Colin Furze's Renewable Energy Tumble Dryer Challenge
Meet Colin Furze, our host of Pitch the Future whose passion is to invent things, especially in the STEM field. See how he takes on one of the challenges himself and builds a wind and solar-powered tumble dryer.
Colin attempts a challenge
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Read the transcript
Title: Wind Solar Powered Clothes Dryer
Duration: 12:46 minutes
Description:
Colin Furze, inventor, successfully designs and builds a wind and solar powered tumble dryer for the Pitch the Future challenge.
Wind Solar Powered Clothes Dryer Transcript
Introduction
[Background music plays]
Music with a strong rhythmic bass line and synthetic effects.
[Video footage]
Colin Furze sitting on a table in his workshop, surrounded by various tools and workshop equipment.
Colin Furze
What up, internet? So, today, I'm going to be taking on a renewable energy project. But there is a reason why I'm doing this.
[Video footage]
Colin standing in his workshop.
Colin Furze
Now, every year, Shell run what's called their EcoMarathon. Now, this is a competition for university students and clever people alike, and they set various challenges, like trying to get cars to run from London to Rome just using a litre of fuel.
[Video footage]
Closeup of Colin.
Colin Furze
But this is 2020, you ain't running no events this year, are you, ha.
[Video footage]
Colin standing in his workshop.
Colin Furze
But they've not just given up, they've come up with a new event called Pitch the Future, which is where old Furze comes in, because it's an online event, and I'm hosting it. Those same students get to pitch their ideas in from these wonderful four categories.
[Text displays]
Decarbonising the home. Net carbon neutral vehicles. Decarbonising road freight transport. Long distance travels with electric vehicles.
[Video footage]
Colin standing in his workshop.
Colin Furze
Now, these are real world issues, like trying to make your house more efficient, your deliveries more efficient and your batteries in your car more effective. So, I thought, if I'm talking to these people in this wonderful competition, I should probably have a crack at one of these categories myself. So, what's the plan, then, Furze?
[Animated sequence]
Colin Furze logo, which is white on black with an industrial style.
[Video footage]
Colin in his workshop.
Colin Furze
I've chosen the category decarbonising the home, because I am at home, and this is my idea. I'm going to make a wind-powered clothes drying machine. Stay with me, stay with me. Now, the brief of this category is to make the home more efficient without losing our creature comforts. A tumble dryer is very much that, a creature comfort.
[Video footage]
A blue washing basket with some clothes in it. A hand loads the clothes into a tumble dryer. Cut back to Colin in his workshop.
Colin Furze
You put your washing in the basket, you stuff it in, it gets dry, bosh. Now a washing line, which you could already argue is a wind-powered clothes drying machine, you have to physically hang it all up. As humans, we are past doing that. No. So, this is what we're going to do.
[Video footage]
Colin riding a 360 swing, which is a tall red pole with a counter-weighted swing arm on it. He goes right over the top on the swing. Back to Colin in his workshop.
Colin Furze
We're going to get the pole that the 360 swing is on, we're going to mount a wind turbine on it, the shaft is going to come down, it's going to turn a big drum of clothes, which can naturally dry inside of it. Oh, it's going to be magic. Right. I need to get myself some sort of drum to put the clothes in.
[Video footage]
Colin backs away from the camera, waving his arms and blowing a raspberry.
Building the clothes dryer drum
[Background music plays]
Medium-tempo rhythmic music with male vocals.
[Video footage]
Colin wheels a beat-up tumble dryer into his workshop and deposits it in the middle of the floor.
Colin Furze
A fine example of a machine.
[Video footage]
Closeup of the drum of the dryer.
Colin Furze
Right, let's get the drum out.
[Video footage]
Video sequence showing Colin dismantling the tumble dryer, removing the front panel, using a drill to remove screws, and removing the drum from its casing.
Colin Furze
Right, that's got it out. It's second-hand, of course, so it's a bit manky on the back.
[Video footage]
Colin holds the drum, showing the camera how dirty it is on the back, then holds it while he is speaking.
Colin Furze
Now, I was looking at it thinking, it's not really very big, is it, Colin? Now, of course, if this is an actual tumble dryer and you pump in hot air through it, that doesn’t really matter. But if I shove a load of wet clothes in there and then just turn it round, it's not going to dry very quick. They're kind of insulating themselves, and obviously, that's the beauty of a washing line, is they're all flapping around in their own space. So, Colin's looking at this, thinking, you need to be a lot bigger, so it tumbles it a lot more.
[Video footage]
Colin puts the dryer drum down.
Colin Furze
So, I think I'm going to have to do away with this, and make my own. That was a complete waste of time.
[Video footage]
Video sequence showing the steps of making a larger drum for the dryer. Colin wheels a metal-bending machine in, and uses it to bend some metal rods. Several different angles are shown of this process. Colin looks at the camera and uses his fingers to indicate the thickness of the rods. Wider shot of Colin feeding the rods through the machine to make them into a circular shape. Colin does some dance moves while the machine is working. Colin holds up a completed hoop and looks through it.
Colin Furze
Ooh.
[Video footage]
Shot of the metal hoop with clamps on. Closeup of Colin in a welding helmet lit up by the light from welding. A high-tech looking laser table saw cuts a design in a piece of plywood. The plywood is fitted into the metal frame. A side shot showing Colin welding. He raises the visor of his welding mask and admires his work.
Colin Furze
Ooh.
[Video footage]
Colin welding the metal hoop, which now has crossbars fitted. A shot of part of the Colin Furze logo projected in light on the workshop wall. A wide shot of Colin welding the hoop, which is held in a vise attached to the work table. Closeup showing a hole being drilled in the middle of the crossbars. Colin assembles two hoops with crossbars on a central axle. The complete assembly is shown as Colin continues welding, this time attaching bars connecting the two hoops. The laser table saw is shown cutting a pattern into a sheet of clear plastic. Colin removes the plastic, and peels off a backing from it. The plastic is attached to the metal frame with screws. Video of sheet metal being machined. A machined part is fitted to a shaft. Colin uses a hammer to situate it, and then welds it on. His welding mask is lit by the blue light from the welding. Several angles are shown of the welding. Colin raises his welding mask and looks satisfied. Another metal part is fitted to the shaft and attached with bolts. Colin is shown sitting in an armchair, with a tea mug in his hand, looking at the drum which is spinning beside him.
Colin Furze
Well, it's kind of circular.
[Video footage]
Colin glides past the camera in his armchair. The drum is spinning behind him.
Colin Furze
Welcome to Pitch the Future, where even the chairs move.
[Video footage]
Colin is standing next to the spinning drum. He stops it spinning.
Colin Furze
Got the tumbly bit, a lot bigger, nicer, I like it. Now, I've got a few things to do with it. I'm going to take these starry bits off, it's strong enough. It doesn’t need that. Then it needs some sides, and it needs probably a bit of a back on it.
[Video footage]
Closeup of the drum with some clothes in it, which are getting tangled in the cross bars.
Colin Furze
Because at the moment, the clothes are all half falling out, and they're all going to get tangled up in the mechanism.
[Video footage]
Colin standing next to the drum.
Colin Furze
Now, we need to make this spin, of course, from a wind turbine.
[Video footage]
Colin picks up a gear box and shows it to the camera, then demonstrates how it will attach to the drum. He gestures to illustrate his description of the system.
Colin Furze
I'm going to put this gear box thing on the back of the shaft, at the back there, have another shaft go up to a spinny wind thing. Yes, and I think I'm going to do an upright wind turbine, so we don't have to have another one of these. Because the more gears, pulleys and connections you have, energy losses, my friend. We do not want energy losses. Not in this system. No.
[Video footage]
Colin sets the drum spinning and watches it.
Colin Furze
A bit more of that, look at that, look. I just need a giant mouse now, don't I? I ain't got one.
Building the wind turbine
[Background music plays]
Medium tempo rhythmic music with male vocals.
[Video footage]
Closeup of metal parts being shaped. Closeup of a hole being drilled in the centre of a metal shaft. Closeup of a groove being gouged in a metal shaft. A metal part is inserted into the groove. Closeup of the shaft being inserted into a socket. The view pulls back to show Colin attaching a gear box near the end of a metal pole. Colin in his welding mask is welding the parts together in his workshop. The light from the welding lights up his welding mask. Closeup of two metal rings welded to the pole. Colin attaches metal parts. View of Colin using a long-handled tool, then a closeup of the parts being bolted onto the metal rings. Cut to a view of the pole, held in a vise on a worktable, with the spinning drum attached. Colin is standing beside the pole. Closeup of the bearings spinning. Back to Colin beside the pole speaking excitedly.
Colin Furze
There's a little bit of rolling resistance. I may have over-engineered it slightly, and put too many bearings on, but at least it ain't going to fall to bits. Spinny washing decarbonisation home comforts, yes. This will not be a chocolate fireguard. We cannot let it be that.
[Background music plays]
Fast electric guitar music with a strong beat.
[Video footage]
Closeup of metal parts being lined up and clamped together. Closeup as they are welded together. Pull back to show Colin doing the welding in his workshop. Closeup of a machine being used to bend strips of metal. Another angle shows Colin working the machine. Closeup of several curved pieces of metal on a wooden workbench. Closeup of these curved bits being positioned on a metal frame. Colin, wearing goggles, uses a tool to cut sheet metal. Colin holds up a cross made of metal, with a curved piece of metal attached to each of the arms of the cross. He shows this to the camera while spinning it around. Cut to Colin using a machine to curve a piece of sheet metal. He then drills holes in the curved sheet. Closeup of a bolt being tightened in the hole. Pull back to show the curved pieces of sheet metal being attached to the frame that was assembled earlier.
Colin Furze
Yep, well, it's massive.
[Video footage]
The finished turbine, consisting of four large pieces of curved sheet metal attached to a metal frame, is on its side in the workshop. Colin gives it a spin, then stops the spin. Cut to view of Colin carrying the turbine out of the workshop. It is clearly heavy and bulky.
Colin Furze
Right, let's see if we can hang it up, see if it works. This is the moment of truth.
Assembling the machine
[Background music plays]
Fast electric guitar music with a strong beat and male vocals.
[Video footage]
View of the wind turbine being raised outdoors. Closeup of bolts being tightened. Colin speaks to the camera, with the wind turbine, which is not turning, visible above and behind him against a blue sky.
Colin Furze
Well, it's up. We've got no wind.
[Video footage]
Pan up to show the pole and the wind turbine. Colin gestures at it, as if to create a breeze. Cut to Colin in his workshop. He reaches to check the camera.
Colin Furze
Okay, got some… oh, am I in focus? Yes, I was.
[Video footage]
Cut to a view of the wind turbine. The sky is cloudy, and the turbine is turning.
Colin Furze
We got a wind turbine. It does spin around when it's windy.
[Video footage]
Cut to Colin in the workshop. He lifts the drum, which has been modified from the last time it was shown. We see that it has Perspex and plywood added to partially close the ends. He turns the drum to show the plywood on the back.
Colin Furze
Now then, made my adaptions to the washing drum, strengthened it up, added a bit of Perspex. Also done the same sort of thing round the back, with a bit of plywood. Oh, very nice, there, Colin.
[Video footage]
Colin puts the drum down.
Colin Furze
Now, of course, we're going to attach this to our shaft, and it's going to spin round. But I hear you say, Colin, if it rains, all your clothes are going to get wet, and therefore ruin your clothes drying process.
[Video footage]
Colin carries a frame into the workshop on his back. The frame is made of metal and has a solar panel on top.
Colin Furze
So what are we going to do? It's not what we're going to do, I've already done it. I've made this, cool.
[Video footage]
Colin lifts the drum and puts it under the frame. He stands in front of the frame and drum while explaining.
Colin Furze
Oh, yeah, look at this. So, that can go in there like that. That can spin round in there, and it won't get wet anymore. That's good. So, we can just come in, shove the clothes in, they can be in there for hours tumbling around, they'll get dry.
[Video footage]
Closeup of the solar panel.
Colin Furze
Now to aid that, we've got a solar panel up, here, haven’t we, Colin?
[Video footage]
Colin holds up a small black fan. He puts the fan into the drum, then takes it out again. He holds the fan and stands in front of the frame while explaining.
Colin Furze
Yes. That is going to be powering this van. Van? It's a fan, Colin. We're going to shove that in the drum somehow, so it can really, really get the air in there circulating, and really help dry the clothes up better. The only other problem we've got, is of course, if it's not blowing any wind, the drum's not going to be turning round, and we're just going to be blowing air at a load of wet clothes sat in the bottom of a very nice cylinder.
[Video footage]
Colin leans on the solar panel while he speaks to the camera.
Colin Furze
This renewable energy malarky is pretty tricky, isn't it? It kind of makes you appreciate what the engineering students have got on their hands with this competition. Right. Let's go and get it mounted.
[Video footage]
Colin carries the frame on his back to the outside, where the wind turbine, now spinning, has been installed. He lifts the frame and hangs it on the pole, then attaches it. Cut to Colin putting the drum into the frame, using a power tool to attach it. Closeup of some electrical wires being connected. Closeup of a solar charge controller with an LCD display. Colin attaches the fan. Closeup of the fan spinning inside the drum. The camera pulls back to show the whole drum. The fan is visible suspended near the top of it. Colin loads some clothes into the drum. Pull back to a shot of the whole apparatus, consisting of the frame with the drum inside below, and the wind turbine above. The sky is blue and the turbine is still. Cut to Colin in his workshop. He speaks to the camera.
Colin Furze
Okay, we've got no wind again, but it's a perfect sunny day. This is perfect drying clothes weather. So, then, what I'm thinking of doing, I've done a little bit of maths. That solar panel will run that fan for ten hours at least. If it's sunny, it will technically keep it going forever, because the panel is powerful enough to feed the fan just constantly, on its own, without the battery being involved. So, we've got power in abundance. We've got power to spare. So, what I'm thinking is, we'll stick a motor on the back of it, so when it's not windy, it can be motor driven, and of course, when it is windy, it will be wind-assisted, basically. That is what we're going to do. That's kind of quite complicated, but it's all right. I have a plan.
[Video footage]
Cut to Colin standing beside a small motor. He strokes it like a pet.
Colin Furze
Ooh. Right, this is my motor setup.
[Video footage]
Closeup of the motor. Pull back to show Colin next to the motor.
Colin Furze
Now, this is slightly more complicated than it looks. There's a few things we don't want to be doing. When we're powering the drum with a motor, we don't want to be turning the wind turbine as well. So, there is a one-way bearing set up in a couple of these things, which is basically a bearing that can only spin in one direction.
[Video footage]
Closeup of the one-way bearing in Colin's hand, as he demonstrates how it spins.
Colin Furze
If you try and spin it the other way, it kind of grips up. It's a little bit like a clutch.
[Video footage]
Colin stands beside the motor as he explains. Close up of the bearing on the motor. Closeup of the shaft turning. Closeup of the motor.
Colin Furze
When the wind turbine turns, it will turn this round. It turns the shaft, which turns the drum. Very nice, but it doesn’t turn the motor, look. So, we're not driving the motor with the wind.
[Video footage]
Colin stands beside the motor as he explains. Closeup of the motor as he demonstrates.
Colin Furze
Then equally, when the motor turns on its own, oh, yeah, it turns the shaft, but it ain't turning the wind turbine round. That's good, but if the wind turbine wants to turn round, it can turn round. It can do what it likes. Right, never mind talking about it, let's go fit it on, power it up, and then it doesn’t matter if I ain't got a windy day, because can put this on, can't I?
Testing the machine
[Background music plays]
Calm acoustic guitar music with synthesized strings.
[Video footage]
Video sequence showing the installation of the motor. Colin uses an angle grinder to cut a metal shaft. The motor shaft is inserted in the cut, and the motor is attached. Closeup of bolts being tightened. Closeup of the motor working, showing the belt moving. Cut to Colin standing in front of the machine, holding a blue laundry basket full of clothes.
Colin Furze
Right, I think it's ready for a test.
[Video footage]
Colin loads the clothes into the drum. He puts the laundry basket on his head and walks out of the shot. Closeup of the drum turning with the clothes inside. Cut to a shot of the wind turbine against a blue sky, slowly turning. Cut to a view from behind the solar panel. The sun can be seen just over the trees in the distance. Cut to a view looking straight up at the turbine turning against the blue sky. Cut to a view of the clothes tumbling in the drum. Very rapid sequence from the point of view of the clothes, we see the inside of the drum and the fan going by several times. Colin stands in front of the apparatus.
Colin Furze
Now, I've not been able to fully test this properly before uploading the video, because ever since I've finished it, we haven't actually had any wind.
[Video footage]
Colin looks up at the wind turbine. He has a laundry basket full of clothes. Closeup of the solar panel. Colin stands in front of the machine while explaining.
Colin Furze
But the solar panel does charge the battery up easily, and it will power the fan and the motor for 24 hours, no problems. But what is the drying time, Furze?
[Video footage]
Time lapse video of the drum turning. The moving shadows indicate several hours passing. Colin sits in front of the machine while it is turning with clothes inside.
Colin Furze
It's November at the moment, so this is a pretty extreme time of year to test this. Obviously, in the summer, it's going to work a lot better. If you leave the clothes in here all day, they do actually dry. But some of the thicker ones have still got little damp patches in. So, I added another curtain to the front of it.
[Video footage]
View of a blue and white patterned curtain hanging beneath the solar panel, covering where the drum is. Colin lifts the curtain as he explains.
Colin Furze
Ooh, snazzy. Now, what this does, it makes this a bit more of a greenhouse, because you do get heat well up in here from the sun, and basically, this just insulates a little bit more, makes it stay hotter, and that was enough to get rid of all those damp patches in the clothes. Oh, very good, Colin, very good.
[Video footage]
View from above the drum as it turns. View from outside the frame of the turning drum. Colin kneels in front of the machine as he explains.
Colin Furze
Now I know this is kind of a crazy idea, but it does actually work. I can use this. I don't need to use my power-sucking tumble dryer anymore. There's a couple of design tweaks it needs to do, because for some reason, it seems to spit socks out.
[Video footage]
Colin picks up a sock from the ground. He gestures to the drum as he explains. Cut to a view of a tumble dryer door, a hand points to the curved plastic on the inside of the door. Cut to Colin in front of the machine.
Colin Furze
I was looking at it, thinking it kind of needs a little curved bit round here, a little bit like a tumble dryer or washing machine door. Which made me think, I wonder if that's why they are the shape they are?
[Video footage]
Cut to view from the inside of the tumble dryer, with Colin peering in from outside. Cut to Colin in front of his wind-powered dryer. View of the inside of the door of a commercial tumble dryer. Back to Colin in front of his machine.
Colin Furze
Rather than so we can see what's going on inside, it's probably to help cycle the clothes inside, so they always get shoved to the back and turn round. The things you learn when you do these things. The things you learn.
[Video footage]
Colin stands with his hand on the solar panel.
Colin Furze
I'm actually quite impressed with this, as well. It charges the batteries up pretty quick. I could nearly have a secondary lighting circuit in my shed, low powered LEDs, the whole thing could run off solar power. Hm.
[Video footage]
Colin watches the clothes tumbling inside the drum.
Colin Furze
Who would have thought this is potentially the future?
[Video footage]
Cut to Colin in his workshop. His hands are full of clothes, presumably fresh from the wind and solar powered dryer. He takes a deep sniff of the clothes.
Colin Furze
Mmm. Carbon-reduction fresh.
[Video footage]
Colin stands in his workshop with the freshly dried clothes in his hands.
Colin Furze
There we are, a wind-solar-powered clothes drying machine. Now, I know it's a little bit slower than a conventional one, and you're clearly not going to be able to fit that in a kitchen or a utility room. But I have dried my clothes, all from renewable energy. That is a win. Now, I've approached this in kind of a low-tech, lo-fi way, but if you want to see some proper high-tech stuff, go and watch the live pitches. There's a link in the description, and of course, if you're watching this after that's happened, I'll put another link in the description where you can see everything that's been entered into the competition. Thank you very much. See you all soon.
[Video footage]
Colin takes a deep sniff of the clothes, and backs off out of the frame.
Colin Furze
Mmm. Smells like renewable clothes drying to me.
Ending sequence
[Background music plays]
Calm acoustic guitar music.
[Video footage]
A sequence of Colin doing various extreme things. Colin with a chainsaw. Colin with Wolverine-style claws. Colin doing spins on a low-slung tricycle. Fireworks going off. Colin walking upside down on the ceiling of his workshop. Colin riding the 360 swing with neighbourhood houses in the background. Colin driving a motor rickshaw. Closeup of Colin with his face splattered with grease, pointing accusingly at a nearby motor. Colin with a flamethrower. Colin riding a hovercraft with two large turbines over a green field. Colin driving a jet assisted minimalist car. Colin on a mobility scooter in a snowy field. Colin firing a bazooka. Colin on a jet assisted bicycle at an airfield. Colin playing an electric guitar with flames shooting out of the neck. A crane with flares coming out of its cab. A silhouette of a man walking past a fiery background.
[Text displays]
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Colin Creates the Mower of the Future
While student teams from around the world took K.I.T.T. as inspiration to create the next car of the future, Colin reimagined a different iconic vehicle.
Colin Reimagines a Ride-on Mower
Read the transcript
Read the transcript
Title: EV Mower Conversation with Solar Charging Station
Duration: 12:44
What's up internet?
Now, cast your minds back a year
and I hosted Shell Eco-Marathon Challenge
called 'Pitch the Future'
where they got
the brightest minds
to solve real world challenges.
And this led to me creating
the solar wind powered
clothes drying machine.
Now, I'm back again with
a new challenge called Future Rider,
where the Shell Eco Marathon
teams are going to be using
TV Knight Rider's K.I.T.T.
as inspiration to design
the next car of the future
because you know, K.I.T.T. has always been
seen as a very futuristic car.
So, the teams of STEM students
are going to have to come up
with virtual designs
of what they believe is
the next car of the future.
Now I'm going to be building something.
It's not going to be a car.
I'm taking inspiration from
the Shell Eco-Marathon teams
that have built super
energy efficient vehicles
and create a solar powered
machine of my own.
And it is a machine I have
a particular affection with.
The lawn mower!
Mmm! Ooh! Look at it!
Lawn mowers.
Now, you know I like lawn mowers.
I got one to run off wood gas.
Yes!
Which is sort of environmentally friendly
but we need to do better.
Hmmm!
This looks like a lot of fun.
I like lawn mowing.
Now these are big ones,
these are commercial ones, obviously.
Too big for my garden.
Don't worry about that at the moment.
These all pretty much run off petrol.
So, what I'm thinking,
the lawn mower of the future,
is clearly going to be electric.
But it's not just about
the lawn mower being electric,
it's where the electric comes on.
So, this is my concept people.
We're going to convert this to electric.
We're going to make its own little shed
which is its charging hub.
It can go in at night,
it can charge up over
the next few weeks or whatever
because let's face it,
when you use a lawnmower,
you mow your lawn,
you got to wait for it to grow.
While it's growing, it could be charging up
ready for the next mow. Oh!
2021 people!
Right.
We need to pull it apart,
we need to work out what the RPMs are,
how it all works underneath
because there's various levers and stuff,
you know, ones that control the blade,
they control the mower speed.
So...
...let's get on with it, people.
Ooh!
Now, after a lot of staring
and head scratching,
I have a plan.
Now, how this thing works,
basically, one engine
this thing is set off into the crank,
this belt goes off to
the rear axle, drives it forward,
this belt goes off to the grass cutting thing
and chops the grass.
Now then. We're going electric of course.
I have one of these lynch motors.
Used one of these
in the electric drift bike.
More than enough power. Excellent.
And there's even a little disk thing
that fits in there a treat.
But I'm thinking we have some
advantages with electric power
as we can have two motors.
A lot of electric cars
these days are dual motor.
That's what I'm going to do.
So, I'm going to have a motor at the front
driving the grass cutting
and a motor at the rear
driving it forward.
First what we need to do,
mount this motor a little bit lower
which is going to mean we have to do
a little bit of drawing.
Just like the teams, they're doing
everything in the virtual world.
This is going to start in the virtual world
and then I'm going
to bring it into reality!
Oh, is that a Colin Furze notepad
and pencil kit you're using there?
Front motor mounted.
Lovely job, Colin.
Of course, we need a rear motor.
Fabricated and plasma got
a lovely mounting plate.
Fits in an absolute treat.
And then just to make it even better,
the plate that the motor bolts do
which can slide back
and forth to tension the belt
I've laser cut out a bit of felt
so it doesn't scratch it.
Oh! Doing yourself proud.
Now, a bit more fabricating
and bending later,
seemingly every bender I've got.
We've got a battery mounted under the seat.
That's the first one
but we need a lot more.
We're basically pretty much going
to fill this whole bonnet area up
with a load more batteries
and then of course the ESC controller
for the front motor.
That is the next job, Colin!
Nanaaa!
Installation complete!
Oh! What a lovely job, Mr. Furze!
Now then, we have got
six batteries in this thing.
We've got two batteries which do
the drive motor at the back
and then we've got four batteries
which do the blades at the front.
Each motor, because it's
dual motors, remember,
has its own ESC.
And if we plug the laptop in,
we can actually program them
so we can tell it how many amps to draw,
what voltage it's running on,
and we can tell them as well
if the voltage drops too much,
so once the batteries start
to get bit low, it can cut it out
and stop it running
the batteries completely dead
which of course is not going
to do them any good.
There's also throttle maps
and things like that.
If this was a racing mower you can
say how sensitive the throttle is,
how things speed up,
how quickly the blades start and stop,
all that malarkey.
So much control we don't actually need
but it's a fantastic system.
Now to control all of this, we got
these little switches down here
which basically switch the whole thing on.
We've got big ampage
battery switches in here
so we can turn everything off
should we have any issues.
And then the blade speed is run by this
wonderful little control knob up here.
Now everything appears to work just fine.
Motor works.
Let's put that back.
The gear knob still does the forwards
and reverse which is pretty cool.
I don't have to reverse the polarity
or anything like that.
And then the blade speed...
Oh no, that was my pad.
I've just chopped my pad up. Excellent!
Now of course we need
to be able to charge this.
Well, Colin, ahaha!
We've got these two trailer adapters,
the same things you get
on the back of a car
if you're plugging a caravan in.
There's seven pins in them.
Six of those pins of course we're using.
Each individual battery
is powered and charged
individually from these ports.
But of course, Colin,
we need a charging station,
somewhere that we can drive this into
and the power of the sun harnessed
charges this little bad boy
in between grass cuts.
Oh, look what I've made.
So, this is the charging station.
Now, I was just going to buy
a normal garden shed
but they're all out of stock.
So I thought, wait a minute,
this is a green project.
The whole thing is made
out of recycled pallets
and I think it looks
a hell of a lot better.
Now of course the roof
is completely made of solar panels,
also makes a pretty fine
looking roof if you ask me.
Basically, they're all connected
to these electrical boxes.
There's eight of them, eight boxes,
and they all link up to these cables.
This one is the positive
and this one is the negative.
Of course, you drive your mower in
you pop these into the little
connections on the bonnet,
it charges up,
and then when it's
completely fully charged,
off you go, you cut your lawn.
Why hasn't this been done before?
This is a brilliant idea.
Right, so I say we give it a charge
and go out and do some grass mowing.
And in between then
I think I want to give everything a name.
Hmmm.
Okay, she's charged up.
And look, I've given it a name,
the Solar-Mowar.
Yeah, and the charging shed
is called the Solar-Mowar-Chargar.
I know! I came up with that one myself.
I'm pretty proud of that.
Right, it's going to cut some grass.
Now I changed the gearing at the back
because it was painfully slow.
But it could do with still going faster.
How long are the batteries going to last?
I'm making a brilliant job of this.
It's so weird being on
such a big lawn mower
that doesn't make any noise.
Get right in there under the edges, boy.
Okay, obviously my garden is a bit
too small for this mower.
We need to test its range.
Now the batteries are 70-amp hours.
I've got the motor set to draw 68 amps.
Does that mean it's going
to run for an hour?
I don't know.
I've done all this. Probably been doing
this for about 15 minutes.
Hard to tell because I keep
switching the camera on and off.
So, I need to go and find
some more grass now
and just see how long it lasts.
Biggest problem now is it doesn't
fit through my gate.
Beautiful.
Right, we've got ourselves
a nice big lawn to cut.
Blade speed up.
Off we go.
We just cut all that
and he's still got battery.
So, I'm going to do some more mowing.
The batteries have lasted so long,
I'm fed up with mowing now.
It's still going.
It's done all this...
...extra.
It's still going. It has come
down to a snail's pace,
but it's still going.
You are doing a lot better
than I thought you were going to.
I am generally impressed with this.
I thought it was going to run
for like 20 minutes
and then just stop.
But it was going well over an hour.
We've cut about
1500 square meters of grass.
I didn't think it would do that.
Now then, of course, it needs to go faster
but I'm thinking we can take
some power away from the cut in,
and give it into the drive in.
It'll go a bit quicker.
It will last all the same,
but you'll probably cover more area
and cut even more grass.
Also, these are lead acid batteries.
This is not the future
of battery technology.
We need to be running this on lithium.
So if there's any companies out there
that do lithium battery kits
so I can make a bespoke battery for this,
please get in touch.
Now charging, it charges back up again
in about a day and a half,
two days, maybe even less.
I can't really tell because ever since
I've stopped filming this,
it's just blimming been raining.
But now that we've got eight panels
on top of the shed charging
six batteries, I got two spare,
I've fitted some lights in the shed.
And to be fair, we could
probably charge this thing up
on two panels over a longer period of time.
There's no point
charging it up in two days,
your grass wouldn't have grown.
There is just so much
potential in this machine.
Now then, of course, the Shell
Eco-Marathon Challenge Future Rider.
Check out what's going on,
link in the description and on screen.
These STEM students are basically
coming up with car designs of the future.
Go and support them because they are
going to be designing our future.
All these people coming up
doing this fantastic work.
It is all good.
This is the Solar-Mowar.
Very impressed.
I'll see you in the next video.
Hosted by
Colin Furze
British YouTube personality, stuntman, inventor, and world record holder. After school, Furze became a plumber, a trade which he pursued until joining the Sky1 programme Gadget Geeks. Colin has used his plumbing and engineering experience to build many unconventional inventions and with his unique skills and style has amassed a fan base of over 10 million subscribers and over 1 billion views on YouTube.
When Colin Furze met Norman Koch
Read the transcript
Read the transcript
Title: SHELL SEM PARTNER IV 4 OFFLLINE V5
Duration: 2:29 minutes
Description:
Interview with Norman Koch, the general manager of Shell EcoMarathon, about the 2020 competition and Pitch the Future.
[Background music plays]
Bright, uplifting instrumental music
[Animated sequence]
Shell logo on a blue-green background. A stylised car on a yellow track arches above the logo.
[Text displays]
Pitch the Future. #MakeTheFuture #ShellEcoMarathon
[Animated sequence]
Stylised cars on a yellow and blue track appear in the upper left and lower right of the screen, as if the track is surrounding the screen.
[Text displays]
When Colin met Norman Koch.
[Video footage]
Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Norman Koch on the right. The stylised cars on the track remain in the background throughout the video.
[Text displays]
Colin Furze, YouTuber and Inventor. Norman Kock, SEM Global General Manager.
Colin Furze
Norman, thanks for joining me. Now, I normally ask people to introduce themselves and say what they do, but you're a particular different case, you see, because Shell EcoMarathon, it's like, you are the face of this. You are like the daddy of the Shell EcoMarathon. So, come on, tell us all about you and the Shell EcoMarathon.
Norman Koch
Well, I was a young man when I got introduced to it. I was a graduate myself, and the buck has stuck with me ever since. Some 20 years ago I was just helping out at an event.
[Video footage]
Closeup of Norman Koch.
Norman Koch
Nowadays, yes, you call me the daddy of it, but I suppose I am.
[Video footage]
Close up of Colin Furze.
Colin Furze
Excellent. Now, obviously, Pitch the Future is a little bit different from what we're used to seeing with the EcoMarathon, so what are you expecting to see from them? How do you think they're going to rise to this challenge?
[Video footage]
Closeup of Norman Koch.
Norman Koch
We have thrown out Pitch the Future as a new virtual competition in Shell EcoMarathon.
[Video footage]
Split screen showing Norman Koch on the right. As he is talking, an inset appears showing a video of two young women working on a model. This inset moves up, revealing one below. The lower inset shows a closeup video of a worktable with several pairs of hands engaged in drawing.
[Text displays]
Hackathon.
Norman Koch
That throws a hackathon-style competition at the students, with a really broad challenge. The responses to broad challenges from students can be really, really different.
[Video footage]
Closeup of Norman Koch.
Norman Koch
From the weird to the wonderful and the wacky and everything in between.
[Video footage]
Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Norman Koch on the right.
Colin Furze
This year is completely different, we can't run things like we normally run things. Why is it important that we continue with the Shell EcoMarathon? Why is it important it goes ahead, and how is it important to you?
Norman Koch
Well, I mean, this year and Covid-19, it has certainly stopped us all from going to tracks, from putting cars out, competing together. But creativity never stops, and neither should the competition. I think the students still have great ideas, they have other challenges now, and they work together in different ways.
[Video footage]
Closeup of Norman Koch.
Norman Koch
But you can't put your education on hold, so why should you put your creativity on hold?
[Video footage]
Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Norman Koch on the right.
Colin Furze
Excellent. You've been doing this for years, now, Norman. What are some of the things that you've seen that really took you by surprise?
[Video footage]
Split screen showing Norman Koch on the right. As he is talking, an inset showing a video montage appears to the left. A crowd marching in celebration. A sign reading on the move. Closeup of a hand pointing something out to a child looking on. Children watching cars on a model track. Closeup of the cars going around the track. A little girl in blue working a centrifuge. Closeup of the centrifuge. A crowd waving their hands in the air. A man in an orange driving suit giving two thumbs up. A group of people in a workshop giving thumbs up.
[Text displays]
Creativity.
Norman Koch
Oh, gosh, how much time do we have, Colin? There's, every year, I'm inspired by so many things.
[Video footage]
The inset displaying video footage becomes bigger and moves to the centre of the screen. The montage continues. People in an exhibition hall looking at prototype cars. Another shot of people in an exhibition hall. Closeup of a young woman's face. She is looking up and her face is lit with purple light.
Norman Koch
Teams that, they print engines, single-cylinder engines out of titanium.
[Video footage]
Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Norman Koch on the right.
Norman Koch
After 20 years, you believe you've seen it all, and no, you haven’t.
Colin Furze
Excellent. Well, thank you for talking to me, Norman. Fingers crossed, in the future we'll be talking face to face, and hopefully, be at a race track and seeing people buzzing around and doing stuff in person. But for the time being, this the world we've got to live in, but hopefully enough it will drive us somewhere new.
Norman Koch
I look forward to it. Thanks very much, see you.
Colin Furze
Cheers, Norman.
[Audio]
Shell jingle plays.
[Graphic]
Shell logo.
[Text displays]
© Shell International Limited 2020
To learn more about the competition, the challenges, the teams and the live pitches, visit the Pitch the Future home page.
