rickoff

Jim, what is the link to the YouTube video? I saw Aaron's lawnmower video a while back, but don't recall seeing one done with a generator.

By the way, there is a write-up about a generator that runs on water (actually air+cool water mist+HHO), which can be found at page 112 of this downloadable pdf file.

I read today that the earthquake moved the land mass, where the 6 reactors are located, 13 feet closer to the US. With that kind of movement, it is a wonder that there wasn't even more damage. Last I heard this evening, there are only 50 people left in the direct vicinity of the nuke plants attempting to control the situation, and they have been at it 24/7 for 4 days now. Surely they have each received well above the safe level of radiation exposure, and things are getting worse now with a fire breaking out in the spent fuel rods containment area of the #4 reactor this evening. Unless some miracle occurs very soon, it looks very likely that we will see multiple failures and meltdowns.

I echo what you are sayiong here, Steve. Greer has been at this for years now and has not shared anything useful with us, nor has he proven that he has anything useful that he could share. If he actually does have anything, then why not open source it to ensure rapid development and deployment of the technology if the end goal truly is to give mankind the gift of free and/or renewable energy. I can well imagine that a great many trusting individuals gladly contributed ther dollars to Orion when they stated they were buying Stan Meyer's dune buggy. I wonder if any of those individuals received a refund.

Rick

You might find some of the posts beginning here may be of interest to you: http://www.energeticforum.com/47929-post142.html

Rick

Hmmm, it's kind of a tossup for me. Now that I'm in my later years I can think of so many stupid things I did when I was younger, and it's difficult to choose which was the stupidest. I think I'll have to tell at least a couple of these stories.

For the first one, I was about 16 years of age and sailing on Long Island Sound with my uncle. It was an unbearably hot day, and not much of a breeze, so we were moving slow. We both longed to cool off, and my uncle suggested that we throw a line in the water, over the transom, and take turns being towed through the water. Sounded like fun, and it did help to cool us off. It wasn't until several years later that I realized how stupid this was, after watching the movie Jaws. Basically, what we had done was to use ourselves as human bait to troll for sharks. We were just lucky that day not to have caught anything. We were aware that sharks were in these waters, and would see a few fins every day during our travels, but when we looked around and didn't see any we would assume that the water was safe. Not any more!

The second one occurred when I was about 23 years of age. I was operating an automotive machine shop, and a fellow came in and asked me to test a starter. He had already disassembled it to check it out, but couldn't find anything wrong with it. I ran the customary growler test and commutator/armature shaft ground test, and the armature was fine, so I turned my attention to the field coils. A resistance check between the field coil/brush jumpers and ground looked good, so I then ran a hi-pot (high potential) test to make sure there was no breakdown of insulation between the field coils and the case. I had done this countless times before, using a pair of handheld test probes connected to a high voltage source, and an insulation breakdown would show as an electrical arc at the trouble spot. This time, though, things went badly for me. As I pressed the probes into place, my fingers evidently got a little too close to the metal probes, and the current was shorted through my body. I could think, but my muscles froze and I could not move. I wanted to tell the mechanic, standing there beside me, to turn off the tester or pull the plug, but I couldn't speak and he apparently had no idea what was happening to me. I knew that my only hope was to walk or fall backwards far enough to pull the tester's electric cord out of the wall socket, as the test leads themselves had secure connections to the tester. I found that I could just barely move my feet alternately to slowly inch my way backwards, and it took all the strength and determination I could muster. Finally, after what seemed like an incredibly long time to me, the tester fell off the workbench and hit the floor while yanking the plug from the wall receptacle. Needless to say, the experience was a shocking revelation to me. Ever since that time, you can bet that I look at every situation that I am in with extreme caution, and with the foresight to imagine and avoid nearly anything that could possibly go wrong.

Rick

I fully agree with you Paul, and I was just being a bit facetious in my starter post when I said, "I wonder..." I know darned well that we will never see such a car mass produced, unless of course we reach the point in time when selling Hydrogen at oil company owned "Hydrogen fill-up stations" becomes more lucrative to the oil companies than selling gasoline.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for GM, and was very much opposed to the government bailout. GM should have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

I do like the car in the video, though. It just goes to show that we could already have this technology now, and quite possibly many years ago, if the automakers were actually concerned about the environment and the economy. If all other autos produced by GM were discontinued, and this car produced in large numbers at a truly affordable price, the "CO2 problem" would be a non-issue, but of course that wouldn't work out well for big government's Cap & Trade tax plans.

We both know that we will have to come up with our own solutions to affordable transportation, as neither the automakers nor government will do this for us.

Best 2 U, Paul,

Rick

Good one, Ted.

No, I don't. I think it's just their way of thumbing their nose at us as if to say, "Here's what we could do, but don't hold your breath waiting for it, you chumps!"

Rick

Nice design, and it's about time they built something that makes sense. I wonder if this will get scrapped like the EV-1, as it looks too good to go into production.

YouTube - Top Gear - General Motors hy wire

Thanks for your interest, sucahyo. The original post about my mechanical energy storage idea can be found here:


If people are interested in learning more about this method, I would probably start a separate discussion thread, as this really has little do do with the topic of this thread, other than the fact that the electrical output of the generator, derived from mechanically stored energy, could be used to power an electrolyzer to make hydrogen.

Rick

@ H2O - Thanks for the video links. I had seen earlier videos after they found Stan's car an gear, but had not seen these newer ones. I wonder why Orion has dilly-dallied on acquiring this stuff. Even considering current advances, this stuff is still priceless and has much info to yield. Say, did you notice the crack in the gas processor housing, as seen in video #3?

Yes, if you were to run an internal combustion engine on the stored hydrogen you could use it to drive a generator and also circulate heated water through a household radiator system to heat the home.

The 3 fuel cells for the Chewonki project are ReliOn Independence 1000 (Model J48C). No price information is given at the company website, though you could contact the sales department at the link given there. Test reports on the unit, prepared by the Center for Fuel Cell Research and Applications, is available here: CFCRA - ReliOn Independence 1000 (J48C)

@ brenie - You're welcome Brenie. While the Chewonki project was the first such Hydrogen project in the United States, having been installed several years ago, the state of the art has certainly advanced since then, making it possible to use Hydrogen relatively inexpensively for several uses.

@ Moe R - Thanks for the video link, Moe. This fellow has something quite similar to the Chewonki project, but with twice the solar array power and a much larger storage capacity. There's no doubt that such systems could be utilized by people for homesteads, although most of us could not afford the high initial cost. I'm thinking that there is an even better, and far less costly way, to store energy for later use. It requires no storage batteries or inverter, no fuel cell or electrolyzer, and no storage tanks. There is no volatile substance or gas to be concerned with. I talked about this method in another thread, but for some reason it did not generate much interest from readers. Perhaps no one fully considered the possibilities and the advantages. I first thought about the idea while up inside a steeple tower in a church some 30 years ago. I was at the church rebuilding their 100 year old tracker pipe organ, and a man who was working on the non-functioning tower clock had asked if I would take a look at the clock and see if I had any advice to offer. When I went up in the tower with him and looked at the various components, I realized it was very much like the sytems used in a grandfather's clock that was in my home. It used gearing, a pendulum, an escape mechanism, and a system of weights to maintain a governed speed of rotation. The fastest turning gear (when the clock ran) caught my eye right away, as I could see it was rotating at several hundred rpm, and that it was large enough and heavy enough to drive an electrical generator at a steady speed with no problem whatsoever. The weights that were suspended to cause rotation were hoisted by hand power, of course, just as in a grandfather's clock, and the clock would run until such time as the weights descended to the bottom of the tower's base platform. The taller the tower, of course, the longer that period would be. I immediately thought to myself that instead of re-hoisting the weights by hand power, what if you used available wind power to hoist a series of smaller weights, one at a time? Let's assume you hoist 6 one-pound weights by this manner, and that when the 6th weight is fully hoisted that it releases all 6 of the weights to fall, while engaging a mechanism that would hoist one 5 pound weight to the top. The 1 pound weights would then be individually re-hoisted to repeat this sequence, until 6 five-pound weights were at the top, whereupon the 6 five-pound weights would be released in unison to fall while hoisting a 25 pound weight. The process continues until you have whatever amount of weight hoisted that you deem sufficient to provide the output torque you require - say, for example, a 100 pound weight. The desired rpm for the generator drive (lets say 1855 rpm, which is perfect to drive an AC induction motor to generate directly usable 110 volt, 60 cycle AC power equivalent to the motor's hp rating) can easily be derived through gearing and governance of the "clock" mechanism output. A 5 hp motor would put out close to 4 kilowatts, which is enough to power a homestead. See this post for more information on using an induction motor this way: http://www.energeticforum.com/37441-post7.html

As you can see, the method that I suggest uses mechanical storage of the derived energy, which can then be used on an as-needed basis. You can derive the energy to hoist the weights from direct windmill coupling, or by using wind generated electric and/or solar array generated electric power to operate a hoisting motor. The weights can be made from inexpensive sections of PVC pipe filled with water or sand to provide the exact weight desired. A stationary bicycle, housed at the base of your tower, could be used to drive an auxilliary weight hoisting system during times of low sunlight or wind, or to boost storage at any desired time by providing increased hoisting efficiency. The beauty of this system is that it is low-tech, relatively inexpensive to build and maintain, and highly efficient. What's more, such a system could be built from scavenged and homemade parts if necessary, which would be immensely important to anyone at a future time of upheaval when either other systems and parts are not available, or you have no way to buy them. Have I piqued anyone's interest?

Rick

Technology

Below are some photos of the components:

The Hydrogen Shed, showing the Avalence hydrolizer cabinet.

An inside view of the cabinet displays the high pressure electrolyzer cells. A 4.5 kilowatt (kW) PV solar array on the rooftop of the CEE building is used to power the electrolyzer. The Avalence Hydrofiller 15 is designed to produce 15 standard cubic feet (scf) per hour, draws 2 kilowatts per hour of production, and uses 1/10 gallon of water per hour.

The 8 hydrogen storage tanks provide a total storage capacity of 2080 scf at a pressure of 2265 psi and are separated from the electrolyzer unit by a cement wall. Notice that the sides of the shed have spaced-apart vertical wood slats that allow floor to ceiling ventilation to the outdoors, thus preventing the possibility of hydrogen gas accumulation inside the shed if any leak were to develop.

Three Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) hydrogen fuel cells, each rated at 1kw, are used to produce heat, water, and electricity from the stored hydrogen. Producing 1kW for an hour uses about 31.5 scf of hydrogen. Up to two cartridges can be removed from a unit for servicing, and the unit will still produce 800 watts. These fuel cells have an expected service life of 22,000 hours. Each fuel cell produces about 2/10 gallon of water per hour during use. Using the total of hydrogen stored, 14 gallons of pure water is produced. The fuel cells can convert about 75% of the energy stored in Hydrogen to electricity. The remainder is converted to heat. The fuel cells will operate between 140 and 200 degrees Farenheit once warmed up.

The total costs for this development project were about $250,000, and about $150,000 was for material and technology costs. While this is certainly way more than than anyone would consider spending for a home system, the project does prove that a home hydrogen system is feasible. To be affordable, common sense approaches using cost-effective materials and ingenuity are needed.

Below is a link to an interactive poster that shows how several renewable energy methods can be used together for a totally independent homestead. Click on any area of interest for further information.

Pathways to a Sustainable Future


Best to all,

Rick

I agree, Aaron, WMM is what I have used for my Pipe Dream videos, and makes editing a snap.

Steve - First check your video camera and set it to record in widescreen mode (16x9) if that is an available option. A stable tripod is a must, and use of a lapel clip microphone (available at Radio Shack) is desirable. A camera remote control is desirable to prevent any camera movement when zooming in or out, and starting, pausing, or stopping recordings. Just record your video segments, attach a USB connector cable between your camera and computer, and import the video using Windows Movie Maker. Arrange and edit your tracks in the WMM timeline area, and when finished click Publish Movie on the toolbar. Choose to publish the movie on your computer, choose a filename and folder location, and then choose the settings for your movie by bulleting "More Settings" and clicking the down arrow to the right of that. Choose one of the HD formats (720p or 1080p) for a Windows Media file (WMV file extension) as these work best on YouTube. Be sure to let us know when the video is available for viewing.

Best 2 U,

Rick

Great article, Steve.

Many thanks for your tireless efforts to research and arrange this material. I will be passing this around to everyone I know, as well as to the many who I only know of that should be made aware. Also, when free energy skeptics and deniers begin their pointless tirades I will simply provide them with a link to your blog article and be done with them. Of course they won't let any of it sink in, even if they do take the time to read it, but that will be their loss - not mine or yours.

Your article would be perfect as the basis of a short documentary video. Have you considered that? The text could be narrated while related documentation and photos are shown. I think this would be a huge hit on YouTube, and could really help to get your message out to a public that is almost totally lacking in awareness.

Thanks again, Steve, and best wishes to you in 2010,

Rick

Oh, I see. But I would think that the copper pipe bundle could be made up of pipes (other than the central one) which are joined together and have water being circulated through them. You could even make a water "coil" of one, two, or more layers by wrapping some small diameter copper tubing around the central pipe and circulating the water through a hot water tank.

Yes, the heat generated by the electrolyzer could certainly be utilized to boost circulating air or water temperature. I too thought of that but forgot to mention it in my post.

Rick

Exactly as I assumed from viewing the video. Thanks, Jetijs.

Did you by any chance try this method out?

Rick

Not necessarily a scam. I know that I have read comments on my own YouTube videos and then clicked to reply, but clicked the Remove link by error. It's better to post a channel comment if you want an answer, and to never sound confrontational. From watching a video of the prototype unit YouTube - hhohhu fox12 it looks like it could work quite nicely. It's quite simple, really. The heat exchanger is basically just a circular bundle of perhaps 24 pieces of copper pipe that appears to be 3/8 to 1/2 inch inside diameter, and about 8 to 10 inches in length. There is also a larger diameter pipe, perhaps 5/8 to 3/4 inch inside diameter, inserted in the bundle directly above the central section of pipe, and this appears to be connected with a forced air duct from a fan that continuously expels the heated air out an opening in the case. The flame nozzle of the HHO output is directed, in a narrow flame, through the center of the central pipe section. Since all the pipe sections are bound together tightly, each acts as a heat sink for adjacent pipe sections. Maintaining a steady flow of air into and out of the enclosure case, using two or three computer fans, helps draw off and dissipate the heat from the bundle and circulate it in a room. You could construct a small heater using a discarded desktop computer case, which already comes with a power supply and a fan or two. An HHO unit, such as a SMACK BOOSTER, could be used for a test, with the output fed through a one way check valve, water bubbler, and a flashback arrestor, before exiting through the flame nozzle. Jetijs showed a suitable type of nozzle for a long, thin flame, in this post: http://www.energeticforum.com/16396-post27.html
Of course you would want to use a safety cutoff device that would shut down the HHO cell if the nozzle flame stopped. A conventional oil burner uses a small photocell to detect a flame (or absence of it), and would probably work fine. To ignite the HHO, perhaps a igniter for a propane gas fired barbecue would do the trick nicely. Others may have ideas on what would tend to work well for low assembly cost, so feel free to share those ideas.

I see it has been about ten months since the last post in this thread, so was wondering if any of you had done anything with this, and what your results were. I believe the plans for the prototype unit (as shown in the above linked YouTube video) are now selling for about $40, but for anyone who already has built a HHO system for automotive or HHO torch use I don't see why the plans would be needed. The HHOHHU company has a new unit (Genesis 1) which operates on 300 watts and is said to efficiently heat a 1500 square foot area. The output is said to be 130 cfm at a temperature of 125 degrees. The original prototype unit is probably not that efficient, but should still be capable of putting out some serious heat, and the cost could be relatively low. For example, a unit consuming 300 watts and running 24/7 would use 216 kilowatt hours per month. Where I live (Maine) the cost would be about $32 per month. Even if it only adequately heated the downstairs area of my 1200 square foot 2 story home, it would save me about $200 per winter month on the current cost of heating oil ($2.32 per gallon). If anyone else has done any experimenting with this method I would like to hear about the results. If not, then I may yank the SMACK BOOSTER and bubbler from my truck, build a heat exchanger bundle, and try a test. I did some torch experiments last summer along the lines of what Jetijs did with melting rocks, etc, and was quite impressed with the ability of the HHO to produce so much heat so quickly. An oxyhydrogen flame can burn at temperatures between 2,000 and 2,800 degrees, so if you can heat the copper pipe bundle without melting any of the pipes then it is easy to see how well this could work.

Rick

Reply to Sucahyo:

This is very interesting, Sucahyo, and perhaps this is the same mysterious force that has been known to cause spontaneous human combustion. From what I understand, 65 to 70% of the human body is composed of water, and you wouldn't expect that it could combust due to an internal source unless the water is somehow converted to a combustible liquid. The shaman must understand how to control this force and focus it externally. Very interesting. Do you know if any video of this has been posted on YouTube?

Best regards,

Rick

Best wishes to all from the man in Maine


West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, Maine. Eastern most point in the USA