A solar and wind powered generator that uses the waste energy of the wind created by the buses passing by to generate electricity.
This Is Actually Pretty Ingenious
Bustednuckles
Documenting The Death Of America
A solar and wind powered generator that uses the waste energy of the wind created by the buses passing by to generate electricity.
Meh.
Wind is horribly inefficient for producing electricity.
Probably enough to be a cell phone charging station.
LikeLike
Still, it is something from otherwise wasted energy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It probably runs an electric light on a sign.
LikeLike
Why aren’t you out in your shop with the new toys??
LikeLike
Gotta go to work in a little while.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ahhhh, but what is the cost ?
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is a good question but it begs another one. What is the lifespan compared to the original cost. Will it pay for its self?
If there is a net gain overall then it is worth it. If not then it is just another Green Wienie Feel Good project.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s ingenious until some ass wack bus driver or cage driver smacks into it and destroys it… what ya gonna do?
LikeLike
“what ya gonna do?”
Have taxpayers replace it.
LikeLike
Knowing some eco-engineers, the solar array powers the oversized fan.
LikeLike
Been testing for over 2 years now, and it also acts as a weather monitoring/earthquake sensing station. There is a similar project happening in Scotland. My guess is it while it will work as an experiment it won’t pay for itself in any residential use.
LikeLike
If I was a young dude and buying a house for a long haul, I’d do the Tesla solar shingles (look good) and whole house battery. In any case I couldn’t care less about clean energy. And if anyone else cared they’d be building thorium molten salt reactors. 100% safe and they’ll even eat the waste of conventional reactors and many times more thorium in the ground than uranium anyway. The whole energy thing is a hand job until it becomes n economical advantage.
LikeLike
From the moment Jimma Carter fell for the green lie, these “energy
alternatives” were so larded with federal and state subsidies that they cost
more and produce less than conventional coal and natural gas plants. The
amount of energy necessary to produce 1 horsepower is a cunt hair below
746 Watts continuous Motors and engines all follow the same energy output
rules. Just to fuck with America, the Euroweenies measure output in
KWH.
Everything about the green lie is bullshit! Rather than building new generating
capacity, Marxifornia started paying power hogs like papermills a shit ton of
money to shut their plants during peak Summer periods. They even worked
with power companies to bribe papermills and other large companies into
accepting “free” CFL fixtures that they passed on to the taxpayers CFL
replacements for fluorescent tube fixtures didn’t save shit!
After getting about 1/4 million dollars of free shit at taxpayer expense, I
did the math, and only the VHO (Very High Output) eight foot fixtures
uses more current than the CFLs and it was a very minor diference.
All the rest used more than the old fixtures. The only savings came from
motion sensors and photocells. In other words it was as black as a
coal miners asshole at night unless someone drove a forklift or walked
through an area. Areas under skylights used the photocells.
They do not put out as much light per watt, the color is not as good and
we electricians had to replace the tubes more often and the sensors adding
to maintenance costs!
PS when will the gear-heads stop calling automobile engins motors?
PPS This “bus powered” system could not provide lighting for a small
mountain cabin!
LikeLike
Only us geeks know how to analyze on a cost/benefit basis, and CFLs failed miserably. However, it DID bring LED lamps on to the market, and I just LOVE ’em!
ICE vs. Electric-powered cars. Hmmm. Gonzaga University did a cost/benefit ratio for the Commuter car that we are building here in Spokane (www.commutercars.com) and found that an electric commuter car was a beneficial idea – i.e., it was actually worth it! They looked at Operating Costs, Production costs, and Maintenance and Fuel costs – the whole schmeer. And the way it’s built conforms to NHTSA crash tests, so the bloody thing’s safe. Now, if we can get the per-unit cost down to $20K/car (which would be accomplished by mass production) You’d see these little buggers everywhere within a short time!
LikeLike
I’ve been down with an electric care for years now – for commuting. But still too expensive as you say.
LikeLike
The problem is and always has been limited range and the time
it takes to recharge the batteries. Despite marginal increases
in battery power density, the 1905 Robers Electric Car had the
same 40 mile range as a Chevy Volt. For short distance commutes,
I agree with you but if you drive 30 miles to work, the company that
you work for accepts taxpayer funded chargers to make up the
difference you are shit out of luck!
Elon Musk is the modern version of Elmer Gantry or the Music
Man, meaning he is a world class con artist. He made outrageous
milage claims for his “pure EV.” A Ford Model T nearly beat a high
end Tesla in a race beteen Michigan and Taxatwoshits. The Model
T suffered a breakdown that took two hours to repair. Even a
Tesla electrial engineer said the Tesla would lose the race.
If you ever worked for a company using electric forklifts, you
will know they have modular battery packs. Elon “Elmer Gantry”
produced a video in which one his best models was driven
behind a curtain and had the battery array changed out in
10 minutes. That model took 2 mechanics 12 hours to
complete because that model did not have a modular
battery pack. Why did he do it? The higest teir of
federal and state subsides went to vehicles with modular
battery packs that can be swappe out within minutes.
The same can be said for his solar PV business.
Elon Musk is the modern H Ross Perot. He makes more
money on government subsidies than on sales of his EVs.
Now consider the nationwiled infrastructure and how much
that will make him. Another thing to think about, Dr Dixie
Lee Ray (former head of the AEC) and one of most
brilliant women in American history. In her book, Trashing
The Planet, she wrote about “renewable energy” an
oxymoron.
To sum it up, the wind does not always blow and the sun
does not always shine. They both suffer from the same
25 percent efficiency as an internal combustion engine.
She also stated that in order to produce enough electricity
to power New York City using Solar thermal or PV arrays,
it would require more area than the city itself.
Without subsidies this scam cannot exist. All it does is
increase the burden on the American taxpayers. The
solution is to allow private energy companies to build more
generating capacity, One cannot power an industrial
economy with increasing populations by conservation.
That is, unless the end game is to send us back to the
stone age or take us to the closing pages of Atlas Shrugged.
LikeLike
Is there some law that says economical vehicles have to look like they were designed by Kindergartners? Seriously, that commutercar looks absurd. Make it look like a Carver three-wheeler (http://www.cvr-oc.info/About-Carvers/) and it would fly out of the lot.
LikeLike
As with all Solar and Wing powered electric generating schemes, the operative question is, Will it ever produce enough BTUs to replace the BTUs that were expended in manufacturing the device? This BTU count has to include all related infastructure. Such as foundations and transportation to the site.
LikeLike
Cogeneration was the greatest contibutions of the 20th century.
Oil refineries, chemical plants, papermills, and even hospitals
were using it . The concept is great in theory and it was working
in the state of Marxifornia for while. If you need heat or steam in
your process, you could sell the electricity to the grid. Some
assholes in the legislature added some fine print that capped
the residential and commercial price. Due to a sharp increase
in natural gas prices that would have been over in a week or
two, causing the small operations to shutdown for “maintenance”
issues.
Supermarkets make a few pennies on a can of vegitables. What
if the government tells you have to sell that product and take a
10 or 20 percent loss? It is the same with the energy companies.
I worked for two papermills and did dozens of jobs in the industry
as a Millwright. If an oil refinery or a papermill uses one Watt
of energy to power or one gallon of gas or deisel to power
their own equipment, they run afaoul of the Grim tax Reaper.
They have to buy electricity from the grid and purchase fuels
from a third party so the federal and state governments get
their tax vig! The Democrat party is not not stupid. They
give a pass on the big corporations because they pass
the taxes onto their customers. The small and intependent
operators get boned in the ass and eventually declare bankruptcy!
LikeLike
I suspect that contraption required more Ergs of energy went into manufacturing and installing that gizmo than it will produce before it falls apart.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The same can pretty much can be said of those giant three-bladed bird killers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I guess they could try installing one in the halls of Congress. God knows the wind does blow there pretty fierce
LikeLike
Yo Phil,
JK of AR here.
As I recall you had something up awhile back about a generator from Harbor Freight that was “pretty good, never failed.”
Friend of mine visiting is wanting my unboxed Generac but I’m thinking yours maybe the better option (plus I don’t have to do credit if you know what I mean about Arkies) anyway What’s the one you said was “pretty good & dependable” not so long ago?
Harbor Freight as I do recall.
LikeLike
The one I had looked pretty much like this one,
https://www.harborfreight.com/4375-watt-max-starting-extra-long-life-gas-powered-generator-epa-iii-63962.html
I wound up giving it to my brother. The big difference between that one and the one I had is the electric start option. The one there doesn’t look to have that and there is a huge jump in price to get that option. From $350 for a decent generator with a pull start to $700 for a real good unit with both pull and electric start.
Depending on what your buddies needs are you can get the little jobbies you can carry around for just running some lights or a full blown unit that will run an entire house.
Harbor Freight has a pretty wide range of generators these days and pretty much all of them are trouble free as long as you maintain them.
Hope this helps and it’s good to hear from you again.
LikeLike