Something i thought of on outdoor layouts could you go solar

Garden Railroading
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is it possible on a outdoor layout to compleatly power the layout with solar panals so you dont have to pay the power company for using your trains?

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honestly for that matter couldnt i make scale windmills off of some old motors and wire them up?

cause if you take an electric motor and spin the rod in the middle it will instead of taking power do the opposite and generate power.

so if i take a motor maybe G scale size turn it into a wind mill why couldnt i wire it up to help power my train?

open to ideas and concepts if anyone has suggestions

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Two questions:

  1. how much money ( ROI return on your investment) will be spent on either solar or wind?
  2. how much useable electrical energy will be produced from the “free source of energy”?
  3. Comment: So many times an idea that is not impossible, turns out to be impractical. The idea of a perpetual motion device: i.e water fall turns waterwheel that generates current for a pump that lifts water for repeat activity. Sounds good and indeed might work for a while. In the real world this is impossible without end. Cause = heat loss. The system has two items that will “warm” during normal operation. generator/pump. With this energy being created during the operation, there is no way to “recover” it and keep that energy inside the system. The less the loss, the longer it works. Think of a car. Your car engine has to have cooling, no radiator and overheating occurs. So much of the energy (gasoline = BTU’s = ability to do work) is wasted by having the radiator “get rid of it” (only in the winter is this heat useful) The % efficency of the auto engine is NO Where 100%. Lots of Heat Energy loss. We don’t care because the car gets us downtown. However when projects to be considered are examined, lots of questions need be answered. Especially when on small scale as you are considering.
  4. Advise: buy SOME of what you propose and check out the practicality by observing what happens on a small scale. It works, for a while. The best to your endeavors. endmrw0308251308
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What type of outdoor layout? What guage?

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im laying out an o guage atm

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over 1 acre long is the plan