I am getting my first prototype built of a portable water and wind based heater. (!!) as well as working on the design of a non-portable, more efficient home heater. (!)(!)(!)(!)(!) My uncle is a patent and copyright government person, and a friend from school has a father with buisness connections and will be acting as my agent I am looking for support, ideas, and other experienced inventors/noob inventors opinions. For an explanation with the portable one. You initially spin the magnetized flat fan on top using either a magnet that will come with it or simply manually move it, or otherwise actually use the wind. This spins the connected magnet inside the copper coils, thusly producing electricity, that then flows through the undecided material but likely copper wire connected to it. That wire would go around a water tank about 7 times in spirals that ultimately connect to each other. There would be spaced out 'interference areas' similar to a light bulb that would convert some of the electricity into heat and light, that would then be converted into heat. (!) The electrons would be forced to flow through these interference areas infinitely until they were fully converted into heat. This heat will then heat up the water tank, hopefully enough to cause it to steam. That steam would then come out of the tank through a short, 6 inch, manuverable hose, that could optionally be clamped in such a way that it further spins the fan. The steam would then, hopefully, disperse through the room/car/general area around it in a completely Eco friendly way. (!!) Non-sciencey people, this has many potential uses. The original idea, came up with by my aunt, is something so that you don't freeze to death when your car breaks down when it is cold. Optimally there would be snow out. Thanks for any comments.
It sounds interesting. I'm an engineering student, but not in anything electrical (I HATE electricity and magnetism). The only thing I'm thinking is that if you're actually managing to generate enough heat to produce steam, using the steam to power it afterwards is pretty hazardous. Steam in itself means your water is boiling, and that's hot enough to burn, which only gets exacerbated by the fact it's theoretically freezing outside anyways. Couple that with the fact that you're stuck in a confined space like a broken-down car and there's a lot of risk involved. Again, I don't know much about electricity, so to me it doesn't seem feasible to generate that much electricity/heat just through mechanical power. But I don't really have much to back that up with. Additionally, keep in mind since your "water" (or snow) in this case is much colder, it's going to take a lot more energy to heat it up to a boiling point. You'd also have to make everything pretty heat-resistant if you're planning on having steam blowing through this thing. Copper itself is costly to begin with, but that just further adds to the cost.
Thanks for the input on it. By the way, so you know, the steaming point of water is well below it's boiling point from my understanding. The steaming point of water is in-between 150-170 degrees, while the boiling point is 60-40 degrees above that. The mechanical power generated is dependant on the one spinning it, but it should be enough to get to 150 degrees after a few minutes, and after that the steam coming out should help with the whole arm getting tired thing. I think a bit of elbow Greese is significantly preferable to freezing to death, personally. The hose itself would also cool down the steam significantly, by 10 degrees of so, to help with the whole burning thing. At 140 degrees I don't think burning by a barely liquid is very likely, but I am not a doctor. . I was already planning on heat resistant materials anyway, and am sadly aware of potential expenses. However, it is still in the 'am still having a prototype built' stage, so I am still working out how to still significantly heat the car while not getting dangerous. Thanks for the comment, moderator with a good looking anime character as an avatar. More advice is very much welcome!
Ah, I see. When you said steam I thought you meant like actual steam (when water boils), not the foggy water vapour you get when the air is warm. In which case, how exactly is the vapour going to power the system? The vapour itself won't have enough mechanical power to turn anything, and nothing is heat-powered... you're going to need to convert the energy somehow (unless I'm missing something). And yeah, I guess you can forget the safety concern then. Water vapour isn't going to hurt anyone
Thanks for the input, and it is a liquid, not a vapour, by the way, and this is intended as an emergency heating system, if it wasn't clear. Or you could take it camping, I guess. But you are still intended to manually spin the fan, the steam is just pointing at the fan to aid the spin a bit and warm the hand manually spinning it. That way you are forcing people not to freeze to death But yah, did I mention that the blades would have magnetized plates and that a magnet would come with the thing attached to a small cord. It was a rather extraneous thing so I probably forgot about it when posting. You are supposed to manually turn the blade at a rather rapid pace using the magnet, which would do all of the processes described above. I am still working on a more reliable home heater design that would use actual steam, as you describe it . But yah, like I said, better elbow grease than freezing to death. (!) So, does it sound like something that people would actually buy, like to be Eco-friendly in there heating or so they can say 'Better safe than sorry' in a condesending voice. Would the companies actually take it... ---------- Post added 10th May 2013 at 06:23 PM ---------- And why do you hate electricity and magnetism, just curious. ---------- Post added 10th May 2013 at 06:26 PM ---------- And I also wonder if this could work without any water in the water tank. Hmmm...
Props! Not only very useful, but something that could sell on the market rather well! =) GL in your endeavor, I hope you can secure that patent soon!
No, I'm not an inventor, but I'm a programmer, so I feel like it's a different expression of the same drive. You do important work!
Unless I am missing something, sounds like a generator connected to an induction heater. For this to work the tank or core will have to be a ferrous material. Just be prepared that the math to get this right, is very nasty. There is software out there to do it, but it is not cheap. I see, what you are saying, but it that won't work. To do so would violate the law of conservation of energy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy The energy used to turn the fan will removed from the steam, dropping its temperature. Even if you did want to capture that energy I'd have to ask just convert it to steam in the first place. Instead of releasing the steam into the air, it would be more efficient to keep it contained and run it through a series of pipes or a heat exchanger. Then you could either let the heat radiate or used forced air. Also I don't understand the point of all of the magnets. How big of an area are you looking to heat? --Edit to add. Not meaning to be a wet blanket (Though maybe you could dry it out ) The engineer in me has to point these things out. --Edit to add #2. Don't change the water to steam. Keep it liquid, the phase change takes quite a bit of energy, and you want that energy to heat the room, not change the water to steam.
Ummm. For one, the steam I am talking about is still in liquid form, by the way. And I am okay with the 140 degree steam cooling down just a tad to make the whole process last longer. The spinning magnet is what is turning the mechanical energy into electrical energy, and the blades are magnetized so that you can optionally start the process if you don't want to touch the blades and there isn't wind. By releasing the steam into the air directly we are saving the waste of energy, so I don't see your point. And it is designed as an emergency room/car heater, so .... I was just asking for some improvements and support.
Oh don't get me wrong. I think you've got the good idea, otherwise I wouldn't have replied. I think a small lightweight portable heater would be great in survival situations.
Okay, maybe I'm really missing something here, but what are you referring to when you say "liquid steam"? From what I've learned/ever applied, steam is a gas, the gaseous form of water to be precise. I don't care if I'm mistaken, but I want to learn what the hell it is you're talking about, because I'm incredibly confused right now. Also, if this is designed to be an emergency room/car heater, you can probably scrap the "wind blades" part of the design. It could simplify things in the actual manufacturing of the device (as well as make it more efficient), and there's little point designing it to run off of wind if there isn't going to be really any wind in either of those situations. As for why I hate electricity and magnetism - I just really, really dislike it. It wasn't ever taught well to me and it isn't relevant to my branch of engineering (for the most part), so I avoid it with a passion. I'm a thermodynamics kind of guy.
"Water vapor that includes water droplets is described as wet steam. As wet steam is heated further, the droplets evaporate, and at a high enough temperature (which depends on the pressure) all of the water evaporates and the system is in vapor-liquid equilibrium.[1]" From Wikipedia. Curse my science teacher for misleading me into that scientific error I thought, for some reason, that all steam was wet steam. I feel like a horrible person. :tears: And the wind blades thing, well, what else would one use In that situation. It was the only thing I could think of that could be manually generated. Batteries would run out, Most cars don't have a plug and the car battery would of already died. Solar is out of the question because needing a heater and intense sunlight do not often mix. Water power, well, what is the likely hood you are going to be next to a stream. So the wind blades will have to stay, I think. And sorry if that was a bad post, I was sick and tired at the time And I am also 13, if you haven't noticed. The semantics have already been checked out by a science teacher or four, so I am fairly certain it will work. Just looking for contributions.
^ no worries, like I said, I just wanted to learn. No need to feel like a horrible person, lol. What I meant with the wind blades was that if you were planning on having the power be manually generated (i.e. physical power -> generator -> electrical power), you might be able to replace the actual "shape" of the mechanism with something other than blades, in order to produce more energy. As for what it is I'm not sure. But my point is that the if the device has the blade shape in order to "catch wind" and you don't actually need the wind power, there may be a more efficient shape/design to use. Blades would certainly work though.
haha that happens. I'm just wondering how that would work, because even those crank radios require a LOT circles to get it going. when you start talking about heating up water.....not sure how much energy that is going to require, probably need to include a method of storing a charge (batteries or Capacitors). Another thing that your going to have to design is a way to control how much energy is going through your heating element and how hot it's getting. Otherwise you are going to get up in the 100ºC area and i'm sure that'll not make someone happy. Plus if you boil off all your water your left with one hell of a branding iron
Thanks for the input. My prototype is going to be finished by Monday, hopefully, so we are going to have to add in all of that, including non-conductive and heat proof out layer, later. Thanks for ressusitating this thread
umm again i'm clueless on topic but impressed by your genius! :eusa_clap and anyone who uses dancing bananas "smilies" is waaaaay cool! (!)
