Homestead Energy: New and Odd Ideas, and Review

So far, we've looked at ideas for alternative energy from the most common to those that have been around, but just haven't gained much traction.  So far, so good, right?  In all of my research, I also came across a few ideas that just seemed odd.  Some may have potential, while others, well, they would take almost consistent maintenance to keep them running.  So let's look at those.

I'm not going to delve into details here.  There are just too many of these ideas out there.  But I'll give you a basic list with links connected to each.  That way, if a particular idea piques your interest, you'll know exactly where to go to get more information.

A simple place to start is the idea of building your own generator.  With these, you can decide what type of fuel you want to use in it.  You can run it on already available gas sources (which kind of defeats the purpose, in my opinion), you can use a type of biofuel like algae, or you can set it up to run off of the energy you have gained from any of the other sources we've already discussed.    Of course, you can always just go out and buy a generator, but they can be costly.  So how about building one from a lawnmower?  Or how about building your own inexpensive AC generator from common items you can find at your local home improvement store?  Now, with that one, it may require a different set-up with regards to the location of the inverter/adapter if you are powering it with an alternative source.

If you don't mind spending an hour or so a day exercising, maybe you'd like to try a little "pedal power".  You'd just have to make sure you do it every day, as an hour of exercise produces roughly 24 hours worth of power.  Or, you could invest in one of these wood stoves that can create electricity for your home.  This would be a great idea if you're cooking a lot, live in a cooler climate, etc.  Or maybe a rectenna is a little more your speed.  This device will convert light directly into usable power, without going through the slightly more difficult process of solar.

Lastly, there are ideas like poop power (from people, cows, or even microorganisms) where a usable gas is collected from the poop, turning coffee into a biofuel, or even using sound waves or dancing to create your own usable energy, known as piezoelectricity.  Those ideas and more are covered here and here.

So, in looking back over the past several weeks, we've covered a LOT of ideas for alternative energy.  Maybe there is one that has jumped out at you as something you would seriously like to learn more about.  Maybe there are two or more that you think maybe you could use in conjunction with each other.  Or maybe, with this last post, you think you might want something new and different, or to even try to come up with your own ideas of creating energy.  There might be something that, while potentially would have difficulty running on a larger scale, could work amazingly well for you and your homestead.  The ideas and possibilities are, quite frankly, endless- limited only by your imagination.  Think about the options, do the research, maybe come up with a few ideas on your own, and give them a try.  Just remember, that no matter what you decide on, it all comes back to the simple fact that you are working with electricity here.  Be careful.  When in doubt, consult a professional.  But all in all, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to have ample electricity for your homestead without being tied to the grid.  It really doesn't matter if you need a lot or a little.  The possibilities are there.

Homestead Energy: Tesla, Zero Point, and Free Energy

Welcome back!  I truly hope everyone enjoyed the Olympics.  Along with the talent, strength, and endurance, there were amazing acts of kindness, bravery, and of course, the occasional craziness.  Congratulations to all the athletes.  And not just the ones who went home with medals.  Just getting to the Olympics is a monumental achievement.  Each and every one of them deserves recognition and respect for their hard work.

So this week, I'm going to be talking about another type of energy that is somewhat controversial.  That is the idea of free energy, or zero-point energy.  While there are many people out there who believe that the idea of free energy is nothing but a pipe dream, I tend to believe that those people are not truly versed in energy, and/or don't like to believe in anything "out of the norm", so to speak.  Now me, I've been a huge fan of Nikola Tesla since I first learned about him when I was young.  What I wouldn't give to be able to travel back in time just to be a fly on the wall in his lab.  The epitome of a mad scientist?  Kind of.  But he was a genius so far ahead of his time, that only now are his innovation and dreams truly coming to fruition, and getting the proper recognition he/it truly deserves.  The man behind alternating current that the world currently runs on (among many, many other things), and yet he is overshadowed by people like Thomas Edison.  I could easily get into a huge diatribe on my aversion to Edison.  Don't worry.  I won't.  Instead, I want to focus on Tesla, and his idea of free energy.  He didn't exactly call it that.  And some say, he wasn't even looking for it.  The debate is whether he was looking for free energy all along, or whether he was looking to be able to communicate across the globe wirelessly, and stumbled upon the "free energy" concept by accident.  Regardless, what he found and built was nothing short of amazing.  Now, I'm not going to delve too deeply into his life, his work, and what led him to free energy.  That would take way too much time, and there is already a plethora of information out there.  I highly recommend the book, "Tesla: Man Out of Time" by Margaret Cheney, if you want a great place to start researching the man.  But the basic idea is that he had filed several patents related to both wireless communication and energy transmissions on a relatively small scale in his lab on the east coast. He then moved to a larger facility just outside of Colorado Springs to conduct further tests.  Finally, he went back to New York to build the ultimate Tesla coil, named Wardenclyffe Tower.  The tower, however, was never completed as his financial investors backed out before it could be completed.  Had his dream been realized then, the tower would have pulled energy from the atmosphere to then send out communications and electricity.    If you want to know the in's and out's of Wardenclyffe from Tesla, himself, this is a good read.

Some would say that this was Tesla's biggest failure.  To me, that is very short-sighted.  His coils do work.  You can see them in classrooms everywhere, there are countless demonstrations of Tesla coils being used to create music, and even those fantastic little plasma balls that came to popularity in the 1970's (and can still be found everywhere, even in my own home) are actually small Tesla coils.  The main reason that these coils never really took off in the electricity arena is because there is a danger involved with them.  They do, after all, produce electrical sparks.  Now as to just how dangerous they are, I think depends on the actual construction of the coil, the atmosphere in which it is placed, and what, if any, safety precautions are put into place.  Tesla, himself, sat in the middle of a room, completely unphazed, while the sparks flew all around him.  And yet, there are concerns today of the sparks causing harm to people with pacemakers, for example.  As with any "loose" energy sparks, I do believe that erring on the side of caution is a good rule to follow.  But if you know what you are doing, there are numerous sites out there where you can either buy a coil, or you can find instructions on how to build your own.  An open source plan that is an updated version based on Tesla's original patent can be found here.  Another set of instructions is here, complete with safety precautions.  Or just a complex set of safety guidelines can be found here.  Now as to why there is such debate on the legitimacy of this idea working, I have no idea.  Already on the market are products that are small, like this,  Then there is the modern version of the Wardenclyffe tower already in use in Russia.  And while it can produce enough electricity to power all of Russia's electrical needs, it only does so for a split second.  Further tests are still being conducted.

Tesla coils are not the only version of free energy.  There is also the idea of cold fusion.  Bear with me here.  Ok, so cold fusion is basically the same type of fusion that occurs naturally in very hot places, such as the sun, but it's created here on earth.  That difference of a few thousand degrees is why it's referred to as cold.  Cold fusion, or I should say, the idea of cold fusion, has been around for a long time.  The idea was tested in 1989, and thought to have been successful.  However, due to some major oversights in the original testing, it came to be seen by most in the scientific community as nonsense.  It came back into the thoughts of mainstream science around 2011 when new and exciting experiments were taking place, with some scientists claiming that cold fusion generators would easily replace current generators within a very short time frame.  It was even added to a list of new technologies that the US government could potentially provide research funding for.  While it is still being looked at and researched to some extent, there is nothing currently on the market for providing cold fusion energy.  Personally, I think it's only a matter of time.

Another idea that I believe has great potential is this little gem.  To my knowledge, it is still in testing phases, and not yet on the market.  It also does require batteries.  However, I can easily see this transforming the way energy is used and conducted in the near future.

As far as the basics of using free energy for your off grid homestead, sadly, this is just about all I could find at this time.  I do strongly believe that everything is energy, and when we find a way to utilize that efficiently, our world will become a drastically better place.  If you want to read a great article on the basic principles behind free energy, I would recommend this one.  Highly scientific, but contains a great deal of information.  If you would like to know the math some claim are involved in free energy, see here. And if you want to hear a brilliant man discussing many ideas on free energy and how they are being tested, look here.

Some would call me an "out of the box" thinker.  I prefer believing that there is no box other than the ones we create ourselves.  For that very reason, I believe that all of these ideas not only have merit, but that it would be an incredible waste if they weren't researched further and put into use as soon as possible.  I think Tesla, himself, would be greatly disappointed to see that we haven't done it already.  Tesla coils are definitely something that I will be looking into as a way of providing energy to my home.  And as always, if you choose to try it, please do so with caution, and by all means, let me know how it works for you.  You just might be the one to change the world.

Taking a Break

I meant to mention this at the end of last week's post.  In honor of the 2016 Summer Olympic games, I am going to take a small break from posting.  I will, however, return in two weeks when the games have completed.  In the meantime, I encourage everyone everywhere to join the world in one heart and spirit of comraudery, peace, hope, respect, and love.

Peace and love from me to each and every one of you!

Homestead Energy: Magnets

This post may strike a bit of a different chord than my previous posts.  The reason for this is simply because there is a great deal of debate as to whether or not it is even a viable possibility to use magnets to create energy.  A simple search online will inevitably produce just as many people claiming "scam" as there are people praising the idea.  Now me, personally, I'm a believer.  There are theories that claim some UFO's use some type of magnets for their propulsion systems.  Now, I'm not going to get into that.  But the truth is that NASA has been looking into magnets as a type of deep space propulsion possibility by way of electromagnetic propulsion.  And the great minds at MIT also seem to agree that there is some merit here.  So from here on out, I'm going to continue along the idea that this is a viable option.  So here we go.

At the very basic level, as discussed in the link from MIT above, magnets do not contain energy, in and of themselves.  They must be acted upon by an outside force.  This is generally done in one of two ways: either a single rotating magnet or an electromagnet is placed near a rotating series of magnets, or two  counter-rotating magnets are placed near each other.  Being that magnets are used in a variety of different types of generators, it should come as no surprise that there are magnetic generators out there for sale.  In fact, most wind turbines run with a series of magnets in the generator.  Depending on the size of the generator, they typically start around $200.00 and go up.  Or you can build your own.

We probably all remember from our elementary science classes that magnets have two poles: north and south.  Like poles repel, while opposite poles attract.  That simple little bit of information should, theoretically, make the rest of the concept here pretty basic.  If you can keep like poles towards each other, there should be a constant push of trying to repel.  Therefore, if the series of magnets is placed on a rotating disc, and another magnet (or series of magnets) with poles in the relative same position is placed close to that disc, then it should be a never-ending cycle of the magnets pushing away from each other.  There are a few different opinions, however, on whether the magnets on the disc should all be in the same direction, or alternating.  The thinking is that alternating the poles will create more speed in the rotation, thus creating more energy.

But there are few things to consider.  First of all, while the rotating disk is basically a "Lazy Susan", it must be built in such a way that there is little to no drag on the moving parts.  This is to keep repair and maintenance to a minimum, and to increase efficiency.  For this reason, a typical design will use ball bearings to allow for free movement.  Secondly, realize that not all magnets are created equal.  There are actually four different types of permanent magnets, as well as temporary magnets and electromagnets.  The type of magnet you choose for your build will determine not only the amount of energy you get, but also how long your system will last before the magnets need to be replaced.  Yes, some magnets will lose their magnetism, or otherwise become demagnetized over time.  Here is a good breakdown of the types of magnets.

The cost of building your own magnetic generator is very fluid.  By that, I mean that it all depends primarily on your magnets.  How many?  How big?  Which kind?  What set-up will you use?  Stronger and bigger magnets will cost more.  You can scavenge magnets from electronic items, such as televisions, radios, computers, etc.  Or you can opt for purchasing new ones.  For a starting point, here is one supplier of Neodymium-Iron-Boron magnets, which is one of the types referred to above.  You can also purchase kits and/or instructions.  However, please be very careful with this.  There are many places out there that sell these, but they may or may not actually work.  This guy claims to have tested a few different versions of these instructions.  Whether he is for real or not, I can't attest to that.  But maybe what he says will help you to determine a bit for yourself whether or not this is an avenue you would consider.  And then there is this page which seems to go a bit more in detail.

All in all, there is science behind this idea.  Why there is so much debate about it, I'm really not entirely sure.  Assuming that it does work as well as it (theoretically) should, it could be very well worth the investment.  As to how much energy can come from a magnetic generator, well again, that will depend on the same variables that determine cost.  But I'd dare say that if this is something that NASA is looking into for deep space ventures, there must be some pretty good power there.  Just make sure you do some research to find the best option.  And please, if you do decide to try this, let me know how it works for you.  This is an option I'd definitely consider.