Static battery charger

[rgranger]

Hey All

I read this article on using static electricity from wind blowing over a wire to charge a battery.

Sounds interesting... here is the link

http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/energy21/capacitorcharger.htm

The theory seems sound, I wonder if you couldn't raise a large antenna above your mast on a pig stick... and charge your batteries just from the wind blowing ... that would be so MacGyver

 

[JonnyQuest]

"Jigawatts! Doc, What the Hell is a Jigawatt?"

...said Marty McFly to the Professor.

Neat story on that link; sounds like old Wiley was a character...probably working next on a flux capacitor to deliver the required 1.21 gigawatts to his souped up DeLorean!

 

[justsomeguy]

Hey All

I read this article on using static electricity from wind blowing over a wire to charge a battery.

Sounds interesting... here is the link

http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/energy21/capacitorcharger.htm

The theory seems sound, I wonder if you couldn't raise a large antenna above your mast on a pig stick... and charge your batteries just from the wind blowing ... that would be so MacGyver

If only I could have harvested the juice I experienced earlier this month. But it was mostly volts, minimal amps.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Just use the mast.
Here is an experiment for you. Disconnect your mast to keel lightning wire and connect a volt meter between them. measure both volts and amps
There may actually be something to this but I'm thinking there is a capacitive feature that needs to be addressed as the current flow and voltage seem to "capacitive" in nature and not usable in its raw form.

 

[rgranger]

Just use the mast.
Here is an experiment for you. Disconnect your mast to keel lightning wire and connect a volt meter between them. measure both volts and amps
There may actually be something to this but I'm thinking there is a capacitive feature that needs to be addressed as the current flow and voltage seem to "capacitive" in nature and not usable in its raw form.

That would be soooo cool, but I expect you would also have to isolate your stays and tabernacle from the hull. That would be difficult to do. I suspect that any connection to ground, even a weak connection, will short the mast.

I wonder if you couldn't just take one of those long whip antennae you seen on red-necked pickup trucks (don't take offense I like red necks) and attach it someplace off of the aft end of your stern... and connect that to a Tesla coil and trickle charge your battery? This is the sort of experiment one could conduct on your back porch.

 

[kloudie1]

UUhhhh don't be shocked when it don't really work in a useful way.
But I really don't want to take any static over this..
An interesting spark of an idea..
'Nuff said

 

[rgranger]

An electrifying commentary for sure

 

[Ross]

If it really worked we wouldn't have power failures during wind storms. All of those miles of wire would just keep the killiwatts flowing.