Aaron Garrison

I agree that a spring would be useful to pump water here is how i think of it:

Using a windmill you could mount a spring or multiple springs. Nitinol or steel, though i would agree that using ninitol would be more effective because you can use the hot/cold natural temperature of wherever a person lives to loosen/tighten, respectively, the ninitol spring thus ((about)) halving the amount of energy needed to input into the spring itself.

You gear the windmill down to the springs which would wind up then detach then when there is no wind you could pump water from a well or spring. You wouldn't need any electricity to have a fairly good water system depending on your wind situations.

This was just the thought that i had when i was thinking about wind-up technology. There are other useful applications like this with wheat grinding and general food processing, it depends on how much it would really cost to make or buy the springs and gearing mechanisms.

Hello and welcome to the very small post for wind-up power, lol. Anyways, using the peltier effect would give you the hot/cold but i don't think it would generate enough heating/cooling that you would need to spring the nitinol. I believe that the power of wind-up storage lies within the mechanical aspects, using the stored "energy" from a sustainable source (watermill/windmill) to "power" other rotary objects. Using wind-up power to generate electricity would be fairly inefficient seeing as a windmill/watermill can just have a generator on the unit itself. Also the scale at which a spring would be useful it would have to be pretty big so portability is minimal. Most wind-up systems would have to be stationary, but i really like the idea of using wind-up to run a drill press or table saw but i don't know if you could generate enough RPMs and torque on the machines themselves (so that the blades don't stop when there is resistance) I always check up on posts so please if you have any info, post it.

hey im just following up on the post. The problem with using the nitinol springs (using the hot and cold) is that it probably takes more energy to burn wood in a wood stove and the jug of water may not be cold enough to activate the springs tension. I think using a wood stove/steam generator would be more efficient than burning the wood to release the spring. Also i see that a lot of the posts have been focused on the windmill idea (which is great) but the obvious problem with windmills is that its not always windy XP. I was thinking of a more constant source like a water wheel in a non-freezing stream. You could use the water wheel to continually "charge" or wind up one spring (whichever material you like) then due to tension it would shift over to a new spring (this setup would take more than just one spring but im sure you get my point) this would allow you to use power from the spring(s) constantly and wind them all year round. I do believe that if you were to hook up a large spring that gives off a lot of force you would be able to gear it to run like a blender, but you would have to design in counter appliances so that you have a stable hook-up to your belts.

As for running an engine (even just for electricity) off of the wind-up power to charge batteries, you would have a few feats to overcome. Of course the engine would need constant oil and lubricant just so your metal moving parts dont wear out. You also have to look at how an engine at full speed will decay over time because of all the moving components. Another problem with using an engine is just that an engine's alternator is just crappy comparatively to turbines. a reg alternator is made to run at above 2000 rpm with this low tension on the alternator you get very little actual electricity. You would be better off removing 4 alternators from different engines and then mounting them so that they can be chained together to generate electricity. This leads to me saying just hook up a windmill turbine or something that is geared for generating lots of electricity at slow rpms.

I still see a bright future for this type of power especially in permaculture, but i think the applications of this might be a little more limited than what you and I originally thought. As for me i am no engineer or have any real background in this section so please do not take my statements as fact. If i'm wrong, i'm wrong. lol. Oh also about the air compression and water pumping that is totally a plausible idea and to get around your water freezing from and in ground pump (hooked to a spring or windmill) you need to have all the water lines and pumping station underneath the permafrost line which mean you need to run turning shafts down to the pump from the very tall windmill. Air compression i could see being a real asset especially in running compression power tools like nail guns. Though you would need to have pipe lines that can handle the excessive amount of psi that a compressor needs to run these tools effectively.

I really look forward to hearing peoples posts!

-Soos

Hi, bill
I actually have recently had the same idea of wind-up power, i had the idea of hooking up a large spring to something like a windmill or watermill (something that constantly turns with little/sustainable resources). I had been thinking about using it for electrical but came up with the same problems as you have stated above. Another problem is that to create the electricity via the large spring it would still have to run through a generator or turbine. Having a windmill with a turbine on it would be just as efficient, but i think hooking up a water mill (potentially made from lumber only) could turn/wind the spring. The application of this that originally caught my eye was using it for stored mechanical power. Using a series of gears you can have different ratios of speeds for mechanical energy. I'm watching this thread so pm or reply if you would like to continue a discussion or if you have any other ideas about the "wind-up" stored power.

--Soos

The bubble wrap and shutters is a good idea but loss of heat is something im not worried about its that the sun room is actually on the west side of the house instead of south so sun light is minimal throught the house. Also im not really worried about the consumption of energy i can calculate the wattage of the artificial lights so that i know how many solar panels to get but im looking to basicly create 1 or 2 rooms which will not require any outside sources other than plastic containers and lights this is why im asking about the loss of energy or nitrients that will happen due to me and my wife eating the food? What my concern on this is, is there going to be enough organic material (after whatever we eat) to sustain and perpetuate the Vermicompost or will i have to grow plants specificly to be harvested for the Vermicompost to compensate for said loss. I want this to be cyclical. Thanks for everyones posts and info!!

thanks for the input! unfortunately i live in Vermont in a stone 1880s house haha so freezing is definitely an issue we had a full week of -20f once, froze our well. so putting my garden down there would cost me more resources, and as you posted "if money isn't an issue" but that's always a problem lol. LED and fiber-optics would be awesome due to the life expectancy and low wattage and heat. but fluorescent bulbs are cheaper and i will probably be going with a vertical grow setup. Basically there's three 8x4 windows in my sun-room (which does not get enough sun (sun is too high in mid-summer to reach into room) hence why I'm using lighting but mostly this is for winter months) which i want to use a roll-up blind, for each, where i will lay Mylar onto the back so that natural daylight can be let in when its efficient and the windows become a reflective surface for the vertical setup. truthfully I'm really concern about the compost the point of this project of mine is to sustain without the use of outside products like fertilizers, bought soil, food for worms, etc. Basically the only reason I'm using lights is for the year round bit, cuts down on preservation for like 4 - 6 months. But as i posted before I don't think the garden can break down and recreate enough soil for the next crop because i would be eating harvest, so i was considering soil-less plants like bulbs that grow in rocks and water, its just a thought cause i want to be able to get a perfect cycle down. I want this to run without an outside source other than the initial set-up (lights, solar panels, and plastic containers for compost and planting (potentially wood grow boxes but i don't have too much access to tools atm so its plastic for now) of course my location definitely puts a hit on growth periods. thanks again for the info.

Hello, I have been researching indoor gardening for about a year now. I am attempting to make a self-perpetuating indoor garden in my house (i own it so if reconstruction is needed... so be it) Basically i want to post post how i'd like to set up my garden, i encourage you all to comment and criticize because i am not experienced at this. So basically this is how i want to set up the garden. (also i live in vermont so theres no chance of outdoor year round plants)
1. Solar power and lighting; 5 230 watt solar panels should give about 4 kilowatts per day or 120 kw per month (assuming there's only 4 hours of optimal light per day) this should be enough to power 6-8 t5 4ft florescent lights and 2 100 watt hps lights
2. Heat; the room i have setup right now is a sun room this is attached to the house and is heated via the furnace/wood stove.
3. Soil; here is where i am having the most trouble. Basically using the law of conservation of energy, i am trying to propose a self perpetuate vermicompost system. Staging separate vermicompost boxes should allow me to have soil year round, but we eat most of the fruit and veggies that are grown, hence why i am having a problem. I am planning on growing sphagnum moss and grass as bedding for the worms, but i am still assuming that this wont be enough to perpetuate a cycle because we eat most of the produce and excrete it outside the vermicompost. so there is a loss of energy, would it possible to grow soil-less plants or just another plant in general to compensate for the loss of us eating the produce. I am really in the dark right now and if someone out there could give me a clue to this itd be much apppreciated. I am really trying to make a soil system that does not need to be replaced, assumming at some point there will be no garden store to buy soil at. (of course i can get soil outside but i know that in the recent years they have aerially sprayed areas close-by with pesticides)
4. Water; rain water catching system can be built easily, also another solution is to set up a solar still using plastic pvc pipe and a few other materials. This is not supposed to be the most effective water situation obviously tap water is available and i do not have access to a spring at this moment. so please be considerate with the critique because i am trying to make a system in which the least amount of electricity and oil is needed.
5. Growth; with the artificial lighting and the vermicompost soil (maybe mixed with peat moss) should be enough to keep the plants healthy and enzyme plentiful. rain water or distilled water should not have to many bacteria or viral infections to hurt the plants but again please critique.
6. Back to the compost; using the origanic material grown in the garden to supplement the vermicompost on a continual basis.

Id really love to have some feedback, thanks a bunch.