With the cost of electrical power expected to triple in the next few years I've been scouring the net for ways to turn my entire property into a passive electrical generation plant.

Honestly, we just got dinged with a $5000.00 bill for two months in our off season! Three times that? Well we're pretty much fucked aren't we?
"They" are going to bleed every business dry while passing legislation making it illegal to use other forms of power and expropriate everybodies shit.
There's already talk of making gas stoves illegal. What's next?
Your wood stove perhaps?

Well... "they" can kiss my ass.
So I need to act fast and so, soon every;

-South facing roof will be solar panel shingled.
-All flat top roofs will become vertical turbine wind farms.
-Sand batteries buried in the dirt beneath crawlspaces will contain excess power in the form of heat to trickle upwards keeping my thermostats from turning on the electric baseboard heaters this entire place is heated by.
-Excess stored heat will be used to thermosyphon water to elevated tanks in the form of steam and the descent of this water will power the resistance heating elements in the sand around which those water coils are wound creating a feedback loop, or the heat will be used to directly power Peltier devices to extract electrical power on demand as needed.
-Methane gas digesters will be retrofit for each septic tank.
-Heat exchangers in the sani-dump holding tank.
-The collapse of recent structures have left me holding several hundreds of pounds of dissimilar metals, (like an idiot I just took over three hundred pounds of copper to the recyclers instead of storing it, luckily that was only roughly half), with which to create Earth batteries to power heating elements in sand batteries to passively heat cabins and out-buildings.
...and a whole bunch of other stuff I am not recalling at the moment.

aaanyway...

The point is to have lots and lots of little generators all adding up to one large amount of power turning my electrical meters backwards.

I once posted an idea about using wind to vibrate conductive wires between magnetic cradles to create a sailboat where the wind powers an electric outboard motor.
Well this vibration energy generation thingy has been made on a DIY scale, [link 2], (love this guys channel), and I think I may have figured out how to amplify it considerably.

I should briefly describe the DIY concept in the video:

A hollow pvc tube has within it a stretched spring running up its length. The spring is made from twisting a length of weed-whacker filament under tension until it super-coils and acts as an artificial muscle.
There is a hole near the base to allow air flow but the entire tube will vibrate from ambient sound as well.
At the base of the tube magnets are held in a rubber diaphragm and any movement of the artificial muscle vibrates them within a copper coil producing a very tiny amount of power but works even when the wind isn't blowing.

[The Actual Idea] which I intend to try on a small scale.

To create a Tensegrity structure [link 1] comprised of these smaller vibration tubes, but...

A copper wire will be twisted so as to become a super-coil within the artificial muscle.
The outside of each tube will be wound with copper wire.
Connections between individual Tensegrity segments will also contain vibration generators and the tension cables themselves will also be wound with copper.

Any vibration of the structure at any point whatsoever would affect every other point on the structure.
These vibrations create a small current of electricity.
Any current passed through copper windings amplifies a magnetic field.
This field affects every other winding in proximity thereby affecting the entire structure causing EMF amplification in cables and tubes of varying windings producing a vibration feedback loop amping wind and ambient sound into something which may be able to produce a substantial amount of electricity if built to the size of a Tensegrity structure of the one in [link 3].

Any feedback will be not only greatly appreciated but will probably see practical application.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 29 2023

Tensegrity https://www.google....033,vid:ROnxjj5jPDs
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 29 2023]

Windless turbine https://www.youtube...watch?v=7HzZ6lRacFI
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 29 2023]

Needle Tower https://www.google....52&bih=554&dpr=1.67
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 29 2023]

Arches https://www.google....XotaW1n&sclient=img
Some cool ways to use tensegrity to make open structures [neutrinos_shadow, Jan 30 2023]

Thanks for the link [a1]. You're right, that is far more informative, but since I'm starting from scratch and just learned of this yesterday, that first video helped me to actually understand far more than reading all human knowledge collected to date on one page would have.

Does that make any sense? Too much info without the background to understand it is just plain intimidating.

What do you think about the idea as posted?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 29 2023


hmmmm

A tree shape will be better than a tower
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 29 2023


OOH! How much power would they generate on floating rafts?

Okay, sorry. I should have let this one percolate a bit more before posting it.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 29 2023


//$5,000 bill//
How the hell do they justify that kind of charge?! And it's the same kind of ridiculous in old England. Is there no oversight or anything?
-- neutrinos_shadow, Jan 30 2023


//$5,000 bill// ////How the hell do they justify that kind of charge?!////

The property is commercial. 22 of 30 motel rooms up and renting with 8 more to go which still need to be heated.
What I don't have electrified yet is a laundromat, three office spaces, a pub, a restaurant, a 50 site RV park, public bath and shower facilities, a swimming pool, signage, and another five acres or so I intend to develop.

That power bill will be laughable in the next few years.
They are going to rape me dead if I can't make my own juice.
So that's what I'm going to do.

Something I left off that list of electrical generation schemes above is that I intend to utilize the fire hydrant pressure from un-used and un-metered 850 gallons of water a day I'm being charged for to fill trout ponds and power Pelton generators in series to turn my meter back to zero with that one incoming power source alone.

It's going to be fun.

'They' want to destroy me with their power bill?
Well then I will make them pay me more, at wholesale prices, than they otherwise would have billed me.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 30 2023


I have an electric baseboard heater in one room of what was once my home and is now a rental. I NEVER turned it on because it doubled my electric bill. Seriously, don't run electric baseboards to heat.

Flowing heated water through pex tubes in the flooring or wherever handy is the way to go.

Vibration power seems interesting. Haven't read about it but the rectification of what would seem to be a random voltage and frequency may be a little messy, even with the narrowing band of a resonance frequency? Maybe I'm wrong and there's an easy way to do all that. I'm not an electrical engineer.
-- RayfordSteele, Jan 30 2023


//Seriously, don't run electric baseboards to heat.//

We bought this property for the cost of the land alone as it had been left abandoned for three years prior to purchase because part of it torched and it was to be levelled.
I'm working here on a shoe-string-budget and whatever money the property makes feeds its reanimation.

I'm stuck with what's here for now. Any future construction will be different.

//the rectification of what would seem to be a random voltage and frequency may be a little messy, even with the narrowing band of a resonance frequency? Maybe I'm wrong and there's an easy way to do all that. I'm not an electrical engineer.//

Me neither. Just jumping in with both feet again and learning on the fly.
I now plan to build the first prototype of this as a tensegrity arch.
If the randomly fluctuating currents all do nothing other than create random electromagnetic interactions on their way to heating resistance coils in a bed of sand beneath the arch itself, then the rising heat will cause turbulence resulting in even more wiggle and the whole thing should just amplify until I either figure out how to extract enough energy to compensate for the amplification... or I decide to see it vibrate to pieces.

Which I might.
<shrugs>
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 30 2023


Invite people to come watch the spectacle, charge them an admission fee while offering a nominal discount if they stay in your motel. After the thing vibrates itself to pieces sell off Historic Event Memorabilia - souvenir bits of the wreckage (which could in fact be useless excess wreckage from the fallen Zombie Mall - they won't know the difference!)

Extra bonus revenue - if you can get the kitchen in your Food Bus up and running you'd be able to feed the crowd as well. How many loaves of sourdough bread can Christina make?
-- Canuck, Feb 01 2023


Oh dude.

It has evolved in my head So much farther than when I posted this that the whole thing is obsolete already.

I now know how to use this place to power a 'LOT' more than just this place...

...and I'll show you all, because if I just spew it I'll probably get shot before I can complete it. ... which is why I'm just going to bloody do it and then ask for forgiveness later instead of just beaking about it here, because then it will be too late to not disseminate.

I've figured out, not only how to light up this one property, but this entire town... and maybe even other regions as well... passively from here.

Then I can teach anyone else who cares to learn about how I did it, to do it themselves if and when they show up.

...and maybe even not get shot for doing so.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 02 2023


This whole energy crisis bullshit we're being handed is a scam, and I can prove it.
I've finally put down roots, and the seed gets planted here.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 02 2023


Her bus stop is going to be so cool. We actually fired that 64 year old engine up. I shit you not. Tore apart every piece of the kitchen. The only thing not functioningis the convection oven because of a split in the pilot light line. easy fix. Should have it up and running by spring.

Seriously, you guys should probably get your tickets to see this place now while they are still cheap... you should know though that the whole time you are here, I've figured out how to turn your mass, your heat and then your absence... into electrical generation with almost zero losses.

I have in fact figured out how to make so much green power that I intend to create an artificial hot-springs so that there is a portion of this property where snow never sticks to the ground with the excess energy.
I am contemplating creating a labyrinth pathway of heated corridors, the walls of which would become taller, more solidified and more icy with each snowfall for our winter-fest.
Heated snow and ice free BMX runs just a few feet from inner-tube snow runs heading to the faux heated beach, sweat-lodge and hot-springs.

...just because I can.

Anybody else on this planet able to plan a negative commercial carbon footprint while also collecting a cheque from the utility company for excess electrical production?

<drops mike>
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 02 2023


//real carbon footprint and get a rebate check from the power company.//

Sure. That last bit might be a bit problematic though.
I've decided that I would rather only turn my electrical meters to zero and keep any excess energy.
The back of this property almost touches the only electrical sub-station for the area and my transmission lines will only need to run a few hundred feet to provide it more juice than it's getting now with very little loss... which I've also figured out how to passively recoup.

Honestly, I've figured out how to get folks to pay me to let me use them as my entirely green power source.
Why on Earth would I want to get cents on the dollar for my electricity when this place can just become the power company for the entire region?

.. and then not up people's bills by 300% in the next few years.
I'm not greedy, I'm just going to teach them to get their hands out of my pockets and that they shouldn't oughta have pissed me off using their energy crisis con job to stuff them deeper in the first place.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 02 2023


Oh not all of the energy will be produced greenly. I see no reason to waste the energy which others are going to pay me to create and then throw away. I would be a fool not to add all I can to the amount of power I can generate.
I will however be able to show you how it could be done without any of those non-green extra sources.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 02 2023


That's why it's just on an annotation to another idea rather than a posting in and of itself.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 02 2023


If I spew my guts here I have a feeling that legislation would be put in place to stop me from pulling it off.
"They" don't really want somebody to figure out a cheap efficient electrical generator which can also store, oh I'd guess something like 97% or more of the unused energy to be extracted at will.

... and it's simple.

If they don't deter me from doing this then the design will be incorporated into most future construction projects.
...and y'know, if what "They" say about needing to solve an energy crisis is true.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 03 2023


I have no intention of hiding anything if it's successful. I just worry that I'll be stopped before then.

Have you been reading anything I've written?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 03 2023


Then you know that I want the information disseminated far and wide.

So I guess we'll see if I get shut down or not... because I am seriously looking forward to this.
If it works here I will pitch it to a place called Lasqueti island just off of Vancouver the residents of which have voted unanimously to keep the entire island off the grid.

It's going to be so much fun.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 03 2023


I also need to let this percolate a bit more. Many of the tweaks I am contemplating today may be as obsolete day after tomorrow as this tensegrity posting from a week ago is for me today.

Patience grasshopper.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 03 2023


hehehe
Oh this is gonna be goooood!

I'm not even worried about disclosure anymore so it will get its own posting.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 06 2023


Out of interest, if you've got a fair bit of land why are you not considering ground source heat pumps?
-- hippo, Feb 06 2023


//why are you not considering ground source heat pumps//

The land was abandoned. We are bringing this place back to life and all of its systems are already in place. This property funds its own restoration. It is a massive gamble and we could lose it all in a heartbeat if I can't resurrect it faster than its bills pile up.

I will change to new systems in the future but for now I'm stuck with whatever they built here in 1984.

yay...
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 06 2023



random, halfbakery