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.
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