Free power to the people? (1 Viewer)

[Ash Williams]

I ran across an ad in Popular Science about a month that said it mite be able eliminate your electricity bill. It is a generator ran by permanent magnets, and best of all it's (No,I don't work for this company) FREE! Getting very curios, I sent in my registration and about a 2 weeks later I got a info packet. They are going to start implementing as soon as the registration hits 1.6 million. They have a website with a a kinds of info including an FAQ. I urge everyone to at least check it out.
Here's the website:
http://www.freelectricity.com
And the book says, "We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us!" - "Wiz Kid" Donnie Smith

 

[Scott Dill]

Aah, a perpetual motion machine - all our troubles are over....Not!
Thermodynamics, look into it

 

[CRyan]

Perpetual motion. Argh. It never ceases to amaze me how things like this can continue in todays world. I swear I am going to start selling snake oil. However, I am sure it is already being sold in some health food store!
I see infomercials all the time, and I just stare for a second and think how is this possible. Good grief.
Oops. I got on my soapbox for a moment.
C. Ryan
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http://www.elitestoragedesigns.com/RyanOAR.bmp

 

[Ash Williams]

Well it's unfortunate that there are so many closed minded people out there.

I see infomercials all the time, and I just stare for a second and think how is this possible. Good grief.

But, I suppose people have been bombarded by gimmicks on infomercials for so long that they immediately dismiss everything. Oh well.....
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http://store6.yimg.com/I/htmarket_1648_3201525
And the book says, "We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us!" - "Wiz Kid" Donnie Smith

 

[Mike Voigt]

Look, Ash, it is not that some of us would dislike having this kind of equipment - after all, who wouldn't want "free power". It is that there is this thing called thermodynamics that essentially debunks any claims of "free energy"... any energy comes from somewhere, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Very simplistically put it continues on to state that you have to input more energy than you will get out of any energy conversion mechanism. Which is what this purported "free energy" machine is.
This is in essence what I found on their website:
no real explanation of how it works...
no patents to look at (which incidentally would allow them protection from the "evil power companies" for quite a number of years)...
requirement for 1.6 million to sign up before they send them out... followed by a statement that says they won't release signup numbers anymore...
what I read from this is they want a free address list.
Mike

 

[Ash Williams]

Well each to his own I guess. I was not trying to piss anybody off here but if I did I am sorry.
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http://store6.yimg.com/I/htmarket_1648_3201525
And the book says, "We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us!" - "Wiz Kid" Donnie Smith

 

[Philip_G]

hrm. magnets.. and gravity heehe
I'm not buying it either.
also, the reason they want to give them away is so they can sell power to others and make money, it's almost like a pyramid scheme, if you get in fir (assuming it exists) you get free power, if you don't you get to buy those people's free power from them

 

[Jesse Leonard]

I like this quote under DENNIS LEE's bio:
"Has own research lab with world class scientists."

I can't believe anybody would take this site seriously!

 

[Scott Dill]

Ash,
I certainly hope no one is "pissed off" Its just funny to see people get hooked by this stuff. What you need to realize is that I and others are not just being skeptical or "closed minded" as you say, we are just at least familiar with the physical sciences.
No generating device can work without more energy being put into it than electricity produced. This is a simple application of the second law of thermodynamics. Solar, wind and geo-thermal are the closest thing you are going to find to "free" energy sources, but this device supposedly used magnets and kinetic energy - the very definition of perpetual motion. It is even pointed out in the FAQ for this device that there is no patent pending for it, if you recall the patent office stopped accepting applications for such perpetual motion machines over 100 years ago.
By the way Ash if I remember correctly you drive around with chemistry and steam power books in the trunk of your Oldsmobile so I would expect you to me more familiar with the physical sciences. (FYI Ash Williams is the full name of the Bruce Campbell character in THE EVIL DEAD trilogy)

 

[SteveGon]

Methinks a subscription to Skeptical Inquirer is in order.
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He thought on homeland, the big timber, the air thin and chill all the year long. Tulip poplars so big through the trunk they put you in mind of locomotives set on end. He thought of getting home and building him a cabin on Cold Mountain so high that not a soul but the nighthawks passing across the clouds in autumn could hear his sad cry. Of living a life so quiet he would not need ears. And if Ada would go with him, there might be the hope, so far off in the distance he did not even really see it, that in time his despair might be honed off to a point so fine and thin that it would be nearly the same as vanishing.
-- Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain
[Edited last by SteveGon on October 05, 2001 at 09:06 AM]

 

[Bill Catherall]

Ok...I visited the site with every intention to give this company the benifit of the doubt. Putting aside the laws of thermodynamics and perpetual motion, let me point out some additional flaws with this company. I read through the FAQ and found the following errors:
They state the machine produces 26,000 kilowatts per year of electricity. They state the average home can use up to 18,000 kilowatts per year. That leaves 8,000 kilowatts per year available to sell back to the power company. In essence, one machine can power 1.44 homes. However, they say that they only need to install one machine per 15 homes. Then the power company can use the left over electricity of the one machine to power the other 14 homes. Sorry, but if this works then 13.66 homes will be SOL. You're going to need one installed in 2 out of 3 homes.
They state that the generator will last over 100 years. WOW! That's some mighty fine engineering.

I offer the following quote: "It has 30 sets of coils and windings with each one producing one kilowatt of electricity. If one of the windings should break you merely take it out and replace it like you would a fuse. This can be done while the generator is running and making 29 kilowatts until the fresh replacement is inserted, and then it is right back to making 30 kilowatts again." Sorry, but that doesn't make any sense to me at all. I'm so confused.
How big is it? They say it has a footprint less than 3 feet square then refer you to a picture of a machine that is clearly much larger than what they say. Is that 3' by 3' or 3 square feet? Either way, the machine looks to be more like 4' by 3' minimum.
$5 to register and $1 change of address fee if you move before it's installed. I have one word for that...brilliant. I wish I thought of such a scam. No...wait a minute...no I don't...I don't want to go to jail.
"Lisa, in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics." --Homer Simpson
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Bill

 

[Cees Alons]

Ash,
Did you have to pay $5? And did you?
Cees

 

[Ash Williams]

I paid $5.00 for S/H. I also the bought the video. It was pretty interesting. They had a demonstration of the magnets that are used in the device, they were very powerful, it took more than 100 lbs. of force to pull them apart. They have been doing demonstrations around the country and even one in front of Congress, according to the video. The video was professionally made, and seems like it would have been a lot of trouble to go through to get an address list. If anyone is interested in this kind of thing you should check out some of the works of Nikola Tesla, just do a search on Google, you can thank him for being able to power your HT.
[Edited last by Ash Williams on October 05, 2001 at 11:40 AM]

 

[Anthony Hom]

Interesting to the people who believe this device will produce useable electricity out of thin air. They will not do this unless they get 1.6 million registrants. at $5 a pop that's 8 million dollars. I suppose spending some money, a few thousand dollars on a high quality demo video would be worth it to earn 8 million dollars.
Wonder how long this web site will stay up before people get a clue? If you buy into this, then I guess you have had great success with magnets to cure your arthritis, pills that help you lose weight, and you have a great piece of real estate on Mars.

 

[Jay Taylor]

This reminds me of the occasional April issues of various science and electronics magazines. They will include an apparently real article that is finally revealed to be an April Fools joke.
Examples of articles:
A new 1-bit microprocessor that takes RISC chips to a new level. In the text it describes it’s 2 commands; No-op & Halt!
Plans for a solar powered night light (without a rechargeable battery).
From many years ago in Scientific American: A new “thought experiment” that disproves Einstein’s theory of relativity. This one actually had me fooled for awhile until I discovered it was an April issue!
Jay Taylor
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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

 

[Bill Catherall]

They had a demonstration of the magnets that are used in the device, they were very powerful, it took more than 100 lbs. of force to pull them apart.

It doesn't matter how strong the magnets are, you can't get them to generate an electric field unless you get them spinning. You can't get them spinning without some kind of energy input. Gravity is not energy, nor does it have any effect on a magnetic field. So you can't get them turning with gravity. Do they offer any kind of explanation in the video on how this thing works? What are the scientific principals behind it? I don't care if they did a demonstration in front of Newton and Einstein themselves. Talk of a demonstration doesn't mean anything.
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Bill

 

[Jay H]

This magnet thing sounds like my filter for my fishtank! I didn't check the website or anything but my Whisper filter uses a magnet on an impellor and a small electric motor that reverses the charge of two other magnets to cause the impellor to spin, thereby causing a siphon effect and pulling water into the filter.. Of course, it consumes energy by way of that little motor...
Jay
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HUGBEES! Link Removed
Rider in the 2001 Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride
Wanna Link Removed

 

[MickeS]

Here's my advice how to get free (well, almost) power:
1. Buy an exercise bike.
2. Hook it up to a power generator.
3. Hook the generator up to the electronic device of your choice, like the TV.
4. Start pedalling!
Another way is to start selling magnet ads at $5 a pop, that'll buy you a lot of electricity.
/Mike

 

[Stephen_Opipari]

Here's some news links about the company. Sounds very crooked to me in the fact that he's got a pyramid scheme going. Not just the fact that this is physically impossible.
APB News
USA Today
and
Just some random page with info
[Edited last by Stephen_Opipari on October 05, 2001 at 02:15 PM]

 

[Bill Catherall]

my Whisper filter uses a magnet on an impellor and a small electric motor that reverses the charge of two other magnets to cause the impellor to spin

That's the way all electric motors work. Some have permanent magnets, some use electromagnets. It's all the same principal.
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Bill