Often the criticism of gravity batteries is that it's inefficient and generates waste heat. But maybe that heat can be used to generate from a Stirling Engine at the top?
Wrong.. Gravity batterys are in large hydro plants 98-99% efficient (Pumped hydro 50-55%) The problem is scale, atleast for small scale use Imagen to pump 1000Litre water up to a 100 metrer above and you will use 1.5kWh of work. If you let this water into a turbine, you will only get 0.98 kWh back this system works the same if uou move steel or water "up a hill" Big scale hydro plants are maybe 20% or more efficient than geared systems
i don't think there would be a lot of wast heat in this design mate as the bearings on the collar really go a long way to reduce that as does the direct connection to the generator section
True for the thrust bearing suported rotor/flywheel generator part, But for a full cycle you will have to also calculate friction in the archimedes gear,Same as efficiecy losses in pumped hydro..@@ThinkingandTinkering
The first gravity battery I saw was in a RUclips video where a student showed their gravity battery using block weights like you would find on exercising equipment. They would turn a crank to rotate the main assembly 180 degrees to "recharge" it and it would power several LED panels at the base of the assembly.
My Dad is a British Blind Archery Champion 🏆. Apples are a bit of a Sore Point!! 🏹🍎Lol 🤣 (Seriously, though ,he was the UK's Blind Archery Champion, X2!!) Andréa and Critters. ..XxX...
@@victoryfirst2878 And I'm off to sulk for the rest of the week,,, I'm a Fella-ette!! 😁 It's not a problem,Lol 😂 I have been calling everyone Chaps for years!! (Apparently it's not Okay with some people?!! 🤷) Andréa and Critters. ..XxX...
When a permanent magnet attracts and holds a piece of iron against gravity, is work being done? If so where is the energy coming from and why doesn't the magnet "run down", if work isn't being done, what is happening? If I held the piece of iron aloft, I would need to expend energy.....Your talk of lifting weights made me think of this.....
I think the best analogy is to compare it to Gravity. With gravity, the force is only expended at the moment of attraction and impact, but, once impact is made, contact is now the "Resting state." Attempting to remove the magnet(s) or objects would be where more energy was required.
Follow up question: is a mountain being held up by a constant expenditure of energy and will that energy ever run out, leading to a completely smooth Earth? Are there ancient planets that have become smooth after running out of energy to resist gravity? Do atoms need to expend energy to not simply collapse into each other? Will matter itself eventually run out of the energy required to make it matter in the first place?
@@ArosIrwin Great observation! So there appears to be an infinite source of energy in the universe, we just need to expand our understanding in order to engineer free access to it! We have trapped ourselves into the closed system of thermodynamics which limits that understanding and access....
For work to be done, a Force has to be moving through a Distance. If either one is missing, there is no work to be had. E.g. If a force is being applied to a mass but it is not moving. No work. Conversely, if a mass is coasting along in space with no force applied. No work. Push a brick along the ground, Force x Distance = Work. For a magnet holding aloft a piece of iron, nothing is moving. No work.
An object at rest has potential energy, regardless of the reason it’s at rest, whether it’s being magnetically prevented from falling, or mechanically, for example, on the palm of your hand, or, being on the floor.
I keep thinking about the gravitational effects of the moon on the oceans rising and falling twice a day. I wonder if there is enough energy stored at high tide to lift something, then let it drop at low tide attched to something like what you have made or turbine in a tube.?
Great concept, I love how your mind works, never running out of ideas, I'd try playing about with the pitch on the screw to try get a balance of speed falling and control. Definitely on to another smashing idea Rob.
We should be using rainfall like a vertical gravity based turbine, just a matter of catching water up high then releasing it through turbines, maybe by thinking about that concept in these demonstrations that idea could be efficient enough to make rain/gravity based power, should be explored more
If i'm correct, letting it fall down would rotate, the axis in one direction. Would rotating the axis the opposite direction may lifiting the weight? Or, lifting the weight would result to turn the axis as well. Both could be obtained by wind or "hand crank", that would use the rotation directly without any energy conversion in a way or the other, while - as the generator section is also moving - generating electricity while lifting (or loading the "battery"), as well while releasing the weight.of course, charging require more energy in this case. Am i right?
The other thing is, i'm glad about this and the last video as a revisit of a possibility in converting linear motion into axial as i'm still "stuck" with that "strange engine" idea. I tried out different versions and came to the conclusion that the key might be in the ratio of the amount of the boiling liquid inside the engine and temp. difference between the two ends. Using a "filflopthing" (sry, not native english :) ) to convert the engine's linear motion into a radial to drive this mechanism would be cool. For now, i'm using tea candles to have a standard input, but in the future i'm planning to use a frensel lense and mirror as solar source. For the cold end, thinking about a segment (before the very top end) made from clay (like a two layered pot), filled with sand and water to have a passive cooling solution. Opinios, ideas?
Okay. One? I love this, lol. Two: I feel like it could benefit from some clockwork. Specifically the part of the clock that prevents the coil spring from completely unravelling. Three: A modification: Build the clockwork into the base, and use the weight to charge a spring. Four: You need rails attached to the falling weight to prevent it from rotating. That way all of the force from the fall is directly transferred to the shaft rather than a small portion being lose due to the dropping weight beginning to spin. Five: You'll need a spacer or bearings or something between the falling weight and the flywheel weight. You lose a lot of your rotational energy when the large weight lands on top of the smaller one because the rotational force has to be applied to the combined weight rather than the flywheel weight. Same concept as spinning on a swing and pushing your legs out and pulling them in to go faster or slower. Cheers!
It reminds me of the singing tops we had as kids. The better we pumped it, the longer it spun and sang. Nothing is new, eh? Thanks for all your efforts.
Oh my could set up a rope and pulley system and a cart with wheels.... .. and if have water source use that to recharge or lift the weight..awesome idea.... Be in peace God speed.
You could adjust also the timing of energy release by having an adjustable angle between 0 and 90 degrees. Smaller amount at time would be released but for a longer period. I think.
I had two thoughts about this as I was watching: 1) For stability's sake, it could be relatively easily mounted inside a 4 inch soil stack pipe bracketed vertically to the side of the house. Off-the-shelf end plates could then be drilled to make the supports for the centre spiral. (Obviously, elements of the design would need resizing, but the generator could easily sit outside the tube at the bottom, meaning you only need to resize the falling weight) 2) It looks like we're developing torque at the axle (the spiral), and then pushing it out to the rim for "generation at the rim", I can't imagine an easy way of doing it but I can imagine that there are some gains to be had in collecting energy from the rim of falling weight itself. capturing both the gravity and the spin. I love this idea.
I have been considering a design for a stool that would use the same mechanism as the previous video allowing us to use our body as the mass falling down it would need a lot smaller threads but i think it would be cool
@@ShafaqIftikhar-pw9ld maybe but it has a much shorter range of motion so it would only generate for a moment after sitting and standing up where as this could fall for 1ft rather comfortably although the foot generator could be really good in high traffic public seating like on trains or busses ect
Hi @Robert Murray-Smith while we are talking about energy storage, I have a question about tesla coils and wireless power transfer effect like when a Fluro lightbulb is put next to a tesla coil, is there any voltage coming out of the lightbulb, as it is being excited during the wireless power transfer? example if you put a meter on the bulb would it give a voltage?
Perfect for a wave floater! Would be a decent test for your glass bearings and a day at the beach, eh? :) Would still need some amount of weight to drive the rotor. Enough balloon size to counter the weight wouldn't be an issue until you get to a size noticeable to a Karen. Or you could lay it horizontal and use a vertical plate with spring returns, etc. Great proof of concept!
Inverted, and augmented with a ratheting drive flywheel, it would complement your spinning top storage device: an upstroke would charge the gravity battery and the downstroke would charge the spinning top. Perhaps actuated with a long lever, the combination would make half of a different sort of pedal operated generator/battery
Hi you need to stop the falling weight from spinning as potential energy is being wasted in the spin but the extension of the spiral gear looks interesting when the weight is at the top(possibly an accident but fun)
Nice ideas, now we need an efficient 'prime' mover to cycle the mass back to the top. Maybe some William Skinner technology from the 30s could inspire a gravity powered lifting machine to mate with this. He had a uniquely clutched 8 HP motor keeping lots of mass moving. Cheers!
A far simpler arrangement is generator can be powered by falling weight unwinding a drum. Unfortunately such will tend to keep accelerating, limiting run time. A solution can be to use a non-newtonian fluid as a grease for the drum's rotation. When rotation is slow, it offers little friction. But as the drum speeds up, the grease will shear thicken, and start to act as a brake preventing overspeed and extending run time.
The absolute beauty if water is that as a GAS, it is LIGHTER than air, and yet as a LIQUID it is 800 times HEAVIER than air [denser]. So air becomes really light, goes up really high, then condenses and begins falling back to where it came from. This is due to the marvelous action we call 'phase change'. This happens all the time, without any loss of energy in the system. Its the ultimate power system!
figuring out a way to flip the thing, after it hits the bottom, so the weight is back at the top. then add couple shafts so it just turns the center shaft not the wheel itself.
Interesting question, well done! The yoyo scavenges some of the kinetic energy from the system as it falls - you can verify this by comparing the rate of fall of the yoyo in operation to just letting it fall to the ground. The kinetic energy is transferred into the yoyo and applies a torque force at the point where the string starts to curve around the string line in the yoyo. This torque builds angular momentum in the yoyo which is stored in the flywheel like body. As the yoyo moves down the string the diameter of the string on the reel decreases and the effective leverage of the applied torque changes helping to drive the spin of the yoyo faster but at an increased cost to the overall yoyo system. TLDR: You don't get any extra energy from the yoyo, throwing a yoyo down adds energy - you always only ever get out what you put in.
This has been a fun one. It did have me thinking of some kind of yo-yo. I'd prefer using a yo-yo motion more then the one he was spinning over his head. Maybe even a Whee-Lo generator sometime in the future.
If you have a pair of rocker buckets, you can run such a generator in a flow of water. With self emptying 'trip' bucket valves, one can have the water automatically go from the one bucket to the other, working in the classic 'teeter-totter' fashion, and all you need to divert the water is a little 'bill' poking up out of the center, which, by the mere mechanical principle of rotating vectors will, with no added mechanism, divert the water flow into which ever bucket is in the 'up' position. This 'bill' can be on a tipper affixed at the top with either a direct linkage [for a really short travel fall] OR, with a passive drag bar, if the buckets are dropping a significant distance. So as the bucket fills, it begins dropping as the other bucket begins going back up [either by a bar, or, if it is a really long distance, a rope or chain with a pulley], the bill is pulled toward the now empty bucket, which, because it would defeat the purpose to have it fill before it got all the way to the top, has a trip lever valve which can only be opened or closed by additional mechanisms [latch engaging and latch releasing attachments] at each end of its travel. Thusly, if you had only 2 buckets or, if you had a wobble plate with many buckets [say on a rotary cam for instance] you can always keep the empty bucket empty until it is in a position to push down from the peak of the travel, therefore not defeating the imbalance.
Trying to think of permanent, and rechargeable, battery solutions for solar power led me to your gravity battery videos, so that's the angle I'm approaching what I'm about to say from: Assuming you wanted to take this particularly high, say 50 feet, couldn't you have the bearing supported top be held aloft via, basically, a tripod with a base only slightly larger than the base of the device itself? I mean I'm not accounting for wind/weather obviously, just curious what your opinion on the topic might be, if you read this comment at all that is. Another commenter had noted that it may be more efficient to not have the "battery weight" land and sit on the flywheel, couldn't you have a support along the central pillar stop the weight just slightly above the flywheel, like a second, much shorter tripod which apexes in a ring not otherwise in contact with the screw so the battery weight could impact there and stop before the flywheel? If you were going to try something like this for solar power storage, how would you go about scaling such a system to provide residential power over, say, 12 hours of "night"? Just curious what your ideas on the topic might be, thanks for making these very educational and entertaining videos on the topic of gravity batteries/generators, your style is informative and compelling!
If, the weight was hollow lifted to the top,then water was pumped uphill and filled it somewhat as it was dropped the water would move to the outside of the weight due to centrifugal force increasing the rotational energy ( a rotating plate verses a rotating dumbbell of the same weight) . Or perhaps a mechanism like a centrifugal clutch from a mini bike except with weight on the clutch material ends
Looks like a great design concept! I think it would be perfect for converting an old aeromotor style windmill to generate electricity rather than pump water. The drive shaft cycles straight up and down with quite a bit of tourqe.
How large would a capacitor need to be to store the energy from a lightning bolt? Or how large of motor would be needed to power itself to run off of a single lightning strike and run up a heavy flywheel to power a generator?
As you said, a structure of some sort around the falling weight would stop the wobble. Maybe the structure should stop the falling weight's spin, as well as have a small stopper near the bottom, just above the flywheel weight, so it doesn't slow the flywheel down.
Possibly the weight could be confined by 4 Round legs that may spin as well?! Possibly get a little bit more Energy production by the rotation?! (I'm thinking about Magnetic bearings...) Andréa and Critters. ...XxX...
I've been loving your videos. I'd love to hear your talk about actually utilising these kinds of ideas to power your home. You are always using small props which is amazing but what about actual use cases.? What a dream it would be to see a home system that harvests energy in different ways to drive a gravity battery or something like it to power your refrigerator
I've often wondered how much energy could be harnessed from the general rise and fall of a decommissioned oil tanker in relation to the seabed. Perhaps one of Robert's gizmos could be adapted somehow.
Yes it's wave/tidal power for which there are plenty of prototypes around but I haven't seen any repurposed tankers used. Perhaps it's too problematic.@@vylbird8014
Now connect it up to the magic lever from video 2003 and harvest the energy from vibrations in some convenient place, store the gravitational energy for use later, such as a scaled up version for early morning electric grid higher demands.
Would a gearbox between the spiral and the generator have any benefit? Could you slow the drop but keep the flywheel spinning at high enough RPM to generate a usable electrical current?
couldn't you step up the speed with the gear box you made, this gearing might increase the rotations of the rotor through the gearing giving higher run time and voltage.
I thought I’d get in now, even though I’m off topic, with the hopes you’ll give this idea some thought. So…. Using your “gravity is free” approach and adding it to a Trompe pump system… My thought is you could utilise the void space in deep pile and/or bridge supports to insert vertical Trompe air compressors in what is otherwise wasted space. There must be some location, close to running water, where a change of head is also available. The deeper the Trompe, the higher the isothermal, dry, oil free, air pressure becomes. Such air could provide ‘air conditioning’, free of ongoing costs to a building. As no water as consumed in the process, this could be invaluable in hot climes with high power restrictions. Highly compress air could run generators with no emissions! It could be used in place of batteries to power vehicles It can certainly power workshops. It already does. Anyway. That’s my musings. Great posts, keep ‘em coming! 👍
I see problems with this: - gravity storage requires a LOT of weight to be a reasonable energy storage system. 100s or 1000s of tons at least. I imagine manufacturing (and maintaining) those spiral axies will become very expensive on that scale - also this will produce a lot of friction between the weight and the spiral axis. Probably far more than would be lost via transmission losses, for instance if that weight would be just on a rope over a pulley which drives a generator. - lifting the weight again in an actual context requires another pulley system attached to the weight anyway, so the spiral really is redundant.
I am trying to so the calculations for a woosh bottle generator, make a woosh bottle and dip the tip in water. The water is sucked up pretty rapidly, my intention is to run a pelton turbine off of the water brought up. What is your thoughts?
Another opportunity where pulleys etc could be used to extract some electricity is the gym . All that wasted energy from people on weight and rowing machines etc. They could reduce their gym fees with credits from feeding into the grid.
You know it's something interesting when it makes an adult chuckle like a child in a sweet shop 😅😝 I was thinking too, what if the rod in the middle was made from copper or aluminium, and there was ferro magnets on the plate spinning around the centre rod? Also, to return the plate to the top, you could have the whole setup on something that rotates when it gets to the bottom, so it'll keep itself going too. A gravity generator of sorts 🤔
absolutely - see my video ruclips.net/video/YS0SvFCScZs/видео.html and my video ruclips.net/video/BSsj2rDJ2ts/видео.html for more on this if you are interested
wouldn't a block and tackle/pulley system be able to greatly reduce the height requirements? like a 1m height with a 10x pulley would be as if its dropped from 10m and one could nest them for even greater length.
An awesome simple proof and reference point for further versions.. weird so many downvotes onthis one, maybe an influx from people from a different part of RUclips that had a similar video title. That happens. I've been planning to make a big gravity battery for my home but one that would be geared and moves very slowly down to turn a generator very fast. Would be good to see a higher geared one compared to this one! ;) Keep up the good work, mate!
What if you flipped that device upside down and submerged it in water, such as a water well, raised the weight with an air bladder to turn the screw, deflate the bladder at the water surface to allow the weight to reset the sequence. I realize that some sort of latch would need to be used to prevent weight from slowly rising as the bladder is inflated. Perhaps use two generators at the top with opposite ratcheting drives so that one generator is spun on decent and the other generator is spun as the weight rises.
What iff one parks his tesla on a steap angled parkingspot that also forms a lift that tilts while parked to a negative angle (partially underground). The gravity can be used to convert the movement of the relative heavy car to kinetic energy.
Another way to store energy. What needs to be looked at total cost of ownership and efficiency. Is this any better than batteries? CAES? Hydrogen? Water? Hot salt?
Hi Robert. Once again, you spark more ideas and designs. I dove right in last week and got my first 3D printer ( QIDI XMAX) and now i'm teaching myself CAD and learning about the whole 3D print process,. Bought myself some N52's and some rolls of magnet wire, and now i'm going to try modify a few of your designs to suit the magnets I have. I'll share with you once completed. I'm looking at seeing how much a video player high speed rewind motor would take to rewire . Anyway. I do have a question.. What is the definition of Gravity? :) happy days
I was pondering the idea of using a weight in an abandoned mine shaft where the lift would normally be. Then any surplus energy from say a wind turbine or other renewable could lift the weight when consumption was low and be lowered driving a generator much like a grandfather clock system. I suppose it’s been done though! 🤓
This is Fun!!😅❤ ~I'm thinking about Round legs with Magnetic bearings, for the outside as a way to Stop the Wobble?!! Possibly get them to scavenge a bit more Energy?!! I'd love to have a bit of a go with making this myself,,, But, I have not been able to move house, yet so no room sadly,,,😕 (The Now Ex-Mr Dingbatt,=Reason I can't afford the land or house move,🤷!!) Best Wishes and Kindest Regards, Andréa and Critters. ...XxX...
@@ThinkingandTinkering Thank you very much again Robert!! It's not looking good for me,, since Ex-Mr Dingbatt has gone and spent our savings , while I was in hospital.....😕 I'm having to start all over again,,, it's a bit of a 🙄🤷!! At my time of life it's going to be hard work,,, but then again my own Dad had the same challenge later on in life!! Andréa and Critters. ...XxX....
Instead of gravity towards earth, could you use magnetic force between two extremely powerful magnets? Would this store energy more space efficiently than having a huge pit with huge weights? Or alternatively, could centrifugal force be used to store a "magnet based generator" and multiply it's efficiency while furthermore maintaining a rather small dimensions?
And all to be placed inside of a vacuum to decrease air friction and increase efficiency. While controlled from outside the vacuum via magnetic force to charge the device? (meaning to spin it up and increase the distance between the two attracting magnets)
Simpler method would be to weight the spiral rod on its bottom. A cable or smooth rod on the top of the spiral-this would be made to spin freely on the spiral-the purpose of which is to raise the spiral. Easy with low energy consumption. The option is to freewheel the cog in the generator during "charging"-raising of the spiral, or spin to generate on the upstroke.
Yes, mainly because a support structure wouldn't be necessary for the spiral rod with the weight on the bottom, pulling rather than pushing. With the weight pushing down on the rod the rod would necessarily require a support to keep it straight as you mentioned in the video. Anyway pulling is a much more efficient means of applying force than pushing.
Definitely a system which requires a gearing method to get the most out of it, How much you could actually store in a domestic setting though doesn't seem like it'll be much.
for that prototype not much, but the storage depends largely on the weight and distance. iirc 1 kg lifted one meter is 10 joules, which is equivalent to 10 wattseconds, or 10 watts for 1 second, or 1 watt for 10 seconds or however you wanna parse it. so let's say you want to run your house for a day you should need or around 30 kwh that is 100,000,000 joules, let's suppose you want to lift it up to the top of your house and drop it, and that your house is two stories say about 7 meters, with 100% conversion you would need a weight of 1.4 million kg, raising it to 70 meters would reduce the needed weight to only 140 thousand kg. 7 kilometers (and this point you need to also be going down into the ground) would take the needed weight down to only 1.4 thousand kg.
I think the people who would benefit the most from gravity storage are those who live in a tiny home. They would need about 7 times less the energy than a regular size home. This will give a better shot at energy independence.
it depends how much you need and that is very different from how much you want - I read tuseroni6085 and he suggested 30kWh - that seems a little crazy to me - according to my smart meter I use 5kWh per day more or less. I would need 18,000,000 joules
@@ThinkingandTinkering yeah I had thought 5kwh myself but I looked up the average power usage per day and where I live its 30kwh. Average for the usa is 28kwh/day.
Why not just a linear motor/generator, with the mass being a magnet or magnetised and the coils down the side(s), do away with all the rotary bits and associated losses?
Dangle your weight from a winch with the right level of gearing. Winch up the weight with solar power. When you need power at night, the weight will unwind the winch which now acts as a generator.
You did a gravity generator with a flywheel a couple of years ago with that idea how about adding several bicycle gears in to get a greater speed to the flywheel
Brilliant! it is efficiant but i see the Problem that u don´t get to use it with out a person, I have a thought if u could just use it in a constant movement, maybe jus with magnets or some cain of Tension Spring that keep this moving and generating energy!
Now lift that iron plate with 4 ounces of water. Work smarter, not Harder. When the water cup fills, it lifts the weight, when the water cup side of the lever is pointing down the water weight transfers farther away from the fulcrum, thus needing less water to lift the weight and that's when you drain the water rapidly and your 2.2 kilo iron plate wants to fall back to earth because the water cup is empty. Unfortunately obtaining liquid mercury isn't a option for me. Not sure how many looked at my water clock and didn't understand the math used. It was when the weather changed I noticed the effects.
I see a limitation in this design that if not observed, could turn it into a single use device as the first drop of the weight would shatter the generator section. The falling weight needs to be caught by mechanical springs or very strong magnets with same poles coming together that prevent it from crashing into the base. On the other hand, one could utilize the generated current to energize coils that then catch the weight when the weight gets near the bottom so it doesn't crash. The addition of a battery powered motor to raise the weight back to the top, and assist the generated current in the coil should that be needed. But then; that would be a useless machine wouldn't it?
@@ThinkingandTinkering That would work. It would also prolong the energy production. Maybe adding the device that is used in soft closing drawers and cabinet doors to stop the banging would help as well.
Would love to see you use ropes and pullies instead of the 3d printed custom axel. It will be much easier to source and diy. Also try to maximize the weight, hight , and gear it so it drops as slow as possible. 200 kg, which can be pulled by 6 pullies to to give the effect of 25 kg effort for reseting it back up. For 2m height youd pull 16m of rope. Pretty sure you can do that in 1 minute or so. Let the weight drop for 6 hours. How much watts would you get for that? (200kg at 2m over 6 hours)
With the sand method you could make a giant egg timer and just turn it when the top is empty via a central pivot point,plus having a slow energy release over time Obviously you would have to have a paddle wheel at the central restriction between the two chambers to collect the energy ⌛
@@paulevetts9771 ???? The same way it got to the top the first time - you put the sand in the funnel by pouring in it. It is not perpetual motion device...
Really interesting and beautifully made, as and electrical engineer student , i often think about Gravity storaging but none of my course talk about It, they Just talk about elettrochimical storaging. By the way maybe a problem of gravity storaging Is the fact that if you want to move your wheigt with a short run you Need It very heavy and you Need also big reduction, do you think that this could be and issue?
Fun to look at, but I think there is a flaw: Calculate the energy density. It's not much. You'd need a very large weight indeed to match the capacity of a simple 18650 cell. Gravity energy storage works fine, when you've got a huge volume of space to fill - think hydroelectric and a dam holding back all that water.
It's such a joy to watch you giggle purely because of something neat you just did.
The world needs more people like that.
lol - cheers mate
Often the criticism of gravity batteries is that it's inefficient and generates waste heat. But maybe that heat can be used to generate from a Stirling Engine at the top?
Wrong.. Gravity batterys are in large hydro plants 98-99% efficient (Pumped hydro 50-55%)
The problem is scale, atleast for small scale use
Imagen to pump 1000Litre water up to a 100 metrer above and you will use 1.5kWh of work.
If you let this water into a turbine, you will only get 0.98 kWh back
this system works the same if uou move steel or water "up a hill"
Big scale hydro plants are maybe 20% or more efficient than geared systems
i don't think there would be a lot of wast heat in this design mate as the bearings on the collar really go a long way to reduce that as does the direct connection to the generator section
True for the thrust bearing suported rotor/flywheel generator part, But for a full cycle you will have to also calculate friction in the archimedes gear,Same as efficiecy losses in pumped hydro..@@ThinkingandTinkering
The first gravity battery I saw was in a RUclips video where a student showed their gravity battery using block weights like you would find on exercising equipment. They would turn a crank to rotate the main assembly 180 degrees to "recharge" it and it would power several LED panels at the base of the assembly.
On that Twisted Axel: I can see that being made in production by the simple expedient of twisting say, 2 Cm square tubing, after indenting all sides.
clever! - that would do it mate
Another fascinating video Robert. Lovely to meet you on the bridge this morning too. 👍👌
lol - it was awesome mate! hope you had a great rest of your day
so presumably the device is reversible, by putting energy into the generator it would turn the axel and raise the weight.
Yes, and you could supplement the electrical need with solar to make it much more efficient.
yes exactly - or just pull the weight directly up with a winch
Very well done Robert, now I know what my Physics teacher was talking about. Gravity is always on fella. Look out for that apple fella .......
My Dad is a British Blind Archery Champion 🏆.
Apples are a bit of a Sore Point!! 🏹🍎Lol 🤣
(Seriously, though ,he was the UK's Blind Archery Champion, X2!!)
Andréa and Critters. ..XxX...
lol - always gotta watch out for the apples mate lol
Can understand you feelings fella. @@AndreaDingbatt
@@victoryfirst2878 And I'm off to sulk for the rest of the week,,,
I'm a Fella-ette!! 😁
It's not a problem,Lol 😂
I have been calling everyone Chaps for years!!
(Apparently it's not Okay with some people?!! 🤷)
Andréa and Critters. ..XxX...
Thanks for correcting me Lol ...😀😀😀.@@AndreaDingbatt
Robert, you're a genuine genius for sure, you simply fascinate me with your useful ideas. Keep up the good work.
Great demonstration. It was easily understood and the videography was quite good
And of course thanks for posting
thank you mate
When a permanent magnet attracts and holds a piece of iron against gravity, is work being done? If so where is the energy coming from and why doesn't the magnet "run down", if work isn't being done, what is happening? If I held the piece of iron aloft, I would need to expend energy.....Your talk of lifting weights made me think of this.....
I think the best analogy is to compare it to Gravity.
With gravity, the force is only expended at the moment of attraction and impact, but, once impact is made, contact is now the "Resting state." Attempting to remove the magnet(s) or objects would be where more energy was required.
Follow up question: is a mountain being held up by a constant expenditure of energy and will that energy ever run out, leading to a completely smooth Earth? Are there ancient planets that have become smooth after running out of energy to resist gravity? Do atoms need to expend energy to not simply collapse into each other? Will matter itself eventually run out of the energy required to make it matter in the first place?
@@ArosIrwin Great observation! So there appears to be an infinite source of energy in the universe, we just need to expand our understanding in order to engineer free access to it! We have trapped ourselves into the closed system of thermodynamics which limits that understanding and access....
For work to be done, a Force has to be moving through a Distance. If either one is missing, there is no work to be had. E.g. If a force is being applied to a mass but it is not moving. No work. Conversely, if a mass is coasting along in space with no force applied. No work. Push a brick along the ground, Force x Distance = Work. For a magnet holding aloft a piece of iron, nothing is moving. No work.
An object at rest has potential energy, regardless of the reason it’s at rest, whether it’s being magnetically prevented from falling, or mechanically, for example, on the palm of your hand, or, being on the floor.
Some big project is just now prepared in Czech Republic, in ex-coal mines with 3km deep. They plan use a ex-miner elevators.
nice - thanks for the heads up mate
I keep thinking about the gravitational effects of the moon on the oceans rising and falling twice a day. I wonder if there is enough energy stored at high tide to lift something, then let it drop at low tide attched to something like what you have made or turbine in a tube.?
absolutely there is
Great concept, I love how your mind works, never running out of ideas, I'd try playing about with the pitch on the screw to try get a balance of speed falling and control. Definitely on to another smashing idea Rob.
We should be using rainfall like a vertical gravity based turbine, just a matter of catching water up high then releasing it through turbines, maybe by thinking about that concept in these demonstrations that idea could be efficient enough to make rain/gravity based power, should be explored more
If i'm correct, letting it fall down would rotate, the axis in one direction. Would rotating the axis the opposite direction may lifiting the weight? Or, lifting the weight would result to turn the axis as well. Both could be obtained by wind or "hand crank", that would use the rotation directly without any energy conversion in a way or the other, while - as the generator section is also moving - generating electricity while lifting (or loading the "battery"), as well while releasing the weight.of course, charging require more energy in this case.
Am i right?
I mean, the first thing is obvious, just thinking about the rest to be considered as an advantage.
The other thing is, i'm glad about this and the last video as a revisit of a possibility in converting linear motion into axial as i'm still "stuck" with that "strange engine" idea.
I tried out different versions and came to the conclusion that the key might be in the ratio of the amount of the boiling liquid inside the engine and temp. difference between the two ends. Using a "filflopthing" (sry, not native english :) ) to convert the engine's linear motion into a radial to drive this mechanism would be cool.
For now, i'm using tea candles to have a standard input, but in the future i'm planning to use a frensel lense and mirror as solar source. For the cold end, thinking about a segment (before the very top end) made from clay (like a two layered pot), filled with sand and water to have a passive cooling solution.
Opinios, ideas?
it would mate
Okay. One? I love this, lol. Two: I feel like it could benefit from some clockwork. Specifically the part of the clock that prevents the coil spring from completely unravelling. Three: A modification: Build the clockwork into the base, and use the weight to charge a spring. Four: You need rails attached to the falling weight to prevent it from rotating. That way all of the force from the fall is directly transferred to the shaft rather than a small portion being lose due to the dropping weight beginning to spin. Five: You'll need a spacer or bearings or something between the falling weight and the flywheel weight. You lose a lot of your rotational energy when the large weight lands on top of the smaller one because the rotational force has to be applied to the combined weight rather than the flywheel weight. Same concept as spinning on a swing and pushing your legs out and pulling them in to go faster or slower.
Cheers!
i agree clockwork would be an awesome addition
Gravity is still a theory, how about the apple falls due to it being heavier than air?
It reminds me of the singing tops we had as kids. The better we pumped it, the longer it spun and sang. Nothing is new, eh? Thanks for all your efforts.
no mate - nothing is lol - cheers
My 40 acres is on a slope so I'm figuring with some weights going down the hill I pretty much have unlimited storage potential.
40,Acres!!
** Caution you Might find Me and the Rescue Ponies I'm going to get in a small Corner of your Land!! (Lol!!😅)
Andréa and Critters. ..XxX...
**I Wish!!☺️👍
i am jealous!
Oh my could set up a rope and pulley system and a cart with wheels.... .. and if have water source use that to recharge or lift the weight..awesome idea.... Be in peace God speed.
2:28 just a heads-up, modern pumped hydro energy storage is between 70% to 85% efficient depending on conditions.
You could adjust also the timing of energy release by having an adjustable angle between 0 and 90 degrees. Smaller amount at time would be released but for a longer period. I think.
I had two thoughts about this as I was watching:
1) For stability's sake, it could be relatively easily mounted inside a 4 inch soil stack pipe bracketed vertically to the side of the house. Off-the-shelf end plates could then be drilled to make the supports for the centre spiral. (Obviously, elements of the design would need resizing, but the generator could easily sit outside the tube at the bottom, meaning you only need to resize the falling weight)
2) It looks like we're developing torque at the axle (the spiral), and then pushing it out to the rim for "generation at the rim", I can't imagine an easy way of doing it but I can imagine that there are some gains to be had in collecting energy from the rim of falling weight itself. capturing both the gravity and the spin.
I love this idea.
I have been considering a design for a stool that would use the same mechanism as the previous video allowing us to use our body as the mass falling down it would need a lot smaller threads but i think it would be cool
i agree that would be cool
I think the step generator would also work on a person sitting on the chair that would be another option.
@@ShafaqIftikhar-pw9ld maybe but it has a much shorter range of motion so it would only generate for a moment after sitting and standing up where as this could fall for 1ft rather comfortably although the foot generator could be really good in high traffic public seating like on trains or busses ect
@@EpIcHoBoGuY I agree.
Hi @Robert Murray-Smith while we are talking about energy storage, I have a question about tesla coils and wireless power transfer effect like when a Fluro lightbulb is put next to a tesla coil, is there any voltage coming out of the lightbulb, as it is being excited during the wireless power transfer? example if you put a meter on the bulb would it give a voltage?
dunno mate - try it
Might change the incline of the screw part or add more turns so it doesn't drop so quickly.
Using a long planetary gear ring, and the weight to turn the ring. and then add couple compound spur or planetary gears at the bottom.
i think that is a god idea mate - cheers
You think if you did 3D printed of finer spirals on the pole would you get more of a spend time sort of like more spirals per square inch
i think so
Perfect for a wave floater! Would be a decent test for your glass bearings and a day at the beach, eh? :) Would still need some amount of weight to drive the rotor. Enough balloon size to counter the weight wouldn't be an issue until you get to a size noticeable to a Karen.
Or you could lay it horizontal and use a vertical plate with spring returns, etc.
Great proof of concept!
That would be cool! - awesome suggestion mate - cheers
Inverted, and augmented with a ratheting drive flywheel, it would complement your spinning top storage device: an upstroke would charge the gravity battery and the downstroke would charge the spinning top. Perhaps actuated with a long lever, the combination would make half of a different sort of pedal operated generator/battery
Hi you need to stop the falling weight from spinning as potential energy is being wasted in the spin but the extension of the spiral gear looks interesting when the weight is at the top(possibly an accident but fun)
Gear then flywheel
@@thomasholland4313 yes but in the wrong direction?.
guide rails mate
@@ThinkingandTinkering yes but thay need to have bearings to reduce friction?
no just oil mate - like bushings
Nice ideas, now we need an efficient 'prime' mover to cycle the mass back to the top. Maybe some William Skinner technology from the 30s could inspire a gravity powered lifting machine to mate with this. He had a uniquely clutched 8 HP motor keeping lots of mass moving. Cheers!
cheers mate
A far simpler arrangement is generator can be powered by falling weight unwinding a drum. Unfortunately such will tend to keep accelerating, limiting run time.
A solution can be to use a
non-newtonian fluid as a grease for the drum's rotation. When rotation is slow, it offers little friction. But as the drum speeds up, the grease will shear thicken, and start to act as a brake preventing overspeed and extending run time.
The absolute beauty if water is that as a GAS, it is LIGHTER than air, and yet as a LIQUID it is 800 times HEAVIER than air [denser].
So air becomes really light, goes up really high, then condenses and begins falling back to where it came from.
This is due to the marvelous action we call 'phase change'.
This happens all the time, without any loss of energy in the system.
Its the ultimate power system!
figuring out a way to flip the thing, after it hits the bottom, so the weight is back at the top. then add couple shafts so it just turns the center shaft not the wheel itself.
What about a yoyo ? Do you get any extra energy from the rotation? Or equal to freefall?
Interesting question, well done!
The yoyo scavenges some of the kinetic energy from the system as it falls - you can verify this by comparing the rate of fall of the yoyo in operation to just letting it fall to the ground. The kinetic energy is transferred into the yoyo and applies a torque force at the point where the string starts to curve around the string line in the yoyo. This torque builds angular momentum in the yoyo which is stored in the flywheel like body. As the yoyo moves down the string the diameter of the string on the reel decreases and the effective leverage of the applied torque changes helping to drive the spin of the yoyo faster but at an increased cost to the overall yoyo system.
TLDR: You don't get any extra energy from the yoyo, throwing a yoyo down adds energy - you always only ever get out what you put in.
@@frackcha Yea.. basically just coverts the linear down force to rotational force..
This has been a fun one.
It did have me thinking of some kind of yo-yo. I'd prefer using a yo-yo motion more then the one he was spinning over his head.
Maybe even a Whee-Lo generator sometime in the future.
no mate
@@st33ldi9ital Exactly!
If you have a pair of rocker buckets, you can run such a generator in a flow of water.
With self emptying 'trip' bucket valves, one can have the water automatically go from the one bucket to the other, working in the classic 'teeter-totter' fashion, and all you need to divert the water is a little 'bill' poking up out of the center, which, by the mere mechanical principle of rotating vectors will, with no added mechanism, divert the water flow into which ever bucket is in the 'up' position.
This 'bill' can be on a tipper affixed at the top with either a direct linkage [for a really short travel fall] OR, with a passive drag bar, if the buckets are dropping a significant distance.
So as the bucket fills, it begins dropping as the other bucket begins going back up [either by a bar, or, if it is a really long distance, a rope or chain with a pulley], the bill is pulled toward the now empty bucket, which, because it would defeat the purpose to have it fill before it got all the way to the top, has a trip lever valve which can only be opened or closed by additional mechanisms [latch engaging and latch releasing attachments] at each end of its travel.
Thusly, if you had only 2 buckets or, if you had a wobble plate with many buckets [say on a rotary cam for instance] you can always keep the empty bucket empty until it is in a position to push down from the peak of the travel, therefore not defeating the imbalance.
Morning all
morning lol
@@ThinkingandTinkeringYou are Always up Early,
~ in the Morning!!❤
Even I can't Catch You!!😅
Andréa and Critters. ...XxX.. .
Trying to think of permanent, and rechargeable, battery solutions for solar power led me to your gravity battery videos, so that's the angle I'm approaching what I'm about to say from:
Assuming you wanted to take this particularly high, say 50 feet, couldn't you have the bearing supported top be held aloft via, basically, a tripod with a base only slightly larger than the base of the device itself? I mean I'm not accounting for wind/weather obviously, just curious what your opinion on the topic might be, if you read this comment at all that is.
Another commenter had noted that it may be more efficient to not have the "battery weight" land and sit on the flywheel, couldn't you have a support along the central pillar stop the weight just slightly above the flywheel, like a second, much shorter tripod which apexes in a ring not otherwise in contact with the screw so the battery weight could impact there and stop before the flywheel?
If you were going to try something like this for solar power storage, how would you go about scaling such a system to provide residential power over, say, 12 hours of "night"?
Just curious what your ideas on the topic might be, thanks for making these very educational and entertaining videos on the topic of gravity batteries/generators, your style is informative and compelling!
If, the weight was hollow lifted to the top,then water was pumped uphill and filled it somewhat as it was dropped the water would move to the outside of the weight due to centrifugal force increasing the rotational energy ( a rotating plate verses a rotating dumbbell of the same weight) .
Or perhaps a mechanism like a centrifugal clutch from a mini bike except with weight on the clutch material ends
The WAG - Wobbly Archimedes Generator ! Yay !
WAG!! 😂 That's a Great Name for This,,, Although you might Confuse the Chap in my photo!!😂
lolol - like it mate
Looks like a great design concept! I think it would be perfect for converting an old aeromotor style windmill to generate electricity rather than pump water. The drive shaft cycles straight up and down with quite a bit of tourqe.
nice one mate - cheers
Gravity is very consistent in life" I also believe it's is the best for what we're doing! A falling orbital generator!
nic idea mate - cheers
Another great video Robert thankyou for the upload!
How large would a capacitor need to be to store the energy from a lightning bolt? Or how large of motor would be needed to power itself to run off of a single lightning strike and run up a heavy flywheel to power a generator?
As you said, a structure of some sort around the falling weight would stop the wobble. Maybe the structure should stop the falling weight's spin, as well as have a small stopper near the bottom, just above the flywheel weight, so it doesn't slow the flywheel down.
Possibly the weight could be confined by 4 Round legs that may spin as well?!
Possibly get a little bit more Energy production by the rotation?!
(I'm thinking about Magnetic bearings...)
Andréa and Critters. ...XxX...
nice suggestions mate - cheers
I've been loving your videos. I'd love to hear your talk about actually utilising these kinds of ideas to power your home. You are always using small props which is amazing but what about actual use cases.? What a dream it would be to see a home system that harvests energy in different ways to drive a gravity battery or something like it to power your refrigerator
I've often wondered how much energy could be harnessed from the general rise and fall of a decommissioned oil tanker in relation to the seabed. Perhaps one of Robert's gizmos could be adapted somehow.
You've just invented wave or tidal power.
Yes it's wave/tidal power for which there are plenty of prototypes around but I haven't seen any repurposed tankers used. Perhaps it's too problematic.@@vylbird8014
it definitely could mate
Coil spring off a truck with a plate pushing down on spiral shaft...hmmmmm. I love this!!!!
Now connect it up to the magic lever from video 2003 and harvest the energy from vibrations in some convenient place, store the gravitational energy for use later, such as a scaled up version for early morning electric grid higher demands.
cheers mate
Would a gearbox between the spiral and the generator have any benefit? Could you slow the drop but keep the flywheel spinning at high enough RPM to generate a usable electrical current?
May I suggest a planetary gear to make it spin faster and the weight to drop slower?
good suggestion mate cheers
couldn't you step up the speed with the gear box you made, this gearing might increase the rotations of the rotor through the gearing giving higher run time and voltage.
for sure mate - this is just showing a proof of concept
I thought I’d get in now, even though I’m off topic, with the hopes you’ll give this idea some thought.
So….
Using your “gravity is free” approach and adding it to a Trompe pump system…
My thought is you could utilise the void space in deep pile and/or bridge supports to insert vertical Trompe air compressors in what is otherwise wasted space.
There must be some location, close to running water, where a change of head is also available.
The deeper the Trompe, the higher the isothermal, dry, oil free, air pressure becomes.
Such air could provide ‘air conditioning’, free of ongoing costs to a building. As no water as consumed in the process, this could be invaluable in hot climes with high power restrictions.
Highly compress air could run generators with no emissions!
It could be used in place of batteries to power vehicles
It can certainly power workshops. It already does.
Anyway. That’s my musings.
Great posts, keep ‘em coming! 👍
Or , one can use compressed air from Trompe pump to power up Tesla turbine (with generator attached) and produce some energy that way....
cheers mate and thanks for sharing your ideas
I see problems with this:
- gravity storage requires a LOT of weight to be a reasonable energy storage system. 100s or 1000s of tons at least. I imagine manufacturing (and maintaining) those spiral axies will become very expensive on that scale
- also this will produce a lot of friction between the weight and the spiral axis. Probably far more than would be lost via transmission losses, for instance if that weight would be just on a rope over a pulley which drives a generator.
- lifting the weight again in an actual context requires another pulley system attached to the weight anyway, so the spiral really is redundant.
Can we use pulleys to make a really high number of turns for a lowish lift height for a heavy mass like a big bucket of sand
A planetary gear set up at the bottom would help. Slows the weight down while keeping speeds high in the generator.
These videos are a highlight of my day
oh wow - cheers
Was just thinking about this, thanks Robert!
cheers mate
Where the energy needed for lifting the weight to higher potential energy state is coming from Sir?
I am trying to so the calculations for a woosh bottle generator, make a woosh bottle and dip the tip in water. The water is sucked up pretty rapidly, my intention is to run a pelton turbine off of the water brought up. What is your thoughts?
very cool but is there a way to gather the energy that gets released when the barbell plate hits the bottom
?
I was just thinking about this! Thank you so much for more food for thought!
You are so welcome!
Would it work if the weight was below the generator to pull the spiral through to eliminate the flop ?
Insane, admirable, genius.
Is there a commercial version available? If not, I have to ask why! That's the only reason I've never tried it.
Another opportunity where pulleys etc could be used to extract some electricity is the gym .
All that wasted energy from people on weight and rowing machines etc.
They could reduce their gym fees with credits from feeding into the grid.
You know it's something interesting when it makes an adult chuckle like a child in a sweet shop 😅😝
I was thinking too, what if the rod in the middle was made from copper or aluminium, and there was ferro magnets on the plate spinning around the centre rod? Also, to return the plate to the top, you could have the whole setup on something that rotates when it gets to the bottom, so it'll keep itself going too. A gravity generator of sorts 🤔
Plenty of toys in the 60’s used a spiral core. Also the Stanley Yankee ratchet screwdriver
absolutely - see my video ruclips.net/video/YS0SvFCScZs/видео.html and my video ruclips.net/video/BSsj2rDJ2ts/видео.html for more on this if you are interested
When you mentioned Hydrostorage in the video where you including the old Victorian Accumulators which you've mentioned previously on the channel?
yes mate - i was
wouldn't a block and tackle/pulley system be able to greatly reduce the height requirements? like a 1m height with a 10x pulley would be as if its dropped from 10m and one could nest them for even greater length.
tanks for sharing mate - cheers
An awesome simple proof and reference point for further versions.. weird so many downvotes onthis one, maybe an influx from people from a different part of RUclips that had a similar video title. That happens.
I've been planning to make a big gravity battery for my home but one that would be geared and moves very slowly down to turn a generator very fast. Would be good to see a higher geared one compared to this one! ;) Keep up the good work, mate!
What if you flipped that device upside down and submerged it in water, such as a water well, raised the weight with an air bladder to turn the screw, deflate the bladder at the water surface to allow the weight to reset the sequence. I realize that some sort of latch would need to be used to prevent weight from slowly rising as the bladder is inflated. Perhaps use two generators at the top with opposite ratcheting drives so that one generator is spun on decent and the other generator is spun as the weight rises.
If you had a generator secton on the top and bottom held with gard rails.would that get you more extraction of the protenal energy.
yes you would
What iff one parks his tesla on a steap angled parkingspot that also forms a lift that tilts while parked to a negative angle (partially underground). The gravity can be used to convert the movement of the relative heavy car to kinetic energy.
Another way to store energy. What needs to be looked at total cost of ownership and efficiency. Is this any better than batteries? CAES? Hydrogen? Water? Hot salt?
Imagine a gym using these!
for sure
Hi Robert. Once again, you spark more ideas and designs. I dove right in last week and got my first 3D printer ( QIDI XMAX) and now i'm teaching myself CAD and learning about the whole 3D print process,. Bought myself some N52's and some rolls of magnet wire, and now i'm going to try modify a few of your designs to suit the magnets I have. I'll share with you once completed.
I'm looking at seeing how much a video player high speed rewind motor would take to rewire .
Anyway. I do have a question.. What is the definition of Gravity? :)
happy days
that is awesome news mate - i really do look forward to what you come up with
Gravity sucks
Why would this be more efficient than hydro, both are converting potential energy into rotational motion.
Brilliant Robert.
I was pondering the idea of using a weight in an abandoned mine shaft where the lift would normally be. Then any surplus energy from say a wind turbine or other renewable could lift the weight when consumption was low and be lowered driving a generator much like a grandfather clock system.
I suppose it’s been done though! 🤓
This is Fun!!😅❤
~I'm thinking about Round legs with Magnetic bearings,
for the outside as a way to Stop the Wobble?!!
Possibly get them to scavenge a bit more Energy?!!
I'd love to have a bit of a go with making this myself,,,
But, I have not been able to move house, yet so no room sadly,,,😕
(The Now Ex-Mr Dingbatt,=Reason I can't afford the land or house move,🤷!!)
Best Wishes and Kindest Regards,
Andréa and Critters. ...XxX...
like the idea Andrea - hope you get space soon
@@ThinkingandTinkering Thank you very much again Robert!!
It's not looking good for me,, since Ex-Mr Dingbatt has gone and spent our savings , while I was in hospital.....😕
I'm having to start all over again,,, it's a bit of a 🙄🤷!!
At my time of life it's going to be hard work,,, but then again my own Dad had the same challenge later on in life!!
Andréa and Critters. ...XxX....
With a healthy diet and mindset you will be there in no time.. prayers in your recovery...be in peace God speed.@@AndreaDingbatt
@@clint9344 Thank You very Much for the Support!!❤️
That's very Kind of you.
Andrea and Critters. ...XxX....
Wouldn't increasing the tear increase the efficiency of the system?
Instead of gravity towards earth, could you use magnetic force between two extremely powerful magnets? Would this store energy more space efficiently than having a huge pit with huge weights? Or alternatively, could centrifugal force be used to store a "magnet based generator" and multiply it's efficiency while furthermore maintaining a rather small dimensions?
And all to be placed inside of a vacuum to decrease air friction and increase efficiency. While controlled from outside the vacuum via magnetic force to charge the device? (meaning to spin it up and increase the distance between the two attracting magnets)
What about adding planetary gears?
good one mate
@RobertMurraySmith plus instead of 1 heavy weight, what about dropping 3 or more lesser weights in sequence to simulate a longer drive shaft.
Simpler method would be to weight the spiral rod on its bottom. A cable or smooth rod on the top of the spiral-this would be made to spin freely on the spiral-the purpose of which is to raise the spiral. Easy with low energy consumption. The option is to freewheel the cog in the generator during "charging"-raising of the spiral, or spin to generate on the upstroke.
is that really simpler mate?
Yes, mainly because a support structure wouldn't be necessary for the spiral rod with the weight on the bottom, pulling rather than pushing. With the weight pushing down on the rod the rod would necessarily require a support to keep it straight as you mentioned in the video. Anyway pulling is a much more efficient means of applying force than pushing.
Definitely a system which requires a gearing method to get the most out of it, How much you could actually store in a domestic setting though doesn't seem like it'll be much.
for that prototype not much, but the storage depends largely on the weight and distance. iirc 1 kg lifted one meter is 10 joules, which is equivalent to 10 wattseconds, or 10 watts for 1 second, or 1 watt for 10 seconds or however you wanna parse it.
so let's say you want to run your house for a day you should need or around 30 kwh that is 100,000,000 joules, let's suppose you want to lift it up to the top of your house and drop it, and that your house is two stories say about 7 meters, with 100% conversion you would need a weight of 1.4 million kg, raising it to 70 meters would reduce the needed weight to only 140 thousand kg. 7 kilometers (and this point you need to also be going down into the ground) would take the needed weight down to only 1.4 thousand kg.
I think the people who would benefit the most from gravity storage are those who live in a tiny home. They would need about 7 times less the energy than a regular size home.
This will give a better shot at energy independence.
it depends how much you need and that is very different from how much you want - I read tuseroni6085 and he suggested 30kWh - that seems a little crazy to me - according to my smart meter I use 5kWh per day more or less. I would need 18,000,000 joules
@@ThinkingandTinkering yeah I had thought 5kwh myself but I looked up the average power usage per day and where I live its 30kwh. Average for the usa is 28kwh/day.
fair enough mate - but that is a lot of power you use lol
Why not just a linear motor/generator, with the mass being a magnet or magnetised and the coils down the side(s), do away with all the rotary bits and associated losses?
go for it
Dangle your weight from a winch with the right level of gearing. Winch up the weight with solar power. When you need power at night, the weight will unwind the winch which now acts as a generator.
nice
Beautifully whacky videos :)
You did a gravity generator with a flywheel a couple of years ago with that idea how about adding several bicycle gears in to get a greater speed to the flywheel
Brilliant!
it is efficiant but i see the Problem that u don´t get to use it with out a person, I have a thought if u could just use it in a constant movement, maybe jus with magnets or some cain of Tension Spring that keep this moving and generating energy!
Now lift that iron plate with 4 ounces of water. Work smarter, not Harder. When the water cup fills, it lifts the weight, when the water cup side of the lever is pointing down the water weight transfers farther away from the fulcrum, thus needing less water to lift the weight and that's when you drain the water rapidly and your 2.2 kilo iron plate wants to fall back to earth because the water cup is empty. Unfortunately obtaining liquid mercury isn't a option for me. Not sure how many looked at my water clock and didn't understand the math used. It was when the weather changed I noticed the effects.
cheers mate
I see a limitation in this design that if not observed, could turn it into a single use device as the first drop of the weight would shatter the generator section.
The falling weight needs to be caught by mechanical springs or very strong magnets with same poles coming together that prevent it from crashing into the base.
On the other hand, one could utilize the generated current to energize coils that then catch the weight when the weight gets near the bottom so it doesn't crash. The addition of a battery powered motor to raise the weight back to the top, and assist the generated current in the coil should that be needed. But then; that would be a useless machine wouldn't it?
i was thinking gearing mate to maintain an impact less than the shattering impact
@@ThinkingandTinkering
That would work.
It would also prolong the energy production.
Maybe adding the device that is used in soft closing drawers and cabinet doors to stop the banging would help as well.
Would love to see you use ropes and pullies instead of the 3d printed custom axel. It will be much easier to source and diy. Also try to maximize the weight, hight , and gear it so it drops as slow as possible. 200 kg, which can be pulled by 6 pullies to to give the effect of 25 kg effort for reseting it back up. For 2m height youd pull 16m of rope. Pretty sure you can do that in 1 minute or so. Let the weight drop for 6 hours. How much watts would you get for that? (200kg at 2m over 6 hours)
Need to anchor in the harbor and float the wait with a buoy tidal.
I would think letting liquid or sand fall from one tank to the other would have less friction and wear .😊
like it. its obvious how the wieght gets back upto the top.. not so with his
like i did in this video mate? ruclips.net/video/cKYGdhIpbEU/видео.html
With the sand method you could make a giant egg timer and just turn it when the top is empty via a central pivot point,plus having a slow energy release over time
Obviously you would have to have a paddle wheel at the central restriction between the two chambers to collect the energy ⌛
@@ThinkingandTinkering how does the sand get back to the top. i watched twice.
@@paulevetts9771 ???? The same way it got to the top the first time - you put the sand in the funnel by pouring in it. It is not perpetual motion device...
Could you make two and make some piston effect spring ii. Middle or wind winding them up and. Down?
yeah i suppose you could mate - cheers
Really interesting and beautifully made, as and electrical engineer student , i often think about Gravity storaging but none of my course talk about It, they Just talk about elettrochimical storaging.
By the way maybe a problem of gravity storaging Is the fact that if you want to move your wheigt with a short run you Need It very heavy and you Need also big reduction, do you think that this could be and issue?
Gobsmacked is what is having had been made by that when one has had it happened to…probably by from there the spiral has undone too many screws!
probably
Fun to look at, but I think there is a flaw: Calculate the energy density. It's not much. You'd need a very large weight indeed to match the capacity of a simple 18650 cell. Gravity energy storage works fine, when you've got a huge volume of space to fill - think hydroelectric and a dam holding back all that water.
cheers mate
You can add repelling magnets to keep it from slamming down
cheers mate