Just a cursory opinion, based of the photo above, is that Gyroscopic Precession will have this apart in very short order... The bearing mounted on the trailing end of the rotating shaft appears to have a Moment Arm, (as a ratio, perhaps 6 times the load of the rotating Mass running true and perhaps 50-100 times that with a sudden change in direction by the wind) that will result in failure.
Much like the vaunted power cell, if there was indeed something to them, don't you think anyone who could afford $250,000 Recreation Vehicle would have one in the place of their noisy piston engined generator?,
"... When things don't make sense... Follow the money trail... "
Just a departure...
The principle of a Hybrid vehicle is to store energy from a small engine in a
medium that can be released at some multiple of the stored rate to make it
behave like a large engine. By way of example, a 20hp engine storing energy for
20 minutes effectively stores 400hp in a perfect world.
What is missing from this is the fact that all of the currently available
'hybrids' are boosters run in parallel to the combustion engine, so the
efficiency of the engine is no better than a conventionally powered car, but he
smaller engine appears more efficient simply based on fuel consumption per mile.
In a true Hybrid, the engine size would be determined by the top speed of the
chassis. The heavier the vehicle or higher the top speed, the bigger the engine
would have to be. At top speed, the engine output, the drive system and the
chassis demand would be at equilibrium.
The upside of this is that at anything other than the top speed, the chassis
would consume a percentage of the stored energy, while the fuel consumption was
halted, and at some predetermined point, the engine would roar back to life,
consuming fuel at peak efficiency to recharge the medium, then shut down once
again.
Given very real chassis dynamics, the engine might be running at some 10% of the
time at the nominal 32 Miles per hour of the chassis lifetime average speed, and
roughly 50% at twice that speed. This is consistent with the adage in racing
that doubling the speed of a chassis demands quadrupling the horsepower to
achieve that performance.
The real dilemma is that electric vehicles, or those having batteries in their
drive system simply cannot cycle power rapidly enough to be a series or true
Hybrid.
I believe that teaser should be sufficient to stir discussion... I will close in
saying that while I am convinced that compressed air IS the solution, but the
MDI/Tata motor design is fatally flawed...
Kevin E. vonMoses,
Glendale, AZ
(And yes, there is an alternative...)
The Energy Ball is a slick, silent, and efficient wind turbine that can create usable energy from even light winds. The main factor contributing to the success of the Energy Ball design is the use of the Venturi effect. The Venturi effect occurs when an “incompressible fluid flows through a constricted section,” this results in the production of increased kinetic energy. Home Energy is the Swedish Company responsible for the application of this effect to the Energy Ball. Another contributing factor to the efficiency of this model is the rotating shaft is parallel with the wind direction making it more aerodynamic. Through the use of 6 curved blades that form a sphere while in motion the Energy Ball is geared to be an ideal energy source for small scale use.
