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Hot tubb'n stuff..

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:28 am
by Greg
Hi All-
I'm putting together a community hot-tub for The Second Island-
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Currently I have a tub 5' X 30" and last night I completed the heat exchanger.
The goal is to use pure river water and allow it to flow out right out while in use...
The tub can be heated several ways, gas (expensive but fast), Solar (free but limited to day use)

To make the most versital and USEFUL tub I'm going to heat it with gas right way..
however-
My goal would be to get a community funded Solar Panel for hot water during the day, this will save lots of money pre-heating the tub for late afternoon sesses.

and a photo panel or windmill to charge the batteries, and or pump water.. (I have 3 deep cells)

The biggest power challange will be pumping water (up hill). The current design is an elevated (30") tub , with another 30" of water (5' vertical lift) with a gas fired heat exchanger- If I did this thing right it should flow without power, however it will require LOTS of GAS :cry: :cry: .. The pump with therefore be used to overflow the tub only. The other item that would be really HOT (pun intended) would be an inclined water solar panel.. This could be set up at any time.. and done in a loop design to auto flow by thermal incline as well. =D> =D> =D> =D>

So thats the latest from the crazy room-
Anyone who might want to contribute with materials, labor, money or BRIGHT IDEAS!, can P.M. me direct-

Some of you might be thinking WHY?
Why Not-
Limm'

Re: Hot tubb'n stuff..

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:37 am
by Greg
A sick contribution would be a Thermal Blanket that wraps the tub..
Must be WATER PROOF-
anyone got any materals.. I can get a friend to make a SWEET COVER with graphics.??...
The Naked Tub maybe...
(but you can wear your wet suit if you just want a quick warm up :supz: :supz: )

Re: Hot tubb'n stuff..

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 1:28 pm
by NewBkiter
Last night I ran across an alternator powered by magnets. I am wondering if this power source is something that anyone has the know how to utilize in order to charge those batteries. I could probably put something together with it. Old working alternator, add a large aluminum wheel maybe even a bike wheel. Some decent sized magnets with north and south polarity spaced out on the wheel. Need one more powerful magnet to be set just slightly away from the wheel. Give it a little push to start the spinning and from what I can tell it will just keep cranking. An alternator is low on the friction. I had no clue till I replaced one on my van 2 weeks ago. This would be a crude design but I think quite doable. Could probably set it up in a plastic trash can to weather proof it.

Here is a youtube link of a man using a water pump to power itself. I cannot find the link for the magnetic alternator/generator. It used a simple toy car motor, some toy magnets and a few other small cheap items.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhwQt1tJ ... ature=fvwp

Re: Hot tubb'n stuff..

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 3:03 pm
by Greg
VERY COOL IDEA!!
Will you build it??

Re: Hot tubb'n stuff..

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 3:05 pm
by wjb
If some could power an alternater with magnets (perpetual motion machine) our power crisis would be solved. How about wind power???

Re: Hot tubb'n stuff..

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 6:10 pm
by NewBkiter
I am trying to replicate one of the magnet experiments now. I have seen some projects where they power a light bulb off a small magnetic alternater. I am using small relatively strong magnets that have both a north and south pole. I did something wrong as it will spin a bit if I give it a boost but then it stops when the poles decide they want to align. Anyways, I think I need some magnets that have just north and just south poles.

I'll do some more research into what it needed to make the water pump. I'd love to build it. There are things about it that I dont understand yet but I do have some improvements for it as well. It could pump day and night. I think we would want a lower capacity pump otherwise you are going to loose all your heated water.

Alternatively you could drain the tub each day then fill it right back up in a matter of minutes and heat it for the day with the solar power. With the right batteries and enough kw/hour you could MAYBE heat it night and day. Shoot, if the pump works it may have enough power to heat the water as well.

I know their are math equations for this but I just have a basic understanding of what we are looking at.

As far as the solar panels go.. are you planning to run water through the solar panels to heat it or use the kw generated from the solar panels to power a heater? My mind is working to make this work.

Re: Hot tubb'n stuff..

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 7:50 pm
by Greg
Water solar and photo-v solar... one heats the water the other moves it up hill....

I'd prefer to pump the water with a windmill too..
I saw a small pump that works with a drill, maybe just set up some pulley's to power that....

Anyway my first goal is to test the auto-flow of my heat exchanger, that and a 12v pump and it should be ready to go out to the island-

Re: Hot tubb'n stuff..

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 8:04 pm
by Loscocco
Solar heated water with a wind powered pump seems to be the best idea
:)

Re: Hot tubb'n stuff..

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 8:24 pm
by windhorny
I think Greg has a secret plan to move on the second island and he is gonna get us to build his home for him. :)

Re: Hot tubb'n stuff..

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:33 am
by fearlu
It's true, I spoke with the wild "animals" there. If you build it they will come...