BingBumpier
BingBumpier
People have been chasing the dream of free energy for over a century. The problem is that the phrase covers two very different ideas, and pretending they are the same is how people get talked out of their savings.
The honest version means energy that costs essentially nothing to harvest after the equipment is installed. Rooftop solar is the canonical example. Pay up front for panels, an inverter, and installation, then collect electricity from the sun for two or three decades with very little ongoing cost. The sun bills nothing. You did pay for the gear, but the marginal kilowatt-hour is close to free.
The dishonest version means a machine that produces more energy than it consumes. This violates the first law of thermodynamics, which is one of the most thoroughly tested rules in physics. Anyone selling a sealed box that outputs more power than it draws is either confused or running a scam. No exceptions to date, and no, the patent office is not suppressing it.
Magnetic motors, "zero-point energy" devices, water-powered cars that run on the hydrogen split from their own gas tank, and anything advertised on a YouTube video featuring dramatic foreshadowing music. Some of these involve real physics misapplied; most involve no physics at all.
For more on this you can read the recent news.
There is no machine that gives you something for nothing. There are machines that turn sources we already have — sunlight, wind, the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors — into useful work with very little ongoing cost. Those are the systems worth your money. Skip the rest.
Read next: Noodles News · Bathtub Refinishing