wrote:
raden wrote:
In message . com,
Staffbull writes

http://www.otherpower.com/hamster.html

The planet is saved

IIRC the hamsters were rated at 6 LEDs, ie 6 x 20mA x 2v = 0.24 watts
each. Now if we can house 100 rats in a cage, and the rats put out 2x
as much as a hamster, that would get us 50w output, with garbage and
water for input. Additional free outputs would be dry turd for cooking
fuel and freshly dead meat for animal feed. Rats are nearly free, as it
costs very little to catch and breed them.

South Africa has average 50w electrical consumption per head, with
poorer countries having less. Houses and villages without electricity
are widespread. Scrap electrical equipment is abundant enough to
manufacture the equipment with no significant material cost. People in
poor areas could have 50w of electric light for the cost of assembling
the equipment plus giving the rats access to garbage. If using only 1w
LED reading lights, as the smaller solar power projects use, such a
setup could permit dozens of families to study and learn after sundown.
But the LEDs are not cheap. OTOH VFDs from videos and microwave are
scrap, and are fairly efficient and last decades. 3 of those makes
reading possible, and gives very dim room lighting. And they run direct
off low voltage, wanting typ 30v for anode and 2v for filament. 30v
power transmission on bell wire would be cheap and safe, and a small
transistor chopper could feed the filament with chopped 30v. The 3 wire
system much used in the 1930s would permit mixed 30/60v transmission,
with some houses getting +30 and some -30v, and reduce transmission
losses and cost.

Scaling things up, one roofed shelter 4m x 4m could house 6x 18" high
floors of rats, each 4mx4m in size. For want of any accurate figures
lets guesstimate at 20cm x 20cm per rat, giving 400 rats per floor or
2400 rats in the one shelter. This could generate 1.2kW, supplying a
whole village with basic lighting, and requiring customers to dump
their rubbish at the facility for the rats to sift and eat. It would
also be a rubbish disposal facility improving neighbourhood hygiene,
generate dry fuel, and rat meat.

If rats live 2 years average, we get a meat yield of 1200 rats per
year, or 3-4 per day. About enough to fed one cat.

Generators could be braked during hours when generation is not needed
to help ensure max output during the evenings. The question is would
customers pay enough to make it run financially.


NT


The experiment has been started, but using dogs due to higher expected
output power.
http://tinyurl.com/yfhxeh


NT