Astounding new discovery on Electrical Heat

[tlmester]

I have discovered something that will change the way we heat our homes and water. Gas and Oil Furnaces / Hot Water Heaters will become obsolete, and Incandescent Light Bulbs will still be in use in 1000 years! In a nutshell; I have discovered that Incandescent Light Bulbs (Fluorescent as well) produce approximately 1100% THE HEAT of regular Electric Heaters (such as Ceramic Heaters) per Watt of Electricity! I performed this experiment -- three times over -- using a 100 Watt Light Bulb and a 1500 Watt Ceramic Heater. Each time the Bulb & Heater were turned on for 30 Seconds. They were contained in a sealed cardboard box (40x32x33 cm) with a Thermometer inserted through the top. The box was opened to cool in between tests. A picture of my experiment box is below. Here are the results in Degrees Celsius (Start Temp. --> Finish Temp.):

Light Bulb
1st 19.50 --> 21.75 . +2.25
2nd 19.75 --> 22.25 . +2.5
3rd 19.75 --> 22.25 ...+2.5

Heater ......(Adjusted Temp.) (Increase in Temp.)
1st 19.75 --> 22.75 . +3 ... (+3.13) ... (+39%)
2nd 19.75 --> 23.0 .. +3.25 .. (+3.30) ... (+32%)
3rd 20.50 --> 23.75 . +3.25 .. (+3.32) ... (+33%)

The Voltage for the Light Bulb was about 116.8V, and for the Heater was 111.8V, 115V & 114.5V. I therefore adjust the Heater Voltages to 116.8V which gives an increase in temperature of 3.13, 3.30 & 3.32 Degrees Celsius for the three Heater tests. This amounts to the Heater producing 39%, 32% & 33% more heat than the Light Bulb. Since the Bulb is 100W and the Heater is 1500W, I divided the increase in temperature for the Heater by 15, and then divided that into the increase in temperature for the Bulb. The result is that the Bulb produced 10.78, 11.36 & 11.30 TIMES AS MUCH HEAT as the Heater per Watt of Electricity.

I've already quit using my Electric Heater in favour of 100W Bulbs, and I can attest how much less my Gas Furnace is running. It simply will no longer make sense to heat using Gas and Oil which will be more expensive than Light Bulb heat. This will bring a substantial change to human society. Even before I performed this experiment I knew that a Light Bulb would produce more heat than a Heater per Watt of Electricity based upon a new theory I have regarding what Energy / Heat is. I'm not going to get into that theory right now, but when an Electron pops to form a Photon, what is taking place is the fission of an Electron just like you have the fission of a Quark in an atomic reaction. An Electric Heater is not producing this fission, but only a small release of the Electron's energy. This is why a Light Bulb produces about 1100% as much heat. I'll take your questions on this experiment.

Mr. Terry Mester
Welland, Ontario, Canada

http://www.zeuter.com/%7Etlmester/Electric_Heat_Test_Box.JPG

 

[russ_watters]

I'm sorry, but all you have proven is that you are unable to set up a useful experiment or do energy measurements or calculations.

 

[Drakkith]

I'm not going to get into that theory right now, but when an Electron pops to form a Photon, what is taking place is the fission of an Electron just like you have the fission of a Quark in an atomic reaction. An Electric Heater is not producing this fission, but only a small release of the Electron's energy. This is why a Light Bulb produces about 1100% as much heat. I'll take your questions on this experiment.

This does not happen. Electrons do not "pop" and form photons. Any accelerated charge will produce electromagnetic radiation, and acceleration is exactly what happens when you have a bunch of charged particles moving around in a material, which is what heat is. All of the charged particles still exist, they just have part of their kinetic energy converted and released as electromagnetic radiation, which carries away the energy. If I had to guess why the light bulb heated your thermometer more than the heater did, I would say it is because a light bulb releases pretty much all of it's energy as thermal radiation, whereas the heater has much of it carried away by the air, causing it to take longer to heat the thermometer up, as it has to heat itself and the air first.

 

[DrewD]

Note also that the experiment lasted 30 seconds which is likely not long enough for the ceramic heater to heat up. So as long as you only want to heat your house for 30 seconds, you are correct and thank you for your discovery.

 

[Ken G]

What's more, if a light bulb could really do that, then had your experiment correctly characterized the efficiency of the ceramic heater (that is probably what it does not do, for the reasons already given), then you would not just be talking about increasing the efficiency of heating, you would be talking about creating energy. Centuries of careful physics experiments has convinced us so completely that it is impossible to create energy that the Patent office does not even consider inventions of the type you propose. The reason is that they get so many "inventions" that claim to create energy, and none of them ever work, that they would be wasting too much time. So there are two questions for you to ponder:
1) what do you think is different about your experiment than all those others, and
2) if you were right (you aren't), what will you do with the endless supply of money you make buying up light bulbs and selling the energy created back to the power company?

Do yourself a favor and stop heating your house with light bulbs, or at least get the opinion of an electrician that you are not endangering yourself with death in a fire. The one thing we know about using electrical power to generate heat is that it can be done with extremely high efficiency (all you want is heat, after all), so the issues of importance for electrical heaters is simply how economical and safe is the heating device.

 

[chrisbaird]

I saw the phrases "substantial change to human society", "astounding new discovery", and "a new theory I have" and my crack-pottery-ometer went berserk. Posts like this are usually banned.

 

[tlmester]

I'm sorry, but all you have proven is that you are unable to set up a useful experiment or do energy measurements or calculations.

I'm sorry Russ, but you're wrong. I definitely don't want anybody to take my word for anything. I've provided enough details for you to do the experiment yourself, and I hope you will do so before attacking my experiment.

... If I had to guess why the light bulb heated your thermometer more than the heater did, I would say it is because a light bulb releases pretty much all of it's energy as thermal radiation, whereas the heater has much of it carried away by the air, causing it to take longer to heat the thermometer up, as it has to heat itself and the air first.

I need to further clarify my temperature readings. The temperature is the HIGHEST temperature reached after the 30 seconds. I observed the temperature for several minutes until it started to go down. The highest temperature was reached within about a minute after turning off the Bulb / Heater.

You are correct that a Photon is a total release of the energy of an Electron. However, the Heater does not produce Photons. It releases some of the Electron's energy, and then the rest of the Electron flows through the electrical wire out of your house to the ground or back to the generator station. Whether the Electron becomes a Photon in a Bulb or passes through a Heater out of your house, it still registers as Watts used by your Electricity Meter. If you were to connect your Electricity to ground -- thereby creating a short circuit, before the wire melted the Electricity used would register as Watts in your Meter. Flowing Electrons in a wire or Heater give off energy / heat, but that's only a fraction of the energy given off when they become a Photon in a Bulb.

Note also that the experiment lasted 30 seconds which is likely not long enough for the ceramic heater to heat up. So as long as you only want to heat your house for 30 seconds, you are correct and thank you for your discovery.

It doesn't matter if it was 30 or 60 seconds. As I mentioned above, I recorded the highest temperature reached after the Bulb / Heater was shut off. Given that the experiment was timed manually with a wrist watch, the 30 seconds could have been 29.75 or 30.25 seconds. The miniscule differences in the three test results reflect this small time variance. I could have done five or ten tests, but there was no point given that the results are so identical.

What's more, if a light bulb could really do that, then had your experiment correctly characterized the efficiency of the ceramic heater (that is probably what it does not do, for the reasons already given), then you would not just be talking about increasing the efficiency of heating, you would be talking about creating energy. Centuries of careful physics experiments has convinced us so completely that it is impossible to create energy that the Patent office does not even consider inventions of the type you propose. The reason is that they get so many "inventions" that claim to create energy, and none of them ever work, that they would be wasting too much time. So there are two questions for you to ponder:
1) what do you think is different about your experiment than all those others, and
2) if you were right (you aren't), what will you do with the endless supply of money you make buying up light bulbs and selling the energy created back to the power company?
Do yourself a favor and stop heating your house with light bulbs, or at least get the opinion of an electrician that you are not endangering yourself with death in a fire. The one thing we know about using electrical power to generate heat is that it can be done with extremely high efficiency (all you want is heat, after all), so the issues of importance for electrical heaters is simply how economical and safe is the heating device.

I urge you Ken to do the experiment for yourself as I don't want anyone to believe my claims at face value. Scientific claims need to be proven, and mine is no exception. Now, I have not claimed to have created energy. The energy involved is simply Electricity. To answer your two questions:
1) I'm not aware of any other experiments comparing heat output between a Light Bulb and Electric Heater;
2) As I explained above, whether a Bulb or a Heater both are using up Watts of Electricity, and there's nothing to be sold back to the power company. The Bulb simply releases all of the Electron's energy into your house whereas the Heater only releases less than 1/10th of the Bulb with the rest flowing out of your house to the ground wire.

I thank you for the caution about fire hazards. Other than my clocks and fridge, I turn every electrical device off when I leave my house, and I turn the furnace down to 10 Degrees Celsius. Waste not -- want not. If you look up the BTU output of those Electrical Heaters you'll find that none is any better than another, and they're not a cheap source of heat compared with Gas / Oil which is why a furnace is still cheaper.

 

[DaveC426913]

Your experiments are one thing. Your theories about them are another.

PF is not the place for personal theories.

Publish it. Then we can discuss.

Overly Speculative Posts:
It is against our Posting Guidelines to discuss, in the PF forums or in blogs, new or non-mainstream theories or ideas that have not been published in professional peer-reviewed journals or are not part of current professional mainstream scientific discussion. Non-mainstream or personal theories will be deleted. Unfounded challenges of mainstream science and overt crackpottery will not be tolerated anywhere on the site.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=414380