This looks rather interesing, but is it feasible?

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34401616

 

Lord Drayson first showed how much radio frequency energy was in the room, and then used his Freevolt system to power a loudspeaker.

Hahahahahahahaha!

 

Hahahahahahahaha!

yeah, I saw that too... it sounds ridiculous, unless they're talking about harvesting energy that recharges something that will drive a loudspeaker... the first instance is absurd, and the second one is dishonest.

"Others have tried the same idea, but have struggled to produce energy with enough efficiency to make the technology commercially viable."

Why am I not surprised?

 

yeah, I saw that too... it sounds ridiculous, unless they're talking about harvesting energy that recharges something that will drive a loudspeaker... the first instance is absurd, and the second one is dishonest.

"Others have tried the same idea, but have struggled to produce energy with enough efficiency to make the technology commercially viable."

Why am I not surprised?

You missed the point of my laughter. The statement:

Lord Drayson first showed how much radio frequency energy was in the room, and then used his Freevolt system to power a loudspeaker.

can be 100% factually true, yet entirely misleading. Great form!

 

You missed the point of my laughter. The statement:
can be 100% factually true, yet entirely misleading. Great form!

mmmhhhh... I think I get it now... you mean that there's nothing like showing a flashy demo to an impressionable audience to help sell a non-viable product?

 

mmmhhhh... I think I get it now... you mean that there's nothing like showing a flashy demo to an impressionable audience to help sell a non-viable product?

There are two independent clauses in the sentence:

1. Lord Drayson first showed how much radio frequency energy was in the room.
2. [Lord Drayson] then used his Freevolt system to power a loudspeaker.

No where does it say Freevolt used the radio frequency energy to power the loudspeaker.

I guarantee he had lawyers working on this press release.

 

... No where does it say Freevolt used the radio frequency energy to power the loudspeaker....

Ah, the subtleties of language... thanks for illustrating

 

If any of these "free" power devices ever work then radio station transmitters will have to be 50MW instead of 50KW.


edit: Wait... make that at least 500MW.

 

edit: Wait... make that at least 500MW.

I wonder how the human body would be affected if it were exposed to that sort of radio power

 

I wonder how the human body would be affected if it were exposed to that sort of radio power

You've not heard of RF burns?

 

You've not heard of RF burns?

Yeah, but I mean for ordinary people away from the antenna. I mean, I know that ordinary radio frequencies are non-ionizing and therefore are fairly safe. But let's say you are only about 100m away from an 500 MW FM emitter antenna ... would prolonged exposure affect the human body ?

 

Yeah, but I mean for ordinary people away from the antenna. I mean, I know that ordinary radio frequencies are non-ionizing and therefore are fairly safe. But let's say you are only about 100m away from an 500 MW FM emitter antenna ... would prolonged exposure affect the human body ?

You'd probably get well done over time, I guess.

 

You'd probably get well done over time, I guess.

or permanently tanned? .... no wait, that's from exposure to UV
I don't event want to imagine one's brains reacting to that sort of power

 

I wonder how the human body would be affected if it were exposed to that sort of radio power

 

@cmartinez

The NATO guidelines recommends this Permissible Exposure Level (PEL)

and then there's the barkhausen effect ... which can occur as low as 15 KV plate voltages in vacuum tube transmitters, as heard by the comments in this video. At one unit, they had reported 3 rems per hour in a location behind what you see. The PEL is like 3 mRems per year.

 

View attachment 94857

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You've not heard of RF burns?

That explains so much!

I bought a wifi booster last month and, about two hours after I plugged it in, I've been smelling like baked ham.

 

Amateur Radio anyone?

 

That explains so much!

I bought a wifi booster last month and, about two hours after I plugged it in, I've been smelling like baked ham.

Could've been worse, could've ended up smelling like roasted gopher!

 

This will probably become very common. This type of circuitry will probably be part of the SoC on board tech.

It might only support daily or hourly polling at the start, but it will get better.

The voltage and pwr requirements have really fallen. And they can print these Socs for nothing.

It’s amazing.

Connect a small super capacitor or battery to one terminal, a random wire to another, add some time, and presto.......you can take a measurement and answer a poll. Real Magic.

And no pwr bill. And it works in the dark!

The bad thing of course is the loss of signal. I can remember when I was a kid, that whenever someone put up a new antenna in the neighborhood, how our signal went down.

Did anyone else notice that?