Why cant clocks generate power?

Why cant a modified design of a grandfather clock be used to generate electricity? Youd just need some quite heavy weights, wouldnt you.......? And a highly efficient generator.....and someone to wind the clock every week........hmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

the idea is plausible on producing enough electricity to power a few light globes. but on mass scale you would need allot of people to push them weights.

I have thought the same thing but really once you think about it, its not that practical.

Originally posted by phroziac
Why cant a modified design of a grandfather clock be used to generate electricity? Youd just need some quite heavy weights, wouldnt you.......? And a highly efficient generator.....and someone to wind the clock every week........hmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

This is kinda like saying...why cant bicycles generate power?? All we would need is a generator attached to the wheel and someone to ride it...

Well the answer is the bicycle isn't really generating the power the sun ultimately is...because its is growing the food that gives you the energy to ride the bike and generate power...its all simply transfer of energy...

From a scientific standpoint, it requires more energy going in to generate the electricity than we would receive from it.

From a conspiratorial standpoint........Big Oil, monopolies, corporate greed, governments in companies pockets.

I could make a laundry list why it wouldn't work or be allowed to grow fruition.

Originally posted by amraks
the idea is plausible on producing enough electricity to power a few light globes. but on mass scale you would need allot of people to push them weights.

I have thought the same thing but really once you think about it, its not that practical.

Personally I think the future of energy is decentralized and holographic in its design. machines/utilities/appliances will harvest energy themselves and store in batteries. They will be their own "power-plant" so to speak they will use multiple mediums of harvesting energy much like the rovers and satellites we currently have in space millions of miles away from any "power plant".

Without having to move energy hundreds and thousands of miles will make it more efficient, not having to use energy to create and maintain a energy transport infrastructure would in the end reduce the total amount of energy consumed...utilizing less is another role in creating more energy.

Self sustaining energy platforms designed into each and every appliance...this will ultimately be made possible by engineers.

There's only one method of providing infinite electrical energy until the end of times.

Tap into the Ionosphere. There's Jiggawatzz of Electron Volts waiting to be harvested.

Tesla figured it all out a long time ago.

Originally posted by H1ght3chHippie
There's only one method of providing infinite electrical energy until the end of times.

Tap into the Ionosphere. There's Jiggawatzz of Electron Volts waiting to be harvested.

Tesla figured it all out a long time ago.

HAARP.....

On a massive MASSIVE scale, you'll need some method to "wind" your giant grandfather clock. Since you don't want to use electricity to generate electricity (always a losing proposition), you'll have to find another method to input the power.

How about hooking up jobless people to a giant millstone?

Well typically grandfather clocks run for 7 days after pulling a chain down. I wasng really talking about on a large scale...but a decentralized setup for a house..

Im gonna try to build one...

They can.

It isn't worth the effort.

reply to post by phroziac


I have a self charging watch. It charges itself from the movement of my arm. The electrical output is minuscule but the technology is there.

Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul

Originally posted by H1ght3chHippie
There's only one method of providing infinite electrical energy until the end of times.

Tap into the Ionosphere. There's Jiggawatzz of Electron Volts waiting to be harvested.

Tesla figured it all out a long time ago.

HAARP.....

I think the Ionosphere is more like a giant battery, and one battery we dont exactly want to run out.

Tidal generators work on a similar principal, using gravity and movement. It takes lots of energy to wind a spring.