-> TW> Fuel Cell technology is Increadabily expensice at the present time.

-> I would have guessed that to be the case.  Is it manufacturing that jacks the
-> price up?

A good portion of it is most are one off Prototypes. That is why the
Politicans forced the Military to be a Test Bed for some systems. the
Naval Hospital at Camp Pendelton California Marine base had a couple of
large units for a while. They have been disassemblesd and removed now I
believe. When they were running I chaeked the data o nthe Internet and
found that their Up time was only running 50% to 60 %. That could be a
problem.

-> TW> Coleman, The lantern People makes a Hydrogen powered fuel cell 
-> TW> Power pack as I rembember it was $5000 for a 3 KW unit and iyt used
-> TW> special exchange cartridges for the Hydrogen at some $125 for 
-> TW> several hours run time.

-> Hmm.  Only "several hours"?  That's rather expensive. 
OTOH,  that's power
-> that's *quiet*,  as compared with a generator or whatever.  And it's presumably
-> easier to haul around,  too.

They were designed to be Used inside a Computer room for back up power.
Obviously in that applications they would use a large bank of Hydrogen
bottles for much longer support time.

-> TW> You could of course hook up for an External Hydrogen tank but they 
-> TW> speckes a Very High Purity Hydrogen. And the stuff you get from the 
-> TW> welding supply house for HeliArc is way to dirty and could danage 
-> TW> the unit

-> I saw something on tv in the past few weeks that was talking about fuel cells, 
-> and hydrogen.  But I was of the impression that they could use all sorts of
-> "fuel".  Maybe that was earlier on,  or something? 

 They can use an assortment of fuels, Methane, Propane, Alcohol,
Gasoline, but need an additional process called a Reformer to convert
the Fuel used to Hydrogen gas. This additional process ads to the cost
and reduces the reliability. 
Another point is that All those Fuels are form NON renewable recources. 
Incideltly presently most of the Hydrogen produced i nthe world today is
also made form NON renewal processes. Adn since there is NO such thing
as Perpetual Motion(IT takes MORE powewr to Produce the Hydrogen form
Water then the Power it proviced you still have a BTU deficit to be made
up. So the problem becomes WHERE does the Energy come From??

And as a side note there was a study dome on hte Evfect of Free Hydrogen
i nthe Upper atmosphere and it was determined that it Cound be as
Damaging to the Ozone Layer as thwe Freon we have Banned. 
Interesting corner we are possabibly painting ourselves into if we put
too many eggs in hte Fuel Cell basket.


-> -> TW> For the outdoor types there are special Solar Cell arrays also
-> -> TW> avaiable. But when the sun goes down you need to wind up
yuor work.
-> -> TW> :-) :-)


-> I read about something recently (saw it mentioned in a book I was reading)
-> where they mentioned a dashboard-top panel that would keep a vehicle's battery
-> topped off when it was sitting for a while,  and not being driven.  Have you
-> ever heard of this?

 I concider them a SCAM and a Ripoff. Typicaly they are capable in FULL
Direct sun of putting out 250 to 500 MA.
That may or may not even keep up with the Internal Self Discharge of a
Lead Acid Battery. 
I believe that 1 Amp is concidered the minium for keeping the Typical
Auto/RV battery in storage(Or infrequently used) tooped off. 
I have a little 1 Amp fully automatic unit designed for that purpose I
have connected to me Group 31 emergency battery for my Laptop/Ham Gear.
You can sloe ise a regular Automobile  battery charger if it is Full
Automatic and has a 2 to 5 amp charging rate.

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