Quote:
Originally Posted by Angel And The Wolf
Properly counter weighted, an empty elevator can ascend with little use of electricity. However, add passengers, and going up needs more energy or more counterweights. If weights could be connected and disconnected as needed, every passenger load could be equally counter weighted. Probably the most efficient counterweights would be water gravity piped from a source above the top floor, and dumped for up trips. No need to return the water to the top.
Possibly, flowing water could run a water turbine to lift the elevator through reduction gears, and the source need not be above the top floor.
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I built a pulley system in a tree I used to sleep in during summer nights in my youth. Attached to one end of the rope was a burlap sack of rocks nearly my weight. I climbed the tree, connected to the rope, and lowered myself to the ground. Then I attached the rope to a hook I buried in the ground. Going back up required very little pulling effort.
Solid weights would probably most efficient for counterweighting an elevator since they can quickly be attached or detached and involve no pumping losses. That said, multiple floors complicates things, and moving people up and down floors doesn't cost much in energy. The added efficiency of dynamic counterweights would never offset the cost of the system.