weight=hp and gearing questions

To do this is with any efficiency is a challenge since a drop in height involves acceleration. You can use some sort of ratchet and pawl mechanism to control that, but you end up losing energy that way. But, let's say you can live with that. You're looking for 2 hp and that equals 66,000 ft-lb/min. Let's say, just for a talking number, that you can achieve 50% efficiency. So, now you need 132,000 ft-lb/min. A slow, steady descent might be 4 ft/min, so now you need 34,000 lb.

Let's say you use a 7:1 gear ratio, so the input shaft has to turn 100 rpm. So, 100 revolutions has to equal 4 feet, so the input sprocket diameter would be 0.04 ft/3.14 = about 1/8" so that doesn't work. Sounds like you might want to go to a much faster descent, but that's your call.

Did you read through a previous reply?

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/30680/weight-hp-and-gearig-question

I had a crazy Idea along those lines. It would involve driving you car onto a ramp using your car as weight. The front of your property would need to be higher than the rear of course. The greater the drop, the more charge time. You could have a gearbox with a generator attached on each corner of the ramp. You would want it to drop slowly over a period of hours if possible. To slow it down, the ramps downward action would raise a second ramp along side the one your are using.The generators could be used to charge your bank of house batteries or to produce hydrogen or compress air, whatever method you would choose to store the energy for use on demand. When your vehicle reaches the bottom you drive off around the back of your house and off to work or where ever. When you returned you would drive on the ramp that was raised when you there the last time, and the process repeats itself. Is this something that could be possible? It sure would be nice for all of us to be able to live off the grid. Don