I have tracked down a man who has been involved with friction type heaters
for over 20 years. His name is Ron McMurtry and his knowledge of heating and
cooling systems is impressive. He is retired. He has a 1987 patent (PN
4685443) for his method of producing heat via mechanical means. The patent
is self explanatory in it's function, but has been refined and improved over
the years.
He explained many details of why using this type of heating is more
efficient than resistive heating as far as being able to distribute the heat
evenly and effectively, although I had a difficult time retaining all of
what he said. The unit acts as a heat sink, hence the reason for the heat
exchanger to extract the heat. His device has been tested by at least two
independent laboratories, is UL listed and approved for home/commercial use
by the insurance association in Minnesota. He gave several facts and figures
as to the cost of operation, all documented.
He told me what happened to the Frenette furnace after all the hoopla
given it in 1978. Mostly it was in the design/manufacturing of the machine
that caused problems with the operation of it over time. There was never a
finished production prototype built, and so it was discovered changes had to
be made in order for it to A)not leak B)not break and C)not burn up belts
and oil degredation was a problem too. It was cost inhibitive to make these
changes.
McMurtry's design is quite a bit different from Frenette's, can double as
a pump for fluids, and heat water as well. I asked for the bottom line; is
this type of heater more efficient than conventional heating. He said his
heater is equivalent to a Lennox 60/80 gas furnace (don't remember model
number) in output if I recall correctly. He said there are advantages, some
obvious. For instance, no fumes, no carbon monoxide etc. Another is the fact
that fossil fuels really screw up the house air in winter causing a
temperature difference of about 10 degrees from the ceiling compared to the
floor. Friction type heat, at least his, affords a 2 degree differential in
ceiling to floor temperature. As I understand it, once the unit reaches
temperature and begins cycling, the efficiency is increased because ramp up
time to reach operating temperature is much less because the oil is still
warm. The bottom line is your heating bill at the end of the month, which he
said having many years of using different methods of heating, his unit has
shown to work quite well. I don't want to quote numbers in terms of cost as
I may be incorrect, however after speaking with him, a friction/shear
hydraulic type heaters (his anyway) compared to an equivalent resistive
element heater is lower in cost to heat the same house.
He said in about 90 days he will have a website completed offering plans
to build his design. Or he may possibly have kits, depending on the interest
it draws. The plans will be downloadable and/or CD with full sized CAD
drawings. I think he said the cost will be about $30....$10 less than the
ripoff from Rick Harrison's deceitful crap he peddles (I've seen his
"plans"). Considering the time and money spent by Ron McMurtry proving out
his system, I'd say $30 is pretty cheap. He is currently using electic
baseboard heat because he gave his heater to a greenhouse to test it. They
said it works great because it does not dry out the air, a common problem
with fossil fuel heaters.
He also touched on using a corn furnace for heating, mainly for those who
live in an agricultural area. He said it should take about one bushel per
day to heat an average size home. I for one am planning on an alternative
source of heat this winter as the cost of propane skyrocketed last winter.
I may have gotten some things wrong, but hopefully those wanting more
information on the "fuelless heater" understand it a bit better. On Monday
or Tuesday our unit will be ready to test.

Final note: in the patents I reviewed, the btu's generated using friction
(generic term) heaters as compared to what is drawn at the pole, does not
add up. By the book, 102,000 btu equates to 30,000 watts in a resistive
element heater. Now, it can be argued till hell freezes over as to why, but
it does not require an electric motor of that magnitude to generate the
equivalent of 102,000 btu of usable heat in a friction heater. Read the
patents. Are they fraudulent? Does anyone know how many hp it would require
for 30kw? Is Mr. McMurtry lying when he says his small unit (3-4 qts of oil)
equals a 60/80k btu Lennox furnace using a 3 hp motor? He said it uses 5-5.5
kwh once up to operating temperature (in cycle mode) if I'm not mistaken.
Because his patent is now public domain, I see no reason why he would
attempt to be so deceitful as he freely told me how to build it, and would
encourage someone to market it if they so choose.


>From: "Fallis, Christopher" <Christopher.Fallis@...>
>To: "'free_energy@yahoogroups.com'" <free_energy@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [free_energy] Fuel less heater
>Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 10:42:29 -0500
>
>I'm glad that I saved the $40 and did not buy the plans for this "heater".
>The web site makes no mention of outside power being required, or a motor
>to
>drive the mechanism that generates the heat. It simply shows a zinc rod in
>a tub of oil. I did some quick calculations and found that a 15,000 BTU
>electric resistance heater would be chewing up about 4,400 watts. If this
>friction "heater" can pump out the same amount of heat for 600 to 900
>watts,
>maybe we have something. Or we just have a measurement error. I defer to
>the experimenters to determine that.
>
>Chris Fallis
>
><SNIP> I am aware of Fuelless.com and Rick Harrison's information on
>the "fuelless heater". There is ample information available without
>the need to pay $40 for his plans.
>
><SNIP>
> There is nothing mystical or "new form of energy" about this
>device. It is simply a heat generating device using friction and
>velocity. Rick Harrison's description leaves one with the impression
>it's a mini nuclear device, and if you think about it, it he's not
>too far off base, only stretching it a bit lol.....
>
><SNIP>
>
>
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>


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