Roof Power

[DrDoggy2]

years ago there was talk about getting power from a metal roof, wheather it was coming in from ac power lines near by, ion charges at altitudes, or other form of RF collector(antenna).

Well i finally accquired myself a metal roof! and with ac lines near by! now i am ready to test it. but i wonder how?
Maybe I will first try a dc volt meter and an ac volt meter, ref to ground.
Also i could hook my scope up to it. but i fear i will get readings off the scope much like when i leave the ground floating and touch the probe with my finger (irrational lines everywhere).

and would it be ideal to consider my roof as a giant capacitor, maybe i should hook my capacitor meter to it aswell?

SO
what is the best way to test for energy potentials from this roof. And once i have accquired volts and frequencies, how should i measure and accquire amps from it?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

years ago there was talk about getting power from a metal roof, wheather it was coming in from ac power lines near by, ion charges at altitudes, or other form of RF collector(antenna).

Well i finally accquired myself a metal roof! and with ac lines near by! now i am ready to test it. but i wonder how?
Maybe I will first try a dc volt meter and an ac volt meter, ref to ground.
Also i could hook my scope up to it. but i fear i will get readings off the scope much like when i leave the ground floating and touch the probe with my finger (irrational lines everywhere).

and would it be ideal to consider my roof as a giant capacitor, maybe i should hook my capacitor meter to it aswell?

SO
what is the best way to test for energy potentials from this roof. And once i have accquired volts and frequencies, how should i measure and accquire amps from it?

I would imagine you wont aquire 'amps' at all, any energy you could collect (steal) from it would be insignificant.

 

[DrDoggy2]

yes, i prefer the term collect.
anyway, it will be fun/edu to test.
previous ? reiterated.

 

[DrDoggy2]

another fun fact*
A warning came out from the gas co, that due to the supreme insulation of a local 6" underground gas line, there was a substancial & dangerous ammount of current on it due to the impeedance of the overhead hydro lines running parallel with it, even though we are talking about miles of parallel conductors, some of the estimated values were said to be in the range of >5amps & >30v

 

[Flyback]

Capacitance is E0.A/d.

Your d is so large you wont get much capacitance.....and the dielectric is air so E0 will be poor (8.854E-12)....your best bet to get power off a roof is solar.