Electrical Power in the Aftertime

[Howard]

For many, Aftertime preparations are relegated to securing a safe location, gathering vital essentials and do not include provisions for generating electrical power.  While this isn't imperative for survival, it will be required for optimum vegetable cultivation, radio communication, among other quality of life improvements.  Although many are hoping to be deemed worthy of receiving a perpetual power pack, there's no telling when or even IF this can be expected.

 

Some may be able to rely on their ability to generate power from salvaging Aftertime wreckage, but most of us cannot.  This discussion is offered for those intending to generate power in the Aftertime and wanting to learn more.  Anyone currently living off-grid or with expertise generating and storing power is encouraged to share their ideas on reliable alternatives in an Aftertime environment.

 

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

 

There's much to be said regarding human powered generators in the context of an Aftertime scenario.  Most commercially available human-powered generators involve either a stationary bicycle that utilizes legs for pedaling or a hand crank mechanism that utilizes the upper body. Since a human is only capable of producing relatively low RPMs, power output is likewise limited.  And while pedaling a stationary bike for an hour currently may not be overly taxing, when your day is comprised of chopping wood, carrying water, and other physically exhausting activities - and you're borderline malnourished, this may not be a realistic option. Before exploring other alternatives for generating power, it's important to clarify some common misconceptions:

 

Misconception 1:  "I can salvage an alternator from a car or truck and generate power, right?"

 

Not easily. Most vehicle alternators start producing power at RPMs far greater than humans can achieve without substantial mechanical gearing to increase the alternator speed.  While vehicle alternators can be modifed to generate power at lower RPMs, this involves replacing the existing stator windings with windings that have more turns of smaller gauge wire, which is no small feat.

 

Using a vehicle alternator to harness wind power is also problematic. A car alternator is designed to be lightweight and operate at very high RPM. Since it won't produce useable power below 1000 RPM, ordinary wind turbine blades mounted on the shaft will spin relatively slowly and not produce useable power. While you can attempt to compensate for this speed mismatch by introducing gearing, rewinding the stator coils, or even using shorter blades, you'll find these laborious efforts only result in a wind generator that is clumsy, inefficient, and produces little power.

Also, you have to remove and bypass the internal voltage regulator if your battery is not right next to the alternator. So unless you have the battery mounted on top the tower, the voltage at the alternator will be higher than the battery voltage due to resistance in the wiring and the regulator will start to limit the voltage output before the battery begins charging properly. All in all, trying to use a vehicle alternator is a bad idea.

 

Misconception 2:  "I can hook up any Permanent Magnet Generator (PMG) to a stationary bike and generate sufficient power to charge my battery bank, right?"

 

Not necessarily.  Even PMGs advertised as "Low RPM" that reportedly generate voltage and current at any RPM need to be evaluated based on your ability to turn the generator fast enough to charge your batteries.  If you're trying to charge a 12V battery and you can't pedal fast enough to generate more than 12V, your battery will die just slightly ahead of you.

 

Misconception 3:  "I can use car batteries in my battery bank, right?"

 

Bad idea. Most batteries that start engines (starter batteries) are designed to be drained only slightly (2 to 5%) during ignition, after which they're recharged by the vehicle's alternator. This type of battery fails to hold a charge when repeatedly drained and recharged (deep cycled).  A used automotive battery can fail after only a few deep cycles, while a new deep cycle battery can last for over 20 years. While it would be recommended to obtain deep cycle batteries now, deep cycle batteries could be acquired in the Aftertime by salvaging those found in boat wreckage (marine batteries), as well as ones residing in forklifts, golf carts and floor sweepers (traction batteries).

 

Misconception 4:  "I can erect a wind generator anywhere and it will generate power as long there's wind, right?"

 

A wind generator needs to be positioned in a carefully chosen location that satisifies stringent criteria:

a.  Dependable Wind.  Any location will have periods when there's no wind, but you want to choose a site where there is some wind most of the time.

b.  Sufficient Wind.  Even though the blades may be turning, most wind generators won't charge batteries in winds less than 7 mph.  Power output increases almost linearly in winds between 10 mph and 20 mph, after which power output levels off and actually decreases in wind speeds over 35 mph as overspeed controls come into play. 

c.  Excessive Wind. While not enough wind is a problem, too much of it is a bad thing, too.  In wind speeds greater than 35 mph, most wind generators have built-in overspeed controls that slow blade rotation to prevent damage.  This reduces power output and increases wear and tear.  While some wind generators cannot survive wind speeds above 50 mph, others can endure wind speeds up to 120 mph.

d.  Good Wind.  For optimum performance, a wind generator should be located far away and well above the nearest obstacle that could affect the quality of wind by introducing turbulence.  Some say a wind generator should be located at least 300 feet away and 30 feet above the nearest obstacle, while others suggest a horizontal distance of 200 feet and vertical height of 20 feet is satisfactory.  It all depends on the location.  An 80-foot tower is not unheard of.

 

WHERE TO BEGIN

 

So what's the best means of generating power in the Aftertime?  This depends on many factors including your geographic location, how much power you envision your group requiring, what your group's capabilities are and what your available resources are for obtaining energy system components. 

 

If you wish to have electrical power in the Aftertime, its essential that your survival group contain at least one person with sufficient knowledge to be capable of either salvaging the necessary parts in the Aftertime or building the group's renewable energy system from commercially available components right now.  Personally, I believe this also includes the ability to build a generator from raw materials since there's no assurance power generating devices, despite how carefully protected, will survive the Pole Shift.

 

For those interested in learning how to build wind generators from raw materials, I highly recommend Hugh Piggott's, A Wind Turbine Recipe Book. This book is also available for download. I endorse this book because I was successful building a wind generator using it's instructions. The book includes plans for building 4', 6', 8', 10', 12' and 14' rotor diameter wind generators and is available in English or metric units.

 

So if your intention is to generate power in the Aftertime, how do you intend to accomplish it? 

We need to start talking about this now.  After the 7 of 10 hits, it might be too late.

[077ji62u6rp18]

and I implore everybody to trade your bracelets and watches for a good paracord bracelet that you wear at all times Please!!!!

[1ka1petpwnezc]

@Rae Ann Boyd

It is not EMP that will cause the coming cataclysms but that big wandering bully of a giant magnet and brother to the Earth, Planet X. He has come back into our vicinity, as predicted by the Zetas, and will cause a Pole Shift here on Earth. This a response of the Earth, a comparatively little magnet, dancing to the tune of the bigger...PX. As magnets do. That book you mentioned is very nice, I'm sure, but it cannot hold a candle to ZetaTalk as a repository of all the info one could need on these matters. Written by the 4th Density STO Zetas, it has all the dope on the coming Times. Read up!!

[1c1kjeeqhitzg]

This is awesome.  With some limitied and HEAVILY MASS PRODUCED ITEMS, one can build a gasifier.

 

Alternator Solution : Generate syngas, via cracking the smoke and tars in smoke to convert them into clean burning fuel.  The byproducts are useful. Ash, EXCESS HEAT etc. 1800 rpm, you can get 1800-2400 rpm from internal combustion with syngas. The energy is available is less but it is capable of running a motor and cary load. AND IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT, some lightweight engines (2-STROKE) are perfect for this application, just have to lubricate the cylinder because the lack of lubricant in the fuel. (Because 2-stroke principle relys on the PISTON to act as all of the engines valving so there is you know, minimal moving parts per piston. Lawnmowers are setup well for alternator conversion. See its an issue of the speed at which the front of the flame can propogate. They call it flame speed =)

 

But step into steam heating and steam process, you can turn a motor, which is a compressor, with steam. So with a system like that, because of the lower horsepower that would be generated at very low RPM, then a FLYWHEEL could be used to store kinetic energy and several motors can turn the same flywheel.

 

I see micro water show up in this discussion, I am assuming a mini dam like device. but what if you just simple store your energy on a rope? Hung high and geared in a way that allows continual power? I can imagine a series of heavy object suspended from ropes, as one drops, PART OF ITS KINETIC ENERGY can be used to trigger a mechanism that allows the second to drop and third and so on.  So in the absence of abaundant water or the ablity to vessel it, this is a kinetic solution that works.

 

There is an abundant source of energy that is not well understood by the mainstream today. Mainly because people can just plug in so the average person has no immediate need for it and the energy companies fear it.

On a really really really really small scale, there is energy vibrating at every point in every piece of the known universe.Its really really really tiny, but its there.

 

Avoid using transmission lines. They will eat up the fruits of your labor. MUCH LIKE POWER TOOLS BREAK IF YOU USE TOO LONG A CORD because of something known as voltage drop. So high frequency conversion and transmission through the earth is ideal and very well documented. It's just not used because the ENERGY INSTITUTION makes LOAD of profit by losses that you don't even know exist. Plus your equipment is likely to perform better on cooler power. Just some good thoughts that all should be aware of regarding electricity. This discussion is re-entering the darkages of electricity and this is kinda of scary. It truely is a build it bigger mentality, thats what the brainwashing has done to people. Investigate exotic metal oxides as PN junctions perhaps. Palladium lattice and force combination of atoms to creat new atoms and some heat? Use the energy available via the vibrations of everything.

 

Timothy

 

[1c1kjeeqhitzg]

The Green Steam Engine website is full of bad information. It even makes an assumption that electic motors can run in any orientation, which is SIMPLY NOT TRUE. Beware of people SELLING energy. It even claims that there is absolutely no enviromental impact, which is simply not true. Where does the steam come from?

	Steam engines can run 24 hours a day regardless of location, weather or daylight. True only if it doen't fail and it will.
	There are no construction costs, towers, roof panels or permits required. SALESMEN! Everything costs, im sorry.
	There is no noise or environmental impact associated with steam power. Except the noise from the engine and the noise from steam production. You could use a fresnel lens, to amplify solar but solar is not stable, SO no 24 hour operation as claimed above.............................................
	The Green Steam Engine™ may be powered by the widest range of alternative fuels, including solar and geothermal. Solar is not stable. I kinda of professionally desing geothermal systems, you're looking at 3 moths and 30-40,000$ US dollars to get some real useable geothermal. Heat pumps are commonly used in geothermal as a desuperheater in most cases. So they break a lot, and they cost like Mercedes.
	No back-up power required as it is with wind and solar systems. So wait, so then how do you get the steam.....   This is garbage. Steam is good, but not for sale. USE your mind, read for christ sake. PHYSICS. I mean in America our tax dollars are used to educate children that the egyptians built pyramids, and no glimpse of how to make money other than work for corporations, so its obvious that the good knowledge is something you personally find.

 

Nick Scott said:

Hi everyone,

I lived off solar power, batteries, and wind power for 5 years, and it's not all that easy! We had a diesel generator for a backup, and after several years, because the batteries gradually get more difficult to keep fully charged, we were running the generator almost daily.

I've since moved from that property, and recently found this website:

www.greensteamengine.com which has amazed me at its simplicity. If you have heat (i.e. a fire) you can run this thing. It could potentially run a household, indefinitely, has very little maintenance, is straightforward to build from easily available parts (only three need to be specially sourced), and the plans are relatively cheap as well. 

I just got the plans myself, and intend to build it over the next short while, so hopefully I can let you know how it turns out.

I hope that's helpful!

[Rick Rickster]

Here is a cool magnetic generator with a Bicycle wheel hub http://youtu.be/Gp646NwPhfI  There is no explanation on it,  but works.

ZT http://www.zetatalk.com/energy/tengy06a.htm

 We have low voltage equipment that operates at 1.5V, 3V, 4.5V, 6V, 9V or 12V. Such items as car lights and battery powered lights use lower voltages. In general 12V equipment is a good compromise for post Pole Shift living. When buying equipment to use after the Pole Shift, go to stores with camping equipment, not ordinary stores.

[Howard]

Thanks, Rick.  Here's a home-made bike-powered generator that charges 12V batteries and produces about 30 amps peak, 5 to 10 amps continuous:

http://www.gulland.ca/homenergy/lindabike.htm

[Rick Rickster]

Howard,  the best kind is one that can work on its own without any assistance?  If you feel like excersizing the bike idea is great,  but.....not all the time.  Here is one magnetic one which is completely on its own and puts out about 700Watts....and that is about all that is needed for most situations.  This site shows how to build it also....

http://www.otherpower.com/wardalt.html

[Howard]

Rick - PMGs powered by wind or water are certainly preferred, but human-powered generators such as the aforementioned bike-powered generator can be highly useful as an emergency back-up to provide battery charging during periods of calm wind or system maintenance.

Be sure to check out Otherpower's Wind Generator Construction that details all aspects of building a 1500 Watt wind generator from carving the blades to raising the tower.

[Malou (Marie Louise) Geleff]

I found this posted on facebook, yesterday, and would like to hear your opinions about it :

[Recall 15]

Hello Malou,

you must recicle the water in the end of the machine, if you don't have a river near, you can use a container at least 2 meters/6.74ft high from the machine to operate. And use the recicled water container to refill the main container.

[Howard]

The referenced website TheBackShed.com is an extensive online resource for DIY power generation.  The F&P washing machine conversion to a 800W micro hydro generator is remarkable, but not without some challenges.  For instance, in order to generate 20 Amps, considerable head of 48 meters (157 ft) is required.  Also, someone who possesses above-average electro-mechanical knowledge and shop skills would be required to successfully complete this project.  Correctly directing the flow of water through the nozzle at the Pelton wheel is in itself a complicated endeavor.  But with the right skill set, conversion supplies and environmental conditions, this is certainly a worthwhile alternative for generating power in the Aftertime.  Thanks, Malou.

[Malou (Marie Louise) Geleff]

Thank you both !!!