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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jan 2017
Posts: 4,553
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Power line follies (was cars)
wrote:
On Thu, 25 Apr 2019 00:39:30 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:
wrote:
On Wed, 24 Apr 2019 19:35:19 -0400, Alex wrote:
wrote:
On Tue, 23 Apr 2019 18:36:36 -0700 (PDT), Its Me
wrote:
On Tuesday, April 23, 2019 at 8:41:50 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Tue, 23 Apr 2019 17:28:35 -0400,
wrote:
On Tue, 23 Apr 2019 17:01:36 -0400, wrote:
On Tue, 23 Apr 2019 16:08:55 -0400,
wrote:
On Tue, 23 Apr 2019 14:11:32 -0400, wrote:
They are assuming coal fired electric plants but I agree all electric
cars do is move the smoke stack down the road a ways.
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In my opinion that's an over simplification. For one it ignores the
fact that stationary, large-scale power plants are much more efficient
than the average internal combusion engine used in vehicles. Secondly,
the charging is usually done at off peak hours when there is typically
excess grid capacity. Last but not least, the trend is pointing in
the direction of renewable energy such as wind and solar. If we live
long enough (doubtful), we might even see clean nuclear fusion some
day. As an additional benefit, electric cars have done quite a bit to
advance the state-of-the-art for light weight, high efficiency
batteries. Those gains will eventually prove useful for the storage
of wind and solar energy.
That all assumes a clean power plant in the first place. The article
was talking about coal plants and we still have plenty of them.
Your solar power is not going to do much if the cars are charged at
night.
===
At least in this country, coal plants are rapidly going away.
Solar power at night is not going to happen of course. New battery
technology, and other energy storage devices, will eventually help
with that issue however. If every south facing roof in Florida was
covered with high efficiency solar panels, there would be plenty of
energy to spare for battery charging. I think that will eventually
happen as the price of solar panels steadily decreases.
My problem is drilling holes in a roof that isn't leaking now. My
roofer neighbor says solar is great for his business. I also only have
about 3kw worth of south facing roof.
Solar is getting a lot cheaper tho. I was looking the other day and
there are lots of collectors in the 75 cents a watt neighborhood.
I wonder how FPL would feel if I built an array on their property ;-)
Running those cables to/from that array near their power lines may be
the biggest problem.You may create a transformer that neither of you want. 
That is way overstated. I have tried to scavenge power from those
lines for 35 years with absolutely zero success. If you believe what
you see on you tube I should be able to hold an F40 tube in the air
and have it light up ... nope. I should be able to string a wire
parallel to the line and generate something ... nope.
Coil of wire ... nope.
I really wanted a light in my boat house under those lines without
stringing another wire but no joy.
If you really look at these lines it is easy to see why. They are a
twisted triplex. They just have a twist about every half mile or so
but that is still way smaller than the wave length. (roughly from here
to California)
Besides, my wires would be running at 90 degrees to the power line and
underground.
There are a lot of LED lights that are charged with small solar panels.
Pretty cheap, too. How much light do you need?
I have 20 amps down there now. It is not an issue.
The reality is 60 feet of rope light around the top of the lift is
perfect. That ends up being about 100 watts.
If I was still interested in trying to scavenge some power I might try
something with an LED but I doubt I could even get a glimmer out of
one.
I have pretty much given up and debunked a lot of the urban legends.
If anyone has another experiment, let me know. It is just a short walk
across the Ed Labrador Memorial Bridge now, not Bwana hacking through
the jungle like before. I am up there 4 or 5 times a day with the
Deuce man.
The setup is 1 delta high voltage line running 230kv and 2 delta
medium voltage lines running 26kv. It is about 70 feet off the ground
behind the house going up to more like 85' where it crosses the river.
Bring out your fables. I love science.
Need more voltage. The 500kv lines that run down the center of California
induce lots of current in the parallel line. When a crop duster took out 5
towers, engineers thought an airplane would take out 4. Our friend worked
for the power company. A special crew works on the line. Has a faraday
cage suit. They shut down the downed line, reduced power in the parallel
line and grounded the don line a mile each side of the break. He said the
ground line at the tower by the break carried 200 amps.
Why wouldn't it be somewhat proportional? I am not really able to see
much of anything beyond tickling a digital meter and that happens just
about anywhere.
Maybe exponential. Exponential falloff from the line. 500kv May have a
much bigger inductive presentation.
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