Inter-tied Power System

[Poimen]

why is your bill almost $400 a month?

Total electric, older home in need of more updates and improvements than we feel it's worth. We'd rather buy something else or build new down the road.

Besides this summer killed us heat wise in central AL. There was a point where my ac unit ran non stop for around a week or more.

Then in winter our heat comes from heat strips. They consume power.

Not to mention the unit, like the dwelling, is old.

[MacUser]

Unless you are a mechanical genius...

Starting a grass roots letter campaign to your representatives that request independent contractors/ coal & oil companies to drill in Alaska and Yellowstone with deferred taxes for 10 years is a better chance of lowering your energy cost.

[Mister Ed]

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Aternaters produce Alternating current (AC). That is why they are called 'alternators'. The voltage regulators in autos change the AC to DC and regulates the amount of voltage. The generators in the older cars produced DC current.

The gasoline powered generators you can buy now are actually alternators. They can produce more electricity in a smaller package than the older "generators', but run at higher speeds.

I won't get in on your discussion in building your system but I have a son (electrically minded) who has been trying for years to figure out a way to build a system that you describe. I have heard it from every angle immaginable as he always describes every idea he comes up with to me in the smallest detail. I keep telling him I hope he finds one that will work.

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[oletimer]

Poimen;

You can't combine your power with a nother source. It will go boom, unless they are both tuned to the right freqency and it takes precision equipment for that. Plus if you don't use a transfer switch and a line goes down and they go to work it, someone will be electrocuted Because of back feed.

What ever you do it will need to be able to carry you house and from what I have read, it will need to be in the range of 200 AMPS. Some cities will cut you lose if with out transfer switch. There are a lot of cons in what you are wanting to do. Want tell you can't do it because I been told that after I got something done.

[Mister Ed]

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If water pressure can be increased using it's own source of power, maybe there IS a way to do the same with elecricity.

I read years ago in a popular mechanics magazine of plans to build a ram pump that would pump water up-hill using it's own power. I located one on the internet:

http://hi-ram.com/

Uses no external source of power.

If water from a stream or spring goes into the pump from a height of 2METERS above the pump, some of the inlet water can be pumped to a height of 50 METERS while the remainder continues downhill.

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[TW]

_________________

If water pressure can be increased using it's own source of power, maybe there IS a way to do the same with elecricity.

I read years ago in a popular mechanics magazine of plans to build a ram pump that would pump water up-hill using it's own power. I located one on the internet:

http://hi-ram.com/

Uses no external source of power.

If water from a stream or spring goes into the pump from a height of 2METERS above the pump, some of the inlet water can be pumped to a height of 50 METERS while the remainder continues downhill.

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The problem here is that he would need for all of the water to be pumped back up hill in order to have a self contained system. Water is heavy, about 11 lbs. per gallon, the energy required to lift it back to the upper reservoir would use all the energy he produced plus some additional external energy. If he has a creek on his land he could build a reservoir with could provide the volume and pressure need to drive a hydro-electric generator. You don't need a lot of vertical height if you have a large enough reservoir to provide pressure. The trick would be in matching the outflow to the inflow. If the outflow exceeds the inflow the reservoir will slowly empty itself, and without the water pressure to drive the generator the system will stop producing electricity. If the outflow is less than the inflow then you would need to provide a spillway to channel off the excess water. I know of several systems where this has been done with good results.

Self-contained systems do not work because there will always be an energy loss somewhere within the system. A better solution is to tap into an energy source that is already occurring; hydro, wind, or solar. The energy is occurring anyway without being tapped, so any that you were able to capture would be all gain.


TW

[Alan]

I understand mechanical loss would play a part. But do you guys really think I would lose more than I would gain from the supplement system?

For instance if I could run three large alternators (with regulators) off a single industrial grade electric engine via a pulley & belt system. Power the electric engine from the standard utility power. Use batteries for storage. I don't understand why I could not generate most of of the amount of power normally used and run it from a second breaker box that taps the home based system. It would seem that my commercial power use would be significantly minimized, thus drastically dropping the billable amount used.

The more you run the more power you're going to need to run it. You can't create more energy than you use during the creation. In other words, if you were using 2kw/hrs a month to power one device, you'd use more than 2kw/hrs a month to power it with this setup. The only way to save money is to harness another power source that you're not paying for (solar, wind, or hydro if there's a river or stream nearby).

If you could create as much or more power, than you were consuming it would be perpetual power which at least for now can't be done.