Infrared potential

[goofy]

I once did a crude experiment which showed promise. I made a small cone shaped funnel from a sheet of brass. It was about 5 inches long, 1.25 inches wide at the large end and about .3 inches wide at the small end. I turned off the corner lamp in the room, turned off the heat and held my breath when I adjusted it to try to avoid outside influnces. I set it on a shelf and pointed the large end at a dark colored piece of paper on the wall. I put a thermometer in front of the small end. I waited 10 minutes and moved the thermometer so that it wasn't in front of it. After another 10 minutes I put the thermometer back. When I moved the thermometer, which was a disassembled desktop design, I did so without touching the sensing element (a bi-metalic spring) and while holding my breath. I repeated this process three more times.

In all the tests, which were performed at room temperature, I found about .5 degree F. rise in temperature when the cone was aimed at the thermometer and if fell back down when it was moved away.

My reasoning behind the test was that long wavelength infrared is reflected by polished gold. Brass was the closest material I had at hand. The cone shaped funnel can reflect and concentrate light. So my theory is that the ambient infrared "light" was being concentrated to produce a higher than ambient temperature. A second law violation, no?

I believe that four changes together could greatly improve the results. First use a temperature sensor which matches the size of the small end of the funnel. The bi-metalic spring unit I used was about 2 1/2 times bigger in diameter than the small end of the funnel, causing excess radiating area for the collected heat. Second, use real polished gold instead of slightly polished brass. Third, place the unit in a vacuum for insulating purposes. Fourth, possibly cascade the effect by putting two or more cones in series with an appropiately sized and partially insulated black plate suspended between them. Of course the first three improvements are the most straight-forward and could prove the effect. If 5 to 15 degrees F temperature rise could be produced in a single stage then multiple stages could perhaps cascade the effect so that thermocouples or some other heat engine could be used to produce power. The arrangement may also work to make a passive heat pump, refridgerator or oven.

    Goofy

[newton2]

HELLO GOOFY !

Your exp. was as close to real functioning as for some modifications to perform :

use Blackbody-to-Blackbody by curvatured mirrors having surden metallic fine polished surfaces !

and place in vacuum to avoid the "air" to "shortcircuit" the allready by 300 dgr K obtained app 5 dgr K temperature difference from a device app having 3 sgr-inches
BlackBody-plain-surfaces (fine carbon-powder-type)
the mirror-curv-topologics app of curved 15 sqr-inches , alltogether such a device
can be constructed into a 40-cubic-inches volume to place in vacuum !
use very thin Cu-wiring/very small-passive-thermo-resistor coupled to non-current in a outer balancing resistor-measuring bridge !
important to note : the temperature-measuring resistor must not be "heating" the active part of a BlackBody , but must have zero-current by the balancing measuring bridge !
not so tricky to obtain by successive balancing-acts !

have yourself succesfull experiments among of 2.nd-Thermodynamical-Proces--all-solid-state-structures/devices !

Have a nice day and thanks indeed for your weelwritten wordings about your exp , so easily to understand your construction plus measurements ! 

[lanca II]

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:PaulL:Thermodynamics
THZ-sphere,f.e.Dr.Helmut Reichelt
T-ray:a-/ether ?

S
  dL

[PaulLowrance]

Hi,

Goofy's experiment was really great!  It's nice to see that it works.  For some time I too have been pondering upon the idea of extracting energy from room temperature environment.  Lanca II pointed out my peswiki project:

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:PaulL:Thermodynamics

I think the purpose of Goofy's experiment was to see if it's possible, but it's really possible to extract even megawatts of power per cubic meter. According to Stefan-Boltzmann law 1 square meter radiates ~460 watts.  This is a very well tested and known law in the science community.  The radiation is in the far infrared range and often called T-rays.

I wrote a computer program that simulated T-rays radiated from a good FIR blackbody inside different shaped reflectors. Aluminum believe it or not is one of the best reflectors in the FIR range at nearly 99% if bare and polished.  The present design of this simulator is only 2D space and therefore the data cannot be taken too seriously until a 3D version is completed. Although it seems very hopeful and confirms Goofy's experiment. The simulation shows that the cone Goofy used would work if the thermometer were placed extending a slight distance away from the end of the cone, which is perhaps where Goofy placed his thermometer.

The present 2D T-ray simulator shows other shapes that are far better for heating up a surface.  The best so far is something close to an inwardly slanted cup, which achieved close to 20% above thermal radiation.  In other words, normally a one square meter of good material radiates nearly 460 watts, so this object would radiate 20% above 460 watts, which is 552 watts.  Since everything else in the room, except transparent objects, radiates roughly 460 watts per m^2 this equates to total of 120 watts of free energy per m^2.

To some people this may not sound like that much power given the size, which according to simulation was 1 meter wide at base, 0.8 meter wide at the top and 1 meter high. Every part of the cup is a made of aluminum except the base is made of a good FIR blackbody material. The simulation used Aluminum as the reflector. The bottom plate is the part that heats up, which may sound contradictory to Goofy's experiment, but the simulation shows exactly why Goofy's experiment also works. This of course is assuming the *2D* simulation version is correct.

So what's the potential of this technology.  By using micro technology it is possible to efficiently extract energy from thousands of thin plates. A plate that's 250 microns thick by 1 meter wide by 1 meter long would generate over 450 watts per side for a total of ~900 watts per sheet.  Stacking multiple plates to 1 meter high gives us 4000 sheets for a total of 3.6 Megawatts!  That's not bad for 1 cubic meter of space, but it's not realistic because we need to circulate air through each plate (which converts ambient temperature to electricity) to keep each plate near room temperature. Remember, if we are converting 900 watts of energy per plate into electricity then each plate will cool down. So we need to keep the plates near room temperature for maximum performance. Therefore, we should separate each plate by perhaps 250 microns, which gives us only 2000 plates per meter high for total of 1.8 megawatts. Even more realistic, given inefficiencies, we could expect as much as 1 megawatt per cubic meter.

I was planning on updating the present 2D T-ray simulator to 3D space, but something really big happened that looks extremely promising. The goal is to perfect a design by early 2007 that anyone can inexpensively build that would generate enough energy for his or her home 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, day and night. Right now it's too early to say just how successful this project will be by next year, but at least this technology is 100% backed by present proven physics; i.e., it is possible!

Paul Lowrance

[uberdeity]

Hey hey

I hate to be a spoilsport, but if his theory about reflective gold is right - which it appears to be and which I have to reason to disbelieve - then all he's doing is taking the energy available at the big end of the cone and concentrating it on the small end, so he's ending up with a rise as there is a higher concentration of photons at the small end, although the number of photons will be the same as or smaller than the number coming into the big end.

But yeah, it seems a sound enough piece of apparatus. And yes, it also has massive potential for power generation- harnessing the power of the ambient ~300kelvin and focussing it down to a smaller point where it can be used to perform work.