Colloidal / Ionic Silver constant current - Part 1

I've had some requests recently asking for a simple "poor man's" colloidal silver generator. I have seen a bunch of companies selling them online and they are all pretty expensive. I have seen a few hundred dollars or more. There are some cheap ones and plans for just using three 9 volt batteries, but those are dangerous. They don't make safe colloidal silver because they aren't constant current.

What happens is that you start with 27 volts and silver electrodes in the distilled water. As the ionic silver is formed in the water it causes the resistance of the water to drop. This makes the current increase and this causes larger particles of silver to form. As the resistance continues to drop, the current goes up and up. The body can't get rid of larger particles of silver. Small colloids and ionic silver atoms are easy to flush out though. The trick is to limit the current to less than a milliamp or so. I've developed two very simple circuits that limit the output to 40 volts and less than 1 mA (miliamp).


The above picture is the AC version that runs off of normal house voltage of 120 volts. The idea is really simple. You just need 3 identical resistors (all 47k or all 56k) and one small AC capacitor rated at 39nF (nanoFarads). The circuit is just a voltage divider and we are tapping into a 40 volt section. Just use two resistors in series in the R1 position and the third resistor in the R2 slot. You are supposed to use two resistors, but it is easier to get three 47k resistors than it is to find one 94k and a 47k for example. You could use the following web page to calculate different voltages if you need to:

http://www.raltron.com/cust/tools/voltage_divider.asp

If you have 240 volts for example, you could use a 270k for R1 and a 47k for R2. This gives a 35 volt output at no more than 0.7 mA before the capacitor. Try to use a total of 150k or a little more for 120 volts and use about 300k or a little more for 240 volts. This means about 0.2 watts and most of the small resistors are 1/4 watt.

The capacitor is calculated by using the following equation:


the AC capacitor equation.
A=amps
f=frequency in hz
c=capacitance..24 MFD is 0.000024 (you can use capacitance in MFD and divide by 1,000,000)
v=volts

A=2*PI*f*c*v

OR

c = A/(2*PI*f*v)

example with 220 nF (nanoFarad) at 120 volts 60hz
A = 2 * 3.1416 * 60 * 0.00000022 * 120
A = 1 mA

example with 39 nF at 40 volts 60hz
A = 2 * 3.1416 * 60 * 0.000000039 * 40
A = .59mA


The DC version is simple. You need three 9 volt batteries and a special type of diode called a current regulating or current limiting diode. HERE is a 0.75 mA version that only costs $1.94. And HERE is data sheet for a few others.

A typical 9 volt battery has about 350 - 500 mAH of capacity. At 1mA or less, the rating would go up quite a bit. But at 5 hours to make a batch of colloidal silver at 5mAH total each time, the batteries would die of old age before they actually run down.

But, in either case, AC or DC, you will need the following:

• a very clean glass, final rinse with distilled water
• two 99.9% or better silver wires or coins
• alligator clip wires
• distilled water
• glass for storage that keeps the light out (or put in a dark place)
• a AC appliance timer or some other reminder to stop the "cooking" process

When you do the first batch, have a multimeter hooked up to the silver probes as well. This way you can measure the initial resistance between the silver probes. It should be fairly high. Then set meter to voltage and turn generator on. You should see the correct voltage. After a few hours check back to see if the water is starting to turn slightly yellow. You can set the glass on a white sheet of paper to help see it better.

Your goal should be to have it mostly clear but with a slight yellow tint to it. Then turn of the generator and check resistance again. It should be much less than when you started. This way you know it was working. If that process takes 5 hours for a given volume, for instance, then next time you can just set the timer for about 4 hours.

The colloidal / ionic silver should be good for a couple of months if you keep it in a very dark place. Some uses are:

1. spray for disinfecting surfaces
2. mouthwash
3. cleaning wounds
4. use with a nebulizer to inhale
5. body spray and sponge bath in a emergency situation
6. eye drops
7. ear drops
8. hand sanatizing
9. killing mold
10. soaking toothbrush and brushing teeth
11. good article and many more here
    

There is a lot more I could talk about, like testing with a laser light for colloids. Using a set distance and size of probe to come up with resistivity and equating that to conductance and then to a rough ppm number. But that is another day. It is late and I'm off to bed. This weekend I'll take some pics of my AC ionic / colloidal silver generator. I just had the parts lying around.

Richard

On to Part 2 -------->

Underground Cold Storage

If you don't have a underground cold storage and you have freshly picked fruits and vegetables to store, don't worry, you can make your own. I first heard of the idea using a metal garbage can. Just dig a hole, put the can in. Fill with things you want to store through the winter and then put the lid on and cover with hay.

In the above picture I thought a regular fridge would work. Just means digging a bigger hole. It does have a nice rubber and magnetic seal and the whole thing is insulated. I would still recommend putting hay over it. A small free standing cover would be nice so when it is icy and snowy outside, you can still open it and get things out.

One word of advice, don't put apples in with anything else. Keep them seperate. I remember reading that the apples off gas something and it will make potatoes turn green. Don't remember the details though.

Wind Power when the Wind Stops

I know there is a big concern about wind and solar in which their intermittent nature may cause problems. The propaganda being pushed on the net is that they have to make back up coal burning power stations to go along with every wind farm to take up the slack when the wind isn't blowing. This sounds right at first glance but after careful consideration just doesn't hold up.

In reality, the wind farm is there to augment the existing electrical production so it offsets the use of fossil fuels. In other words, no backup coal power plant is needed. The wind farm means that whenever the wind is blowing then there is less coal or natural gas being burned. This is a good thing.

The only time it becomes a problem is when you get close to 20% of your power production coming from wind. Right now we are only at about 1.3%. But when that time comes, there are much better ways to deal with downtime than just making more coal power plants. One example is pumping air underground.
There are two ways to do it. The picture above shows the more inefficient way. But this is the only cheap way to retrofit an existing wind farm. It feeds the grid with electricity from the windmill and uses some of the power to pump air under ground into a empty natural gas well. When the wind isn't blowing, the compressed air will turn air motors or turbines that spin generators to make electricity.

The second way is to use wind turbines that have the air compressor built in instead of the generator. You can read more about it here.

Richard

Utility wants to deploy largest grid battery ever

This story is all about "green washing" and corporate criminals that want to take advantage of new public moneys.

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE57P4PJ20090826

Basically we are looking at a power company and a lithium ion battery manufacturer making huge sums of money through grants from the Dept of Energy. What they fail to mention is that lithium ion batteries are only good for about 2 to 3 years and then they have to be replaced. So, it isn't just a one time grant. It is an ongoing cell replacement scenario. Why put some awesome, lightweight, high density batteries in a warehouse that could just as easily house cheaper lead acid batteries? The most effective recycling program in the world has been the recycling of lead acid batteries. About 98% effective. And large cells like in forklifts can last 10 to 20 years. Lithium ion is great for laptops, drills, cars and scooters because they take up very little space and they are lightweight. In a huge factory size doesn't really matter and, of course, neither does the weight.

But, really, why use batteries at all for this scenario? Wind and hydro can take up slack in the grid system all the way up to about 20%. And only then do you need to look into some backup system. And when and if we get to that point we could use other methods such as compressed air storage underground in abandoned gas wells. Or we could pump water up to the top of a hill and use hydroelectric at the low wind times.

Richard

Homemade Deep Well Hand Pump

I found this site today and the "well" page is pretty interesting.
http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm

It talks about driving your own 80 foot well with a wooden hammer or a post pounder. And it explains the different type of wells and how to dig them. But I found this homemade hand pump the most interesting.

It is made of some hose adapters and a brass ball. It acts as a check valve. This goes down in the well and is attached to some stiff UV resistant irrigation hose. When you pull it up and down it starts pumping water. It may take a lot of effort the first time you set this up but after that it is much quicker because it doesn't lose its prime. I estimate about 50 strokes per gallon.
Also, even if you are going to use an electrical pump, this manual pump still comes in handy for when you first dig the well. It allows you to clear out the sand and silt very quickly.

This type of pump will work for years and doesn't require maintenance. Pretty impressive for just a few bucks at the hardware store. Looks like it would be great for emergencies or for off grid water pumping.

Richard