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I want to build an outdoor ice skating rink


nath88nael

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i need a massive amount of energy, and i intend for my skaters to give it to me.

 

i'm looking for a way to harness the motion of the skaters across the ice.

it should give enough energy to keep the ice cool.

(this is a daunting task, and will rely heavily on my ability to, later, design an effective cooling system)

 

any suggestions?

 

 

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instead of using the pressure of the skaters, i would lay copper coils under the ice.

if the bottoms of the blades of the skates were magnetized, wouldn't they create an electrical current in the copper?

assume 20 people (40 magnets) moving along the outside of a cirlce (radius 25 feet) and underneath them is a large coil of copper covered by a layer of ice.

 

 

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i need a massive amount of energy, and i intend for my skaters to give it to me.

 

i'm looking for a way to harness the motion of the skaters across the ice.

it should give enough energy to keep the ice cool.

(this is a daunting task, and will rely heavily on my ability to, later, design an effective cooling system)

 

any suggestions?

I have a suggestion: give up.

 

If they are fairly athletic and prepared to work hard you can probably get something like 100 Watts from a person.

So you have a budget of about 2Kw.

It will take more than that to keep the ice cold.

Also, the whole point of skating is that it's a low friction surface. If you draw energy from the motion of the skaters they will feel like they are "skating" on sandpaper.

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instead of using the pressure of the skaters, i would lay copper coils under the ice.

if the bottoms of the blades of the skates were magnetized, wouldn't they create an electrical current in the copper?

assume 20 people (40 magnets) moving along the outside of a cirlce (radius 25 feet) and underneath them is a large coil of copper covered by a layer of ice.

 

 

 

The current would be really small and not continuous because of unguided movement of magnet. This would not be DC or AC, it would just be an induction-momentary.

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According to this

http://www.niceskating.com/FAQ.html

you need roughly a hundred times more power than you have available.

 

 

"What is the power and water consumption of an ice rink?

 

The power consumption is related to the cooling capacity required by the fridge unit to maintain the rink as frozen ice. The power of these machines chillers, typically range from 200 kW to 1,500 kW or more. "

 

Unless, of course, you are setting up a rink in Canada in Winter or something.

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