Derec

As has been already said, the Carnot limit only applies to heat engines (such as the internal combustion engine). I would also like to add that the Carnot limit is not a set percentage but rather depends on the temperature of both the working fluid and the surroundings.

The general forumla is: (Th-Tl)/Th, where Th and Tl are high and low temperatures in Kelvin.

UMoC

anakata

Won't people notice that their electricity bills are suddenly an average of their and all their neighbours'?
By the way, this reminds me of all the creative wiring I've seen here (Mexico). Feeding your whole house/apartment from a lamp post in the street, simply bypassing the meter by hooking yourself up on the fuse before it with a pair of clamps, etc.

ImGod

I've seen the same thing you were refering to in other countries, including several small squater camps that were illegaly wired up to the main lines running across the country. They usually hired an off duty line worker from the utility to connect them.

I do not recommend throwing a line over the main power transmittion lines running through the countryside.

Shake

and this is supposed to work, how? I work in electronics, but you've lost me here. What size (value) would you use, and how would you go about tuning it? Tuned to what? 60Hz (USA)?

Ab_Normal

Shoot, we had this kind of lash up running to our server room. It finally went *pow* last Friday; fortunately, it was just the circuit serving the air conditioner we had to put in because the existing HVAC is crap. The entire IT department (all four of us) hates the landlord.

Worldtraveller

While all the discussion of 'creative wiring' is interesting, can we try and keep this thread somewhat on topic!
If anyone here has a physics, specifically EM field theory, and some familiarity with 'guage field' theory. I would like to be able to ask some questions.
I am reading the whitepaper on this Motionless Electromagnetic Generator and there are a lot of terms I don't understand. I am an engineer, but my experience is in structures.
Thanks.

ImGod

I can try to answer some questions. I work on designing power plants for a living and have studied most of the commercial methods; coal, nuclear, gas turbine, diesel generator, wind, solar, hydro, as well as, some of the mainly non-commercial things like fuel cells and geothermal. I'm a mechanical engineer so my electrical engineering and physics is limited and somewhat rusty.

Energy conversion to electricity is pretty straightforward and can be summarized in layman’s terms. Proposed methods of generation that can't be explained in simple terms are typically trying to cover something up with confusing terms.

Usable power, is created by converting energy from one source into electricity (moving electrons) through an energy conversion medium. Coal, nuclear, gas turbine, and diesel use burning to release heat, wind uses shifting gases due to uneven heating of the earth, solar uses the sun's solar radiation, and hydro uses potential energy as an energy source. All of energy sources, except solar, convert their energy into mechanical power at some stage. The mechanical transfer of power into an electrical generator is used to spin coils of wires through alternating electromagnetic fields (or by spinning magnets over coils of wires). The field can be generated using permanent magnets or by inducing a field with current.

Solar power is generated by converting sunlight (photons) into electricity using semi-conducting materials. Photons strike and ionize silicon atoms, transferring their energy and allowing the outer electron to break free of the atom. The movement of the electrons produces the current.

In all cases, the power in is greater than the power out because of losses. The efficiency of power generation methods is then:

Efficiency = Power out/Power in

A perpetual machine would require 0 losses and in order to stay moving it would require that you remove no energy from it. A 100 percent efficient transfer of energy would give you the same electrical power out as you put in, but would still require a steady source of power input.

Some Typical efficiencies for power generation methods off the top of my head are:

Coal/Nuclear = 35-40%
Simple cycle gas turbines = 45-50%
Combined Cycle gas turbine/steam turbines = 50-60%
Wind = 40-50%
Hydro = 80-90%
Solar = 20-30%
Fuel Cells = 30-35%

I may need to look up some of the numbers if I've messed one up. This site has lots of useful information on the subject and you can search for answers to some of your detailed questions.

US Department of Energy

This was long enough, so I won't bore everyone with the details.

emphryio

I like ole Johann Bessler's perpetual motion machine best.
http://www.besslerwheel.com/

I did think about various ideas of how magnetics, gravity, centrifugal force, might be used to recreated Bessler's machine.
(And I could think of quite a few more but why bother.) It always must come down to harnessing some power.

If something that was called a perpetual motion machine were ever successfully built, the key would be that it wouldn't actually be a PM and actually would just be tapping some limitless energy source that hasn't been tapped up till now.

The earth's magnetic field comes to mind. But clean fusion would work so well it might practically be as good as PM some day.

Worldtraveller

Thanks for the reply, ImGod. Did you, by chance download the whitepaper and skim it at all?
I don't get the impression that the technical details are some kind of cover up, but I don't know enough to be able to tell right now. I am still researching it in all my spare time...(what's that again?)
It is apparently based on some very old theory going back to Tesla.
It depends greatly on this Guage Field theory, and I am trying to track down a good paper on that.
According to one of the websites, the gov't is already using some of the prototypes as a power source for the Minuteman missiles. ??
Keep on digging!
WT

Secular Pinoy

Oh, I didn't know you've been here in the Philippines.