Gadolinium Magnet Generator.

[Pirate88179]

@lumen,

Heating the Gadolinium slices rapidly with the coil to become magnetic sounds as though it might work alright, but cooling enough to re-grow magnetic from the environment alone may not be rapid enough for the Gadolinium to attract the next rotor magnet.

There's a difference between the adiabatic heating and cooling effect caused by exposure to a permanent field and demagnetization, and heat transfer through induction. The adiabatic temperature change is only in the range of a few degrees in the Gadolinium from PM field exposure, but the effect is nearly instantaneous as the material is forced to do work on the quantum level to sustain it's electron disorder along with cooling, for the opposite reason. This would require that the Gandolinium rotor studs be very close to the Curie point of 68º Fahrenheit in order to lose their magnetic attraction from the few degrees of heat rise from exposure to the PM field. The induction cooling effect from the environment would take much longer then the quantum cooling effect from demagnetization, and slow the rotor speed considerably.

Why not have part of the rotor immersed in a pan of water?  Not very deep as it would add drag, but just enough to "shock cool' the thin slices as it turned.  The water could be at room temp. (68 degrees)  It would take that water a long time to heat up above that if the room were held at a constant temp.  If the pan were large, like a sheet cake pan, and made of aluminum, you have a heat sink that would probably continue to work until you need to add more water due to evaporation.

Just a thought.

Bill

[MileHigh]

This may be a fun experiment, but in the end somebody has to pay the piper for the heat power that is required to run this device.  If for every 100 watts of heat power I can get seven watts of electrical power from a generator output (as a hypothetical example) then it's not too exciting.

Supposing that I use a solar collector to heat up the water to power the generator.  The key question is supposing I replace the solar collector and instead use electricity-generating solar panels to produce electric power directly.  Which method is likely to produce more electrical power per unit of incoming solar power?

Perhaps a more fair comparison would be with a Stirling engine.  For a given amount of heat power, which system can give you more electrical output power from an attached generator, the Stirling engine or the Gadolinium Magnet Generator?  Assume that in both cases the temperature differential is optimized for each device but the available thermal power is the same.

[synchro1]

This may be a fun experiment, but in the end somebody has to pay the piper for the heat power that is required to run this device.  If for every 100 watts of heat power I can get seven watts of electrical power from a generator output (as a hypothetical example) then it's not too exciting.

Supposing that I use a solar collector to heat up the water to power the generator.  The key question is supposing I replace the solar collector and instead use electricity-generating solar panels to produce electric power directly.  Which method is likely to produce more electrical power per unit of incoming solar power?

Perhaps a more fair comparison would be with a Stirling engine.  For a given amount of heat power, which system can give you more electrical output power from an attached generator, the Stirling engine or the Gadolinium Magnet Generator?  Assume that in both cases the temperature differential is optimized for each device but the available thermal power is the same.

@MileHigh,

Suppose we capture the heat from the MCE and return it to the Gadolinium instead running the light bill up?

[lumen]

This may be a fun experiment, but in the end somebody has to pay the piper for the heat power that is required to run this device.  If for every 100 watts of heat power I can get seven watts of electrical power from a generator output (as a hypothetical example) then it's not too exciting.

Supposing that I use a solar collector to heat up the water to power the generator.  The key question is supposing I replace the solar collector and instead use electricity-generating solar panels to produce electric power directly.  Which method is likely to produce more electrical power per unit of incoming solar power?

Perhaps a more fair comparison would be with a Stirling engine.  For a given amount of heat power, which system can give you more electrical output power from an attached generator, the Stirling engine or the Gadolinium Magnet Generator?  Assume that in both cases the temperature differential is optimized for each device but the available thermal power is the same.

What if it could run at the difference between ambient air and ambient air with evaporative cooling, making both sides of the equation free!
Like drinking bird only possibly greater output!

[ekimtoor1]

This may be a fun experiment, but in the end somebody has to pay the piper for the heat power that is required to run this device.  If for every 100 watts of heat power I can get seven watts of electrical power from a generator output (as a hypothetical example) then it's not too exciting.

Supposing that I use a solar collector to heat up the water to power the generator.  The key question is supposing I replace the solar collector and instead use electricity-generating solar panels to produce electric power directly.  Which method is likely to produce more electrical power per unit of incoming solar power?

Perhaps a more fair comparison would be with a Stirling engine.  For a given amount of heat power, which system can give you more electrical output power from an attached generator, the Stirling engine or the Gadolinium Magnet Generator?  Assume that in both cases the temperature differential is optimized for each device but the available thermal power is the same.

Is not the piper in this case a bargain since it is the ambient temperature?  At least in this experiment you KNOW where the extra energy is coming from, yes?  And that makes it more legitimate compared to many experiments where energy is coming from some "magic" place that nobody can get to.

But yes, the Stirling comparison, or any other ambient harvesting strategy is a good vet for this. 

Lastly, it's a spinny thing with magnets!   I love them!