h a l f b a k e r yWhat was the question again?
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Roland loved his new Ford Expedition. He had bought one of the last ones available, as they were being phased out. Big, sleek, black... Roland figured that it represented all that he liked about himself. It also weighed 5500 lbs, which was about 5400 lbs more than his moped.
As he rounded the
corner into his street, he fished the garage door remote out of the cupholder in the centre console and "shot" the house.
The door slid silently upwards, revealing the ramp inside, sloping up to the floor, about 2ft higher than the driveway. Roland drove into the garage, feeling the vehicle begin to sink slightly. An odd feeling at first, he was used to it now.
The quiet whirring of the flywheel was evident as he stepped down to the sinking floor, which was almost level with the driveway again.
The flywheel drove an electric motor, that supplemented the electricity used in the house. Batteries and capacitors stored what they could of the excess, with the rest going back to the grid.
It would maintain the lights until Roland went to bed, after the computer started getting a little erratic. After it had run down the springs would be set turn the flywheel backwards, awaiting the removal of the counterweight; his pride and joy.
Now, when Roland sees an article critical of behemoth SUVs, his chest swells with pride, knowing he is doing his bit for the environment, however small it may be.
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An automobile engine does produce a pretty substantial amount of power, but trying to convert that power to electricity via the roundabout method you describe would be horrendously inefficient. |
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The only transportation device that I would expect could be harnessed efficiently for electrical generation would be a diesel locomotive. There, I only see two problems: (1) getting the diesel locomotive to the spot power is needed; (2) converting the high-voltage DC to AC. |
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[supercat], I have no intention of generating power from the engine of the car. I'm simply using gravity to turn a flywheel. The alternative is an immobile floor in the garage, as is currently the case. |
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To generate this power, you just drive into the garage, as you would normally. |
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I'm unsure why you assumed I was using the motor. |
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Assuming a 4000 pound SUV, I'm finding 3 Watt-Hours of potential energy from a 2 foot drop. This doesn't stop me from liking it. Roland's 5500 pounder will get a bit more than 4 Watt-Hours. |
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I never suggested Roland was a genius. He still gets off on what he perceives to be a public service. |
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Nice. Put one on your office chair too, [UB]. |
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Another thing is that Roland could have two identical bedrooms, one on a floor exactly above the other. When he gets in bed, the bed slowly starts sinking, turning flywheels and charging batteries for the morning toast and coffee power. In the morning he wakes in the lower bedroom. Getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night could be bad, though. |
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The Excursion is over 7000 pounds (!) |
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This should produce enough power to light a "you are no(t/w) parked" LED. |
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Perhaps it could run an MP9 player? |
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[bris], perhaps we could get him to sleep in the car? Excursion is the one, of which I was thinking. We get none larger than the Explorer here, so I'm out of touch with specific models. |
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What's the difference between the H1 & H3 Hummers? |
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One blows, the other swallows. |
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You're speaking from experience? |
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The H3 is their new, smaller, machine. |
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Pedants should be careful with their pedantry, [galukalock]. |
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The H2 is the midsize machine; a Chevy Suburban with new sheetmetal. The H3 is a smaller vehicle design, about the size of the GM Envoy, and not yet in production. The H1 is the civilian version of the military Humvee, a vehicle that I don't think of as an SUV, really, any more than I think a Jeep CJ is an SUV. |
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//Batteries and capacitors stored what they could of the excess//
Why not store it as potential energy by keeping the car up on the ramp until the energy is needed? |
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Build the house on a hillside and have a parking place that is a tram. The car descends all night and, in the morning, the driver descends to the car at the bottom of the hillside on a little people-size tram that was hoisted to the top of the hill through the night with some of the energy derived from the descending car. |
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I’m still waiting for the civilian version of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. |
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[UB] Supercat is right. You are generating energy from the engine because it is the engine that provides the energy to drive the SUV up the ramp. Now if you normally drive up your driveway fast enough to coast up this ramp, you would be recapturing some energy that would otherwise be wasted by using your brakes, but that energy could be harnessed more efficiently simply by coasting back down the ramp in the morning. |
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The title brought to mind an holographic garage that appears around your parked vehicle. |
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I thought of that, but the roof would leak. |
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Thanks, [bris]. I knew about the H2, but wasn't sure if the H3 was to supersede the H1. |
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I had thought of a circular drive, where you drive into one side of a portico, at 2nd floor level; then out the other, at ground level. |
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Now here's a thought. In movies, they always have the inevitable car plunging over a cliff. Why not hook a cable to to the rear bumper and use that to harvest all that potential energy? It's not like they're driving it back up... |
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You could cover the whole street with ramps to power the streetlights. |
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