Free Energy - Sound To Electricity

I was watching the News a while ago and they did this interview of a guy who was searching for the worlds most quiet place. He had this special type of dB meter and was traveling all over the place to find the most quiet spot in the world.

He found out that no matter where he went, there was always this really high frequency ringing sound.

So I started thinking about converting that sound to electricity, and obviously a "microphone" was the first thing I thought about. Mainly "dynamic microphones", which use a magnet and a coil, just like electrical generators.

I was thinking about using a large array of microphones, and some how storing all the energy they create into a battery.

However, I was also thinking about tuning forks. When two similar tuning forks are near each other, and one is vibrating making sound, the other tuning fork will start to vibrate as well.

So I was thinking about creating a microphone that resonates with that high pitch sound that is found all over the globe. So it is tuned to only pick up that frequency. Or an array of microphones that each are tuned to different frequencies, or the same frequency, or just not tuned....

I have a lot of idea's but no time to experiment, has anyone read about, or thought about this before? I'm sure someone has.

Discuss.

It would probably take more energy to run the equipment that converts sound into energy than the energy that could be converted. Good idea though.. may have some possibilities. Personally, I'd just put some microphones in a room where they're holding a mothers club meeting...

"Cluck Cluck Cluck"

IRM

Originally posted by InfaRedMan
It would probably take more energy to run the equipment that converts sound into energy than the energy that could be converted.

A microphone converts sound to electricity with no power consumption at all.

A microphone is a vibrating electrical generator instead of a rotating one.

I think you are on to something here.

Noise Energy recycling.

Imagine if you installed these mics on the ceiling of a Busy casino, or a Tokyo pachinko place.

Quite a lot of sound energy being output imo, it could do well to harness it somehow.

reply to post by Nick_X


How about a football arena? Yeah the sound thing is something to investigate.

Nice thread OP!

wZn

reply to post by Nick_X


Yes, exactly my thoughts.

I used to live near a busy street, and kind of near a highway. The sounds from trucks and cars as they pass would create a lot of sound energy.

Everything makes sound, so there is limitless amounts of it available.



[edit on 19-2-2009 by ALLis0NE]

reply to post by watchZEITGEISTnow


Yes sports stadiums, loud airports and jets, highways, ocean waves crashing at the beach, live concerts, there is sound everywhere just waiting to be recycled into electrical energy.

I was thinking about "feedback" from a microphone. "Feedback" is when you use a microphone to close to a speaker that is playing the sounds from the microphone. What happens is, sound from the speaker vibrates the microphone, and that sends a signal back to the speaker and an infinite loops happens. Microphone, to speaker, to air, to microphone, to speaker, to air, etc.. That's when you hear a high frequency ringing sound.

A speaker is basically a horrible microphone, it too has a magnet and a coil, and if you vibrate the speaker cone, it will create electricity, just like a microphone..

So wouldn't a "feedback loop" be perpetual motion??

If you start a sound into the microphone, it will vibrate the speaker, and the speaker will vibrate the air, and the air would vibrate the microphone again, and the loop continues...

Perpetual vibrational motion?


[edit on 19-2-2009 by ALLis0NE]

reply to post by ALLis0NE


Problem with that is that just like a generator that is connected to a load, it will induce back torque. I doubt even a concert sound level will be able to push on a diaphram pushing a coil over a magnet will work once loaded down.

Why not just use some solar pannels in series for voltage gain and combine more in parallel for current capacity and run them thru steering diodes and charge a bank of Lithium Ion batteries.

Or take two horses or cows or Oxen and tie them to a wheel thats tied to a shaft connected to a gear box to turn the shaft of a generator.

Or a propeller on a vehicle alternator tied to a 12 or 24v battery and use wind.

Or turn that unused excercise bike into a pedal power generator.

Or make a hydro turbine and use water flow in a river for power.

Or..just light up a fire and put a steam kettle over it with a hose and connect that to a turbine and a generator.

Or tie together a bunch of lemmons.

Or simply do without and enjoy a nice quiet life without anything electric.


Cheers!!!!

Originally posted by ALLis0NE

So wouldn't a "feedback loop" be perpetual motion??

Once again, once loaded that will reduce the output, which in turn reduces the input that generates the output due to loading, and your perpetual motion becomes motionless.



Cheers!!!!

Sound is just one form of vibration. You could mount plates under busy bridges and use the vibrations from passing vehicles to generate electricity also.

There are many opportunities for micro generation of electricity that could be put into play, and a decentralized grid is much more fault tolerant.

re: feedback being perpetual motion. A power supply is needed to create feedback from a microphone being too close to a speaker, so it's not perpetual motion as it has an external power source.

eb

reply to post by Razmear23


The external power source could be another microphone connected to a capacitor?

Originally posted by ALLis0NE
I was thinking about "feedback" from a microphone. "Feedback" is when you use a microphone to close to a speaker that is playing the sounds from the microphone. What happens is, sound from the speaker vibrates the microphone, and that sends a signal back to the speaker and an infinite loops happens. Microphone, to speaker, to air, to microphone, to speaker, to air, etc.. That's when you hear a high frequency ringing sound.

A speaker is basically a horrible microphone, it too has a magnet and a coil, and if you vibrate the speaker cone, it will create electricity, just like a microphone..

So wouldn't a "feedback loop" be perpetual motion??

If you start a sound into the microphone, it will vibrate the speaker, and the speaker will vibrate the air, and the air would vibrate the microphone again, and the loop continues...

Perpetual vibrational motion?


[edit on 19-2-2009 by ALLis0NE]

No, the speaker is externally powered and amplified. The microphone provides none of the power going to the speaker; the voltage it generates operates a transistor. If it was wired directly to the speaker, the amount of vibrational energy the microphone picks up is so inconsequential compared to the amount of sound generated by the speaker that it would (from our perspective) instantly stop.

If you don't believe me, go ahead and wire 'em together and yell into the microphone and see what happens. My bet is on nothing exciting.

reply to post by Razmear23


There are all sorts of sources of energy, if you look hard enough. This sort of thing might be best in some kind of industrial setting, reclaiming energy that would otherwise be lost.

As for the highway thing, I've heard it proposed here and elsewhere to use piezoelectric plates under the surface of highways to leech power from drivers, to generate electricity. Call it a tiny tax on motorists. Since they lack moving parts, they might be better suited for installation in road beds.

[edit on 19-2-2009 by mdiinican]

reply to post by mdiinican


No I understand how it all works, I have built a phone before, and an amplifier.

I was thinking of different ways to use the power from a microphone to amplify the signal of another microphone. Does that make sense?

But still, my main idea to make an array of microphones could make some useful energy in some places.. Mainly for small electrical devices..

You could just yell and scream at something to recharge it lol...

You are ignoring the fact that any conductor, unless it is a super-conductor, has resistance. It is that resistance that dissipates much of the energy produced, even inside your moving coil, the coil itself has internal resistance...known as "loss".

So for 1 point of energy produced, you have at the very least .7 point loss internally to the compoenet before it even leaves the coil/generator.

So in effect you only get .3 point output of energy.

A load, such as a light, a motor, whatever runs on electricity, is basically putting resistance on the supply output...measured in watts. You have to be able to generate more wattage to run the device than what the device requires to be able to continuously run said device.

A capacitor with the sound or vibration idea would have to be very large value wise, much larger than 5 or 10 farad to be of any usefull storage device from these very weak sound/vibration energy generators, and even a 1 farad cap at 12 volts is around 200 bucks, so a 10 or higher farad would be very expensive, not to mention, very very large.

The idea is....excuse the pun....sound...but as far as being practical...its mute.


Cheers!!!!

Originally posted by ALLis0NE
reply to post by Razmear23

 

The external power source could be another microphone connected to a capacitor?

At that point entropy would enter the system and even at 99.9% efficiency you could not obtain a sustained reaction.
Still a good idea, but a conventional feedback loop would not be able to sustain itself without an external power source.
There are plenty of available vibrations and noise out there tho to make usable electricity from.
For example, set a row of flat metal plates with magnets on each end under a highway. As vehicles go over the plates the ends separate and come back together again many times a minute. The magnets passing each other will generate usable amounts of electricity.

eb
.

Uhhhh. "RF"burns is an Electrical Engineer if I am not mistaken.
I am a Sr. Aerospace Engineer and he is right.
Load throws the whole thing. sorry.

reply to post by j2000


That's great, when you E.E.'s can tell me what electricity is, then you might get more respect form me.


Yes, I understand "load".

I also understand how to get a constant stream of electricity from a microphone.....

I toyed with this concept for a while... worked out allot of the math, even attempted to see if resonating the mic's drum to resonate with things like bells etc.
Back then I tested many concepts, refusing to acknowledge I could be wrong...

... basically, take my advice before you do the same, you're never going to get enough movement from your daily sounds to overcome the physical resistance exerted on the mics coil from the load on the other end of the circuit... even if all that load is, is you charging a small battery.


The E.E and A.S.E on this forum are correct.
It's a noble thought, but sound just isn't a workable source of energy, not at any natural amplitudes anyhow.

If you want to work with vibrations, I would suggest thinking of how to use the constantly changing weight distribution on bridges for energy.




I know why it is this aggravates you. I've been there, hundreds of times.
The E.E and A.S.E have likely been there as well.
You get a concept ticking around in your head and you want to be right about it... you become almost obsessed with the idea.
Obsessed enough that you begin denying thoughts that you might be wrong about it. Desperately wanting to prove yourself right.

Been there friend.
What hurts worse than asking yourself "am I wrong?" is getting to the end only to find out you've forced yourself to admit defeat.

Best thing to do is let it go, and begin thinking about your next idea.
Keep going, and you'll come up with something good!

[edit on 20-2-2009 by johnsky]

That would be a waste of time and energy.

Quite possible the lowest yield system which would ever exist, extremely unprofitable.

If a system doesn't generate more output than input, whats the point?

Beyond that, not even 100% conversion efficiency would generate enough energy for the system to even be self-operating.

I could think of a more improved version of what you're describing though, without the use of a mic.

Mics really aren't necessary in the first place.