Re:Harvesting Electricity from High-Voltage Transmission Lin...
by card_zero on Sunday January 28, 2024 @04:29AM
(#39163932)
Tim Hunkin's cartoon encyclopedia (from the 80s) mentions a conviction in Canada. https://www.rudimentsofwisdom.com/pages/power%20lines.htm
Re:Harvesting Electricity from High-Voltage Transmission Lin...
by nickcotter on Sunday January 28, 2024 @04:40AM
(#39163992)
Some other cases mentioned here: https://www.industrytap.com/electromagnetic-harvesters-free-...
Re:Harvesting Electricity from High-Voltage Transmission Lin...
by 15457345234 on Sunday January 28, 2024 @04:51AM
(#39164062)
I think the main reason the electricity companies discourage this is the hazard it presents. The 'collector' is basically a current transformer, which means:
1. If the outputs of the 'collector' go open circuit (because the rectifier/capacitor/whatever dies) the voltage at those terminals is going to rise theoretically towards infinity - insulation breakdown and discharge will occur which is likely to result in a fire.
2. The current generated by the 'collector' is going to be proportional to the transmission line current; if a ground fault occurs on the line the current in the collector winding is going to spike up to some silly level; that will probably result destruction of whatever is connected to the collector outputs and subsequently a fire.
"Velemu says: There was one case in Finland in The 90s, where someone did this to power their summer cottage. When Power company found, where the extra parasitic load came from, they sued the guy to hell and back again. This kind of load is actually actively measured by Power companies, since it is also used to find other failure modes on powerlines, and is easy to detect. Just don’t do it…."