Oxen Generating Electricity

This topic has 14 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 8 months ago by rozenthalm.

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February 22, 2009 at 9:04 pm #40221
Deborah DeLuca
Participant
hello all,
i go to school at green mountain college in VT and i am working on a project to use our team of oxen to power the lights in our barn. our current idea is to use a crank system to wind rope to a reel on the ceiling, which is also pulling a up a weight. the weight would then release and drop slowly, turining an alternator or a generator to produce electricity, which we could sue directly or store in car batteries (there is a junkyard nearby). if any of you have any ideas that could help, that would be awesome!
-deb
February 22, 2009 at 9:29 pm #50133
Rod
Participant
What a neat concept, use the animal to store power in the lifted weight.
February 23, 2009 at 12:13 am #50140
bivol
Participant
hi deborah!
using animal power to drive various devices is nothing new. irrigation pumps or mills are old devices of man. and it is good to see someone who is interested in producing power with oxen.
honestly, i’m afraid i didn’t quite understand what you were trying to say. you have a winch in the barn and you want to pull some load up with a team and then release it and coupled to the generator it would produce electricity.
well, guess it does work, and for a school project it’s enough, but it looks makeshift to me, and if you intend to use it aside of your project demo, i’d advise you to pick another design.
most of animal powered machines is rotary based, means the animals walk in circles around the device. in case of an electricity generator the actual generator doesn’t have to be in the middle of the rotary.
here’s a page that could help
http://www.chakra.org/living/simpDec11_02.html
you can do something like this:

the idea i like about this mill is that the beam which the animal pulls is low on the ground, so there is no need to build costly supporting structure. you’ll get the idea from the picture.
in the middle there are only gears connected to the propeller shaft near the ground which leads to the actual generator nearby but out of the walking circle of the animals.

this is a shaft drivel bicycle. it has a cardan, or propeller shaft, to transmit power from the pedals to the wheel. use the same system to transport power from the center of the turn of the animals away to the nearby generators. the cardan shaft should be near the ground, the oxen will step over it. don’t think they’ll mind.
about yoking: i guess your oxen work in pair. retraining them to work alone could take time and effort. it is perfectly alright to use them as a pair, just tie the yoke with a rope to the center of the beam so they do not have to constantly pull in towards the center. the rope prevents them to walk in a straight line and keeps them on track. this is absolutely necessary. see the picture below to get the idea.

or you can put the generator next to the center.

this is an ox powered generator i googled up. the basic design is good, although a beam with a counterweight would help. you can see the gears which power the generator. with little extra labor you could get a permanent power unit.
and that’s bout it. i hope i could help!
February 23, 2009 at 12:18 am #50141
bivol
Participant
some pictures couldn’t upload. so here is the propeller shaft transmission system

use this system to connect the rotary unit to the generator if you decide to have your generator near but not in the unit itself.
February 23, 2009 at 2:14 pm #50132
Carl Russell
Moderator
I’d have to say lifting weights can be a useful way to store energy, but would probably be most efficient if the power was used as the weights are dropping, directly to the lights say, and when no lights are needed, the weights are stopped.
If you’re going to use batteries to store the energy, then a mill set-up with a generator would make more sense. I think this is probably the best way to get good work out of the oxen anyway, because lifting the weights could be difficult to create a situation where enough weights can be stored without breaking rafters. Not to mention the inefficiencies of making the electricity, storing it, and then converting it again to use it.
With the continuous action of the mill set-up, you can work the cattle for a couple of hours, storing as much energy as you can store in your battery bank. Also with the generator, you can direct the electricity to the appliance in use, if you want to run it directly off the ox power.
Carl
February 24, 2009 at 4:46 am #50138
jrward
Participant
@Deborah DeLuca 6197 wrote:
hello all,
i go to school at green mountain college in VT and i am working on a project to use our team of oxen to power the lights in our barn. our current idea is to use a crank system to wind rope to a reel on the ceiling, which is also pulling a up a weight. the weight would then release and drop slowly, turining an alternator or a generator to produce electricity, which we could sue directly or store in car batteries (there is a junkyard nearby). if any of you have any ideas that could help, that would be awesome!
-deb
Deb,
I Don’t normally post on these things because I believe there is more to be learned from listening than talking but I did some figuring and thought you might find my info useful. I don’t know anything about oxen but a large team of draft horses can generate just under 2 killowatts of electricity continuosly for a normal work day. This works out to 167 amps at 12 volts. These numbers do not figure in mechanical inefficiencies but it looks like if you go with L.E.D.’s or other high efficiency lights a team should be able to generate enough juice in a couple hours to light a decent size barn all night. Also, the rope and weight is a good idea but the mechanical losses will be huge. I would stick with a 12 volt system and car batteries
February 24, 2009 at 8:48 pm #50142
Deborah DeLuca
Participant
@jrward 6251 wrote:
Deb,
I Don’t normally post on these things because I believe there is more to be learned from listening than talking but I did some figuring and thought you might find my info useful. I don’t know anything about oxen but a large team of draft horses can generate just under 2 killowatts of electricity continuosly for a normal work day. This works out to 167 amps at 12 volts. These numbers do not figure in mechanical inefficiencies but it looks like if you go with L.E.D.’s or other high efficiency lights a team should be able to generate enough juice in a couple hours to light a decent size barn all night. Also, the rope and weight is a good idea but the mechanical losses will be huge. I would stick with a 12 volt system and car batteries
that information is awesome, thank you! we have compact flourescents in the barn right now, and they are on for about 3 or 4 hours each day. do you use your draft horses to pull a crankshaft, or do you use a different method to find their kilowatt output?
February 25, 2009 at 3:28 am #50139
jrward
Participant
@Deborah DeLuca 6274 wrote:
that information is awesome, thank you! we have compact flourescents in the barn right now, and they are on for about 3 or 4 hours each day. do you use your draft horses to pull a crankshaft, or do you use a different method to find their kilowatt output?
Deb,
The way to figure killowatt output is:
2 -2000 lb. draft horses can draw 400 lbs. (10% of their body weight) continuously.
on a 20 ft. beam this would be 8000 ft. lbs. of torque.
A normal team of horses can walk 2.5 mph, this works out to 1.75159 RPM.
to find horsepower you multiply torque by RPM, then divide by 5252
this gives you 2.668 horsepower.
1 horsepower = .745699872 killowatts
If I did my math right this means a team should produce 1.98958212 kw. continuously or considerably more for a short time. Hope this is helpful.
May 25, 2009 at 3:25 am #50144
nvittal
Participant
Did you look into the possibility of using water (pumping to higher heights) or air (compressing) for storing the energy generated by Animal? Just a thought.
May 25, 2009 at 4:49 am #50137
near horse
Participant
I like nvittal’s comment about using water for the mass lifted (and falling). How about combining a Pelton wheel with the whole setup. The oxen raise water to an elevation at which it is allowed to fall and turn the wheel that generates electricity (generator is attached to the Pelton wheel) AND, the water can end up being available for some other end use (water garden/yard, water animals, flush tiolets …). I saw a setup minus the animal power where a local market farmer used a pond at elevation to drive a pelton wheel and then continue on further and water his veggies for sale. Perhaps I’m off track by adding on animal power but it’s fun to ponder.
May 27, 2009 at 8:16 pm #50134
Vicki
Participant
One of our Midwest Ox Drovers Members is working on an ox powered sweep to generate electricity for 12 volt batteries. I’ll see him at the MODA Gathering in June as he is a guest presenter, and get a report on this if he does it. I’ll see if he’ll agree to take a call from you if you’re interested.
May 28, 2009 at 1:10 am #50136
becorson
Participant
i would be interested in hearing more about generating electricity using a sweep, too.
there are folks that are currently making treadmills that transfer animal power into compressed air. the ones i’m aware of are in athens kentuck and gap Pa. At horse progress days in 2009 the athens ky folks had a whole wood working shop set up powered by two horses on a treadmill. at least that’s what the article in Rural Heritage magazine said?
June 3, 2009 at 5:35 pm #50135
Vicki
Participant
Carl posted about his ox powered sweep on the Rural Heritage Front Porch forum. You may want to read it there.
March 3, 2012 at 11:40 pm #50145
rozenthalm
Participant
Deborah, how is your project going? Below is a post of my own:
I am looking for information about ways to use draft animals to generate electricity.
Third world countries are using using anaerobic digesters to convert manure into methane and carbon dioxide gas. The the mixed gasses are run under pressure, the water absorbs the CO2, freeing up the methane. This CO2 rich water is then used to grow algae that can be used for feed or to turn into biofuel.
http://www.riverdeep.net/current/200…cowpower.jhtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas
I’ve heard rumors that farmers have found ways to use the heat from composted manure to generate electricity as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_effect
http://www.electrochem.org/dl/interf…l08_p54-56.pdf
Since oxen have been turning grist mills for centuries, it seems possible that they can turn generators as well. One wild idea I heard was to hook up some oxen to an electric hybrid, and let them pull the vehicle to charge up the batteries. The stored energy could be used to help with sharp inclines, or the driver could hitch his team to a post and zip around town on oxen electric.
http://www.draftanimalpower.com/show…ng-Electricity
http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?5057-Draft-Power-Electric&p=33050#post33050
March 4, 2012 at 9:25 am #50143
Nat(wasIxy)
Participant
I’m loving the crazy electric hybrid vehicle idea – my criticism of electric vehicles being lauded as the green way to travel is how the electric is produced! Ox power covers it for me 8) ….but do the oxen work fast enough to provide that much power??? Is there a way of ‘gearing it up’ enough?
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