Lightning wrote:Ok math guys, if I could hoist a 1 ton weight about 25 feet high suspended on a cable and geared down to drive a generator as it descended... How many kilowatts could I get out of it??
No guarantees, but if the one US ton weight was in a state of free fall from a height of 25 feet it would generate:
P=E/T (power = energy/time)
E= MGH (energy = mass x gravity x height)
M = 907.2 KG
G = 9.8M/Second^2
height = 7.62M
T= 1.247 seconds to free fall 25 feet from a standing start
P=907.2*9.8*7.62/1.247
P = 54,327 Watts = 54.3 KW
The real trick however is to gear it down and see how many KWH this would become if it was geared to fall the same 25 feet over a full 24 hour period instead of in 1.247 seconds.
I'm not sure if you would just take 54.3 KW and divide by 24 hours to get a final answer of 2.26 KW/hour of energy. About the energy equivalent of a 3 HP (horse power) engine.