our regular
technique of filling a 4.082 liter plastic
container with the gas; displacing the water out
of it. With the BN 1000E set at 1,000 Liters per
hour, we filled the container with gas in 16.2
seconds. We used 280 marks of the watt-meter
wheel to do this (2.8 revolutions of the
watt-meter wheel). We did this several times and
were very close each time. (7.2 x 2.8 x
3600)/16.2 = 4480 watts. 4.082/16.2 = 0.2519
L/sec. 0.2519 x 3600 = 906.84 liters per hour.
So 4480/906.84 = 4.9 watt-hours per liter of
gas.
We are now
experiencing a shut-down problem in the machine
(started during testing yesterday), and it's
getting worse. The electrolyzer will only run a
few minutes (Initial shut-off happened after
about an hour of continuous use) and then it
shuts itself off by turning off the main relay;
which, as I understand it, it isn't supposed to
do until the red shut-off button is pushed. All
computer controlled shut-downs are only supposed
to turn off the SCR (electrolyzer itself)
leaving the computer and fan running.
The shut-down
gets progressively worse as you continue to try
to operate the machine, first shutting down
after fifteen minutes of operation, then (after
immediate start-up) shut-down after five minutes
and then (again after immediate start-up)
shut-down after one minute. Combine this problem
with the "water" light coming on when you first
start up the electrolyzer and I suspect that the
main computer PID chip is malfunctioning;
perhaps heating up and causing the shut-down
condition.
To test the BN
1000E at a lesser amperage, we installed 40 of 4
uF @ 440 VAC capacitors and spent some time
wiring them into a capacitive amperage limiting
configuration. We wire them in series with the
main transformer (through the main relay, which
we've disconnected from the computer's control
and turn on with our own switch). This allows us
to test the BN 1000E in a "steady state"
condition; allowing more precise measurements
(we left the fan in the circuit, to cool the
transformer and the diodes). This test allowed 8
amps AC @ 235 VAC into the transformer, which
allowed about 52 amps DC through the
electrolyzer @ 24.2 VDC. We filled our 4.083
Liter container in 35.3 seconds. It took 14.4
seconds to make one turn of the watt-meter
wheel. This works out to about 112%
gas.
The next test
was to remove the capacitive amperage limiting
and run the electrolyzer in a "steady state" at
full power. We drew 35 AAC @ 230 VAC from the
wall and had 203 ADC @ 26.4 VDC across the
electrolyzer. We filled a 4.083 liter container
in 8 seconds and it took 29.4 seconds to turn
the watt-meter wheel ten revolutions. The
electrolyzer efficiency was about
128%.
The electrolyzer
pressure kept building as the gas production
increased as the electrolyzer slowly "ran away";
using more amps as the cells heated up, and
heating up the cells faster as the amperage
increased. The BN 1000E uses a calibrated
resistance to form a "current sensing" device,
which causes the computer to shut down the
amperage to the electrolyzer (by shutting off
the SCR) if the amperage exceeds about 180
ADC.
NOTE:
The pressure on
the BN 1000E read at 0.5 MP and an actual
pressure gauge (we tried two) read at 8 psi.
Since a Mp is about 145 psi, there is a serious
problem with the pressure coming out of the BN
1000E. The pressure is too low; I don't know why
it didn't backfire as we were using the
torch.
     
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