Wireless Energy Transmission AC Plugged

What would you do with an AC plug that transmits wireless energy?

In a thought experiment, I imaged a standalone AC plug, which would have no wires on it at all. It would simultaneously pull out electricity, while also sending electricity back into the wall or a
device. It would modulate the energy, and the plug would hold some of the used electricity in reserve while the energy isn't being used, so that the energy can be used later.

Tesla coils would be implanted into my theoretical AC plug. The coils would control the flow of the electric current. Using the AC plug itself without plugging in appliances could send wireless
power throughout the home, which would be ideal for electronic and wireless devices. Maybe one day wireless appliances could use this AC plug as well. I based this on Nikola Tesla's Warrdenclyff
Tower.

Do you believe this experiment would work in your lifetime?

Author's Note

What do you think of my idea? Tell me how I can improve my theory. Ignore grammar problems.

Reviews

[Spamalot]

As an engineer, this is one of those "Gee, wouldn't it be great if..." things. In sci-fi it works.

But "energy out of the air," would be, of necessity, RF energy. And remember all the fuss that cell phones, with their flea power transmitters of 3 watts, max causing cancer? How would you feel about a power density high enough to supply the needs of the average house (about 867 kWh/month), that would require a power density around us that is absurd. Remember, broadcast power does not seek the antenna, antenna absorbs only what's passing. SO to do what you say the house would have to have a massive antenna. And the transmitting station woulds have to gigawatts of broadcast power.

So in the end, it's not practical, and it is wasteful of power. You could use directed transmission, via microwave dishes aimed from the local powerline to the antenna on the house, but God help the bird that flew into that beam.

In short: It might be desirable, and a neat idea. But in the real world it's not practical.

[Joseph D. Smith]

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my essay and for your feedback. :-) Though we may disagree, I appreciate and respect, any and all feedback. Please read my updated version. Thanks again! :-)

[Spamalot]

• It would modulate the energy,

You don't modulate energy. You're tossing around terms that are meaningless int this context.

As an engineer who has worked for forty + years in the computer and electronic field—plus being an electrician—I know you intent is good, but because you're not educated in the field you've misunderstood terms and the physics of the energy created for electronic and electronic devices, and other household consumers of it.

What you postulate is impossible. You don't pull energy out of the air. You only intercept what's passing, like placing a funnel into the flow of a waterfall. The water that hits it can be used. But since there is no way to aim the water at the funnel, or know where it's going to be, the waterfall would have to be created, and sent out like light would radiate from a light bulb.

And all you would have to intercept the energy is a funnel the size of that plug you mention, If it worked you'd need no plug, it would be built into every device and light bulb.

And to make it work we'd have to produce billions of times what's needed, at impossible cost, and broadcast an electrical field that might well vaporize everyone on the planet because we are an antenna as well. We don't feel the radio signals around us because they introduce currents the measure in the microwatts. But you'd be putting us all in a microwave, That would not end well.

I'm sorry to say it, because I know you want it to work, and are trying to find a way to restate it that would make it feasible. But the laws of physics are immutable, and they say to make a tiny antenna draw killowatts out of the air we'd all die—assuming there was a way to broadcast that much power, which there isn't.

Sorry.

[Spamalot]

No change from the last version, so far as a real-world is concerned. You have a "plug" storing power. That postulates a battery capacity of kilowatt/hours the size of a wall-wart power supply of today. And while that might be nice, physics doesn't support that with any battery technology in use today, or postulated for tomorrow. And that disregards the fact that you cannot provide the necessary wattage through an outlet, which is fed via wores that can't carry the power a house uses. Have you seen the heavy cables leading into and out of the power meter? That's the size the outlet would require, so even without that "plug" or the outlet, two conductors plus ground wouldn't fit into even a deep wallcase without the plug.

• It would simultaneously pull out electricity, while also sending electricity back into the wall

I think you mean that it could go either way, because you can't pull power out while moving it in.

As for a Tesla Coil, you don't understand what they, or any transformer is. A Tesla Coil is a resonant transformer. And any transformer can NOT produce power. If you have one watt of power flowing in any transformer at 110 volts, and step that voltage up to 110,000,000 volts via the transformer, the wattage available at that voltage is (assuming no losses in the transformer) the same one watt. So nothing has changed but the working voltage. And, of course, a Tesla Coil is constructed of MANY coils of wire, and so couldn't fit into any kind of plug—forgetting that there's supposed to be a battery of some kind in there, too.

• The coils would control the flow of the electric current

Tesla Coils, or any other kind of transformers don't "control anything." Their function is to transform one voltage to another—period. There are some constant voltage transformers that use the magnetic saturation of the transformer's core to regulate the output voltage and compensate for brownouts, but that changes the available power not at all. Forgetting losses, while the voltage out may differ from voltage in, the power out equals the power in, no matter if the voltage is being raised or reduced.

Simple example: Take a nail and wrap 1000 turns of wire around it,. Over that coil of wire, wrap an additional length of wire 100 times. That's a basic 10:1 transformer. The ends of either the 100 turn coil or the 1000 turn coil will be connected to the electrical circuit in the house. The other end will power the device.

Connect the 1000 turn coil to the house-wiring and the 100 turn coil produces 10 volts AC. Flip that end-for end and the output is 1100 volts at the same power. So a transformer is useful. It allows you to adjust AC voltages to what you need for a given device. But power is volts x amps. So if 1 amp of 110 VAC flows in the 1000 turn side, the 100 turn size can produce a maximum of 11 amps, which would do exactly the same work as 1 amp at 100 volts. In short: you can't fool the laws of physics or get something for nothing.

• Do you believe this experiment would work in your lifetime?

It's not a matter of belief. And I truly hate to say this, but the laws of physics wouldn't support it for lots of reasons. The problem is that you're wishing abilities into devices that don't work as you think they do.