TSellers

The March 22 episode of the Podcast 'Science VS.' discusses the effectiveness of different mask materials, primarily against viral transmission, but also touches on particulates. It may be of some interest. I'd rather wipe down a few surfaces than wear a mask indoors 24/7, especially while sleeping. The power draw of the window fan is 100W on high speed. So you can run ten of them for about the same power as one air con unit. The fanless Ionizers use less than 10W. The lights I use for hydroponics are the biggest power draw.

I've seen enough charring on the cotton to suspect that it 'glazes' and forms a partial barrier to the evaporation of the fumes, and that's why I use a strip of carbon felt across the top of the cotton, which seems to work well. I'm still trying to put my finger on why the Zippo's seem to be the worst of breed even after you replace the catalyst with proper platinum catalyst. For the one experiment I did with the DE and the Zippo, I just thought that as it ran for 14 hours or so, most of the fuel must have been used. When the reservoir had the cotton, it seemed to go out and needed to be re-activated numerous times. With the DE, it did not go out once it was activated. Do you think it would be best to run the test again, but first weigh the DE, and then after the fuel seems to be used up, remove the DE afterward and compare weight to see how much fuel may have been left behind? Good to hear that the CF hack makes sense. Seems odd to be preparing for forest fires when a virus is the big concern. But ironically I was listening to a podcast today that pointed out that the virus has caused much better air quality in polluted places like Wuhan which has cut deaths attributed to the poor air quality by 30%. And the air quality we had 2 years ago as a result of the fires was worse than they have in the worst city in China apparently. I can't make any home test kits for virus, but I can mitigate indoor air quality, so I may as well be pro-active now. (I'm just taping MERV 16 filters to floor fans to place in windows to draw outside air in, and also using the Negative Ionizers). I had them ready last summer, and we had no fire smoke to contend with, which is fine by me.

Interesting. I also tried a conductive screw from the catalyst head down the center into the reservoir to transfer heat and promote evaporation. Didn't notice a large difference. I just did the test once with the diatomaceous earth in a zippo. It held about 40ml of fuel without leaking out, and went for about 14 hrs., the amount of heat however did not seem to be greater than previously when the cotton was there, so not sure if that meant evaporation was the same. I'm going to have to try a few more times. I also tried fragmented hydroton clay pellets, and rockwool. They seemed to work about the same as cotton, but had the advantage that it will not get charred. Do you think that diatomaceous earth would hold more liquid than the rockwool, or perhaps silica kitty litter? I didn't realize that that carbon fibre would oxidize like that, my only experience has been with using the carbon felt. The video from Big CLive about improving a negtive Ion generator using the carbon fibre is here: https://youtu.be/cKCUJ89Vvi8

Wow, six years and I'm still trying to find the magic sauce for handwarmers. I'm wondering if a carbon fibre sleeve, 'finger trap style' may be more suitable than a silica woven tube. Big Clive has a video about how to improve negative Ion generators using carbon fibres. I want to upgrade ours to improve our indoor air quality in case we get bad forest fires again next summer. A friend who's son deals with all sorts of carbon fiber sent me some pictures of what his son has, and one of the items is a carbon fibre sleeve that looks like it has a diameter perfect for a Jon-e GI. But while we're on the topic of silica, I replaced the cotton packing in a handwarmer last week with diatomaceous earth. I capped it with some carbon felt to stop it from spilling out. The results were very good, better than the cotton. It seemed to hold 50% more fuel, and absorb more of the fuel smell. I had an impression that the energy produced by palladium in an exothermic reaction was less than platinum, but I'd have to go look for where I got that idea, I think it was from an engineer friend that dealt with catalyst material in his job.

These questions are still very germane. I recently repacked a hand warmer's reservoir with Carbon Felt and that seems to have improved its performance and reliability. The next obvious improvement would be the catalyst head as noted in this thread. You'll laugh when I confess I tried to make a catalyst out of JB Weld and carbon felt, which of course did not work. Now I wondering about the silica wick that is used by the vaping community. Would that have any potential as a material in hand warmer catalyst heads?