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Posted on 07/08/2011 1:09:28 PM PDT by Red Badger
This is more like me picking up a bottle you tossed out of your car and using it for some purpose.
I smell another scam.
Ever since I built my first crystal radio at age 6, I have had this idea. Recently, they have come out with those charging pads that do something similar, but I always thought that for micro-powered devices, you could take it straight from the air. There is tons of stuff going on all over the spectrum, from 60hz up through the gigahertz, no reason we can’t take some of that and do something with it.
When you think about it, the old crystal radios did exactly this. The harnessed energy was the “demodulated” AM signal, which was used to drive headphones. It was indeed a radio that required no batteries.
All one has to do is 1) gather EM waves with an antenna (the more freqs the better - hence the broadband antenna, 2) rectify them (they’re AC), and 3) store them in a capacitor/battery of some sort.
The main problem (to me) is that normally available PN junctions (used to do the rectification) demand a few hundred millivolts potential to overcome the forward bias, whilst the signal available from the small antennae shown would not provide such a signal strength.
Perhaps he’s got rectification requiring only a few microvolts forward bias. If so, yup, he could pull this off.
To stick with that analogy, it would be like you sticking a very thin pipette in every coke can in a 7/11 to grab a few drops of soda from each, so you could drink for free.
These little devices are parasitics, if there are only a few, sure no problem, we can’t measure the extra cost at each transmitter or the weakened signal at every receiver. But the tech is so cheap there will not be just a few of them.
It puts a load on the grid, just as if it were actually plugged in.
“But until I actually see one in operation I’ll classify it in the same category as the “3-D Printer” that has been making the rounds recently”
3d printers exist. One type prints using plastic and will build up a model layer by layer.
I had a customer who could print on 3d objects. He could print pictures on things like footballs and hats.
You can bet the ranch that the government will figure out a way to tax this energy before anyone has developed a commercially viable way to exploit it.
Maybe a little junk science to justify the tax and win someone a Nobel Prize, too.
While this may be the case, it doesn't appear to be slam dunk analysis.
Some claim a truck being drafted by a car would have a slight increase in mileage. Others (I tend to agree) say any increase in fuel cost for the truck would be so small as to be impossible to measure.
Some claim a zero sum for the truck, but a true zero sum in nature is extremely unlikely.
If you have a definitive link on the point, I'd be interested to see it. Actual experiments, not jackleg engineers like me bloviating.
http://ask.metafilter.com/58487/Does-a-truck-work-extra-to-pull-a-drafting-car
Nonsense.
I can go stand under a high-tension power line, and a sensitive fluorescent bulb will light up.
Does this drain power from the line? Nope. It just captures some of the power that is already overflowing from the line and uses it.
It’s similar to a radio station. It uses the same amount of power whether one set is receiving or a a million. Just isn’t relevant.
Or it’s like capturing and using waste heat from an AC system to heat domestic hot water. It doesn’t increase energy usage of the system, since that heat just disippates in the air if it isn’t captured.
Totally agree. To think otherwise is to have the same mentality of the jerks who believe in carbon taxes.
Sherman, you are wrong. The line is not “overflowing” with power. Power companies have spent and do spend a lot of time and money in research and engineering towards reducing line losses.
They found the chicken-coop parasitic heating system because the parasitic loss on that transmission changed enough or was different enough from similar runs that it was detectable.
Yes, the florescent light bulb lights up, held in the right way under a high tension line. But there’s no magic. Every fractional KWH emitted in light or heat by that bulb is EXTRA power being drawn from the terminals of the power generators feeding that area of the grid.
It is NOT like capturing waste heat from an AC system. That AC waste heat gets lost to atmosphere if not captured, the AC unit does not pull more power to generate more waste heat because you capture some of it. Capture all the waste heat you want! Not one fractional BTU captured will result in any additional load on the power grid.
You agree to a poor understanding then!
A thief ALWAYS has a poor understanding of the efforts of others to make or buy the goods and wealth they have.
Exactly. Ask ANY pro bicyclist how VALUABLE drafting is.
“Who is John Galt?”
Who is Nikola Tesla? :)
Ummm, you capture about a nickel of energy in a year?
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