Simple energy producing idea.

[MickG]

Stumbled across this interesting concept (http://www.swellfuel.com/) for producing energy using the oceans natural motion. I have seen something similar before including one that sits under tidal canal jetties and relies on water movement to turn blades. Both can only produce small amounts of energy however, with some refinement, are clearly scalable and IMO, the more investment in this type of energy production, even as products designed specifically for the individual house or end user, is a step in the right direction.

www.swellfuel.com (http://www.swellfuel.com)

[JDNSW]

Various schemes to use wave energy have been proposed or actually tried over at least the last fifty years. Where they have all failed so far (and maybe this will be the successful one?) is that to make the design long lasting and storm resistant in the marine environment, the cost per kilowatt gets ridiculously high.

The basic problem is that occasional storms produce forces many times higher than the forces that the system has to use in normal conditions, plus the marine environment is very corrosive, and with high UV levels.

John

[landyfromanuthaland]

My wife often says if I was to stick a hose in my bum and the other end in the engine I could run the car forever and not spend a cent on fuel, think shes trying to say I fart too much, typical women have no respect for a fine fart

[MickG]

Various schemes to use wave energy have been proposed or actually tried over at least the last fifty years. Where they have all failed so far (and maybe this will be the successful one?) is that to make the design long lasting and storm resistant in the marine environment, the cost per kilowatt gets ridiculously high.

The basic problem is that occasional storms produce forces many times higher than the forces that the system has to use in normal conditions, plus the marine environment is very corrosive, and with high UV levels.

John

I do not profess to have any knowledge on this subject at all, but it is a subject that interests me greatly. Mainly due to running and maintaining a family home in Australia and constantly wondering if there might eventually be simple systems available to the general public like me, that would allow home owners to generate their own power etc. The shortcomings of all these recent designs and products seems to have focused mainly on the fact that they would not commercially work on a large scale or provide enough power for a village or city for example. Perhaps there is a market however for simply produced consumer type products that put the consumer more in control of how much energy they use or how it is produced. Would also generate another industry (or at least a diversified one) which by default would provide the consumer with choice and force new development and refinement through competition.

Although guilty of it myself, it is all too convenient to just plug in all the gear we have at home and work into the main grid and use away. I always baulk at my electric bill every quarter and say to myself, surely with all the sun, wind, sea etc etc in Australia, I as a home owner can take advantage of these natural resources for my house by somehow using simple devices attached to my home to generate what I need and conserve what I need.

Anyway, perhaps touches on some other rather more complex issues but like I said, i would be very willing to purchase certain power producing products for my home were they effective and cost effective enough. Perhaps i'm just a pessimist, (read: bloke trying to provide for his family) but I hate paying my power bill knowing that with a little bit of thought and commitment, we could find alternative ways......after all they can put a man on the moon so simply manufactured devices to produce, conserve, harness power, are surely not beyond the realms of possibility?

Aye, Mick

[Frenchie]

i would be very willing to purchase certain power producing products for my home were they effective and cost effective enough. Perhaps i'm just a pessimist, (read: bloke trying to provide for his family) but I hate paying my power bill knowing that with a little bit of thought and commitment, we could find alternative ways......after all they can put a man on the moon so simply manufactured devices to produce, conserve, harness power, are surely not beyond the realms of possibility?

Aye, Mick

While in Canada I saw an article on a small scale portable hydro-electric generator that people could use to provide power for their bush shack.

Can't remember any details though.

[Blknight.aus]

I saw a prototype of one that was basically a hydraulic snake in reverse...

the concept as I understood it was the head was anchored and then the snake wiggled in the waves... heres how it was supposed to make energy. if you look at a 3 ram swashplate (like they use in filight simulators) each segment of the snake was connected to the next with those type of swashplates so that as the snakes segments moved in relation to each other the Rams were forced to extend and retract this produced hydraulic pressure which drove a pump driving an electric motor then the hydraulic fluid was returned to the rams via a system of valves and checks.


Looked good as a scale model.

[spudboy]

I thought this was brilliant:

http://www.ceto.com.au/home.php

Check out the animation.

Power + when you don't need the power it makes water by reverse osmosis.

And, there is a demo site up and running in Perth.

How come our politicians aren't building this type of plant instead of desalinators which use huge amounts of electricity to run them?

[JohnE]

Stumbled across this interesting concept (http://www.swellfuel.com/) for producing energy using the oceans natural motion. I have seen something similar before including one that sits under tidal canal jetties and relies on water movement to turn blades. Both can only produce small amounts of energy however, with some refinement, are clearly scalable and IMO, the more investment in this type of energy production, even as products designed specifically for the individual house or end user, is a step in the right direction.

www.swellfuel.com (http://www.swellfuel.com)



good one. it must not have been reported in qld, that concept has ben around for years, can't remember where the info is on the place that tried it. The only probelm was the days of no swell. But the working model needed very little wave movement.


john

[Bigbjorn]

Over the last twenty or so years I know or have met people who have moved onto acreage blocks in the country, some not that very far from Brisbane or major towns. In all cases they were quoted staggering sums by the electricity authority to have power connected. Some just paid up and never stopped complainig about the amount. Others found that a solar system with deep cycle batteries, inverter, and a back-up generator was cheaper than getting the mains power connected.

[dobbo]

Over the last twenty or so years I know or have met people who have moved onto acreage blocks in the country, some not that very far from Brisbane or major towns. In all cases they were quoted staggering sums by the electricity authority to have power connected. Some just paid up and never stopped complainig about the amount. Others found that a solar system with deep cycle batteries, inverter, and a back-up generator was cheaper than getting the mains power connected.

It's only cheaper if all components of your SAPS last after their warrantee period (lets face it not many do nowadays) then you have to into consideration the costing of low voltage wiring and appliances, replacement photovoltiac panels after they have extinguished their productive life 25yrs max, batteries only last a few years, the upkeep of such a system (including the man hours) then the backup system of a wind turbine as a minimum or a recomended wind turbine and generator.

Then the change of lifestyle costs as well

None of the following:

A/C
Halogen lights
Computers therefore Internet and AULRO
Microwaves
Plasma televisions
Electric heaters

etc.........


In our case the costs definately outweigh the costs of connection

When we looked 7yrs ago it would cost $34000 to connect to the land we were looking at. It would have cost $37000 to initially establish our own SAPS.

[Bigbjorn]

[QUOTE=dobbo;613592
Then the change of lifestyle costs as well

None of the following:

A/C
Halogen lights
Computers therefore Internet and AULRO
Microwaves
Plasma televisions
Electric heaters

etc.........

[/QUOTE]

Well, the only one of those items I have in my Brisbane inner suburban home is a computer. If I was establishing a country estate as a holiday home or weekender, I would just have generator for refrigerator and freezer. The people I mentioned wanted to use the properties for longer periods and thus wanted a few home comforts but being quoted $15000 over twenty years ago, in one case, to run powerlines 300 metres up a side road from the existing supply was considered a damn rip-off. Others had been quoted prices in excess of the amount they paid for the land and that a substantial annual minimum charge would apply. One of my rellies was farming 1000 acres on the inner Darling Downs from 1977-93. The power lines went down the main road on their side boundary. The price to get the supply up the side road to the house was considered so ridiculous that they just kept using the generator at night and gas refrigerators. However he found substantial supplies of underground water and planned to start irrigated cropping. The electricity authority then ran the power in at no charge but stipulated an annual minimum billing of $12000 in 1981. He was using far more than this with his 100hp pumps driving travelling irrigators. Made enough money from irrigation farming to retire to the Gold Coast in 1993 aged 51.

[JDNSW]

While in Canada I saw an article on a small scale portable hydro-electric generator that people could use to provide power for their bush shack.

Can't remember any details though.

Problem in Australia is that there are very few places with the water and the fall for it to work, but where it is available, micro hydro is definitely the way to go. One major advantage is that in a lot of cases you do not need a battery or inverter - you use the water as your storage. This means that the whole setup can be quite cheap for the amount of power, except for the civil engineering, which may not be a lot in the best cases.

John

[JDNSW]

........

None of the following:

A/C
Halogen lights
Computers therefore Internet and AULRO
Microwaves
Plasma televisions
Electric heaters

etc.........


.........

Computers need not use a significant amount of power - the simplest is to use a laptop, which are all pretty low power users, but a desktop is not too bad even unless it runs a big screen, a top end processor or a top end graphics card. And you can get desktop computers with processors designed for portables that use little more power than do the laptops.

Although a microwave uses a lot of power, if you use it only for defrosting, reheating etc, it can be used provided your supply will handle the peak power needed, since it is only used for a few minutes at a time.

John