Old Project Avalon Forum (ARCHIVE) - View Single Post - Children Pump Clean Water While Playing on the Merry-Go-Round

minimeister · 11-17-2008, 07:06 PM

I agree it's a brilliant idea. It's so important to keep in our thoughts that high tech doesn't always equate to innovation. Simplicity can be innovative too. Effective is what we're really after. I've had some thoughts on this subject before that I will share in hopes that this sort of thing might catch on...

1) How about health club where all the exercise machines produce energy? Make it a friendly competition to see who can rack up the most kilowatt hours.

2) An electrical generator that uses a mule or ox as the energy input. This might sound crazy at first but it's not when you think about it. It would be cheap and easy to maintain, it's been used for eons for other forms of energy such as water pumping and still is used for that sort of thing today. By having the ability to produce a daily amount of electricity families could get more use out of the animal they already have. The hardware to do this would be pretty low cost and could even be made from discarded electrical parts.

3) Huge efficiency gains can be achieved if you design home energy systems to work as a complete system together instead of being thought of as different independent systems. Let me give a specific example; Your home is built with a roof which serves well for rainwater collection. That water flows through channels that pass it over water wheels on it's way to the tank that generate a little electricity, perhaps enough for the electricity needed for purification of drinking water. So, for every say 100 gallons or grey water you get enough energy for say 1 gallon of potable water. Then you can use your compost pile to heat water by putting water piping in the hot part and pumping water through it. Thermal recapture systems, etc.

This one with the kids doing the work for you is just great. It reminds me of the story of the cold war space race between the US and Russia and the problem of how to get a pen to write in zero gravity. The story goes that the US spent a big pile of money to develop a pen that could do this. The Russians used a pencil.

11-17-2008, 07:06 PM	#3
minimeister Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 14	Re: Children Pump Clean Water While Playing on the Merry-Go-Round I agree it's a brilliant idea. It's so important to keep in our thoughts that high tech doesn't always equate to innovation. Simplicity can be innovative too. Effective is what we're really after. I've had some thoughts on this subject before that I will share in hopes that this sort of thing might catch on... 1) How about health club where all the exercise machines produce energy? Make it a friendly competition to see who can rack up the most kilowatt hours. 2) An electrical generator that uses a mule or ox as the energy input. This might sound crazy at first but it's not when you think about it. It would be cheap and easy to maintain, it's been used for eons for other forms of energy such as water pumping and still is used for that sort of thing today. By having the ability to produce a daily amount of electricity families could get more use out of the animal they already have. The hardware to do this would be pretty low cost and could even be made from discarded electrical parts. 3) Huge efficiency gains can be achieved if you design home energy systems to work as a complete system together instead of being thought of as different independent systems. Let me give a specific example; Your home is built with a roof which serves well for rainwater collection. That water flows through channels that pass it over water wheels on it's way to the tank that generate a little electricity, perhaps enough for the electricity needed for purification of drinking water. So, for every say 100 gallons or grey water you get enough energy for say 1 gallon of potable water. Then you can use your compost pile to heat water by putting water piping in the hot part and pumping water through it. Thermal recapture systems, etc. This one with the kids doing the work for you is just great. It reminds me of the story of the cold war space race between the US and Russia and the problem of how to get a pen to write in zero gravity. The story goes that the US spent a big pile of money to develop a pen that could do this. The Russians used a pencil.