Powered By Innovation:

[LWolf]

Redmond man’s alternative energy device could turn a daily commute into electricity.

I don't know how viable his idea is, but he made the local paper, and he's taking action:

<snip>

Six months ago, in the garage of his west Redmond home, Carl Ylvisaker started tinkering with a tire, a trailer hitch, an alternator, car batteries and a power inverter.

The result: a device with the potential to complement alternative power sources like solar panels and windmills. And if everything falls into place, something that could help resolve the world’s energy crisis, says Ylvisaker, a retired physical therapist.

“We’re in an energy crunch right now,” Ylvisaker says. “This will certainly help defray that.”

The prototype TAGER, short for Transportation Assisted Global Energy Reserve, is a single tire, with the ability to swivel 20 degrees in either direction, connected by a metallic arm to a cart attached to the back of Ylvisaker’s red SUV. Two 12-volt car batteries and a power inverter, designed to convert the battery power to the common household current, sit on the cart.

more:

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080630/BIZ0102/806300329/1041&nav_category=

[Redstone]

1. Powered by the Laws of Thermodynamics:

There's mo free lunch, energywise. Although this may be more eficient than running a standalone generator, I'd have to see some tests showing what the additional weight and drag did to the car's gas mileage before I'll be TOO impressed.

Redstone

[LWolf]

4. All true.

I'm impressed with his initiative. Whether he generates more energy than is expended dragging the wheel behind him is another story.

I like to see people playing with ideas, experimenting, and using initiative. I think we get further that way than we do with defeatism.

[Redstone]

9. Oh, I wasn't trying to sound defeatist, just realistic. And I really like tinkerers;

they do come up with stuff that works now and again.

And I think his idea might have some actual merit if the fuel-efficiency drop ended up being small enough that the effective cost of generating the electricity ended up being less than what you'd pay from the grid...especially if you have a long commute.

First orders of business, though: 1) Inflate the hell out of that tire to cut rolling resistance (maybe even go to a motorcycle-size wheel and tire), 2) Make sure the wheel hub has good roller bearings to cut down on friction, and 3) Put an aerodynamic fairing over the whole shebang to cut down aerodynamic drag.

Redstone

[jakem]

2. no way this works.

you cant create more energy than you are using to create it. even i know that.

on edit: stick it on a bicycle, and you might have something-

[LWolf]

3. I don't think it's supposed to generate energy

without using energy. It's supposed to be for commuters and long-distance drivers, who would be burning that energy anyway.

That's why it's certainly not a real "fix" for anything. Still, generating something from energy that's used anyway is more energy than not generating, if you get my drift.

[jakem]

5. right, but i think the added drag (and thus gas consumption) must cost more than you save, no?

physicists weigh in here please!



seems like it would be more efficient to just add another battery in series to your car battery-

[LWolf]

7. I don't know.

Couldn't you use the four tires that are already rolling?

I think I remember reading something about a plan to do just that, to generate energy to actually power the car. A different kind of hybrid, lol.

Most of our brainstorms are not practical in the long run. It's just the starting line.

[sui generis]

6. noble attempt

Here's what I would like to see:

Every sidewalk and street in a major urban area to have some kind of piezo-effect micro-displacement charge ability. Think how much potential work force is distributed in the process of us merely walking down a sidewalk. Now add city streets or densely traveled sections of highway.

Instead of putting the tire on your own car, put it (figuratively) on the city supply and have everyone walk or drive over it.

[LWolf]

8. That's what I mean.

Someone gets an idea and tries it in one situation; others pick it up and transfer, or extend it, to others.

This town used to be rural. With the rapid growth, it's becoming almost suburban, but still, as you can probably tell in the picture behind him, outside of downtown, there are more dirt roads than paved, and few sidewalks. We have a lot of bicycles in good weather, although winters are a bit harsh for bike riding.

[Redstone]

10. Or put the piezo doohickeys between the coils of the springs in cars?

Redstone

[sui generis]

11. very cool idea

right on!

[wuushew]

12. This is a very stupid idea

I doubt he can generate electricty cheaper than if he were getting it out of the wall outlet.


This guy should be shot for driving an SUV with the added sin of additional drag. All he doing is wasting gasoline.

[LWolf]

13. In this neighborhood,

there will be very few people left if you shoot everyone with a pick-up or an SUV. It's rural; more dirt than paved roads. It's icy. I'm grateful for my 4 cylinder toyota pickup, that gets me to the end of my 300 foot snow-covered driveway without having to spend money and energy on plow and plowing, that hauls everything on the place but my horses, that gets me over icy winter roads without a hitch.

Of course, being rural, if you attempted to shoot people, they'd probably take you down faster than a deer or elk.

The idea may or may not be workable. It's not "stupid," though, to look around at what you've got to work with, and begin trying things out to see what might, or might not, "work."

[wuushew]

14. Well I don't know about your neighborhood but this guy doesn't live in the boonies

Ylvisaker is a fairly uncommon name, so I think it is probably this guy. Plus he is retired! Where is driving to?

Address:
754 NW Negus Pl
Redmond, OR 97756




Deschutes county records
http://recordings.deschutes.org/Results.asp?Start=1

google maps
http://maps.google.com/

[LWolf]

15. Redmond is growing quite quickly, gobbling up pastures and barns

in every direction. Still, "town" is a very small area, and the outlying areas where most of us are cover a much wider area. Most people who are moving into the new housing developments are coming from the "bigger" "city" to the south, buying here because it's cheaper, and commuting. There isn't enough employment in Redmond to support the new suburban developments overtaking us.

The address you provided is right next to the highway; a mile east or west from that spot puts you on a rural road driving by pastures, hayfields, cows, horses, sheep, goats, llamas, rocks, and juniper trees.

I live on a dead end, private dirt road that connects to a county dirt road, that connects to a 2 lane "highway" that runs through public and ranch land, to another 2 lane highway that will take me across the river, past more ranches, until I finally hit the edge of town. It's the only road across the river for miles.