[Homestead] Shaking the grid

Lynda lurine at com-pair.net
Tue Feb 23 14:26:36 EST 2010


http://www.humboldt.edu/~ccat/pedalpower/inventions/washer_text.htm

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Clansgian at wmconnect.com>

>I don't know why this is so hard a nut to crack unless it is, as I've
> opined, a horror of embracing what the reality means.
>
> Picture, if you will, a washing machine whose electric motor has been
> replaced by a gearbox and a hand crank (or treadle or capstan or
> whatever).  You
> have to turn the hand crank continuously to operate the agitator, pump,
> and
> to spin the tub.  You can probably imagine that this is a lot of work.
> No,
> it doesn't help to gear the crank.  If you can turn it with half the
> force,
> you must turn it with twice the speed (no free lunch again).  You would
> get
> a very hard workout washing one load of clothes with this arrangement.
>
> Now, what if we left the washer intact, still powered by its electric
> motor, and instead we connected the hand crank to a generator and the
> output of
> that generator powered the washing machine.  From the comments on
> alternative
> energy, it seems as if most people visualize a small crank like on a
> coffee
> grinder or sausage grinder and that they would turn it with one hand,
> pinkie extended, while holding the teacup in the other hand.
>
> But the reality of the physics involved is that it would be much harder ..
> much more work ... to crank a generator to power the washing machine than
> it
> would to just crank the washing machine directly.
>
> If this fact were kept in mind, a lot of the misconception about alternate
> energy could be eliminated.  You can do any work - mechanical, heating,
> lighting - directly much more efficiently than you do it by converting
> that
> energy into electricity and then consuming the electricity.  A gallon of
> kerosene will produce many, many times the light that running a (diesel)
> generator
> on that gallon of kerosene and then using even the most efficient electric
> lights possible.
>
> James</HTML>
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