Forum Discussion
- Westend Dean Kamen is dead.
- Any novel battery design needs exhaustive tests en mass to be declared viable. Battery design is temperamental and quirky. Give this design a few years to proof itself or fall off the edge of the earth. Personally I do not care for at all tubular design flooded batteries. The risk benefit ratio becomes skewed and in my opinion the negatives far outweigh any positive notes.
The big issue with flooded lead acid batteries is that too few companies invest the time and money to make a truly fine product. Cheap materials and sloppy workmanship creates a product that encourages pie-in-the-sky thinking to find a miracle rather than fix what's wrong. R &D is great but as an expert in shovelling money down a deep dark hole I shall remain a doubter. Prove it is my battery design mantra. Flexible mylar reflective panels used to concentrate sun light is a viable energy source.
When that artcle stated TUBULAR GEL what little hair I have stood up straight. No small feat. Time will tell what i would love to see, is an lp powered heat converter, that takes that little flame and produces electricity to charge batteries and/or power RV systems
The Stirling engine has been used for awhile to produce efficient electrical generation. If a user can harvest and apply the heat of the cooling side, it becomes very efficient, energy-wise.
Dean Kamen is now trialing a 2.5 KW set for residential use. The 10KW units with a linear generator were used to power villages in Africa before the designers realized that fuel pellets are not that easy to come by in sub-Saharan Africa. The Stirling will run on just about any fuel source as the combustion chamber is a very novel design.- Fork lift batteries have tubular plates.
- I do not see anything that will take your breath away in the engineering of this system. It is just a bunch of solar panels mounted to a cabinet that has batteries in it.
The same basic system has been around for many years. Readers of Home Power Magazine have seen systems much better than this one described by their owners in reports that are published by Home Power Magazine.
Panel prices have come down a lot in the past 5 years. You can buy a 5KW system for a home roof for little more than $6,000, and rack system, 5,500 watt grid tied solar inverter for about $2,500.
Much smaller systems like described above have been installed in Africa, where they can be installed, expanded to meet the village needs, and upgraded as more people buy rechargeable flashlights, install LED lamps in their homes, and even some 10 - 15 watt LED street lights are installed in the village!
Fred. - tubular might be their wording for spiral wound, like Optima ?
a tiny little LP flame produces about 400w of heat energy, used to power a fridge
what i would love to see, is an lp powered heat converter, that takes that little flame and produces electricity to charge batteries and/or power RV systems
the campfire thermo battery chargers for cell phones, only produce fractions of watts - Doesn't look to me like something that is directly usable in an RV, but then neither is the Tesla Powerwall.
I am curious what "tubular lead acid gel batteries" are. I have never heard of a tubular battery.
The PortaGrid system for Aboriginal communities seems like a real winner to me. The same idea could be applied to American Indian communities, rural Africa, actually many parts of the world. Much better than Diesel generators.
Of course, many of us already have such a system in our RVs.
