No More Power Cords: Wireless Energy is Here
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06. 8.07
The tinfoil hat brigade has something new to worry about: WiTricity, or wireless transfer of electricity from source to device without a cord. The dust bunnies will have nowhere to hide when the mess of wires under the desk is banished, replaced by a resonating receiver. Scientists have been playing with this for a while; Nikola Tesla experimented with long-range wireless energy transfer, but his most ambitious attempt - the 29m high aerial known as Wardenclyffe Tower, in New York - failed when he ran out of money. Now researchers have lit a 60W lightbulb from a distance of seven feet.
According to the BBC, The new system The system exploits "resonance", a phenomenon that causes an object to vibrate when energy of a certain frequency is applied. When two objects have the same resonance they exchange energy strongly without having an effect on other surrounding objects. Here they use extremely low frequency , thirty meter long electromagnetic waves, which are said to be harmless to humans. "The body really responds strongly to electric fields, which is why you can cook a chicken in a microwave,But it doesn't respond to magnetic fields. As far as we know the body has almost zero response to magnetic fields in terms of the amount of power it absorbs."
Because of the length of the wave the antennas are really big, and so far the efficiency is only about 40% so a lot of energy is being wasted. But oh, I look forward to losing those power bars and wires...::BBC
Update: Linton at Hugg points us to this great video on Tesla
and to Engadget
One obvious possible advantage is to charge cell phones and other gadgets with small solar panels embedded in clothes and such, or charging electric cars without plugging them while they are parked (at parkings with solar panels shading them?).
Yes, this is old and this is new. Old idea, new improvements. The real take home message is that, while very cute and cool, is always going to be very inefficient when compared to wires. The problem is rather simple, when you broadcast something it goes many place and is lost as heat. Another area of energy loss are the electronics (switch mode power supplies, etc) that are required to add this "feature" to a product. Coolness +5 points, environmental effects -5000 points. We need to be thinking about how to make things many times more efficient, not less.
"The problem is rather simple, when you broadcast something it goes many place and is lost as heat."
Couldn't this be improved, though? Directional broadcasting with some sensors keeping the beam tracking on the receptor, stuff like that? Might make sense at some point.
"Tinfoil hat brigade"?
Would this cause any problems with implanted medical devices, such as pacemakers?
All though I would love to see a wireless environment and feel the research and progress is great. I would also say that until it was 100% efficient at transmitting and using the power without loss, then it shouldn't be rolled out. We're trying to make more efficient appliances and use less power are we not!
So, I'd stay wired if it meant a waste of power!
I'll take my power without the leukemia, thanks. It's not like the wires are that bad! (How much testing, human or animal, have they done, over years with many subjects, to arrive at their claim that that frequency causes zero harm?).
Doesn't the majority of our electricity already exploit wireless energy (transformers)?
With the talk of the lackluster efficiency of wireless energy, the current model of electricity production - giant megawatt scale power plants and a quite centralized distribution system - is not that great, losing tremendous amounts of energy as heat due to the resistance in lines.
Yes, old technology!!, could light your house of fluoros directly!!, could power lots of things!!, description states humans effected by electric waves but not effected by magnetic waves.... you kidding me!! damn advertising keeping people dumb!! the magnetic waves are produced from an electric source... electromagnetic wave!! all these magnetic waves are the same just at different frequencies and therfore effect different things, dont know if this frequency will do any damage to living cells inc plants etc. probably not but all atoms are effected magneticly in some form!! even the suns magnetic radiaton is caused buy neuclear explosions!! should we call that neuclearmagnetic rays??
I would have to imagine that if the range for wireless transmission of electricity increases, then it would be ideal for rural areas, being both cheaper and more efficient than single wire earth return systems.
The idea of sending power to machines from a single central source does have it's advantages and disadvantages. I read a story in a comic book once, I think it's from "Journey into the Unknown" about a parallel Earth which uses this technology. The problem with this is that if the source bogs down, all the machines also stop at the same time. http://thenewsroom.com/details/396458/Health?c_id=wom-bc-ar
- Alvin from The Sci-Tech Desk at TheNewsRoom.com
The idea of sending power to machines from a single central source does have it's advantages and disadvantages. I read a story in a comic book once, I think it's from "Journey into the Unknown" about a parallel Earth which uses this technology. The problem with this is that if the source bogs down, all the machines also stop at the same time.
http://thenewsroom.com/details/396458/Health?c_id=wom-bc-ar
- Alvin from The Sci-Tech Desk at TheNewsRoom.com