Hi, Glad to have found you folks. I admit that I have not spent much time here researching this idea but here goes. Being that I am caught in between seasons up here in in the sticks with nothing to do, I have been reading allot about Tesla and the inventions he created. One of which got my attention and that is obtaining energy from the air using a ground and a metal plate on a pole as an example. I have a 160 ft steel well pipe and an un-grounded steel roof on a garage which happens to be in close proximity to the subdivision power poles, so I have what may be the perfect scenario to give this a try charging batteries. I could build a simple bridge rectifier with some diodes I have laying around with an electrolytic capacitor between the + and - outputs. What I am thinking is, when the capacitor reaches a certain voltage, lets say 24 volts or whatever, to bring in a 12v automotive relay with a comparator of some kind , and dump the capacitor into a 12 volt lawn tractor battery. I would need to devise a simple comparator circuit with a separate power source to do this. Maybe you have some ideas that can save me allot of time trying to make this on a breadboard? Thanks ! Because lightning can go up from ground or down to ground, I am thinking the electricity potential may be higher at ground level than in the air at some points is why the bridge rectifier would be needed to capture a current going in either direction. BUT, I am not sure. I have a simple schematic I found.
Thanks,
Joe (I fat fingered my user name with an L instead of a J, sorry, I can't change it.)
Thanks,
Joe (I fat fingered my user name with an L instead of a J, sorry, I can't change it.)