Under water gravity wheel

[CuriousChris]

sorry but the dam Hydroelectric plant is the most efficient gravity fed power plant known to man. nobody has matched it so far.

its also the most efficient solar powered power plant known

I might start another thread on this a little later I have been musing about using water to store energy in an unconventional way.

CC

[Low-Q]

sorry but the dam Hydroelectric plant is the most efficient gravity fed power plant known to man. nobody has matched it so far.

Agreed. It is also the most expensive power we have in Norway at the moment - even if all our hydro power plants is "green", litterally without any toxic waste. We sell the cheap excess power to other countries at summer time when the water reservoir is full, and buy expensive power from other countries in the winter when the water reservoir is almost emty - just to keep the cost within the borders high all year around. It does not make sense, but business is business.

Vidar

[Low-Q]

As I see it a pair of weights and air reservoirs wont work. but what about two pairs?

Normally I tend to believe if you cant get a gravity wheel to work with one pair of weights adding more does not help, Usually the inventor gets excited (often me) and thinks Eureka that's it. but usually its fools gold.

This case has me intrigued though, will two sets work? I am trying to visualise it.

The part I think that will cause the problem is the displacement. to pump the air from the upper chamber to the lower chamber you must displace the equivalent volume of water. I think with careful selection of volumes and weights the displacement problem may be addressed. trial and error is probably the best way to go.

Start small. To create a water tight container you could use two balloons connected by a straw (4mm garden riser would be perfect) a small can could contain the balloons, the balloons act as a membrane.

I'll be fascinated to see how you get along, I know at some point equilibrium must be reached. I just can't work out where it would be in my head.

With one set equilibrium is at 12 and 6, but with 2 sets when one set is at equilibrium, the other set is at 3 and 9 and going through maximum transfer. which should push the other pair over equilibrium. Is this Eureka?

CC

You're right. If one doesn't work, adding more non-workable ones doesn't help. If the consept doesn't work, it will never work.

A small model will help to understand how these mechanisms work. I have no place to make one, so Phun is the closest I can get...

Vidar

[CuriousChris]

Hi Low-Q

Thought you may be interested in this, I found it the other day

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/patents.htm

search for patent 1330, about halfway down the page

CC