It seems as if we have been leaving most of our energy concerns to "central authorities" or those people who like to manage theses matters. For what it's worth, this might not be the best way to go, since even though it is serviceable now but may be succeptable to disasters of circumstances. Probably a decentralized system that could take over for or completely replace big and wasteful systems. There are a few things that can be done to make changes for both effiency of use, as well as cleaning up the fuel burn to carbon dioxide and water.
As far as giving energy use concepts away is concerned, i tend to think that if something is simple, and useful, it should not really be kept as "intellectual property".
Personally I suspect that someone could have thought of some of this already, but I have not seen any evidence so far. I realize people like to "ride a bias" and not become too inventive or try anything new. This could change, and probably should change.
The first one has to do with having an insulated tank heat reservoir using water. For materials there is a large amount of waste plastic that would likely serve for raw material. One could generate their own electricity at home using methane, and save all the heat for heating. This way there would be a usable heat source for heating (as heated water) and there could be at least two techniques to save energy for electric power when little electric power is being used. This way there would be something of a buffer for both heat and electric by keeping heat energy in hot water and potential energy for electric in either a battery or pneumatic storage tank.
Starting out with the heat reserve insulated water tanks. It seems like it could be fairly easy to have an insulated water tank or water tanks. In addition, having a supply of fresh water could be a very good thing. Normally rain runs away with gravity or whatever. People could likely catch a good deal of precipitation from their roofs. They could probably store it in either their "heat or cold" holding tank or capture and store it in a dedicated precipitation tank, that could be used for gardening or whatever as needed. It would be kind of like insurance against shortages of water or energy.
Simply put, you could have a methane powered generator for electric and capture all the heat for later use as home heating. If methane was used, the exhaust would be very clean, and the heat from the engine and exhaust could be captured nearly 100%. Of course there would be pure water coming off in the exhaust and that could be captured along with the exhaust heat by venting it into the insulated water reserve. So far we are getting electric power, heat, and clean water compared with the same methane we previously got somewhat inefficient heating with what we use now.
Electric will become something of a freebee, while our home heating makes a leap in overall efficiency.
It doesn't seem as if any of the parts for this simple system would be very expensive. Insulated plastic water tanks could, in fact, be a life changing convenience for places like Afghanistan or Haiti. The could have passive air conditioning and heating as well a way to hold and keep water. To me it seems like water capture and holding would be a huge benefit for just about everyone everwhere. Think of it this way: It's water, one of the first molecules in the universe, and while being the "platform" for all life, has some very usable physical attributes and properties, that can be put to use every day. Water is the best substance for holding and transfering heat, as well as innumerable other things. People could likely store enough ice in a cold or ice reservoir to keep their homes cool in the heat of summer.
With water/heat/cold reservoirs, there would be some kind of programmable device to capture the Sun's heat or the Winter's cold.
A heat capture panel could well be very simplistic with modern plumbing materials. With a heat capture panel you could heat water on a sunny day and use it on cloudy/cool day. The point with that would be you could cut down your heating bill by capturing and saving heat when you can.
There seems to be 2.5 ways of getting free electric. One would be solar cells with a method to save in a reservoir, of battery or pneumatic tank or tanks.
There's wind power that could also be saved in both battery and/or pneumatic tank.
I haven't seen anyone try to store energy in pneumatic tanks, but it seems very possible. It could be thought of as a huge spring as far as stored energy is concerned, and energy output can be tweeked by heat absorbtion. This would be one of the best ways to turn heat energy into mechanical or electric power. This is according to Boyle's Law where the total energy held in a gas is proportional to the absolute temperature of the gas. So probably the total energy in the working pneumatic tank could be expanded from about 25 to 50 percent depending on the internal temperature before and after the heat was applied. Obviously some kind of working pressure in the decompressing tank could take on heat and increase a substantial amount and in proportion to the total gas density within the working pneumatic tank. If it were very cold outside the could make a good deal more electric power from adding heat before reaching the pneumatic motor and generator.
I understand there are pnumatic powered cars in France. I have never acually seen a pnumatically powered vehicle, but it seems like a good idea for storing and using energy for motive power. I would be willing to bet one could create a heat capture drive train that would work better than hybrid with storage batteries, because heat could be added to the pneumatic drive train directly from the engine heat and exhaust. Of course one of the ways one could get the engine and exhaust heat would be using water or steam to add heat to the pneumatic tank. I haven't seen anyone try to build a fuel engine/heat capture pneumatic drive train combination. I expect someone hold a patent for it, but i have never seen one. I would imagine that a pneumatic drive train could make for a "very zippy yet efficient car". It could be called a hybrid, and could capture energy from braking. You wouldn't have to use injection to get heaping power at the wheels.
I don't know anyone who wants to discuss this stuff. I think it might need a grass roots effort of sorts. Big energy has an interest in big energy and centralization. There are some items in life that should not be exclusively controlled by "big central". You could save your own water from rain if necessary, you could save a great deal of heat, and refigeration.
There might be a good possibilty that we could get a substantial amount of electrical energy for personal use from the wind using pneumatic or battery storage. Probably a local windmill might be better than a huge windmill with a huge transmission grid.
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