Replacement for nichrome coil...

[randomness]

well thank god I'm not the only one..

 

[seantex]

I wanna see some pics of this in action. Great project

 

[radwor]

This should work well.
Rapid Fire Demo - YouTube

 

[slopes]

I hooked up a short length of pencil lead (graphite and clay powder) to a 3.7v battery the other day. The lead was wrapped with a small, 1 inch piece of silicone rope wetted with juice. The + and - wires were about 1.5 inches apart. It works and produces vapour. Sliding one wire up and down the shaft of the lead changes the resistance and, therefore, the amount of heat/vapour produced.

Pencil lead is harmless (contrary to old-fashioned warnings about chewing pencils - which were once coated in lead-based paint and so were poisonous).

What my experiment showed was that the lead needed a little more power going into it. 3.7v was not quite enough to make it function as well as a wire element. I would think around 5v would be good (I don't have any VV kit so I can't try it). Of course, too much power would turn the lead into a light bulb (as shown on various YouTube videos).

If this is viable, it would open up a whole range of exciting possibilities for PV design, ease of use, cost and function.

 

[srolesen]

cool idea, on the top of my head i think graphite is semiconductor ntc, so as temperature rises resistance falls, so it becomes self regulating, to some degree (if wired in series)