[mdlug] Router - now power.

[Peter Bart]

On Fri, 6 Nov 2009 08:24:44 -0500
"Robert Adkins" <radkins at impelind.com> wrote:

> > 
> > You could do what they do in the electrical engineering 
> > building at Purdue... the incoming AC drives a 3-phase 
> > electric motor, which drives an AC generator....with a very 
> > large flywheel in the mix.
> > 
> > These keeps the high voltage lab (10,000 V) from getting 
> > spikes which would easily go over 1 MV due to the transformer 
> > step-ups.
> > 
> > With good bearings, this is quiet enough that I never 
> > suspected such a thing until I actually saw it in the basement.
> > 
> > The only thing needed are some big knife-switches on the 
> > house (load) [side that are kept in place by presence of 
> > current], so that if the power goes out, you can spin up the 
> > flywheel before the generator (and hence the
> > motor) sees the load from the refrigerator and other heavy motors.
> > 
> > Might not be cheap initially, but the output is perfectly 
> > sinusoidal, and the equipment lifetime is measured in decades 
> > or longer -- especially if you use brushless motors and 
> > generators (i.e. magnets are in the rotors, not the housing
> > [stator]).
> > 
> 
> 	Sounds like quite a project. Interesting, but I don't know if
> that is something that I would really need for a home that is
> slightly over 1400 square feet.

	How about using that windmill to turn a flywheel to store the
	energy?

> 
> > > actually blows through my neighborhood, I'm considering
> > > installing some of those micro wind turbines that are made out in
> > > the 
> > Grand Rapids area.
> > > 
> > 
> > Good luck on recouping your cost on that.
> > 
> > The European experience with wind generation of electricity 
> > is that material and maintenance costs exceeded the 
> > electricity produced.
> > 
> 
> 	If that's really the case, then why is anyone bothering to
> produce any wind power generating equipment.
> 
> 	There's plenty of different methods for generating wind power
> and one of the prevailing setups has been utilizing a shedload of
> precision gears and drive shafts to transfer the wind down to the
> ground level generator. Which, as I understand it, causes a
> significant loss of potential energy generation.
> 
> 	Some newer thoughts on ths matter is to eliminate all the
> gears and shafts and have the turbine blades directly spin the
> generator. As I recall, the energy difference is very significant,
> the only issue with that design is that any maintenance would need to
> be done at the top of the tower. That sort of maintenance could
> likely be alleviated with better construction and perhaps some
> automated low power monitoring and simple self-lubricating systems.

	How about using a cv transmission to couple to rotor to the
	generator? That would keep the rotor rpm's low while keeping
	the generator rpm's up. Then a motor on the ground to keep the
	flywheel turning. I wonder if that could be run in reverse when
	there's no wind to harvest the flywheel energy, or would we
	have to add another generator coupled to the flywheel for that.
	Hmmmmm, getting expensive.

> 
> 	There's other designs that look like pieces of art and are
> able to generate power via even the lightest of breezes. They are
> virtical "fans" that spin around a shaft and are able to generate
> electricity regardless of the direction that they spin.
> 
> 	Nifty stuff is out there and while some/much of it is still
> rather expensive, economy of scale is more than willing to bring
> those costs down.
> 
> 	-Rob
> 
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-- 
Best Regards,

Peter The Plumber 
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