• Another Project

    Rio King • 05/12/2015 at 20:14 • 0 comments

    I am going to be taking a brake from this project and I might not get back to it for a while. I am going to try to make a smart bike that can tell you the temperature, how fast you are going, wind speed and direction, time, and keep trak of distance like a normal bicycle speedomitere. Check out my profile for that project.

  • Is There a better matterial that power lines could be made of?

    Rio King • 04/29/2015 at 21:43 • 0 comments

    I found that today's power lines are made from strands of aluminum wire for current with steel strands for reinforcement.

    I wondered, why aren't power lines made of copper?

    I found that aluminum only has 61% of the conductivity of copper.

    I also found that the main reason power lines are made of aluminum is because it is lighter. Because power lines have to go between poles, copper would be too heavy. If copper can conduct better that aluminum, and you lose less electricity with wires underground, why not have only underground copper wires?

    This is what I found:

    "Such an undertaking would cost approximately $41 billion, nearly six times the net book value of the utilities' current distribution assets, and would require approximately 25 years to complete," the report states. Customers' rates would have to more than double to pay for the project, the commission' staff found.

    It would be EXPENSIVE!

    Even though it would be expensive, It would pay off in the future because of all of the power we would save and there would be no more trees falling on power lines and causing fires.

    If we put all power lines underground how much would it cost to make all of the power lines copper?

    copper - $2.78 per pound

    aluminum - $0.84 per pound

    We can see that aluminum is a lot cheaper that copper so If power lines were going to be made of copper, it would have to really pay off in order to be worth the huge price.

    Just as a thought, if we could get copper easier it would bring the price down a lot. Mining asteroids could do that so maybe in the future, power lines will be made of copper.

    I am going to try and test the conductivity of copper compared to aluminum some time soon so look for that in the future.



  • Beaming Electricity With Lasers

    Rio King • 04/29/2015 at 21:04 • 0 comments

    I researched about lasers beaming electricity.

    With a laser beam centered on its panel of photovoltaic cells, a
    lightweight model plane makes the first flight of an aircraft powered by
    a laser beam inside a building at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

    In the case of electromagnetic radiation closer to the visible region of the spectrum (tens of micrometers to tens of nanometers), power can be transmitted by converting electricity into a laser beam that is then pointed at a photovoltaic cell.
    This mechanism is generally known as "power beaming" because the power
    is beamed at a receiver that can convert it to electrical energy.

    Compared to other wireless methods:

    Collimated monochromatic wavefront propagation allows narrow beam cross-section area for transmission over large distances.
    Compact size: solid state lasers fit into small products.
    No radio-frequency interference to existing radio communication such as Wi-Fi and cell phones.
    Access control: only receivers hit by the laser receive power.

    Drawbacks include:

    Laser radiation is hazardous. Low power levels can blind humans and
    other animals. High power levels can kill through localized spot
    heating.
    Conversion between electricity and light is inefficient. Photovoltaic cells achieve only 40%–50% efficiency.[56] (Efficiency is higher with monochromatic light than with solar panels).
    Atmospheric absorption, and absorption and scattering by clouds, fog, rain, etc., causes up to 100% losses.
    Requires a direct line of sight with the target. With a laser beam centered on its panel of photovoltaic cells, a lightweight model plane makes the first flight of an aircraft powered by a laser beam inside a building at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

    In the case of electromagnetic radiation closer to the visible region of the spectrum (tens of micrometers to tens of nanometers), power can be transmitted by converting electricity into a laser beam that is then pointed at a photovoltaic cell. This mechanism is generally known as "power beaming" because the power is beamed at a receiver that can convert it to electrical energy.

    Compared to other wireless methods:

    • Collimated monochromatic wavefront propagation allows narrow beam cross-section area for transmission over large distances.
    • Compact size: solid state lasers fit into small products.
    • No radio-frequency interference to existing radio communication such as Wi-Fi and cell phones.
    • Access control: only receivers hit by the laser receive power.

    Drawbacks include:

    • Laser radiation is hazardous. Low power levels can blind humans and other animals. High power levels can kill through localized spot heating.
    • Conversion between electricity and light is inefficient. Photovoltaic cells achieve only 40%–50% efficiency. (Efficiency is higher with monochromatic light than with solar panels).
    • Atmospheric absorption, and absorption and scattering by clouds, fog, rain, etc., causes up to 100% losses.
    • Requires a direct line of sight with the target.

    It seams like that would not be a good idea because of the inefficiency.