That’s the big problem with cold fusion/LENR: you need to be able to consistently demonstrate a long-running reaction which generates energy well in excess of any possible chemical reaction.
Been done, multiple times with replications galore. All ignored by the skeptopaths. Read Beaudette's book. Documented in depth there.
The current state of the science of LENR is that the Pons Fleischmann Anomalous Heat Effect has been replicated and it is an established scientific fact.Yet he ignores the actual report from the web site that they appear to have discovered an error that could explain the "excess" heat.
Meanwhile, we're still waiting for someone, anyone, to present credible evidence for a LENR device that can brew a cup of tea. So far, no one has even come close.
It also needs to be disconnected from external power sources, and be examined to show that there are no hidden compartments containing batteries, charged capacitors, or tiny nuclear reactors. If it really generates excess energy, then some of that energy could be fed back in to keep the device running.
But nothing we would expect to see if cold/fusion or LENR were real actually happens, does it? Instead, we see nothing but endless diatribes about how it's "real." Oddly, when things really are real, no one spends a lot of time defending their reality...