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Sounds like a scam.
"They claimed an output of "2-3 charges of 3.5V 0.5A". Have they ever had a phone charger in their hands?! USB has a standardised voltage of 5V. It is ALWAYS the same voltage, no exceptions. 3.5V will simply not work. And what counts as a charge anyway?! 0.5A is current, NOT capacity. [Note : this has since been fixed by Bioo. They now mysteriously provide 5v.]
Not to mention the overall operating principal of the proposed device. I'm not a professor of horticulture nor a soil scientist but it still is easy to prove this concept as outright impossible.
Direct sunlight, at noon in a warmer part of Europe or the US has a concentration of roughly 1000W per square meter. Photosynthesis has an efficiency of transferring irradiation into chemical energy of between 0.1 and 2%. That means that if your plant casts a shadow of a total area of 1x1m, it can produce between 1 and 20W at noon. I take the area of the shadow to omit overlapping leaves. They plant they show casts a shadow of about 0.2x0.2m, giving a total photosynthetic peak power of 0.04W to 0.8W. If left directly besides a south facing window one may expect the equivalent of 4 hours of such irradiation, giving us a BEST CASE scenario energy of 3.2Wh.
To charge a phone you'd typically need 10Wh of energy. They claim 2-3 charges per day (website, @chantelmarinb claims 5) And what's more important, they claim this does no harm to the plant, while I'm operating here at an assumption of 100% efficiency. To clarify: I'm assuming they have a magical technology that takes ALL the energy absorbed by the plant, and PERFECTLY transfers it into the battery in the device, leaving NO energy for the plant to grow. Meanwhile, in the real world the efficiency of just moving power from one battery to another is about 80%." This a bad example of tech and a great case for @hoodoopro. I am not an expert but it seems they generate more power than available.
Team Bioo, does your invention circumvent the first law of thermodynamics or am I completely wrong here?
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@eddie_sellers_jr_@chantelmarinb@hoodoopro What if they used a battery to store the energy derived from the plant, then outputs it at the correct voltage, similar to how solar charging works.
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@samschooler Actually Sam, they have since updated their specs and now have 5V output, no issue there anymore...
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@eddie_sellers_jr_@chantelmarinb not to mention the plant is sitting in presumably whatever dirt you purchased it in (since you can use any plant) and somehow that gets "some electrons" from the "organic substances generated through photosynthesis" into their micro-organisms nano-wires at the base of the of the pot. And any plant you use is going to produce enough electricity... No way.
@eddie_sellers_jr_@chantelmarinb@hoodoopro It is not a scam. We are a company whose aim is to disrupt the energy game for better with an innovative technological solution. Doing so has great complexity and thus we appreciate all the constructive feedback.
That said, our technical team has been using a range of 3,5v and 0,5A as it is our minimum registered. As we have previously mentioned in several occasions, we have implemented a new modulator so in the production of our plant pots we will assure a range of 5V and 1A in order to make any device suitable for Bioo.
For the reasons previously stated, we are going to update the campaign information to reflect this and avoid further misunderstandings.
Last but not least, we want to make clear that the plant does NOT suffer any harm. The elements that we need for the energy production are produced naturally during the photosynthesis process and expelled by the plant.
We will be delighted to answer any doubts you may have.
@samschooler@eddie_sellers_jr_@chantelmarinb@hoodoopro We are a company whose aim is to disrupt the energy game for better with an innovative technological solution. Doing so has great complexity and thus we appreciate all the constructive feedback.
That said, our technical team has been using a range of 3,5v and 0,5A as it is our minimum registered. As we have previously mentioned in several occasions, we have implemented a new modulator so in the production of our plant pots we will assure a range of 5V and 1A in order to make any device suitable for Bioo.
For the reasons previously stated, we are going to update the campaign information to reflect this and avoid further misunderstandings.
Last but not least, we want to make clear that the plant does NOT suffer any harm. The elements that we need for the energy production are produced naturally during the photosynthesis process and expelled by the plant.
We will be delighted to answer any doubts you may have.
@chantalmarinb What's the capacity of the battery, c-rate, and nominal voltage?
How do these values change over time and battery usage?
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@nicgdragon@chantalmarinb This is really a great question. If this invention is what it says it is, then there will be no more wars in the Middle East, OPEC will cease to exist, fracking will be history, and we can disband any ongoing energy research because it is surely now a waste of time. That is a world changing, war-ending, let's enter a new era of prosperity type of claim. Bioo holds unlimited power in its hands and uses it to charge my phone.
@eddie_sellers_jr_@nicgdragon Well the plants still need to stay alive and in some climates it seems harder than in others. We are launching this campaign with this first product to collect feedback and get enough funding to make the solar panels to power houses at real scale and test our final product.
Love the idea, but it seems too good to be true. Do any parts of the system break down or need to be replaced? Do the bateria die? Do the wires corrrode or degrade?
@joshdance The system is designed so items don't damage the plant or get damaged. We don't plan to have parts breaking down as all the materials have been selected carefully. We haven't tested the product for long periods yet but we estimate that the system will require a very minimal maintenance.
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@joshdance Also to prove that this is not a scam. Check out plant-e. Are they also a scam? Are all our competitors scams? We are not the only ones, we just did it better :)
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Cool product! Does this have any effect on the plant itself? Will it grow less if you charge a lot? Can you over charge a plant?
@mikaellowgren you can charge up to 5 times your phones per day. It doesn't have any effect on the plant as we basically use its residu in a smart way ;) (also the growth will depend on how well you will take care of it as you would normally do with any plant that you have at home)
I see that a 1 meter by 1 meter square you have will generate 28 kWh per year, minimum. Or about 2.3 kWh per month. So if I had a 25m x 25m square of these, I'd be able to power my entire house with nothing but sun and water?
I'm finding this extremely hard to believe. I'd love for it to be true, but... really?
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@joshlewis Also to prove that this is not a scam. Check out plant-e. Are they also a scam? Are all our competitors scams? We are not the only ones, we just did it better :)
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@chantal_marin I'm extremely excited about the possibility of replacing some part of my lawn with this! Especially if combined with some very high-capacity batteries to make up for the natural fluctuations of electrical output.
Can you say anything about any other concerns regarding lawn installation? Honestly, guys, if you can beat solar's price there, you're going to do extremely well for yourselves and the world.
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I do not like very much indiegogo, but it seems a very good idea and ... green! The plant used, makes any difference to the charge production?
@mario_rossi there is a collection so the power to charge your phone would be the same (but you can't use cactus) :) why don't you like indiegogo?
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@chantalmarinb thanks for the reply! :) Well there're quite some scammers aroud in indiegogo... I've experienced once too and that's not good; neither for funders nor for serious campaigners (like you I hope!)
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If it actually works, it's awesome! Can the plant actually survive without watering it as a usual plant though @chantalmarinb?
@jeremieandre Actually not! You need to keep your plant alive, so you need to water it regularly this is the key :) Nevertheless there are plants that are low maintenance that requires minimal care!
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