2047 Gravity Energy Storage 

It's such a joy to watch you giggle purely because of something neat you just did. The world needs more people like that.

On that Twisted Axel: I can see that being made in production by the simple expedient of twisting say, 2 Cm square tubing, after indenting all sides.

The first gravity battery I saw was in a RU-vid video where a student showed their gravity battery using block weights like you would find on exercising equipment. They would turn a crank to rotate the main assembly 180 degrees to "recharge" it and it would power several LED panels at the base of the assembly.

Often the criticism of gravity batteries is that it's inefficient and generates waste heat. But maybe that heat can be used to generate from a Stirling Engine at the top?

Another fascinating video Robert. Lovely to meet you on the bridge this morning too. 👍👌

Robert, you're a genuine genius for sure, you simply fascinate me with your useful ideas. Keep up the good work.

Great concept, I love how your mind works, never running out of ideas, I'd try playing about with the pitch on the screw to try get a balance of speed falling and control. Definitely on to another smashing idea Rob.

Great demonstration. It was easily understood and the videography was quite good

Very well done Robert, now I know what my Physics teacher was talking about. Gravity is always on fella. Look out for that apple fella .......

Another great video Robert thankyou for the upload!

I was just thinking about this! Thank you so much for more food for thought!

I've been loving your videos. I'd love to hear your talk about actually utilising these kinds of ideas to power your home. You are always using small props which is amazing but what about actual use cases.? What a dream it would be to see a home system that harvests energy in different ways to drive a gravity battery or something like it to power your refrigerator

Was just thinking about this, thanks Robert!

These videos are a highlight of my day

I had two thoughts about this as I was watching: 1) For stability's sake, it could be relatively easily mounted inside a 4 inch soil stack pipe bracketed vertically to the side of the house. Off-the-shelf end plates could then be drilled to make the supports for the centre spiral. (Obviously, elements of the design would need resizing, but the generator could easily sit outside the tube at the bottom, meaning you only need to resize the falling weight) 2) It looks like we're developing torque at the axle (the spiral), and then pushing it out to the rim for "generation at the rim", I can't imagine an easy way of doing it but I can imagine that there are some gains to be had in collecting energy from the rim of falling weight itself. capturing both the gravity and the spin. I love this idea.

The absolute beauty if water is that as a GAS, it is LIGHTER than air, and yet as a LIQUID it is 800 times HEAVIER than air [denser]. So air becomes really light, goes up really high, then condenses and begins falling back to where it came from. This is due to the marvelous action we call 'phase change'. This happens all the time, without any loss of energy in the system. Its the ultimate power system!

Inverted, and augmented with a ratheting drive flywheel, it would complement your spinning top storage device: an upstroke would charge the gravity battery and the downstroke would charge the spinning top. Perhaps actuated with a long lever, the combination would make half of a different sort of pedal operated generator/battery

Hi you need to stop the falling weight from spinning as potential energy is being wasted in the spin but the extension of the spiral gear looks interesting when the weight is at the top(possibly an accident but fun)

Morning all

Okay. One? I love this, lol. Two: I feel like it could benefit from some clockwork. Specifically the part of the clock that prevents the coil spring from completely unravelling. Three: A modification: Build the clockwork into the base, and use the weight to charge a spring. Four: You need rails attached to the falling weight to prevent it from rotating. That way all of the force from the fall is directly transferred to the shaft rather than a small portion being lose due to the dropping weight beginning to spin. Five: You'll need a spacer or bearings or something between the falling weight and the flywheel weight. You lose a lot of your rotational energy when the large weight lands on top of the smaller one because the rotational force has to be applied to the combined weight rather than the flywheel weight. Same concept as spinning on a swing and pushing your legs out and pulling them in to go faster or slower. Cheers!

If you have a pair of rocker buckets, you can run such a generator in a flow of water. With self emptying 'trip' bucket valves, one can have the water automatically go from the one bucket to the other, working in the classic 'teeter-totter' fashion, and all you need to divert the water is a little 'bill' poking up out of the center, which, by the mere mechanical principle of rotating vectors will, with no added mechanism, divert the water flow into which ever bucket is in the 'up' position. This 'bill' can be on a tipper affixed at the top with either a direct linkage [for a really short travel fall] OR, with a passive drag bar, if the buckets are dropping a significant distance. So as the bucket fills, it begins dropping as the other bucket begins going back up [either by a bar, or, if it is a really long distance, a rope or chain with a pulley], the bill is pulled toward the now empty bucket, which, because it would defeat the purpose to have it fill before it got all the way to the top, has a trip lever valve which can only be opened or closed by additional mechanisms [latch engaging and latch releasing attachments] at each end of its travel. Thusly, if you had only 2 buckets or, if you had a wobble plate with many buckets [say on a rotary cam for instance] you can always keep the empty bucket empty until it is in a position to push down from the peak of the travel, therefore not defeating the imbalance.

Brilliant Robert.

Nice ideas, now we need an efficient 'prime' mover to cycle the mass back to the top. Maybe some William Skinner technology from the 30s could inspire a gravity powered lifting machine to mate with this. He had a uniquely clutched 8 HP motor keeping lots of mass moving. Cheers!

It reminds me of the singing tops we had as kids. The better we pumped it, the longer it spun and sang. Nothing is new, eh? Thanks for all your efforts.

Coil spring off a truck with a plate pushing down on spiral shaft...hmmmmm. I love this!!!!

Perfect for a wave floater! Would be a decent test for your glass bearings and a day at the beach, eh? :) Would still need some amount of weight to drive the rotor. Enough balloon size to counter the weight wouldn't be an issue until you get to a size noticeable to a Karen. Or you could lay it horizontal and use a vertical plate with spring returns, etc. Great proof of concept!

Insane, admirable, genius.

Looks like a great design concept! I think it would be perfect for converting an old aeromotor style windmill to generate electricity rather than pump water. The drive shaft cycles straight up and down with quite a bit of tourqe.

You could adjust also the timing of energy release by having an adjustable angle between 0 and 90 degrees. Smaller amount at time would be released but for a longer period. I think.

Last night I emptied another bucket full of water from the air-conditioned and was amazed on how much water is in the air on a warm day. Nice hope one day u will give this a spin and evolve a way to extract fresh water out of the air on budget. I keep thinking about those glass tunes that concentrate the solar energy that u used for the bbq and closed off copper pipe with gas to heat air and cool by wind etcetera, fascinating there are so many things possible and u bring many of those to the masses. Good things Come from that. Thank u.

In physics we usually use W=mg (Weight, in Newtons (i.e. the downward force on the object) = mass * g. Now I know this is identical to your F=ma in principle, but it's just a kind of convention to state it this way, since there's a force but nothing is necessarily accelerating in a classical sense (i.e. the force is there regardless of whether the object is stationary in your hand or accelerating in freefall.) F=ma is used when something is actually accelerating. F=ma=mg => a=g. i.e. object falls at acceleration g regardless of mass. Not mentioning this to be a pedant and there was nothing wrong whatsoever in your statement, but makes it a little bit more intuitive for people learning to state it this way so they're not wondering where the acceleration is I find.

Some big project is just now prepared in Czech Republic, in ex-coal mines with 3km deep. They plan use a ex-miner elevators.

You know it's something interesting when it makes an adult chuckle like a child in a sweet shop 😅😝 I was thinking too, what if the rod in the middle was made from copper or aluminium, and there was ferro magnets on the plate spinning around the centre rod? Also, to return the plate to the top, you could have the whole setup on something that rotates when it gets to the bottom, so it'll keep itself going too. A gravity generator of sorts 🤔

Beautifully whacky videos :)

When a permanent magnet attracts and holds a piece of iron against gravity, is work being done? If so where is the energy coming from and why doesn't the magnet "run down", if work isn't being done, what is happening? If I held the piece of iron aloft, I would need to expend energy.....Your talk of lifting weights made me think of this.....

If, the weight was hollow lifted to the top,then water was pumped uphill and filled it somewhat as it was dropped the water would move to the outside of the weight due to centrifugal force increasing the rotational energy ( a rotating plate verses a rotating dumbbell of the same weight) . Or perhaps a mechanism like a centrifugal clutch from a mini bike except with weight on the clutch material ends

A far simpler arrangement is generator can be powered by falling weight unwinding a drum. Unfortunately such will tend to keep accelerating, limiting run time. A solution can be to use a non-newtonian fluid as a grease for the drum's rotation. When rotation is slow, it offers little friction. But as the drum speeds up, the grease will shear thicken, and start to act as a brake preventing overspeed and extending run time.

I have been considering a design for a stool that would use the same mechanism as the previous video allowing us to use our body as the mass falling down it would need a lot smaller threads but i think it would be cool

We should be using rainfall like a vertical gravity based turbine, just a matter of catching water up high then releasing it through turbines, maybe by thinking about that concept in these demonstrations that idea could be efficient enough to make rain/gravity based power, should be explored more

Love your videos.

Now connect it up to the magic lever from video 2003 and harvest the energy from vibrations in some convenient place, store the gravitational energy for use later, such as a scaled up version for early morning electric grid higher demands.

2:28 just a heads-up, modern pumped hydro energy storage is between 70% to 85% efficient depending on conditions.

An awesome simple proof and reference point for further versions.. weird so many downvotes onthis one, maybe an influx from people from a different part of RU-vid that had a similar video title. That happens. I've been planning to make a big gravity battery for my home but one that would be geared and moves very slowly down to turn a generator very fast. Would be good to see a higher geared one compared to this one! ;) Keep up the good work, mate!

A planetary gear set up at the bottom would help. Slows the weight down while keeping speeds high in the generator.

figuring out a way to flip the thing, after it hits the bottom, so the weight is back at the top. then add couple shafts so it just turns the center shaft not the wheel itself.

love it! So basic, so ... doable

Plenty of toys in the 60’s used a spiral core. Also the Stanley Yankee ratchet screwdriver

As you said, a structure of some sort around the falling weight would stop the wobble. Maybe the structure should stop the falling weight's spin, as well as have a small stopper near the bottom, just above the flywheel weight, so it doesn't slow the flywheel down.

I was pondering the idea of using a weight in an abandoned mine shaft where the lift would normally be. Then any surplus energy from say a wind turbine or other renewable could lift the weight when consumption was low and be lowered driving a generator much like a grandfather clock system. I suppose it’s been done though! 🤓

Another opportunity where pulleys etc could be used to extract some electricity is the gym . All that wasted energy from people on weight and rowing machines etc. They could reduce their gym fees with credits from feeding into the grid.

I thought I’d get in now, even though I’m off topic, with the hopes you’ll give this idea some thought. So…. Using your “gravity is free” approach and adding it to a Trompe pump system… My thought is you could utilise the void space in deep pile and/or bridge supports to insert vertical Trompe air compressors in what is otherwise wasted space. There must be some location, close to running water, where a change of head is also available. The deeper the Trompe, the higher the isothermal, dry, oil free, air pressure becomes. Such air could provide ‘air conditioning’, free of ongoing costs to a building. As no water as consumed in the process, this could be invaluable in hot climes with high power restrictions. Highly compress air could run generators with no emissions! It could be used in place of batteries to power vehicles It can certainly power workshops. It already does. Anyway. That’s my musings. Great posts, keep ‘em coming! 👍

Gravity is very consistent in life" I also believe it's is the best for what we're doing! A falling orbital generator!

Would a gearbox between the spiral and the generator have any benefit? Could you slow the drop but keep the flywheel spinning at high enough RPM to generate a usable electrical current?

Hi @Robert Murray-Smith while we are talking about energy storage, I have a question about tesla coils and wireless power transfer effect like when a Fluro lightbulb is put next to a tesla coil, is there any voltage coming out of the lightbulb, as it is being excited during the wireless power transfer? example if you put a meter on the bulb would it give a voltage?

How large would a capacitor need to be to store the energy from a lightning bolt? Or how large of motor would be needed to power itself to run off of a single lightning strike and run up a heavy flywheel to power a generator?

The WAG - Wobbly Archimedes Generator ! Yay !

Where the energy needed for lifting the weight to higher potential energy state is coming from Sir?

Very interesting.

Would it work if the weight was below the generator to pull the spiral through to eliminate the flop ?

Can we use pulleys to make a really high number of turns for a lowish lift height for a heavy mass like a big bucket of sand

I keep thinking about the gravitational effects of the moon on the oceans rising and falling twice a day. I wonder if there is enough energy stored at high tide to lift something, then let it drop at low tide attched to something like what you have made or turbine in a tube.?

Time Lord teacher 😊

When you mentioned Hydrostorage in the video where you including the old Victorian Accumulators which you've mentioned previously on the channel?

Really interesting and beautifully made, as and electrical engineer student , i often think about Gravity storaging but none of my course talk about It, they Just talk about elettrochimical storaging. By the way maybe a problem of gravity storaging Is the fact that if you want to move your wheigt with a short run you Need It very heavy and you Need also big reduction, do you think that this could be and issue?

I see problems with this: - gravity storage requires a LOT of weight to be a reasonable energy storage system. 100s or 1000s of tons at least. I imagine manufacturing (and maintaining) those spiral axies will become very expensive on that scale - also this will produce a lot of friction between the weight and the spiral axis. Probably far more than would be lost via transmission losses, for instance if that weight would be just on a rope over a pulley which drives a generator. - lifting the weight again in an actual context requires another pulley system attached to the weight anyway, so the spiral really is redundant.

Is there a commercial version available? If not, I have to ask why! That's the only reason I've never tried it.

Imagine a gym using these!

My 40 acres is on a slope so I'm figuring with some weights going down the hill I pretty much have unlimited storage potential.

I am trying to so the calculations for a woosh bottle generator, make a woosh bottle and dip the tip in water. The water is sucked up pretty rapidly, my intention is to run a pelton turbine off of the water brought up. What is your thoughts?

Hi i want to build a gravity battery, i was thinking if you use a dc winch will it work? In teory it should work but i don't have experience with that, so i searched in your channel and i coludn't find a video about it is an awesome channel btw so there is some modification to do on the winch to make it work if works? I would love a video tutorial but in only asking and not pretending, i love your channel really full of notion

What iff one parks his tesla on a steap angled parkingspot that also forms a lift that tilts while parked to a negative angle (partially underground). The gravity can be used to convert the movement of the relative heavy car to kinetic energy.

Hello Robert. In one of your previous videos you mentioned about strengthening the plastic ( drone prop) with super glue. I used this idea on a carabina made from petg and it made the carabina more stronger and allowed it to not break when flexing it. Could you do a video on the increased strength of super glue on different plastics and if there is any pros or cons for different plastics - including CF ? I have been looking on the tube for this and not found anything yet unless you can point me in the right direction. I'm trying to develop a mechanism that will need this extra strength. I will send to you for testing as soon as I get it operational myself. Love your mechanisms, great work, well expalined.

I've often wondered how much energy could be harnessed from the general rise and fall of a decommissioned oil tanker in relation to the seabed. Perhaps one of Robert's gizmos could be adapted somehow.

this would make a great kids science toy.

so presumably the device is reversible, by putting energy into the generator it would turn the axel and raise the weight.

Rotini generator. Making electricity with pasta. Benissimo! 🇮🇹

Gobsmacked is what is having had been made by that when one has had it happened to…probably by from there the spiral has undone too many screws!

Hi Robert. Once again, you spark more ideas and designs. I dove right in last week and got my first 3D printer ( QIDI XMAX) and now i'm teaching myself CAD and learning about the whole 3D print process,. Bought myself some N52's and some rolls of magnet wire, and now i'm going to try modify a few of your designs to suit the magnets I have. I'll share with you once completed. I'm looking at seeing how much a video player high speed rewind motor would take to rewire . Anyway. I do have a question.. What is the definition of Gravity? :) happy days

A practical use for the portal toy 😂

:) Thank you :)

You think if you did 3D printed of finer spirals on the pole would you get more of a spend time sort of like more spirals per square inch

Need to anchor in the harbor and float the wait with a buoy tidal.

You did a gravity generator with a flywheel a couple of years ago with that idea how about adding several bicycle gears in to get a greater speed to the flywheel

What if you flipped that device upside down and submerged it in water, such as a water well, raised the weight with an air bladder to turn the screw, deflate the bladder at the water surface to allow the weight to reset the sequence. I realize that some sort of latch would need to be used to prevent weight from slowly rising as the bladder is inflated. Perhaps use two generators at the top with opposite ratcheting drives so that one generator is spun on decent and the other generator is spun as the weight rises.

They should make a gym that is electrically powered by all the people working out in there using gravity generators. I can just imagine the green eco power plants of the future powered by body builders 😅

like the old spinning tops

Simpler method would be to weight the spiral rod on its bottom. A cable or smooth rod on the top of the spiral-this would be made to spin freely on the spiral-the purpose of which is to raise the spiral. Easy with low energy consumption. The option is to freewheel the cog in the generator during "charging"-raising of the spiral, or spin to generate on the upstroke.

Dangle your weight from a winch with the right level of gearing. Winch up the weight with solar power. When you need power at night, the weight will unwind the winch which now acts as a generator.

May I suggest a planetary gear to make it spin faster and the weight to drop slower?

feel blessed 🙏 co vid is running fast coast to coast in the US. we never got it last time.. we do now. i feel horrible. so heads up. be safe 🙏💒

This is awesome. Can this be mounted to a wheel so when the wheel starts turing the mass goes up and down?

First time I realized how much energy gravity has, was when I fell off my ladder.

This is Fun!!😅❤ ~I'm thinking about Round legs with Magnetic bearings, for the outside as a way to Stop the Wobble?!! Possibly get them to scavenge a bit more Energy?!! I'd love to have a bit of a go with making this myself,,, But, I have not been able to move house, yet so no room sadly,,,😕 (The Now Ex-Mr Dingbatt,=Reason I can't afford the land or house move,🤷!!) Best Wishes and Kindest Regards, Andréa and Critters. ...XxX...

very cool but is there a way to gather the energy that gets released when the barbell plate hits the bottom

This is close to my principles of Alternative Energy I plan to fabricate in secrecy as soon as all materials are fabricated and available.

energy storage is very interesting,we need to figure that out and find a good solution and gravity is easy to make and reliable but there is another way i´m curious of and that´s a Hydrophore System with nitrogen filled tank that u pump oil in to like those load dampening systems om front end loaders and timbercranes e.g

If you had a generator secton on the top and bottom held with gard rails.would that get you more extraction of the protenal energy.

Would love to see you use ropes and pullies instead of the 3d printed custom axel. It will be much easier to source and diy. Also try to maximize the weight, hight , and gear it so it drops as slow as possible. 200 kg, which can be pulled by 6 pullies to to give the effect of 25 kg effort for reseting it back up. For 2m height youd pull 16m of rope. Pretty sure you can do that in 1 minute or so. Let the weight drop for 6 hours. How much watts would you get for that? (200kg at 2m over 6 hours)

Now lift that iron plate with 4 ounces of water. Work smarter, not Harder. When the water cup fills, it lifts the weight, when the water cup side of the lever is pointing down the water weight transfers farther away from the fulcrum, thus needing less water to lift the weight and that's when you drain the water rapidly and your 2.2 kilo iron plate wants to fall back to earth because the water cup is empty. Unfortunately obtaining liquid mercury isn't a option for me. Not sure how many looked at my water clock and didn't understand the math used. It was when the weather changed I noticed the effects.

If i'm correct, letting it fall down would rotate, the axis in one direction. Would rotating the axis the opposite direction may lifiting the weight? Or, lifting the weight would result to turn the axis as well. Both could be obtained by wind or "hand crank", that would use the rotation directly without any energy conversion in a way or the other, while - as the generator section is also moving - generating electricity while lifting (or loading the "battery"), as well while releasing the weight.of course, charging require more energy in this case. Am i right?