Renewable resources

Discussion in 'Off Grid Living' started by kellory, Nov 21, 2012.


  1. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Not really sure where this would go, but I have an interest in harnessing waste energy. This included Solar, wind, thermal, hydro, and kinetic. I'm no greenie, I just hate waste. I thought a thread on DIY power could be of use, and I thought I would start it off with Sterling engines. They do not produce a lot of work, but the run on heat alone. I think mounting the heat chamber to the side of a wood burner would produce free work to move a room fan or charge small electronics. Larger units could be used as a back-up generator for a battery bank. They can be run off any form of heat from a single candle to a Fernell lens for sun light. They have even been installed in large mirrored arrays as large scale power generators using nothing but sunlight. Here are a few examples. Feel free to add other examples of free power/ work (much like that two gate valve plush air hammer pump that pumps water from a small drop in elevation)

    Infinia Stirling Solar Generator - YouTube





    The camera work is poor, but the sterling generator is quite interesting....PHILIPS STIRLING CYCLE GENERATOR - YouTube
    repairs and break down of Philips Sterlings generator Philips Stirling Cycle Generator 2 - YouTube
    STIRLING ENGINE SOLAR POWER PARABOLIC MIRROR ELECTRIC GENERATOR - YouTube
    A Stirling Engine stripped down so that you can see how it was made - YouTube
    This is a privately held site on Sterling engines. I ran across this link while searching sterling engines. : Stirling Engine and Hot Air Engine Home Page
     
    chelloveck likes this.
  2. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    If you start this in motion with a battery bank and an inverter, it produces more power than it uses. Like priming the pump to get it started. here are several versions of these motor generators.



     
  3. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    Good stuff. Moved to the Off Grid forum which seems a better category for alt energy.
     
  4. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    You know that a couple of us on the Monkey make a living in Renewables?
    I manage/operate a 100 MW wind power project.
     
  5. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    No, I did not. However, These are things people could do for themselves. I like the idea of being self-sufficient.
     
  6. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    I hate to burst your Bubble, but the above is BS.... It is called "Perpetuial Motion" and defies the Laws of Thermal Dynamics.... There can NOT be any Mechanical Device that makes more energy than it uses... Simple High School Physics should tell you that.... @ghrit will be by to explain it to you.....
     
  7. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    There are a few devices out right now that seem to be Perpetual Motion, but are not. There is science behind it.
     
  8. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

  9. Tikka

    Tikka Monkey+++

    Ditto.

    It defies all kinds of laws, the generator needs power to create power. However, the story has been around since the 1970s and it never goes away until someone tries it.

    ;)

    I mean if it works why buy solar panels, just buy an electric motor and a generator. Plug the motor, after it is running unplug it and live free forever.
    For those who disbelieve, try it. :D
     
  10. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    This particular device has been around for a number of years, in fact I think it was on the monkey. As presented, it can't work, there's no way to get free energy by putting less in than you get out. There's something behind the curtain.

    Regarding the vertical turbine, then. That will work, and that particular configuration has been full scale tested successfully. Not the most efficient design as it turns out, but works.

    I personally like the Sterling cycle. I've seen very small ones, toys really, and they work. (There are model scale kits for sale; easy to find on the web.) I have yet to see a full scale working engine, but they exist and by all accounts they work well. Pretty pricy as I remember, haven't looked lately.
     
  11. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    There is a U.S. patent to the effect. #patent 6,362,718 B1, Though I did not bring any of these examples up to be controversial. Please feel free to remove any example that can be debunked. The intent of the thread was what we can do for ourselves.
     
  12. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    World’s largest solar facility proposed - 20,000-dish array, 4,500-acre and 850 MW here are some people who beleive in large scale Sterlings.
     
  13. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    Apple owns a patent for turning the page of an electronic book.
    I had a great diatribe for religion (witts) and science but i'll just sit on my hands and shut up.
     
    chelloveck likes this.
  14. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    I can't seem to find the particular example I was thinking of, so by all means, strike it from the list. Though there are thousands of people attempting it. And a great number of dead people who claimed to have found cheap/clean power sources. Tesla himself was destroyed for that very reason, his design could not be metered for sale. His designs are still discussed on tech sites as viable. reminds me a bit of the engine destroyed by it's own creator in "Atlas Shrugged" John Galt. Though if I remember correctly, it was to run on static electricity in the air. Still, strike it from the list if it bothers you, I have no objections.
     
  15. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    I have, and had, no intention of Censoring any such device, here on the Monkey.... Folks need to know that such devices are OUT THERE, and there are Charlatans, and Hucksters willing to sell such BS, to the Sheeple, and relieve them of their Goods, on a "Something for Nothing" Pipe Dream.... Happens every Day, and as long as they don't run into someone who knows better, they will continue to SELL, their brand of BS, to the uneducated, who can be HAD... That is just a FACT of Life....
     
    AmericanRedoubt1776, Brokor and ghrit like this.
  16. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    I think I know about 1/10th of what Ghrit and Bruce do about subjects such as this, but I also like to think that the one piece I do know is the best. =) But...yeah. Perpetual energy, zero point, there are a few names for it --not proven unequivocally by popular science, but definitely a fun subject. The little I do know is about theories which are striking and fascinating, including reports of missing and mysteriously deceased patent owners and inventors...stuff to pass the time. I am not surprised to find mega-corporations behind silencing small inventors who create a more efficient device.

    From what I understand, energy cannot be destroyed (or created), or lost entirely, but it is converted into another form of energy. This is known as "The Law of Conservation of Energy". The trick would be to capture as much energy as possible. There are TWO reasons why these zero point projects are mostly bunk. The first, is that it does in fact take some form of energy to initially start the device. The second, and most important is the fact that there will always be an entropy rate --a decline in energy output from just an initial start. The energy doesn't necessarily get "used up", it's just transferred to another place in the form of heat, light, etc. Now, there are some extremely EFFICIENT devices out there, so that's why I reserve some thought and respect for EFFICIENT devices that can actually come really close to zero point/perpetuity. You won't find this stuff produced by major corporations because of the fossil fuel dependency trick and the profits it rakes in, and because a dependent people who live life tied to the grid are controllable. Is it possible for there to be a 100% zero point device ? I very much doubt it. Can we come pretty darn close? Yup. But, as far as energy is concerned, we will always get less back from what we put in...as far as we know.

    And I have never seen a Sterling engine before. Looks kind of neat. ;)

    Free Energy and Zero Point Energy Explained with Physics:


    I think our closest and best route would be in manipulating matter:



    Quite amazing, actually. The nano-scale technology has come a long way. Only one problem: if the corporations cannot perpetually profit, there can be no assurance we will ever see it on the civilian market.
     
  17. larryinalabama

    larryinalabama Monkey++

    I often thought a 8' heavy "flywheel" with a hand crank and a belt would turn a automotive alternator for a long time.

    Trufully if we had affordiable batteries that would last 100 years alternative energy would be mainstream.
     
  18. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    @Brokor: Nicely put, B. For background, you might look up the Carnot theory (now accepted as proven) that explains a lot of the impossibility of 100 percent efficiency. It also makes entropy a bit more, ah, "clear." I firmly believe that there are no more than a dozen physicists and NO engineers in the entire world that fully understand entropy. What it boils down to is that nature distinctly prefers disorder. What that does for you is make it clear that energy will ALWAYS go from a high state to a lower one; it tends to disperse. That's how come boiling water cools off when you take it off the stove. (Boiling is a higher state than room temp.) The same idea applies when ice melts, the room heat (temp) migrates from the room air to the ice (which is colder, hence a lower energy state.) Disorder is also why the universe is expanding, at least for now. There's more to that, tho'.

    Also, nature abhors a vacuum. So, you ask, why is it that the atmosphere doesn't abandon the earth and leave us gasping in the near perfect vacuum of space? Gravity is the answer to that. For a simple experiment with vacuum, fill your thermos with hot water, wait a few minutes and dump out half. Then wait a few hours, and slowly open the lid. If it sealed after the dump, you'll hear air whistling into the bottle, the cooling water reduced the pressure in the bottle and lowered the pressure inside. That's sorta the opposite of how a pressure cooker works.

    TANSTAAFL. One way or another, energy gets expended in all of mankind's endeavors. Muscle, fossil fuels, donkeys or horses. Machs nix.

    Larry, your flywheel will work. But something more than what the alternator puts out is what you'll have to put in with the handcrank. Eat your Wheaties, :lol:
     
    kellory, BTPost and Brokor like this.
  19. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    And understand that MAXIMUM Sustained Power Output from a single human, is less than 100 Watts per hour, and that can only be sustained for a very few hours. Lots of Wheaties, REQUIRED, as well a total Hydration...
     
    AmericanRedoubt1776 likes this.
  20. larryinalabama

    larryinalabama Monkey++

    "Another theroy, little far fetched....Put a clear "straw" into a glass of water, the water level in the straw will be slightly higher than whats in the glass. I think water can "climb" to 33' given a small enough tube. So a "million" or so tubes siphon water into a tank 33' above ground could run a generator. Im not positive about this theory but if it were possible you would have a endless supply of power."
     
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7