Fieldlines.com || About wind-up lighting

Front Page - [Homebrewed Electricity-- (wind) (solar) (hydro) (steam) (controls) (storage) (mechanical)] - Classifieds - Site News
Everything - Newbies - [Remote Living-- (housing) (heat) (light) (water)] - Reviews - Diaries - Our Products

About wind-up lighting
By Norm, Section Homebrewed Electricity Posted on Tue Sep 20, 2005 at 11:35:51 PM MST
Anyone remember the story that I did using this ....

picture?

Anyhow it was about 10 pounds of water traveling
about 1 inch a second to keep this 2 white leds
light lit....so I never done the number crunching
, but I figured that if you had it geared up a lot higher yet and enough jugs of water so that
the light would stay lit for 1 hr for each foot....then for each unit you would haul up x
amount of jugs 8 ft. for 8 hrs of light.
anyone want to do the numbers?
( :>) Norm.

About wind-up lighting | 5 comments (5 topical)

Re: About wind-up lighting (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by kell on Tue Sep 20, 2005 at 06:48:03 PM MST

If you want to get that same power with water falling a foot per hour, that's three hundred times as slow, so you would need three hundred times as much water to come out with the same power -- three hundred gallons of water, to light a couple of leds. Better off with a hamster. Remember Skippy?

Re: About wind-up lighting (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by Ungrounded Lightning Rod on Wed Sep 21, 2005 at 05:19:38 AM MST

The makers of one of those wind-up emergency radios (the ones with a clockwork that runs as the radio plays, not the cheapos where you charge a nicad with a crank) have already done something similar. Later models have a LED flashlight included. (Again unlike the cheapos, which have an incandescent.)

I saw one in a gun store back around the Y2K flap. I noticed that the crank "unwinds" slowly, and more slowly when the radio is drawing less power, ALMOST stopped when it's off. Sounds like a very efficient regulator - like a shunt-type switcher - getting the most out of the spring, since it implies the current in the genny goes UP when the load goes down. And if it's a switcher it's VERY well filtered, since there's no sign of interference in the radio...

I recall a discussion a couple years ago where someone claimed he had pulled the genny/clockwork/regulator module, hooked it to a cord over a pully in a tree holding up a weight, and successfully powered a laptop for a significant fraction of an hour. (Must have been a very low-powered laptop and/or a very heavy weight. B-) )

Re: About wind-up lighting (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Norm on Wed Sep 21, 2005 at 06:47:46 AM MST

(Must have been a very low-powered laptop and/or a very heavy weight.
also a pretty tall tree and a way-high branch!
I calculate for my wind up to run this light
1 inch per minute would be a 3000 to 1 ratio, and a 600 pound weight for 1 hr. would travel 5
ft. sound about right?
Once some people realize this, they can begin to appreciate how much power is stored in 4 little AA batteries which can work this light
for eight hrs. and still have quite a bit of power left!
Or enough Solar cells to recharge these
batteries.
( :>) Norm.
( :>) Norm
[ Parent ]

Re: About wind-up lighting (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by Ungrounded Lightning Rod on Wed Sep 21, 2005 at 07:33:05 PM MST

I think they were claiming something like a quarter to a half hour for one or two galon jugs of water up a moderately-tall tree (i.e. not a giant redwood). Been a while.

My impression at the time was that the clockwork genny system was very efficient - much more so than straightforward genny-on-a-rope stuff - and adept at unwinding the spring (and thus lowering the weight) only as it needed power.

I think that last is the real key to efficiency.

[ Parent ]

Re: About wind-up lighting (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by Norm on Fri Sep 23, 2005 at 07:02:20 AM MST

Sounds like a very efficient regulator - like a shunt-type switcher - getting the most out of the spring, since it implies the current in the genny goes UP when the load goes down.
This is the part that I wish I could make or
buy (at Radio Shack?}
( :>) Norm.
( :>) Norm
[ Parent ]

About wind-up lighting | 5 comments (5 topical)

Menu

� create account
� How to use the board
� FAQs
� search the board
� Google search the board

Login

Make a new account

Username:

Password:

Total Views

��83 Scoop users have viewed this posting.

Related Links

� Also by Norm

You must be a registered user to post here. It's easy and free, and the link is on the upper right side of your page.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Postings are owned by the poster, but may be deleted or moved at the ADMIN's sole discretion. The Rest � 2009 Forcefield.
You can Email the board ADMIN here. PLEASE include the username you signed up with!