greenhouse/shed heating for free

heres a new one for you - got a compost heap?
make up a lattice with copper pipe and put it in the centre of your compost heap
pipe it up with a small radiator in your shed or greenhouse fill it with water and antifreeze mix and put in small pump (solar powered is ideal) and hey presto free heating
dont believe me put your hand into your compost heap and feel the heat

the future of the haulage industry

The future of the haulage industry







Wagons use a lot of diesel because they need a lot of power to move heavy loads.


To move them more efficiently they would need more power but that would use more fuel – a problem that.


If you run a unit on its own without its trailer it is very fuel efficient but when it has a loaded trailer on it has to work harder – less fuel efficient.


What if the loaded trailer helped out a bit?


This was the start of my idea.


The roof of a trailer is 45ft by 8ft – what if you covered this with solar panels?


A little bit of research tells me that a 3 inch square panel will put out 1.5volts at 1.2milli amps.


So 12 panels will make up a square foot – 18volts at 1.2milli amps.


45 x 8 = 360sq ft so = 6480volts at 1.2milli amps.


With a bit of wiring in parallel and all that this could be a lower voltage and a lot higher amperage.


Now the clever bit. Run this into a bank of batteries in a cradle under the trailer and this will keep them charged up.


Now to the trailer axles, change these for drive axles and hook up electric motors to them – these need to be about 20 horse power motors possibly more.


Now you need a control system to run it all – this is quite simple really as most wagons run by computers these days.


Basically you need two feeds from the wagon one to say it is accelerating and one to say it is slowing down.


Now when it is accelerating the trailer motors kick in and help out a bit – this will improve acceleration and improve economy.


When it is slowing down the motors switch to generators and put power back into the battery bank – the added resistance of this will help with braking force and cut down on brake wear.


I reckon with a bit of trial and error you could cut the fuel bill by about 25%

wind turbine update

been busy with other stuff as late(surprise,surprise) so progress has been slow

have collected up some of the parts i need to get a start

have got hold of two 24v wheelchair motors and just using a cordless drill have found that i can get a good voltage at fairly low rpm(about13-15v)

also got a six inch end cap from a stainless steam pipe that is nice and round and already drilled in six places - i only need three as i will be only using three blades

i have got some soil pipe and have marked this up ready to cut when my new cutting discs come

i will be using 60cm blades which will give me a diameter of approx 1.4m

i dont know what this will produce - but thats what its all about

have a few ideas on the turntable for the tower which is either a set of cut down push bike forks and yoke(360 degree rotation and built in bearings not to mention a hole in the middle to run the wire through)

the other idea is a heavy duty caster from a trolly - bearings again and hole in the middle for the wire

as you can guess i have decided on the wire running through the tower for now to keep it simple - my logic in this is that it can rotate either way so is just as likely to untangle itself as it is to tangle - we'll see

keep you posted
nick...

win turbine/solar project

starting a new project myself to put some of my own ideas to the test

i am going to build a wind turbine and solar power plant to part power my house

going to take doing this but i reckon it should at least halve my current electricity usage - or i bloody hope so or my theory is cock-eyed again

any advice you may have will be appreciated - it may stop me going down too many dead ends - but it will be fun just the same

i will keep you posted - just dont be in too much of a rush

create home energy
we all know about solar panels and wind turbines - what about a water turbine in your water pipes as the water flows it spins and creates free electric

bio mass plants burn waste to create energy so why not cut back all of the grass etc from road side bankings and central reserve and use this - that way more of of the grass would get cut as it would pay for its self - so winners all round the bankings could be cut for free and plenty of bio mass for the power plants

i see lots of wind turbines stood still on windy days and apparently this is because the grid does not need the energy at that time - this points to an obvious fault in the system - why do we not have large storage facilities for power and then feed it back into the system when needed - if you can do it with batteries at home i am sure the power companies can do it as well if not on a bigger scale of course - that way we could get much more benefit from renewable sources

introduction
this blog is to get random ideas out of my head and out to you do something with
if you use an idea good luck with it but remember where it came from

internal combustion engines ? wasted energy in the radiator - could it not be used to create energy for some other purpose ?

remember the dynamos in the middle of bike wheels why not put these in car wheels could power a battery - in turn this could power a motor attatched to the flywheel to aid power in the engine - to give more power and cut fuel consumption


flexible solar panels on roof could power the same

if you put big dynamos in the wheels and only activate them when braking this would power your battery and the extra energy used by the dynamos would have a braking effect like a retarder and increase the brakes power and reduce brake wear

invisible car ?

yes easy to create - lcd panels on all sides of car wired to digi camera on opposite side would create a picture on the panels of the opposite side - as if the car wasnt there or see through
lots of flaws in this one but the ideas good

ill do more for you later but thats a start to get you thinking

watch this space