Comments on: What The World Needs, Part 1 http://chrisgammell.com/2009/01/14/what-the-world-needs-part-1/ Analog electronics and everything else between 1 and 0 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:00:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Dan http://chrisgammell.com/2009/01/14/what-the-world-needs-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1304 Dan Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:04:48 +0000 http://chrisgammell.com/?p=833#comment-1304 My plan takes the energy storage with spring concept to a much smaller individual size. Each unit portable and...human powered. A charged spring turns a vertical shaft at the top of which are two friction points. Heat from spring-stored human energy. I think it's sad that we haven't developed and put into use systems that can capture and store lightning (static electricity). Time to get that accomplished yesterday. And WHY aren't the Active Denial Systems being used on locust swarms and termite infestation?? Sometimes it seems like we're on Planet Zombie. Hail Humans! My plan takes the energy storage with spring concept to a much smaller individual size. Each unit portable and…human powered. A charged spring turns a vertical shaft at the top of which are two friction points. Heat from spring-stored human energy.
I think it’s sad that we haven’t developed and put into use systems that can capture and store lightning (static electricity). Time to get that accomplished yesterday.
And WHY aren’t the Active Denial Systems being used on locust swarms and termite infestation?? Sometimes it seems like we’re on Planet Zombie. Hail Humans!

]]> By: What The World Needs, Part 2 | Chris Gammell's Analog Life http://chrisgammell.com/2009/01/14/what-the-world-needs-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-869 What The World Needs, Part 2 | Chris Gammell's Analog Life Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:03:05 +0000 http://chrisgammell.com/?p=833#comment-869 [...] I’ve decided part 2 of the “What the world needs” series here will be more references to engineering in popular culture. It can be advertising [...] [...] I’ve decided part 2 of the “What the world needs” series here will be more references to engineering in popular culture. It can be advertising [...]

]]> By: Geoff Peyton http://chrisgammell.com/2009/01/14/what-the-world-needs-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-760 Geoff Peyton Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:26:01 +0000 http://chrisgammell.com/?p=833#comment-760 Have you heard about molten salt storage? For power generation such as solar (where you have a disproportionate power generation during the day) it supposedly works well. Basically you heat up salt and store it at temperature, using the heat later to run a steam turbine. Have you heard about molten salt storage? For power generation such as solar (where you have a disproportionate power generation during the day) it supposedly works well. Basically you heat up salt and store it at temperature, using the heat later to run a steam turbine.

]]> By: Nate http://chrisgammell.com/2009/01/14/what-the-world-needs-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-728 Nate Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:19:13 +0000 http://chrisgammell.com/?p=833#comment-728 strictly speaking, springs do not lose their springiness unless you exceed their elastic limit. I presume you have never needed to replace a leaf or coil spring in a car because it had lost its springiness, because they are designed to stay within that limit, and you don't expect a retractable ball point pen to stop retracting after some period, people nervously click them thousands of times without them wearing out. It's a great idea to store energy in springs, but I think (although I haven't really done the math) that the practical considerations of working with gigantic springs as a means of storing serious amounts of energy would be hard to get around. Suppose you want to store..... like.... 100 MJ of energy into a spring, and at its maximum energy, it was 90% of it's original length (you compress it 10%), and you are willing to use a 30m long footprint on the spring to store it, that gives you 3 m of compression space. At maximum compression, you have to exert 66.7 million Newtons of force on the spring. If something comes loose, that spring is going to break things and hurt people. And really, 100 MJ isn't much energy compared to those big pumped reservoirs. So I think it's possible, but there is a trade between how many springs you want to have, and how much energy you want you store, and how big each spring should be. Maybe someone reading this will have the breakthrough idea on how to get it going, but I agree that a dense storage mechanism for energy is key to both future development in the energy industry, as well as key to making many "green technologies" viable in a broad context. Why haven't we invented dilithium crystals yet? Somebody get on with it, jeez! strictly speaking, springs do not lose their springiness unless you exceed their elastic limit. I presume you have never needed to replace a leaf or coil spring in a car because it had lost its springiness, because they are designed to stay within that limit, and you don’t expect a retractable ball point pen to stop retracting after some period, people nervously click them thousands of times without them wearing out.

It’s a great idea to store energy in springs, but I think (although I haven’t really done the math) that the practical considerations of working with gigantic springs as a means of storing serious amounts of energy would be hard to get around. Suppose you want to store….. like…. 100 MJ of energy into a spring, and at its maximum energy, it was 90% of it’s original length (you compress it 10%), and you are willing to use a 30m long footprint on the spring to store it, that gives you 3 m of compression space. At maximum compression, you have to exert 66.7 million Newtons of force on the spring. If something comes loose, that spring is going to break things and hurt people. And really, 100 MJ isn’t much energy compared to those big pumped reservoirs.

So I think it’s possible, but there is a trade between how many springs you want to have, and how much energy you want you store, and how big each spring should be. Maybe someone reading this will have the breakthrough idea on how to get it going, but I agree that a dense storage mechanism for energy is key to both future development in the energy industry, as well as key to making many “green technologies” viable in a broad context. Why haven’t we invented dilithium crystals yet? Somebody get on with it, jeez!

]]> By: Chris Gammell http://chrisgammell.com/2009/01/14/what-the-world-needs-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-727 Chris Gammell Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:23:07 +0000 http://chrisgammell.com/?p=833#comment-727 <em>Very funny Bill. I've used that method much longer though. ~Chris</em> Very funny Bill. I’ve used that method much longer though. ~Chris

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