Heating Element 24v Battery

Yes, good luck. I'd use at least a 600 cc engine.

Copper would not be my material of choice. It is not normally used for this purpose.

Copper is an efficient conductor of electricity. Can you tell me why it might not be a good choice for a heater?

thank you, I need something cheap, readily available material, was even considering copper sheet to sit flat on the mica board, with the useful information from our friends, will also consider nickel chrome. This is boat, with frond end plate to heater and scoop up 150 mm thick solidified wax on water.GJ

As Lyn alluded, You should reconsider the use of copper as your heating element. I'd suggest to you that Nichrome wire is a much better material for that purpose.

Thank you, suggestion accepted and will give that a try. GJR

+1 for Tobugrynbak.
Wiki has some great info on nichrome wires with tables for temerature, current, wire gauge and voltage.
I've recently looked it up for a hot wire cutter (for cutting fletchings on arrows).

A simpler and possibly safer solution would probably be an inverter and a commercial heater.
Del

thank you for useful info, will check it out. In our case we do not wnt the commercial unit, but DIY program GJR

I did a back-of-an-envelope sum to find the current in the wire. It came to about 500A.

I may be wrong - not enough coffee yet - but if I'm anywhere near the correct value the wire will melt very quickly. I suggest you do some sums.

Edit - the power dissipated by the wire (before melt-down) would be over 10kW.

you might want to read this before you energize that copperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heating_element

An ideal heater is that which produces max amount of heat from per unit surface area of heating element without oxydation.There are many materials those are close to these limits.But Cu is no where. Keep your Cu heater in red hot spectrum and you ll see it flaking in few hours. Beside this it require lot of space.

Thank you, Rakesh, A temparature/thermostatic controlled heater can be installed to prevent flaking due to overheating? copper strips should also be suitable? GJR

The problem you are going to run into with trying to use your copper straps as heating elements is as stated earlier relating to the 500 or so amp load you have to contend with being continually switched on and off.

At 24 VDC thats not a cheap little relay you will be needing.

Why the opposition to using the correct material to do the job especially when it can be had and controlled for far cheaper and more efficiently as well??

I also have to ask, where do you have a boat in a lake that has 150 mm of wax floating on it and why?!?

Thanks for your comments, We have considered other options, the thick wax is from refineries and the designs are being applied for patent rights. GJR

Are these fellows attempting to make a boat propel through the water by difference in surface tension?

we have an air boat .ntq GJ

Thank you everyone who contributed to this forum. Regards, GJR

In summary, copper is the wrong choice of material. Use nichrome instead.

Consider Ohms Law:Power(heat in your case) = I(amps) squared X R(resistance).

Copper has a low resistance,therefore more amps required to generate heat.That is why it is used for general electrical conductor.It can carry a lot of current before heating up.(Low resistance.)

What you should be looking for is a high resistance material,such as Nichrome wire, made for high resistance and high temperature tolerance as well as anti-oxidation characteristics.

You should also consider the heat-sinking ability of the wax and water as you try to cut it.It will probably require a lot more heat than you imagine, because of the state change of the wax,from solid to liquid, and the high thermal conductivity of the water.

It might be better to chop the wax with an auger and transport it aboard for separation from the water before melting.

There really is not enough information to make a proper suggestion, but I will presume you are talking about coconut wax.

Good Luck.

The wax is not consistant, sometimes light oil, sometimes thick, your idea will definately be useful. We are considering a few options at site when ready. TQ

If the wax is solid enough you might consider a trash boat such as:

WWW.trashskimmer.com

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That what we are talking about, looking for one too.

Why not just use the waste heat off the 500CC engine to heat the wax, by sending the exhaust through a pipe that rides on a floatation at the water surface? Does this work for you? Then you could use the 500CC engine to drive a vacuum pump to suck up the wax (as in a shop vac).

Yes, we even have considered have a copper tubing connected to the exhaust ports, this may not be sufficient, but surely will help; its got to be atlease 8 feet length before it touches the wax which will have about 5 feet width oming into contact with the wax on surface of the pond. Thank you, GJR

I agree that trying to melt the wax (as well as heating associated water) will require a lot of heat.

Oil skimmers of various sizes are already developed that skim oil off the surface and decant the results returning the water and retaining the oil. Perhaps such a machine will suck up oil and wax too. Look at:

plaindealer-sun.com/main.asp?sectionid=41&subsectionid=119&articleid=13264

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