Alternate Energy Production Idea

Dr Jekell · Jul 10, 2008

You read about all of the different ways that people are going to use to generate power without relying on fossil fuels (wind, wave/sea, solar, hydrogen etc) & I realised that they left one out.

What if you hooked up an electric motor to a gear system the was connected to a generator (or two) with enough capacity to power the motor & produce a large surplus of power.

Once the system is running there would be no need to continually input power/fuels to keep it running as it is self sustaining.

You would be able to place power plants in places where you normally wouldn't be able to. Plus the businesses in the industrial sector would benefit as they would be able to have their own power plant on the property.

It could also be used in cars as you could have two electric motors driving the front wheels with a generator or two running off the back wheels (haven't worked out how to do 4wd yet) & the need for batteries would be greatly reduced as they would only be needed for starting the car moving & powering the accessories (lights, wipers, AC/heating, radio etc).

And you could also make portable generators from this system as well.

I know that the efficiency of electric motors & generators would need to take a huge leap forward before this becomes a reality.

What do you guys (& Gal's) think?

Marduke · Jul 10, 2008

What you describe is a "perpetual motion" machine, which can never exist. It breaks the laws of thermodynamics. A generator can never produce more energy than what is put into it.

Ninjaz7 · Jul 11, 2008

Your on the right track,I think we all need to give alternate energy a shot and if not suppliment our lives...change our ways and be completely independent with it.

Dr Jekell · Jul 11, 2008

So a electric motor connected to a series of gears to increase the power of the motor to turn a larger generator (or two smaller ones) to provide the power for the motor plus an acceptable surplus amount of power can never exist?

Then how do car motors work?

PhantomPhoton · Jul 11, 2008

Dr Jekell said:
So a electric motor connected to a series of gears to increase the power of the motor to turn a larger generator (or two smaller ones) to provide the power for the motor plus an acceptable surplus amount of power can never exist?

Then how do car motors work?

You input gasoline as a power source. Gears do not increase the total amount of energy in the system. And there will always be losses due to heat.

"In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics"
--Homer Simpson

Led_Blind · Jul 11, 2008

Dr Jekell said:
You read about all of the different ways that people are going to use to generate power without relying on fossil fuels (wind, wave/sea, solar, hydrogen etc) & I realised that they left one out.

What if you hooked up an electric motor to a gear system the was connected to a generator (or two) with enough capacity to power the motor & produce a large surplus of power.

Once the system is running there would be no need to continually input power/fuels to keep it running as it is self sustaining.

You would be able to place power plants in places where you normally wouldn't be able to. Plus the businesses in the industrial sector would benefit as they would be able to have their own power plant on the property.

It could also be used in cars as you could have two electric motors driving the front wheels with a generator or two running off the back wheels (haven't worked out how to do 4wd yet) & the need for batteries would be greatly reduced as they would only be needed for starting the car moving & powering the accessories (lights, wipers, AC/heating, radio etc).

And you could also make portable generators from this system as well.

I know that the efficiency of electric motors & generators would need to take a huge leap forward before this becomes a reality.

What do you guys (& Gal's) think?

I like your thinking but you may be missing something in the equation and i will try to explain.

"What if you hooked up an electric motor to a gear system the was connected to a generator (or two) with enough capacity to power the motor & produce a large surplus of power"

- The electric motor converts electrical energy to kinetic energy at about 95% efficency (for a good electric motor).
- Takling gears you need to understand the relationship between torque and power that in australian terms is Nm and KW respectivly. Power or KW (HP i think you guys use) is the rate of work over time, that rate over time gives you the Nm of torque.
- A motors torque at given revs is constant, KW or power is dependant on how that torque is applied.

Now think of your geared system and think of the rate of work over time, if you change the the gears such that the wheel spinns 2x as fast.. the engine is still producing the same torque but its power has changed.

10 points to you if you use wikki or other web resources to research and answer me this. What is the relative change in power between the engine and the wheel spinning 2x as fast.

Alternate Energy Production Idea

Dr Jekell

Enlightened

Marduke

Flashaholic

Ninjaz7

Enlightened

Dr Jekell

Enlightened

PhantomPhoton

Flashlight Enthusiast

Led_Blind

Enlightened

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