The Fuel Cell
How does it work ?
A mix of water and methanol is injected on the anode side while ambiant air is pumped in the cell on the cathode side.
The methanol libers his electrons on the anode under the platinium action which is a catalyser. The electrons go to the cathode in the electrical circuit. Conter-ions are produced, they pass through the membran in direction of the cathode. At this level th produced oxygen combines with protons and electrons to form pure water.
During this chemical reaction, the cell temperature raises to about 40°C and this is why the water is evacuated to outside in the form of vapor and carbon dioxyd.
The amount of water and CO2 are very smalls, in fact it can be compared to the breathing of a little child.
What is a fuel cell ?
Let's make it easy, a fuel cell transforms a combustible material in electricity.
the Efoy cell uses methanol which is contained in a very safe tank.
This Cell devivers 1600 watts in 24 hours. This may seem to be low but be aware that we do not have dish washer and other high consumption machines in our motorhome. 1600 Watts is 133 amps on 12 volts, this iw quite enough to supply our lights, satellite dish and decoder, heater consumption and ham radio activities.
This cell has really changed our life on board, no need to limit the lighting, no problem of heater stop during the night and we allways see the end of the TV movie :-)
Problems, fuel consumption and maintenance.
Let's say it, in 2 years of use we never had a problem with this Efoy fuel cell. We are very happy with it.
The methanol consumption is conform to the Efoy published data. In 2 years we have used 30 liters of fuel and this pays itself since we do not need anymore 220 volts feed when in camps.
And remember we use our equipment all year long, winter and summer.
There is not really a required maintenance, Efoy says the cell will need a cleaning after 3,000 hours, this is really a simple opération, they sell a kit which contains a celaning fluid that you have to put in the cell and that's all.
When whe have buyed our cell Efoy was annoucing a 6,000 hours life duration but the experience has proved that it lives much longer than forecasted. Remember that the cell works only when needed, after 2 years of use our cell counter shows 500 hours so this will serve us for many years.
During last winter we were in the french Alps, the night temperature was very cold, around -25°C when our cell refused to start. The control board annouced an exhaust pipe problem. Note that this failure was not due to the cell but to our dealer who has bad installed the pipe.
Efoy says this pipe must not be longer than 50 cm and our was about 1.5 meter !
The problem is that 50 cm is very short and in any cas not enough to brings the pipe outside but after speaking with an Efoy technician, we have found a solution, click the button below to read it.
Finally you can program the cell according to your needs
Clik the button below to get all the explanations
The cell setup.
That's a very simple setup.
The cell is connected to the battery, the exhaust pipes are connected to outside, the command board is connected vis a plug and that's it ! the cell is ready to work.
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ON4KDE
Belgian radioamateur around the world