weight driven generator idea.

[Bradley Malone]

I have been messing around with the idea for years, and about a year ago I saw something like it here (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/g...untries#/story). I have seen small ones that light an led but I want to build one that could power something bigger. I have been trying to find a way to power lights for a horse-shoe pit at my fathers so I would need about 75 watts or so to power three 25 watt leds. The question i have for all you fine folks out there is...is there any way to calculate the exact weight and fall length needed to produce a certain amount of power I understand it can't be exact because every generator would have a different efficiency but a "perfect scenario" equation.

From my research one horsepower is 776 watts...With one horsepower being the force required to lift one pound one foot in one second. So am i thinking correctly to assume that a one pound weight that drops one foot in one second would put out 776 watts? or 10 pounds droping one foot in ten seconds? The way I plan on doing this is to hang a pully system from a tree so I could have a long drop length about 50 feet....so in a perfect world I could lift 60 pounds and make a generator that would let it drop at one foot a minute and that would give me 776 watts of power for 50 minutes. or am i missing something and way off?

The "original" idea i had about this was thinking of makeing a workout system that instead of lifting weights for no reason you could link it to a system like this so while your working out your storing the energy in a weight then let it drop after the workout to use the power in your house....why waste the energy of a workout when you could use it

[Notsure]

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

[Bradley Malone]

I have to admit...I do not know what you mean by that . If it is a compliment then thank you..but I'm not sure lol.

Completely off topic but I don't want to start another thread for one question....I watched this videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFrVdoOhu1Q and I am wondering if anyone knows a place that you can order parts machined to tolerances like this, google is failing me at the moment. What I thought of when I saw the air bearing was, if you were to cast a piece of material that is non magnetic but with bars on either side of the hole that are magnetic then machine it as one unit to those tolerances then a rotor that would have a magnetic piece accross the center like this. . I wonder if the magnetic field would overcome the "airbearing effect" and pull the rotor off center closing the gap and grinding to a halt or would the bearing effect allow for a very low friction ultra high efficiency motor? only time and loots of money will tell

[Faraday88]

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

well said!
Rgds,
Faraday88

[Notsure]

It's a compliment bro. Your original is basically all I meant.

[Bradley Malone]

Well THANKS. and your right about that one...not being cocky or anything I just mean I am basically the only person that thinks even remotely out of the box in my small town...so I am often left with the crazy ideas to myself. That's why I post, it gives me somewhere to actually talk about this kind of stuff instead of blabbering while people look at me with the big eyed look of WTF are you talking about!

[astronomenov]

move along

Well THANKS. and your right about that one...not being cocky or anything I just mean I am basically the only person that thinks even remotely out of the box in my small town...so I am often left with the crazy ideas to myself. That's why I post, it gives me somewhere to actually talk about this kind of stuff instead of blabbering while people look at me with the big eyed look of WTF are you talking about!

It looks like nobody thinks in your town. The device described on Indiegogo can deliver 0.1 Watts, so think harder, if you can...

[Notsure]

Well, at the risk of sounding pompous and faggy...
Assembling is not creating, and visualization is not inner-vision. Fundamental concepts have been the result of forming conclusions which have been based upon the outer-vision of the senses, and not upon the inner-vision of the Mind. Mind-vision does not deceive for CAUSE begins there, and EFFECT is but its product. The energy of Creation centers each note. That centering, invisible, omnipotent Energy is God's mind and your Mind. Naturally you cannot see it, but you can KNOW it, for it is your Identity, and your Intelligence. It is the Source of your creations as it is the Source of all Creations.

[astronomenov]

Very well pointed out. But still the question stands!

[Bradley Malone]

But still the question stands!

Exactly what question are you talking about.

I understand that it delevers .1 watt but it does it for 20 minutes from a 20 pound weight falling 5 feet so it is the basis for what i will be building but in a much smaller scale...so why do i need to "think harder"?

Notsure, love the understanding of universal philosophy...my favorite part in russells books was the part about a coffee cup only being a representaion...you can smash the cup into millions of pieces and you can still remember the idea of the cup...so the pieces only formed a represention of the idea and never was actually the idea.

[astronomenov]

Exactly what question are you talking about.

I understand that it delevers .1 watt but it does it for 20 minutes from a 20 pound weight falling 5 feet so it is the basis for what i will be building but in a much smaller scale...so why do i need to "think harder"?

Notsure, love the understanding of universal philosophy...my favorite part in russells books was the part about a coffee cup only being a representaion...you can smash the cup into millions of pieces and you can still remember the idea of the cup...so the pieces only formed a represention of the idea and never was actually the idea.

So the total energy your 60 pounds weight would accumulate when you raise it 50 feet would be: 15.24 (meters) multiplied by 27.21 (kilos) multiplied by 9.8 (m/s2) equals 4063.86 joules which equals 1.13 Watt/hour.

[Notsure]

You can have a thousand ideas a day but until you test it, you don't know if it will work. If it doesn't work, it doesn't necessarily mean you built it wrong. Maybe you built it right for the fundamental ideas it was based on. Maybe it was the basic principle that was wrong or simply incomplete. You should never assume anything, and you can't trust your senses either.

[Bradley Malone]

Astro...Thanks. Looked into it and found my problem. 1 horsepower is equal to 75 kilos moving 1 meter in one second....during my search for all the math i somehow got that way off and that was where the issue was. thanks for the help. so it would take around 5000 pounds.

[AB Hammer]

Bradley Malone

Anything that gets energy out of gravity is good and how you get more is larger systems under this approach. You can build devices that your weight needs to use compound pulleys just to lift it. You would need a tower for you slow drop. Here is a video of a much larger system to study. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=980UZtrzuC8 I myself am working on continuous repeating like what some call a Bessler wheel.

Good Luck
Alan