Wanted Patents, Prototypes, New Products, Inventions, Great Ideas

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Comment by Gary Fosburg on July 26, 2009 at 11:16am

So, here's the link to the indestructible plastic that I mentioned previously. How about a car battery that never gets hot....meaning longer travel?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/5158972/Starlite-the-nuclear-blast-defying-plastic-that-could-change-the-world.html
But I think no one is reading this bulletin board anyway based upon the comments and time lag. Oh well, I'll just plug along

Comment by Gary Fosburg on July 26, 2009 at 8:48am

Food for thought. As an inventor, two articles come to mind from 20 years ago reading Popular Science.
1. A hairdresser from England was trying to develop something for hair salons. But what he came up with is a solution that is soluble for a certain period of time. But when hardens becomes the hardest substance on the planet. The article stated that a small piece was submitted to the US government for testing. They subjected it to a nuclear blast and nothing happened and was still cool to the touch??!!
2. A Korean student mis-understood his final exam at a Japanese college. He was suppose to come up with carbon but something else happened. Years later, two professors analysed the material and found it to be conductive plastic. They made a battery out of the stuff and reported it was 10 times lighter than lead-acid batteries and held a charge ten times longer and was cheaper too.

Now, combine these two past experiments together and would expect a battery that could last a life-time. OR could paint item 1 above to our space shuttles and wouldn't need tiles that are prone to attach by debris.

Best Regards,
Gary

Comment by Gary Fosburg on June 20, 2009 at 9:54am

According to the Department of Energy, average usage nationwide is 1000 kwh per month. That's for 100 million homes. Of couse that includes apartments, mobile homes and such.
Cost of solar panels should drop as volumn picks up. With the additional 30% rebate that the Feds are now offering, the buying power of panels increases by a third.
But you're absolutely right that people can not afford to outlay $20-50K with a payback of 8 years.
That's how I came up with the concept of a National Energy Lottery. $52 Billion worth of lottery tickets were sold nationwide last year. With the odds of 25,000 to 1, it's reasonable to assume that people would take a chance on winning a lottery ticket worth $25K of energy related products. Add the 30% Fed rebate and you get another $6,000 worth of buying power meaning around $31,000 that could be used for solar panels. Toss in a little of your own money and now you would have the system for your home that would be reasonable. If we had $1 billion worth of tickets a week, that's 40,000 winners a week. Drawings would be 24/7/365 and no terminals required.
Would you buy a ticket?

Comment by Yosif on June 20, 2009 at 7:47am

As an electrical engineer I like to talk numbers. Here is a link to prices: www.solarbuzz.com/ModulePrices.htm. With installation it will cost around $10 per watt. My air-conditioner unit is 230V x 30 amps = 6900 watts. It is the maximum, so let say it is 5000 watts. Add here everything else (lite bulbs, fans, kitchen appliances, washer and drier).
During the summer I use 1350 KWH a month / 720 hours in a month = around 2000 watts average. So 2000 watts x $10 = $20,000. But in the power system you want to be close to maximum use.
The cost for a small home 1350 sq. feet is between $20,000 and 50,000 or more. If you save $500 a month, it will take up to 100 months (8 years) to pay without interest for the system. How many people can afford this? But the system needs to be serviced – additional cost. And the output of the system will be dependant on the sun – I took the best case scenario. The efficiency of the panels is around 15%.

No I am not trying to be negative. But the idea that every American can do it – is a myth.

The wind turbines are worse as you need special equipment to install and service the towers.

The best solution will be power stations in the sunny states and desert and build up a transmission grid. The small systems can be use for cabins in rural areas, but be prepared to pay the cost.

In the future, when the efficiency goes up to more then 50% and the cost goes down to $1 per watt, we can re-evaluate this. For now the best thing we can do – bring together scientists to develop the technology or ask NASA for help. They are using it long enough to have something better.

Comment by Gary Fosburg on June 18, 2009 at 9:30am

Yes, I agree that relying on Government or corporate interests to do the right thing would probably never happen.

With this National Lottery Concept, just throwing out the idea to see if there was grass roots support and "planting the seed" that there are other ways to do things, just as Abraham Lincoln used lotteries to fund the Civil War and build our universities.

Greed and the "ME" attitude probably wasn't as prevalent in those days. Communities would ban together and help one another build churches, a home
for someone that might've lost it due to fire, etc...

The greed of the energy corporations is so narrow sited. Just the idea of a potential 40,000 homeowners/business owners a week installing Solar/Wind or buying a Hybrid and/or green appliances and then giving the balance to someone else would only increase their businesses. It would just be a different model. New divisions of Wind/Solar installers could be formed resulting in a different form of revenue. The increase in disposable income thru reduction in electric bills would only help. The American people love to spend. If they had $300-$500 extra a month in disposable income, just think what that would do for our economy.

Building isolated wind farms/ solar farms and then trying to get the energy to the people that use it just costs more money and time not to mention jobs that are isolated to those particular area's. Also becomes a target for Terrorist attacks. By making 100 million homes producers instead of consumers would only balance the grid structure more evenly thru-out the nation.

As we "grow" our electricity, we should consider converting some of our tankers to be prepared to sale the excess to third-world countries. The battery technology ten years from now will be light-years ahead of where we are now. We could call them "battery tankers" that would sell our excess electricity.

Best Regards,
Gary

Comment by Fred Mars on June 18, 2009 at 8:42am

While the lottery idea is a good one, all of the reasons for it have been outlined in my "Plan to Save America" which for the most part has gone unnoticed. That is because if you rely on government or corporate interests to do the right thing, you will never see it happen.

What you are proposing as I have laid out in my plan, will receive extreme opposition from both the petroleum and power industries. What we are proposing will literally obsolete both vampires, sun to turn them to dust and wind to blow that dust away. Now that is energy independence.

Will it be "free" energy? When you consider the cost of the energy producing systems costs, no it will not be free. You will have a good return on investment, better than the in ground pool that may slightly increase your property value.

Green building design from the start and renovations that include retrofitting energy efficient materials, will reduce energy consumption and therefore save money (after payoff) for the consumer.

Jobs will be created in the manufacturing sector, along with the installation, maintenance (if any) and repair jobs required to support the technology. With more opportunities for employment and reduced expenses to power your home or business, more of your earning will be yours to keep, and you will be a part of the economic stimulus that will rejuvenate the US economy, not artificially by printing more worthless promissory notes, but by increasing US production, the GDP.

Now if the auto makers will start making and selling electric drive vehicles, the infrastructure to support it will grow just as it did for the gas and diesel powered vehicles that replaced the horse and wagon. Farriers became mechanics and horse breeders became auto dealers. No economic collapse ever happened there and it won't happen when the power companies fold.

Comment by Gary Fosburg on June 18, 2009 at 7:34am

National Emergency Energy Farming Lottery

To the American Citizens,

NATIONAL LOTTERY HISTORY as quoted by Scientific Games Lottery-Museum
http://www.scigames.com/sections/lottery-museum/
“For almost 400 years the lottery has played a significant role in American history. From 1612 to 1621, it provided the colonists at Jamestown about 8,000 pounds a year that helped them pay passage for many of the new settlers. In 1776, a lottery authorized by the Continental Congress brought in revenue that helped offset the high cost of the Revolutionary War.
Lotteries held during the decade following the war allowed Congress to repay foreign and domestic loans made to the United States in the interest of the Revolution. Before, during, and after the war, state legislatures authorized lotteries that paid for the construction of buildings at Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, and many other prestigious universities. In the 1790s lotteries subsidized state and private buildings in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York.
For the next century lotteries built roads, bridges, railroads, and schools, as well as helping the poor, elderly, and destitute. Although lotteries were banned in the first half of the twentieth century because of isolated cases of fraud and abuse, community leaders and citizens never lost sight of the potential benefits of the lottery. In 1964, the lottery, protected by stringent legislation, re-emerged and once again this recreational "voluntary tax" provides revenues for public education, senior citizens, transportation, roads, and parks.”
As you can see by our history, my proposal below isn’t so much new as just rejuvenating a system that has worked for us in the past. Let’s do it again!

VISION FOR NATIONWIDE EMERGENCY ENERGY FARMING LOTTERY

GOAL:
To take 100 million structures off the grid (meaning reduced consumption-not batteries) in ten years and at same time have those same structures start producing back into the grid. A net difference of two. There are approximately 100-110 million homes. At 50 Million homes producing same amount or close to back into the grid would balance the other 50 Million homes thus taking us to a “Neutral” carbon footprint.

THE PLAN
It is a simple plan. Have a 24/7 $1 dollar national lottery ticket that would be run in all 50 states. The winners would be issued a $25,000 voucher which could be used for any energy generating product or “GREEN” appliances. Give it away. To a relative, friend or business. It doesn’t matter as long it goes “GREEN”. Would be fully transferable to any person or entity should the winner already have such items as: Solar, Wind, etc….

The Fed’s could help by some form of matching funds or tax credits.

Now, if $1 Billion tickets sold per week, (52.1 billion lottery tickets sold nationwide in 2008) it will generate 40,000 winners per week or 3.968 winners every minute. Every single week of the year, another 40,000 people would be “eliminating grid consumption”. 20.8 Million



Structures in 10 years effectively pumping electricity back into the grid, effectively dropping our carbon footprint at twice the speed to a neutral position. If we could get matching Federal Funds, we could double that number. Think of that! That’s 41.6 Million Structures. How many “GREEN” jobs would that create? Millions & Millions in all sectors of GREEN technologies.

The collection of monies will be fully 21st technology. After signing up On-Line; Phones, cell-phones, blackberries, TV sets, email would be but several ways of being notified upon winning. No store terminals will be required.
The day-to-day operations of the lottery would be run by a non-profit organization. For every $25,000 voucher, $10 would go for running operations and increase expansion of this non-profit organization. Therefore, the voucher would be $24,990. The organization purpose would be to help people with Disabilities, Veterans, Homeless, etc…get back on their feet.
ADDENDUM: (2-20-09)
In giving the above paragraph some thought. Here is what I’m envisioning. It is only a concept.

Tickets would be bought via a dedicated web-site. Purchasers would have the option of having their bank accounts debited on an individual basis. $1, $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 max. per month. The money debited against your account turns into Lottery Voucher Credits. They would have the option of a “window” so if they wanted to play at 5:00 pm every day, week, month, etc…they would have the option provided that window is available. Remember, a drawing is approx. every minute for 3.96 winners.

Every time $25,000 is collected, a random drawing from 00001-24990 would issue the winning number.
Thus, this lottery would be a 24/7 operation. Every 3.96 minutes another winning number would be issued. Since each drawing is only 24,990 players, we would need a method of notifying players that they are in the next drawing of 24,990 players and their number is 00001-24990 to prevent confusion as to what game they are entered in, based upon when debit from account occurs, kinda like Keno.

Upon winning, a message would go out to every player announcing the winning number for that drawing. Email, Iphones, cell-phones, text messaging, TV, website, blackberries, Ipods, etc…would be involved based upon players sign-up on the website. Should they win, a message would come up “YOU ARE A WINNER” $24,990 has been deposited to your account.

We would have an “APPROVED VENDOR LIST” on the website. Winners would then go to web-site and buy Solar Panels, Wind Turbines, Energy GREEN appliances, Hybrids, Solar Fans, etc…The company that they buy from would debit this account and ship product to the winners.

Since it’s fully transferable, this web-site account will have a method of transferring balance to another person, entity, corporation, etc…of their choosing provided they have an account on this web-site.

Since most people have a morbid curiosity of “how close” they came to winning, it would be fun to post the results as to how close they came. For example, I receive an email that says “your are number 12,345 the winner number was 12,347. You missed by two numbers. Please try again.


A TYPICAL SCENARIO IF I WON A $25,000 LOTTERY VOUCHER:
I would install Solar in my home which costs around $16,000. The balance of $9,000, I would buy “energy GREEN” appliances. A new Refrigerator, Washing Machine, Dryer, Freezer, Heating systems, etc…creating additional energy savings. The extra energy now generated would go directly back into the “Grid” creating additional credits to my account along with generating electricity nationwide back into the grid. The savings of approx. $3000-$6000/yr that I had been paying for monthly energy bills, I would probably buy a Hybrid because I could use my credits for charging my Hybrid. Now my home and vehicle/s would take us to a “0” carbon footprint for our home. As a side benefit of this proposal for Americans is with increased energy output nationwide, it should drive down cost per Kilowatt thus helping the Nation as a whole.








BENEFITS: (Why I would buy a lottery ticket)
1. Increases home values
2. Excess power creates “credits”. Approx. $0.09 cents per KWH ($avings) to homes
3. Increases disposable income by having minimum or no energy bills.
4. Starts to reduces carbon footprint immediately
5. No new power grid requirements
6. Get to buy new Energy GREEN appliances, bulbs, etc…
7. Use Balance for Hybrid purchase to create a “0” carbon footprint.
8. Spreads installation jobs evenly nationwide; installers, mfg’ers, sales
9. Increases energy GREEN jobs for American workers
10. Increases re-cycling of old “non-GREEN” appliances
11. Even distribution reduces risk of terrorist attach against our grid
12. Resistant to energy disruptions due to national disasters ie; Hurricane IKE

THE ODDS: (25,000 to 1) At 25,001 another lottery drawing is done, etc...
A billion per week is 40,000 winners, 3.96 winners every minute. Side Note: Approx. $1.04 Billion of yearly disposable income could be realized by reduction of monthly energy costs.

HOMELAND SECURITY
The visions outlined above also defends against the possibility of terrorism regarding our energy grid. With a universal grid distribution, America disruption would be minimal due to the uniformity of energy being produced thru every home, apartments, mobile home parks, industrial complexes, local, state and federal buildings, etc…. nationwide.

CONCLUSION

In time of need, the American people have always stood together. This lottery would give the chance for the people to feel involved for a good cause to a new future.

By the People, for the People seems appropriate in this situation.

Even President Abraham Lincoln used lotteries to advance America’s destiny.

The spike in gasoline prices showed us how vulnerable the American people is when it comes to disposable income. We can’t keep the economy going if we don’t have any extra money to spend. When $800 billion leaves our economy for oil every year, it’s no wonder.

My proposals above would put substantial monies in your pockets. Instead of a tax rebate for a small amount, my plan would release that $300-$600 monthly electric bill every month

The visions outlined above would help America (and the world) in bringing about a cleaner environment and a new direction for the 21st Century.

I so hope you might give this some attention and support.

God bless America, God bless Planet Earth.

Sincerely,
Grass Valley, CA

Comment by Fred Mars on June 17, 2009 at 3:33pm

To create a new paradigm we must ignore the current one. Putting energy into "them" regardless of whether it is pro or con is still placing energy where it will do the least to further the energy independence paradigm.

If you don't like what Ford is offering you here in the US, don't buy their products. If you feel your representatives are not listening to you, gather signatures for a recall election.

If the builders aren't building "green" into the design of new homes and businesses, don't buy them. So long as people accept what is offered they will keep offering less than you want. Same with the two party system. If you don't like either party's choice, do NOT vote for either, and write in another choice or organize people to protest the election process as being unfair, illegal, unconstitutional, etc.

Big wind is NOT the answer, as it just means we pay for the infrastructure in taxes and then pay the utility to buy that power, which we paid to produce. Regardless of how they spin it, that is what is real.

As Judge Judy says, "Don't pee on my leg and try to tell me it's raining."

WAKE UP PEOPLE! Stop listening to the spin and look at what is really there in front of your face. Support HR 1207 to audit the fed and then we can take it to the next step and end the fed and charge Congress to perform their Constitutional duty and handle the national currency issue with asset backed funds. Gold, silver, barrels of oil, whatever is tangible. But I think a stable monetary system would require a stable asset backing it. In the current market frenzy, everything has a price tag and the price is always rising.

Basic Newtonian physics: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only changed. The way I see it, we have been duped into believing that big power is creating the energy for us. They are merely converting one form (fuel) to another (electric) or in the case of transportation, into kinetic energy. Well, we can do that same magic trick with a few solar panels and a small wind turbine.

Comment by Allen R. Gale on June 17, 2009 at 2:21pm

Fred, you are right again -
We have seen, if we really read what has been presented in these paages, that there are indeed ways to do exactly that - rid ourselves from Big Oil and Big Power. The problem is that it takes resources that we as individuals, or at least most of us, don't have. The thing we do have is power to communicate our desires to our political representatives - but the only way we have to make sure they are listening is voting power, and that only occurs once every 2 or 4 years (6 years with Senators).

If our legislature had passed the laws needed to implement the ideas explained here and then GOT OUT of the WAY, it would be under way already. There was/is enough money allocated in the so-called Stimulus and Recovery Act to begin massive wind farms, residential solar generation systems, garage nuclear plants, and more. Energy independence was "promised" in the Pres.'s campaign and is still mentioned regularly, although less frequently lately, but what has been dome besides the creation of an "Energy Czar" and a "citizens Energy Committee" - largely if not entirely of Liberal Followers - both who have publicly via the Renewable Energy Summits espoused more of the same.

Why not build ALL new housing with Super Energy Efficient techniques, built-in wind and/or solar generation? One of the "benefits" of the drop in property values is that it is no longer necessary to build a $700k house on a 1/2 acre city lot - why not put energy-neutral houses there instead? Why is Ford planning to build a small, high-mileage diesel car only in Europe and not here? Why are they planning to build a Plug-in hybrid Escape in Canada and not here? Has nothing changed except our incomes and the party in power?

Comment by Gary Fosburg on June 17, 2009 at 7:42am

Interesting story. Around 20 years ago, I had read a story in Popular Science. A Korean college student studying in Japan had a final exam where they were to mix ingredients with the final outcome of carbon. He misunderstood the instructions and failed the test. About three years later, two professors were analysing jars of materials. The Korean students was one of them. When they did the analysis, they found that the solution was conductive plastic. They proceeded to make a battery out of it that was ten times cheaper and ten times lighter than a normal battery of the time. Also had remarkable re-charge capacity. Sounds like something that could certainly be used today.

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