Energy and Electric Power Freedom

Cold Fusion Comedy Era Ends

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 17:24:00 +0000

Looks like we're on the verge again... First Newton was laughed out of repute by stating one day man would travel at speeds in excess of 40km/hr... then scurvy cured with citrus fruit was laughed at for 40 some years before becoming a staple of the navy's food coffers for just that reason. Numerous other discoveries have also been labeled as hoaxes, ridiculed and squashed before being overthrown by the truth of reality.
Well it looks like our time of laughing at ‪#‎coldfusion‬ is nearing its end too.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/gMx1mpcokBk?list=PL2AD52600936409E9

MIT Cold Fusion - The Revolution has Begun!

youtube.com

A War of Two Teslas

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:21:00 +0000

There is a book on the market which bears a title I find hilariously brilliant. The book by Ryan Dobson is called "Be Intollerant, Because Some Things Are Just Stupid" is a Christian based rhetoric on Western society's descent away from that strange commodity called "Common Sense".

I have not read the book nor is this post intended to comment for either side of it. I just find it refreshing whenever someone with passion pursues what they are inspired by. However there are rules of etiquette I like to see when I hear of such opinion blaring horn honking. Today's post (which incidentally, coincides with my birthday... Yay me!) is in response to an online sparing episode that seems to be heating up between two of my favorite web based Alternative Energy Science inspirations, Peswiki and ZeroFossilFuels.

For those of you who love to tinker like I do, and perhaps even dream one day of actually inventing something new, then you'll understand why these two sources are so much fun to follow. Both could be members of the Tesla Institute of Nerdy Geniuses (TING for short... and yes, I just made that up now) as both have a focus on the fringe science that our establishment professors refuse to talk about. They both have unique approaches and inspire me with the urge to go play in my shop and continue working on thought experiments, pondering puzzling problems, and construction of (hopefully) working prototypes.

The problem it seems is that one side (ZeroFossilFuels) has accused the other of not following the same rules of integrity by which he himself so tightly abides. Zero has railed the accusation that Peswiki actually assists scam artists by not debunking stories before they are reported. The other side (Stirling Allen of Peswiki) has responded in apparent shock questioning "I thought we were friends?!?!"

I really like both pages, but I find they really serve two different flavors of this topic and since Zero is now openly soliciting support for his arguments through a micro-survey on his blog (which didn't provide me nearly enough space to articulate even an abbreviated segment of my thoughts - likely due to my overly aggressive use of adjectives), I decided to weigh in with my own opinion in a deeper fashion here. Zero's big accusation is that Stirling is being irresponsible in his coverage, suggesting that Stirling is actually assisting scam artists by not properly researching the subjects before he reports on them. As a subscriber of both pages - Peswiki specifically here, is set up to report on new energy news as it comes out and since Stirling runs the page himself, I can totally understand that he would become swamped at times by the stream of stories. He simply cannot perform the due dilligence for each story and still continue to update such a page in the timely manner with which he has accustomed his readers. He reports them as he finds out about them. With that said, the understood casualty here is that the reader is now required to think for himself and decide if he believes the claim made by the muse or not.

With Stirling's pages, I become inspired to shoot off and think about different concepts until I can put together something unique. His page is almost more of a brainstorming inspirator than anything else and for that I LOVE Peswiki. In fairness too, Peswiki does keep a page dedicated to warn readers of known scams and on it you will find examples of some companies who were actually covered in stories by Stirling at some point. On top of this, he does pose very blunt questions to his subject guests and will often state that the story owner refused to respond or provide any adequate rebuttal. I find this a wave of transparent honesty and I appreciate it.

On the other hand, we have ZeroFossilFuels... a man who has captured my imagination by allowing me to live vicariously through his many experiments and projects, that I have actually wanted to create or perform myself but never got around to. Zero is a fantastically thorough, articulate and an obviously educated man who shares his experimenting shop time, with his YouTube viewers through a collection now larger than 330 plus videos. Here is his channel if you're interested. Zero captured my interest almost 7 years ago when I watched him working on HHO Generators intended on improving mileage on cars and lawnmowers. Since then he has videos that cover various science and Tesla conferences, Air rifle performance improvement, Muller motor replication, bowl shaped electromagnets, post Armageddon gardening techniques, workshop construction, rocket stoves and even chainsaw fun after a winter storm - just to name a few! To say his channel is prolific would be an understatement. I have laughed with him as he bares his raw emotion through various rants, and condoled his occasional failures, offering hopefully helpful suggestions for troubleshooting or changing strategies. This channel is interactive and you will find him quite responsive.

I was disappointed when I discovered my two favs were in a family feud. While I do agree with Zero that we have to be responsible and not lead people down a scammer's snare, I also love Stirling's approach at Peswiki and don't want him to sacrifice the volume of stories for a more conventional and conservative approach to reporting them that would result in less inspiration. After all, I like the trust that Stirling places in me by expecting me to think for myself and not get suckered in by some of the very topics he covers. To do this, I rely on that seemingly disappearing commodity I mentioned at the beginning... Common Sense. We can't get something from nothing... (unless we first discover what nobody else has yet found... but that's a rabbit trail for another day) so if it claims to, then either something is new, or someone has dreamed up a different way to present that old tasty snake oil again. Stirling lets me decide for myself which it is... and Zero shows me whether it works or not in real life.

I love both these guys and wish they would embrace their differences as complimentary elements of invention's inspiration. Please restore your friendship and continue playing to your strengths. I will continue to follow both of these men of action!

Help Me!! Unlock the Secret of the Free Energy Water Wheel

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:49:00 +0000

What if I could build myself a simple mechanical device that would spin an axle and allow me to run a generator?
Would you call me a quack if it worked? Are you interested in how to discover that secret combination or will you simply stand on the sidelines and throw stones?

I have been fascinated with the possibility that our current physics mind set within conventional science, has actually locked us out of the breakthrough ideas we crave. For years we have rejected a great deal of potentially unthinkable invention, all because it deals in areas that most scientists deem quacky.

Well, when you have no formal training, (think of John Worrell Keely for example) you don't approach inventing with the same restrictive obstacles and anything becomes possible. What if you're too un-educated to know that bees cannot scientifically support their weight with their wings and that flight for bees is simply not possible?

Ok so with that premise, I propose that we simply need to observe a couple examples of unexplained physics, and use them to create a harness that we can use. My attitude is that we should first build it and prove it works before we let loose the mathematicians to argue with us that such a device is simply not possible. Let them figure out why it runs... as long as it runs.

I think we should be able to create a water wheel that is run by a conical cylinder pump, which is powered by a 2 stage mechanical oscillator...
and that a bit of the power from the water wheel should be divertable to keep the pendulum going on the oscillator. What do you think? Care to build one yourself and see if it works?

Go ahead and see what you can put together, then post a response and let me know your results. It will be better use of your energy than searching for stones and hurling them for no other reason than to fortify what you think you are safe to state.

100% Electric Truck Starts Delivering

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:16:00 +0000

PepsiCo's first 100% Electric truck, delivering product on Monday July 19, 2010 in Brampton, ON

Jonathan McCaughey RSR, is pictured (with hand cart) and his DSL Gerrit Stam.

Frito Lay Canada, in collaboration with Transport Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation is the country's first consumer packaged goods manufacturer to introduce zero-emission electric vehicles into its delivery fleet.
• Six zero-emission electric vehicles will be added to the Frito Lay Canada delivery fleet – three in Brampton (ON), one in Ottawa (ON), one in Surrey (BC) and one in Laval (QC).
• Grant support was received from the Transport Canada Freight Technology Demonstration Fund and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s Green Commercial Vehicle Program.
• The new electric vehicles are powered by 100% renewable electricity from the Brampton grid.

Energy4Power

The Mystery of Venus' Double Vortex Secret

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:05:00 +0000

The Mystery of Venus' Double Vortex Secret

Well today I take a break from the practical side of inventing and try my hand at mental gymnastics… theoretical physics - astronomical quandries. I know, I know… you're asking why would I head out on such a thin limb? Well to be honest, I've actually been spending some time investigating vortex power in more depth to see if I can harness something there for a new energy producing widget. But through that reading I came across some articles describing a scientific mystery on Venus, and scientists' continued perplexity to that regard. The mystery in question? Venus appears to have double vortex structures on its north and south poles. Scientists cannot explain why this is... and I am hoping the explanation below answers that riddle correctly. If I am right, perhaps someone at NASA will follow up for me and verify it so everyone can know for sure. I personally, am not planning any inter-planetary travel in the near future to see for myself.

OK, so in order to explain this, I'd like to relate a few stories as background. Einstein once explained the vexing question of why tea leaves always congregate in the center of a tea cup instead of the outside edge. Reasoning would predict that they be thrown to the outside of the cup through centrifugal force.

I read recently about the double vortex mystery which, to my knowledge and for lack of finding any evidence to the contrary, remains a puzzle to this day. This intrigue has to do with the existence of a pair of double vortexes (vortices… how do you spell the plural of vortex anyway?) which appear on the north and south poles of the planet Venus. Scientists, it is reported, are still looking for clues that would reveal why there are two vortex structures (notice how I avoided making 'vortex' plural this time… cool eh?) at each pole instead of a single vortex. Well, my dear fellow physics philosophers… wonder no more as I, Energy4Power (alright, alright… a.k.a. Larry Vander Schaaf) attempt to postulate in the same fashion as Albert Einstein's tea leaf musing, the reason for the Venus double vortex.

First of all, let's review Einstein's explanation. In Einstein's postulation, he showed that due to friction between the inner surface of the tea cup and the liquid tea which was being stirred, a thin layer is set up… as if 'sticking' to the wall of the cup. This layer is called the Ekman layer and creates an effective ball bearing type reaction. The liquid that sticks to the inner tea cup moves more slowly than the rest of the fluid. Along that layer, the centrifugal force that pushes the tea outward is not as strong as the frictional forces holding the tea against the surface. That's where we see the ball bearing effect and the tea at the outer edge of the cup is able to travel faster than the tea near the middle. It also increases the pressure on the tea near the outside. With increased pressure, the tea is slightly more dense at the outside than it is in the middle of the cup and a flow begins similar to convection currents. The force of centrifugal pressure as well as the apparent lighter weight of the middle tea, makes the tea along the top get thrown to the outside while tea along the bottom of the cup is drawn to the middle to replace the tea being spun outward. Tea leaves themselves are too heavy to rise with the flow of tea moving upward in the middle, so they remain in the middle at the bottom.

So how does this relate to the double vortex issue on Venus' poles? Patience... I'll get there in a minute. First, there is something else at work on Venus which we need to consider. Venus' atmosphere is actually very similar to Earth's… well not specifically now anymore, but originally I mean. A long long time ago… Earth used to have a double mantle atmosphere. Today we see clear blue skies, or at least we see clearly to the bottom of the clouds on sun/cloud mixed days. Originally all that clear space used to be occupied by an inner mantle. This is also why rain did not used to exist… the moisture in the air was so dense that there was a continual mist permeating everything. This layer also provided an increased protection from sunlight's ultraviolet rays - a fact that creationists like to argue supports the validity of pre-Noah bible characters' multi-centennial life spans. Regardless of such spin off discussions, the original existence of a second or 'inner' atmospheric layer is accepted fact. (It's collapse of course coincides with the believed time of the great flood… but again I'm throwing gasoline on an already volatile rabbit trail which we cannot afford to follow today or this article will indeed become a book rather than a simple blog entry.)

Let's head back to Venus. The atmosphere on Venus still consists today of 2 layers. My postulate relies on this fact and it's similarity to the Ekman layer of a tea cup. Scientists have been keenly interested at the strange behavior of the prevailing winds on Venus and the fact that they consistently move around the entire globe at super hurricane speeds in the range of 400km/hr. One statistic I read claimed that the entire air mass of the planet only takes 4 days to circumvent it's entire surface.

I postulate that only the outer layer of the atmosphere is traveling at these speeds and that the inner mantle is actually much slower. This would then approximate very closely, along with the help of Venus' gravitational pull, the characteristics of the Ekman layer at a tea cup's inner surface. The question here though is which direction is everything flowing? Another noted observation of Venus' double vortex behavior is that there exists a cooler downdraft of air around the poles. Here we have the key to what is actually happening.

If we consider the tea cup analogy again, we notice the same pattern in a tea cup… but the problem with our Earth-centric thinking is that we have been expecting to see a vortex (let alone 2 of them) right side up. I say what we're actually looking at on Venus is a single huge vortex on each pole of Venus, but from space we are actually seeing the bottom of the vortex.

The real mechanics of it
Let's leave the double vortex question for just a moment and focus on the single inverted vortex concept a moment. In this structure, centrifugal force would send air outward as it travels up the cone of the vortex… or down the cone if it is inverted as is the case here. This sends air outward over the globe, freed from normal surface frictions that would interfere with it, by the lubricating effect of the inner mantle. The centrifugal force would also tend to throw the gases outward from the poles, along the hot top of the inner mantle, warming it as it goes. The air would eventually meet other gases moving in the same fashion but from the opposite pole, at the equator. Since the gases have increased in temperature during their travel, they would become less dense and I hypothesize we should see an updraft coming off the ground (or actually off the outer surface of the inner mantle). This would happen of course because that is where the circumference of its path of travel is greatest and therefore the centrifugal forces would also be greatest. The less dense gases would rise, they become subject to less gravity and therefore less pressure. Hmmm… we also saw less pressure in the center of a tea cup too… so I think we should be able to observe a pattern of air movement consistently traveling Northward and Southward from the equator along the outermost surface of the atmosphere. At the poles, the cooler air would be drawn down the center of the inverted vortex back toward the inner mantle, where the cycle would repeat.

Now about those pesky double vortex patterns we see. If my thinking is correct, then what we are actually looking at when we see the double vortex pattern is actually the underside of a larger vortex. The two vortex shapes we see are actually supporting 'ball bearing effect' mini cyclones that interact with both the constantly circling air from the planet, and the center pinnacle of the larger vortex itself. They are, in effect, simply counter currents which naturally react to their surrounding boundaries of fast moving air.

So what does this mean? How can we use this information? Ok you got me. However even though I do not have any practical invention yet hatching in my brain from today's thought experiments… what I can predict in addition to the northward flow tendency of air in the northern hemisphere and southward flow in the southern hemisphere, is the existence of a 'quiet zone' along the equator of Venus on the upper surface of the inner mantle. Since the equatorial flow of air is meeting both from the north and south, both slow currents are stopped in their longitudinal movement at that location and change to become an upward movement. This should create a slightly lower pressure in that area. Remember though the air is still traveling some 400km/hr in an east west direction so that doesn't stop but there should be the least turbulence in this equatorial region. My suggestion to NASA is that if they wish to enter the Venusian atmosphere, the equator would likely be the best choice to enter, and a sub-orbital trajectory would likely be most easily established along this triangular toroidal equatorial region. (Don't ever accuse me of not using enough adjectives!)

So there you have it. I have now solved the riddle of why Venus has two vortexeseses… shoot. Ummm let me re-phrase… I have now solved the riddle of the strange double vortex behavior on the poles of Venus! (YES… I love optional wording!)

So again, please comment and let me know your thoughts. Oh, and let me know if you're interested in having me to explain the strange behavior of the double slit experiment. I have a thought experiment which completely satisfies that anomaly too!

Unlocking Your Brain with BrainKey!

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:37:00 +0000

Today I am choosing to shamelessly plug a promotion for self improvement technology. Do your train of thought ever de-rail? Ever wish you could remember things easier, or generate incredible ideas? Have you ever come home in the dark, parked the car, walked up to the door and walk in... only to find out you've just walked into your next door neighbor's house by mistake?

I have. (Yes, true story... though I knew it was different as soon as I saw the panelling on the walls inside. I answered the "who's there" question with "Sorry! Wrong house" and quickly closed the door behind me, dashed across the front lawn and slipped swiftly into MY house before anyone had a chance to see who the strange voice was.) But I've since changed my ways and worked on improving my mental capacity. To my great delight, I've discovered some wonderfully enjoyable technology that does the trick very well. It is the (are you ready for this?) KEY to unlocking the dormant power of your BRAIN! :-D

The technology employs musically tuned stimulus, targeted individually for each ear, (you must wear stereo headphones for this to work properly)to stimulate your brain's responses to perform functions it normally handles in completely different ways. This encourages the brain to develop new neural pathways as well as stimulating existing unused neural connections to refresh, and the result is greatly increased mental capacity, attention focus, as well as stronger memory retention and problem solving ability. I've also read testimonials atesting first hand the improvement for conditions such as ADHD and high functioning Autism.

Nicola Tesla was a verifiable genius, known to have memorized his parents' entire literary library, and did complex calculus in his head. With brain power like that, it's no wonder he accomplished so many thousand patents! Not only is Tesla my hero, in this particular arena he has also become a benchmark and a goal to which I may gauge my own progress.

Check the BrainKey Site out yourself. Read the promotional jargon, and then follow any of the links to get into the main portal where you'll find lots of different renditions and styles that employ this great technology.

Enjoy and enhance your brains, my BrainKey enthusiasts!

Energy4Power.

High Volume Compressed Air From the Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Sat, 22 May 2010 12:54:00 +0000

I've been reading lately about vortex technology, inspired of course by Victor Schauberger, the Austrian forest ranger famous for his work with the flow behavior of water and how he managed it to float lumber out to mills from seemingly unreachable forest interiors. Victor's studies on the vortex have become the foundation of a whole branch of technology that seems to have gone unnoticed until recently.
My entry today gathers its inspiration from 3 sources. Of course I have to begin with my hero Nicola Tesla and his Tesla Turbine, but I am also employing a principle in use by Dyson's new air multiplier super fan that hit the markets late last year. The other muse of mine for today's entry is the Windhexe, a tornado in a can invented by a farmer named Frank Polifka, that can be used to seemingly disintegrate any material into micron sized powder. I suppose I should also mention the new design for wind turbines here as they also had a hand at inspiring my direction today,
but I must say the the idea simply started with them and I tend to think their principles are slightly more sophisticated than what I'm employing. I think Dyson's bladeless fan is a better example of the venturi principle I capture with today's idea.
So what is today's idea? I decided that I want to figure out a way to compress extremely high volumes of air. Oh, I almost forgot... part of the device will also employ Veljko Milkovic's two stage mechanical oscillator to help finalize the last stage of compression.

In a written summary, here's what I propose. First we start with a Tesla turbine to start moving the air. Around the outside lip of the turbine, we fit a flange that feeds the air leaving the turbine, outward and down in a way that also draws surrounding air with it. In order to guide the flow of the surrounding air, the Tesla turbine and it's fitted flange are placed inside a larger ring and this whole collection is then fed into a duct the same size as the surrounding guide ring.
That forms the first stage, but I want to set up 4 of these because we want to draw large volumes of air. So picture 4 of these turbine fans all connected to duct work feeding to a central point. We'll call that whole system the first stage input.

We then have an intermediate stage which will involve nothing more than some cam driven valves that direct the collection of ducts into either of 2 identical collector drums. That's all there is to the intermediate stage. For half a cycle the air flows into one drum, and for the other half of the cycle it feeds into the other.

The drums are what make up the 3rd stage. These drums are designed to be fed in a way that produces a cyclone inside them. There is no great purpose to the cyclone other than to help distract the energy of the compressed air away from the top and bottom of the drum, and onto its sides instead. The entire drum becomes a piston chamber then and during the fill portion of the cycle the bottom of the drum is closed. During the second phase, the feeding ducts close and the bottom opens. The top of the drum is composed entirely of a large piston which then slides down the drum, pushing the cyclone of air into a common storage tank. The other drum of course is exactly half a cycle out of phase with this one and works in reverse. When one drum is emptying, the other closes the bottom of its drum and opens the feeding ducts while lifting the piston back up to the top.
Driving the two large pistons is a large 2 stage mechanical oscillator which provides the power to raise and lower the extremely large weight of each piston.
Due to it's large size, the whole device will operate at a reasonably low rpm but with the drums made larger and the pistons weighing significantly on the air, the large air flow produced can be very significant. Remember, the drums are actually compressing air that is already slightly compressed.
If the drums are constructed from 45 gallon drums and the Tesla Turbines are feeding ducts that are roughly 1 foot in diameter, and with the oscillator working at 2 cycles per second, my initial guesstimate would be that this arrangement could produce roughly 1600 cubic feet of air per minute.
For the calculation, I figure 4 feeding ducts will effectively double the air pressure inside a drum, and with each drum containing 7 cubic feet uncompressed, that makes 14 ft3 per drum per cycle which is 28 ft3 per second. 28 ft3 X 60 seconds is 1680 ft3

That's a lot of air! What can you do with that much air? Well for one, although it is apparently highly inefficient, you could employ vortex tubes to provide your home with Air Conditioning in the summer, or Heat in the winter. You could also power your own personal Windhexe garbage disposal system

or even use vortex tubes to create a large temperature difference to power a Stirling motor and then use that to create your own electricity.

As Frank Polifka intended with his harnessed tornado, you could grind grain into flour and fix yourself a loaf of bread... it's kind of like Martha Stewart meets Albert Einstein.

So... what would you use that much compressed air for?

Great site for Energy and Power links...

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:03:00 +0000

I was checking out a few sites today and saw this one... it's a great site for tons of links to really get your brain cooking.

http://globalenergy4power.com/resources.php

Ok, maybe it's just me but I get all excited when I see things like that... all the brain fuel I can consume, to generate even more ideas and motivation to work on going green and getting off the grid!

Besides, the name for this site contains my username! I like that!

Check it out, and enjoy!

Energy4Power

Overunity Electric Generator - Concept Power

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:47:00 +0000

Inventor, David Robert Morgan, has presented the Pyrazo circuit which is an electronic circuit that is designed to attract oscillations from an oscillation source.

I don't fully understand the circuit plans, but they are well drawn, clear and help to demonstrate the concept behind the principle. I love it because it inspires me the way Henry Moray and Nicola Tesla did when I read about their capturing free energy from our atmosphere.

The idea behind this is based on something I personally picture as the principle of "electricity having inertia". So basically if you set up a wave pattern, in a system where it will resonate and build on itself, then you can use some of that inertia without touching the power from the input. Electrically speaking, I theorize that when electricity resonates, it actually sucks some of the power that exists all around us in the atmospheric plasma, some folks refer to as AEther. Regardless, I don't see energy being created, but instead, simply tapped into like a venturi valve that draws more than is pumped through it.

So like any other post I have, I've taken this idea and created an application for it. In my case I'm proposing the Pryazo styled effect be used along with a standard electric generator where the generator, as it collects electricity from breaking the magetic fields with copper wires, sets up an oscillation. We hook that oscillation effect up to a circuit like Pryazo's and voila... no more back emf. The generator becomes a cinch to turn and while it generates its own energy, we can use the oscillations it creates to capture more energy from the Aether in the Pyrazo like circuit.

In my drawing, I have not drawn out any schematics. However the idea is that I would connect and 'steer' the electricity coming from the generator, over to a transformer, using diodes etc. and turn them on and off as needed during various times during the generator's cycle. The drawing is strictly for demonstrating the principle.
Initially I conceptualized pairing armature arms which were 90° out of phase with each other. Later I theorized I could create a similar effect on the same armature by moving the magnets 90° out of phase and adding more of them. As one part of the generator cycle changes voltage direction, it helps push the power generated in that same direction onto the next part of the cycle.

So like always, let me post my ongoing invitation: Please comment, build one of my ideas, or develop it further. I'm offering these for free except that I want my name on anything that gets created... for recognition purposes.

Hey, maybe someone would build me a 2009 Pierce Arrow with an electric motor using my generator to power it, so I can be just like Tesla.... hmmm...

I'm very close to deciding to actually build one of these generators myself... I think it has great potential. Nah... maybe not. Why should I mess up my track record with success now?

Energy4Power, over and out.

Squeezing More Power From Solar Energy

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:09:00 +0000

I was pleased to hear from someone at Cool Energy Inc., a developing company out of Boulder Colorado, who posted a response to my last article on how to Master Solar Panel Efficiency. They liked the article, and more vindicatingly added that they have been developing just such a system over the last 2 years thanks to the brainstorming of the company's founder and CEO, Sam Weaver, father Sam Weaver Sr., and brother Dan Weaver, during a Christmas holiday chin wag. I was downright tickled.

However, remembering the chant of consistent success as delivered by leadership guru John Maxwell, "yesterday's victories are over, focus on today's battles", I am forging on in this same vein to see if I can mine any more nuggets from the higher solar panel efficiency golden goose.

In reading through the articles and associated links from Cool Energy Inc., I was impressed by the fact that they widen the needs summary list in their approach to developing solar energy. (Translation: they pointed out that if you are making the effort to provide for a home, why stop only at heat, when you can also provide electricity too with the same device.) I found it a very motivating eye opener and decided to take a closer look at the panel construction of a solar collector for ideas where I could make additional improvements. Here's what I came up with.

Harness the Parabola in the Solar Panel

To start with, we'll need to do the obvious and that is make sure the maximum solar exposure is hitting the copper pipes. Instead of laying the copper pipes onto a flat metal backboard which has been spray painted flat black, we'll alter the shape of the backboard to form parabolic trays. Then we'll line the trays with a reflective coating to form a sort of mirror which focuses on the copper pipe in the center. If the pipes are roughly 4 inches apart, then the parabolic shape will collect the sun's rays over that width and focus them onto a 1/2 inch wide pipe, increasing the temperature of the fluid higher than would normally be collected with a flat backing board. Here is a sketch demonstrating this idea.

By increasing the temperature of the fluid, we end up collecting more energy overall giving us more to work with when converting it to other usable forms like electricity or mechanical power. Cool Energy Inc. makes use of this principle by employing evacuated glass or lexan tubes to encase the copper pipe collectors. This is a much higher tech version of the same 'tray' idea, using half of the evacuated tube as a mirror to focus more rays onto the copper tube, but also insulating it by means of the vacuum.

Tesla's radiant energy collector
Now, part of Cool Energy's approach makes their system unique on the market because they are developing a solution to provide both heat AND electricity. They have developed the Stirling heat engine further to create a generator that can make use of excess solar heat collected with the panel, and turn it into electricity. I won't add to that solution itself since I believe they are doing a great job as it already stands.

Instead, I would like to turn back to my old favourite (yes, I like to using Canadian spelling... we like throwing extra letters in all over the place) inventor, Nicola Tesla, and see if we can employ some of his ideas to make this project produce even more.

Nicky boy, brilliant lad that he was, discovered back in the late 1800's that our Sun was bombarding our atmosphere constantly with some type of radiation. We know now that he was detecting gamma rays. Nicola's research led him to discover that when this radiation bombards a metal plate, like a collector, and if that plate were connected electrically to a strong electrical ground wire, that there would exist a voltage differential between the collector plate, and the ground wire.

Well hot dog... look at that parabolic tray thingy I described in the previous section. If it were made of some sort of metal, it could act like a collector plate for all those little gamma gizmos. All we'd have to do to make use of that, would be to provide it with a good strong opposite charge from something like a ground wire.

Do you doubt me? (Go ahead... make my day... OK, OK, quit laughing. I'm no Clint Eastwood.) Anyway, check out this guy's YouTube channel. Boxa888 is a pretty cool electrical inventor type guy who sets up lots of Tesla experiments and captures them on video. Here is a vlog (video log) account of some of his radiant energy experiments...

Now if you're collecting this energy anyway, why not beef it up a bit, amplifying it to something we might be able to make some use of? Here's another YouTube vid showing how to make a circuit that filters electricity out of thin air! What if we feed that circuit with our radiant energy collector plate? This video even provides the circuit plan and parts list to build your own!

Even more strange ideas
Now I don't want to get too weird so I think I'll leave the idea of using thermocouples to convert the heat inside the panel into even more electricity. We could go too far after all.

As always, let me know your thoughts. Click the rating boxes or leave a comment!

Energy4Power.

Master Solar Panel Efficiency

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:11:00 +0000

We're back today to bring you another hot idea... efficiency. The way I see it, you can get efficiency for something in two ways. First, you can simply do whatever it is you're doing well, and get nearly everything out of your efforts that you put into it, without using any tricks. That is difficult to accomplish though and actually somewhat rare. The second strategy is to do what you do and receive moderate return for what you put in, but then boost your efficiency by reusing some of the wasted product.

An example of the first method might be a teeter-totter. Whatever energy (or weight) you put into pushing down on the one side, is going to be roughly the amount of lifting power you receive on the other side... assuming of course that the middle is pivoting nearly friction free.

For the second example, we might think of a turbo charger on a car engine. Some of the exhaust from a moderately efficient power stroke in the engine, is recycled and fed back into the engine to be more completely burned.

So those may be simplistic examples but that sets us up for today's topic on how to master solar panel efficiency. Oh, and let me state that we are speaking today of solar panels for heating water, not solar photovoltaic panels for generating electricity. If you're going to make a solar panel, you're going to want to make one that gets you as much heat as possible, or it won't be very beneficial to spend all your free weekends huddled over tinker-fodder in your workshop instead of enjoying life.

My brainstorm solution today involves gathering heat, separating heat from cold, and capturing a little extra mechanical oomph to power the circulating pump, and recycle some of the cold fluid.
Solar heating panels can be set up in many different configurations, most of which are designed to allow them to work in sub zero temperatures. There are open systems, closed loop systems, drain back systems and many others. The basic difference between all of these is how they handle the potential problem of having water freeze in the collector's pipes overnight when the sun isn't shining. In a drain back system, water is used in the pipes during the day when the temperature in the collector panel is sufficiently warm, and then completely drained from the pipes into a reservoir for the evening. Closed loop systems use two separated loops, one of which contains ethylene glycol, an antifreeze, which circulates around the solar collector on one side and then through some sort of heat exchanger in a water tank on the other. The glycol carries the heat from the panel to your water tank and then heats your water inside the tank.

Regardless of which configuration you decide to use, I think my idea can help it. You see there is a somewhat obscure science that, for the life of me, I don't know why we've overlooked. It is the science of vortex phenomena. Rather than explain the full details of a device which employs this feature, I will simply provide you with a link to an excellent article about harnessing the vortex to separate hot from cold in a pipe of compressed air or fluid (whatever is in the pipe). The device is referred to as a HILSCH" VORTEX TUBE.

The first issue I want to deal with is the inefficiency of converting solar rays into heated water. There are many different tricks employed in construction of a well built homemade solar collector but I'm content to settle for moderately heated water coming out of it. You see, coming out of the solar panel, I would configure a Hilsch Vortex Tube to extract hotter and colder streams of water. Since we are removing cold water from the moderately heated water, we end up with a higher temperature stream of water that we can use more easily in the house. It's what to do with the cold water stream that gets us the opportunity to increase our efficiency.

Now I want to introduce, or rather, RE-introduce an engine that is really interesting but not used much. I'm talking about a Stirling engine, or heat engine. In Stirling engines, air is used as a quickly expanding and contracting gas, to move pistons. These engines make use of a heating container, and a cooling container. They usually work best when the difference between the two is greatest. Air enters the heating container and expands, pushing the piston out. At a slightly delayed interval, a displacer piston follows the original piston, and moves the heated air into the cooling chamber on the other side of the now returning original piston. The hot air is then cooled by the cooling chamber and contracts, pulling the original piston back again. Again, there are better explanations out there, so click here to see a good one.

So what would happen if we hooked up a vortex tube to the exiting pipe from the solar collector, send the heated water into the house to be used, took the colder water and use it to cool the cooling container on a Stirling engine, while using a parabolic solar mirror to heat the hot end, and then harness the mechanical energy to run a circulating pump for the whole system?

And there you have it. A solar collector that makes far better use of the available renewable energy source, the brilliant Sun!!

Let me know what you think, below and leave some comments!

Until next time,

Energy4Power.

Do You Want The Most Unique Electric Generator?

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:18:00 +0000

Imagine what it would be like if you never had to pay for any of your electricity. What would you do with the power you generate? What if you could generate that electrical power by building your own water fountain and harnessing it to power your home? Picture a water fountain in your front yard that also runs a charming water wheel.

Today's post is going to give you my idea for free... and as you read every word in this article, I want to help you begin to think about your own idea. Remember that inspiration you had years ago that you were discouraged with? Well as you absorb this information, you're going to see new ideas in your own mind. Write your ideas down.

Michael Faraday discovered many of the fundamental secrets of electricity and magnetism that we base so much science on today. If you... combine two separate inspirations, you will slowly begin to see more harmony with the pattern layed out for us by nature. Little by little you will begin to notice details you skipped over before that unlock the hidden potential of those ideas you had so long ago. I combined Faraday's discovery regarding homopolar generator effects, with another lesser known science great... Hero of Alexandria.

Hero studied things like air and steam pressure and invented both the first steam engine, as well as the device I use in my combo-idea, the Hero Fountain. Hero noticed that water is heavier than air, but under pressure, they can each exert the same force. So he harnessed a long column of water pushing down, to send air pressure (which has very little gravitational weight to overcome) up to a water chamber somewhere higher. The pressure then pushed the water out of the upper chamber into a reservoir that feeds the tall water column. It looks like perpetual motion at first but once you look more closely, you see that it will only last as long as you have water in the second chamber that receives the air pressure. When it runs out of water, that's it, and it has to be replenished.

I decided that it would look nice in a front garden, and since you could use if for landscape, you just have to have a waterwheel to go with it. And since you have a water wheel, you might as well put it to work, since it is spinning anyway. My idea uses the rotation of the water wheel to turn a second drum, around which are a bunch of Faraday's homopolar generators.

Faraday discovered that if you spin a magnet with a copper or alluminum disk glued to its face, that you could generate a voltage difference between the center of the disk, and its outside edge. From what I've read, it is not a large voltage, but it is a voltage none the less. The interesting characteristic of it though, is that the power required to spin the magnet is not very high, since the copper disk (or aluminum, but we'll just keep speaking about copper for simplicity sake) is not fighting it's rotation... it's glued to the magnet.

I have some theories on why this doesn't create back emf (force that fights you, by resisting the turning of the magnet) but I'll leave that for another post some day. So although one Faraday disk creates a small amount of electricity, if you put lots of them around a drum that will turn them all, then you'd be able to harness some more usable power amounts. For now, I'll simply post my picture of this setup and leave you to be inspired with more of your own improvements or even completely new ideas altogether.

With the right application of storage batteries and power inverters, you could conceivably power many items in your home right now, and isn't that what we're all about here anyway? Post comments to this. As always, subscribe so everyone can benefit.

Until next time,

Energy4Power

Get Serious And Make Any Tool You Want

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:15:00 +0000

Well today we forge into the first realm of putting some of these ideas together to come up with something that may not have been done yet. If anyone tries anything from this blog, please come back and update the posting with your news.

So we've now talked about having a blow torch powered by water, and hopefully you've watched the videos on the idea for creating your own hydrogen generator. You could now cut anything you wanted with the torch or maybe even weld anything you want. But what if you want to forge a new piece of hardware? Well today I'm going to pass on to you a really cool site that describes how to make your own blast furnace where you can melt iron and start your own hobby molding metal in your very own foundry.
The temperatures required can be quite high but that's ok when you're using Hydogen since it burns close to the 3000 degree mark. The videos I'm passing on don't use hydrogen and before you attempt any of this I need to warn you that I haven't either... but it sounds like something to try. As always, safety must be first and you have to allow for flash back in your burner tips , isolating the hydrogen from the rest of the back pipe that would feed your system. I recommend a bubbler fairly close to the forge so even if you get some flash back, that it won't have too much fuel to cause major damage.

Bulding a forge should be pretty straight forward given the methods used by these setups (from the videos) but I have an idea using vortex wind patterns. I think by adding 3 fins to the inside of the furnace, you should be able to set up some whirlwinds that would help cushion the heat layer and protect the inside of the refractory (the heat brick material on the inside of the furnace) from breaking down too quickly.

Yes, this is my first brainstorm idea on the blog. Send me your ideas too!

In one of the pictures, the owner showed his refractory material melted and eventually needing replacement. I wonder if with this design, it might extend the life somewhat.

Anyway, vortexes are very interesting phenomena and produce some pretty cool results when applied in the right circumstances.

Here are the links to the resources I promised for today. http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/index.html
Here's a working home made little blast furnace...

Here's a vid on making a flash arrestor for a homemade torch:

HHO Flashback Arrestor + Torch - HOW TO - For more funny videos, click here

Once you can melt metal, you're well on your way to making forms and pouring out your super duper exclusive highly ingenious do-ma-thing-a-ma-bob.

Enjoy, and get sharing in the comments section so everyone can benefit!

Energy4Power

Hydrogen Lust and it's Fatally Deadly Secret

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:10:00 +0000

OK, today's post is going to start out somber with an incredibly serious and up front safety message you MUST not ignore.
We're talking today about how to extract copious amounts of clean burning freely available Hydrogen gas from it's watery prison. Oh, sorry... translation: You can make a hydrogen generator to use to build other newer breakthrough inventions like a water fueled car or anything else powered by water fuel. I'll get to the very cool invention later in the blog but I first want to focus your attention on something so important that you could unwittingly poison not only yourself but your entire neighborhood simply by the curiosity of your inventive little minds. (Sorry... did that sound condescending?)

Of course Hydrogen is freed along with Oxygen by pushing electricity through water. But water doesn't like allowing that, without some extra persuasion. That persuasion happens by adding a little bit of chemical to the water to make it electrically conductive. One of the best chemicals to add is Potassium Hydroxide or KOH. This creates a caustic solution (fancy word that means the water will burn your skin if you dip your hand in it) which conducts electricity.

Once we can get Electricity to run through the water, we have the set up for separating the water into its two parts, Oxygen and Hydrogen. The oxygen gets pulled out of the water at one electrode and the hydrogen at the other. The safety lesson I want to share with you today happens at this very point. If you use Stainless steel as one of the electrodes, and you're using it in a caustic solution like KOH, then after you separate the hydrogen, your fluid that you're left with, will contain Hexavalent Chromium... the nasty nasty substance that causes all the problems in the movie "Erin Brochovich".

Hexavalent Chromium should NEVER be flushed or poured down the drain, or poured out onto the ground or into water sources. It causes serious nasties. Just watch the movie Erin Brochovich to see what I'm talking about.

However, once you DO have some hydrogen to burn, then you're able to start using it to better mankind and lower your heating bills. So how do you make a device that will get you this extra fuel? Well it wasn't easy. You can build your own homemade hydrogen generator using the information the following video:

Go here to see how to make HHO really easily and quickly.

Oh, and just to give you one last chance... watch this video on safety!

Next time we'll talk about one of the really cool ways to use this Brown's gas stuff! (Hydrogen and Oxygen mix or HHO gas.)

Over and out,

Energy4Power
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Need Your Own Water Fueled Blow Torch?

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:41:00 +0000

That's right, I said water fueled. Now, I know what you're thinking, so before you start with the comments about me dipping into too many solar panel reserves from yesterday's post, let me clear the subject line up right away. A breakthrough application has come out in the last couple of years that makes having your own blow torch as easy as a little elbow grease and a reasonable amount of safety consciousness.

There is a man who has invented a blow torch that runs on Brown's gas. What is Brown's gas you say? Well I'm glad you ask! Let me tell you right now. Brown's gas is basically the mixture of hydrogen and oxygen which results when you break down water with electrolysis but you don't bother to capture the gases separately. It's kind of a neat mixture because the proportions are perfectly premixed for you to fire them up and return them straight back to their original bonded state... water that is.

The interesting characteristic about this invention is that although it burns at a temperature somewhere in the range of 1500 degrees Centigrade (that would be over 2700 degrees Fahrenheit!), the tip actually remains cools to touch. I haven't actually seen any information about why that happens, but my personal theory is that since the gas mixture is so perfect, it doesn't need to 'suck' oxygen from outside the nozzle to support combustion, and therefore the entire flame exists entirely outside the nozzle outlet, allowing the housing to remain cool. Other gases require feeder holes before the outlet that allow air in to mix with the fuel, and the flame starts burning inside the nozzle tip, heating it up.

I'm thinking there are a TON of things I'd love to do with the power of my own incredible torch like that. This guy runs his car on water too and gets over 100 mpg. Can you imagine your own water powered car going 100 miles on a single gallon of water subsidized gasoline? How much would that save you?

I still haven't heard from anyone yet on their own ideas, thoughts or inventions. Come on everyone, let's work together, share some ideas and get free energy out of the labs and into everyone's backyard!

Over the next couple days I'll post some ideas on how to make the gas in a very efficient way, and what you can use it for once you have that setup.

I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Energy4Power

Solar Energy From Beer Drinking?

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:25:00 +0000

So I was finished work last autumn, sitting on the back porch drinking beer from a can (why waste power getting glasses dirty?) and I noticed my fingers were getting cold. I know, I know, you're thinking the blonde hair colour is definitely NOT dyed. Anyway... I started thinking about the fact that my cold hands were annoying me, and also that holding my beer can was making my beer warm before I get it drunk (drank? drunked? dranked? whatever.)

Anyway, my curious little brain needed to grapple with this concept for a bit but I was just too tired. In my embibing musings, I decided that since the heat trade between my fingers and beer seemed so quick, perhaps this beer can may hold a secret to cheaper electric bills. I decided to see what I could find about using beer can material to create some sort of solar collector. Alas, my procrastination has saved me time once again and since I did nothing, no solar heating happened in my home. But, I did stumble across the same idea on the web recently and it turns out there are a couple of folks doing this very thing... one of them in a huge way.

They're called beer can solar heater furnaces and I found one guy who's made his shop time a lot more enjoyable in the winter thanks to his homemade creation. He has taken a solar powered fan and blows air through a manifold of drilled out beer cans, assembled together to form tubes, and he increases his shop temperature by 30 degrees or so. I love the fact that all he had to do was drink his way into having the raw materials to work with!

So check this guy out and maybe after you're done with your after work guzzling, see if you can fight the urge to look tough... try NOT crushing the can for a change and save them up instead to make your very own solar furnace and save yourself some coin on the old electric power bill!

Here's the link to the Beer Can Solar Furnace guy's video.

Keep inventing!

Energy4Power.

Which Electric Energy Form For Power?

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:26:00 +0000

Well, I guess I should start out with the biggest hook... the one that got me into all this in the first place. I remembered a friend in junior high school talking about making a Tesla coil for the science fair. He didn't actually do that, but he did magnetize aluminum ( that caught my attention and has been stored in the ol' memory banks ever since) and the name Tesla stayed with me for all these years.

Well when I decided to find different ways to generate electricity, I thought I should start by looking up this Tesla guy... I had never heard of him other than through my buddy. In fact for years, I had thought that the name was pronounced Tulsa (like the place in Oklahoma) but couldn't find the great genius under that handle. I began following links on this Nicola Tesla guy and WOW. For some reason we don't study about him in school, but he is basically the founder of our modern age.

Did you know Tesla owns over 1800 patents in the US? His biggest contributions, or inventions that made him famous (or why he at least SHOULD be famous,) include the following:

Harnessed Niagara Falls for electrical power

Induction motor (yes, the thing EVERYONE uses today)

Radio (no Marconi didn't invent it, he stole the idea from Nicola, and in 1943 the courts said so too.)

Remote Control (wireless)

Tesla coil - probably one of his coolest inventions

Tesla turbine - look ma... no propeller... let's use flat plates instead!

A/C electricity

Yeah, and there's more... did you know that the Star Wars program touted by Ronald Regan in the 80's was based on Nicola's ideas? Way.

So getting back to my title for this, did you know that Tesla used to work for Thomas Edison? In fact they had some big fights... first over the fact that Edison bilked Tesla out of $20,000.00 saying it was just a joke, and then over whether A/C electricity was better than D/C electricity. Of course we know today who won that argument... Thomas Edison was going for D/C because he sold D/C dynamos, or generators. He didn't go down without a fight though, and even tried to scare people away from Tesla's A/C current by electrocuting stray dogs (and in one case, an Elephant) in front of people to show them the danger.

OK so the purpose of this blog is to share with you the resources I've found. Here's my first two resources. The first is a link to the account of Nicola Tesla wiring up the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago with George Westinghouse, to demonstrate A/C power.

The second is just a really really cool video of a giant Tesla coil in action. Check it out.

I'll keep posting these, you keep reading them and together we'll get this free energy thing licked yet!

Energy4Power

P.S. Did you know Tesla drove his nephew around the countryside in an electrically powered Pierce Arrow in the 30's... uh... with NO BATTERIES! Yeah... the guy was a genius.

Looking for Electric Energy Powered Freedom?

noreply@blogger.com (Energy4Power) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:33:00 +0000

Welcome to my blog. I'm not a rocket scientist, or even a college grad. I've spent a lot of time studying things that interest me. What I am is just a licensed carpenter, and a self taught computer technician.

Bills are always nasty to pay but the one that hurt me the most was the electric bill after I built my first home. I had spent a lot of time brainstorming new insulation ideas and thought I had come up with a way to make the home much more energy efficient. But when my first bill came in at over $1270.00 I was just a tich annoyed and upset.

Anyway, I decided to start looking for new ways to generate electricity and found that there was a whole world of obscure ideas available on the topic. I thought if I could gather some of these ideas and put them together, I just might be able to take myself off the grid and power my home for free.

This blog is just a place for me to keep track of all the really cool resources I found in my journey and share them with you.

I hope you like it and make use of it yourself. My goal is to have this information geared for do it yourselfers, and hobbyists.

Enjoy, and good luck! Make sure you comment and share your own ideas and links!

Energy4Power