| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/13/2007 7:07:17 PM | Hi folks,
Was wondering if anyone has ever implimented any sort of alternative energy for there homes ie; solar/wind/hydro? If so, can you tell us about your project(s)?
I am looking into a feasable way to live off-grid and also to be very efficient energy wise. Any info would be of interest. | |
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LBP
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Joined: 12/27/2006
Msg: 2 | |
| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/14/2007 4:06:27 PM | | I think solar and wind would be practical combined. | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/14/2007 5:27:51 PM | If you want to know about living off the grid check out Les Stroud from Discovery channels "survivor man". They built a home with both solar and wind generation. Ya might find some useful information.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08/survivorman_goe.php | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/14/2007 10:19:23 PM | | there is a windmill thing out in cowbay (by the moose) i think its powering a good chunk of that house it is next to as for solar a handful of people use it locally - i guess you just have to ask about, try the ecology action centre in halifax they might be able to point you in a good direction | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/14/2007 11:42:48 PM | It's not something that I have done, but it's something I have thought about from time to time. I'm kind of taken with geothermal heat pumps. These can be done a few different ways. You can do it with deep drilled wells, or by setting up a pipe array below the frost layer if you have enough land. Another method is to use a lake if you have one handy. That one works by extracting heat from the water below ice level as it will be above freezing.
Passive solar works quite nicely as well... especially if you use a large heat sink such as a masonry wall to hold the captured heat. For electrical generation it really depends upon what you have available to you... preferably something reliable. For instance if you have a year round brook, hydro-electric is hard to beat (this was done on a farm belonging to a great grandfather, one of the first farms in Pictou County with electricity). I would probably lean toward wind power over solar if you have a good prevailing wind.
If you truly wish to be able to live off grid, then the most important thing above and beyond the power sources and heat sources is to make sure you are running efficiently. A well insulated home is going to be far easier (and cheaper to run) than a drafty structure. Also take a look at what you have running in the house. Change out your incandescent lightbulbs for fluorescent or preferably for LED lights. Make sure your appliances are efficient (I replaced a 20 year old fridge and saw my power bill take a huge drop). The more efficient you can make your house, the less it's going to cost to buy the hardware required to generate the needed energy. | |
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LBP
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Joined: 12/27/2006
Msg: 6 | |
| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/15/2007 12:33:41 AM | I've heard of people running into problems when they only use one natural source for power. But at the same time, you hear of some people in the states generating power by windmills and selling surplus to the power company.
The obvious problem with solar is, what if there is no sun? Solar panels have to be large to gain enough power to start with. With hyrdo, there are droughts and dry spells even if you have a brook. I've lived by brooks which are raging most of the time but there were spells in the summer when it was nothing but a trickle.
There is also the possibility that your water source could be cut off and diverted elsewhere off your property. At least when it comes to the sun and wind, they are more reliable.
I had ETS (electro thermal storage) units when I had my house. There were lifestyle changes like having to wash your clothes after certain times or on weekends. After awhile, you just get used to it. The dropped my power bill by $50 every 2 mos though. Within 2 years the units paid for themselves.
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/15/2007 1:09:57 AM | well between salty fog and snow your risking losing power if you stick with NS-Power..lol
Tim
=)x | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/15/2007 5:54:36 AM |
The obvious problem with solar is, what if there is no sun? Solar panels have to be large to gain enough power to start with.
Solar cells operate on UV mostly, so cloud doesn't affect them much. The biggest issue is storage. Huge battery banks, and inverters to convert DC to AC. Getting of the grid is doable, but the upfront cost can be high. | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/15/2007 10:26:26 PM | There used to be an 80/20 rule on solar power. You could cost effectively get 80% of your power from solar, the cost of the remaining 20% was never worth it. Today, with the potential of selling surplus back to the grid, that percentage has obviously shifted.
I'd love to get a 1500W wind turbine as emergancy backup. We all know the reliability of our current power grid. That is the only reason I could justify the expense of my own power. Not sure everyone/anyone in city can do that. | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/16/2007 12:49:56 AM | I’ve done some research on this a few years back, not much though, to get started it’s quite costly, but you can’t depend on one energy source, you’ll need 3 + means of storing.
I haven’t done any research on geothermal but you can use solar and wind for harvesting your energy, for that you’ll need converters. Most windmills have a life span of about 20 years. NS is fairly windy, your mill(s) needs to be on top of a hill, far from other residents, they do make some noise, large terrain is very helpful here, you have to check with local laws. Solar requires cleaning often. Batteries have a shelf life that never gets to 10 years, after 2-3 years you’re storage starts to lose efficiency and half-life is about 4-5 years.
Hydrogen cell is the best storage device available, but you’ll need reliable watering and filtration system, hydrogen tank and generator for long term storage and conversion. Contrary to myths there are ways to harvest and store hydrogen safely, in fact you could install a propane system in your car, get your car to run on propane (some taxi and limo companies in ottawa and vancouver use propane) with some tweaking get it to run on hydrogen, the only thing your car is burning is water, and your muffler releases steam only. It is illegal though, not because it’s dangerous .................... Cause you won’t be paying fuel tax. There are cars all over the world running on hydrogen; in fact some of Canada’s transit systems use them on buses.
By law all electrical companies in Canada are obligated to buy left over “green” electrical power providing you meet all criteria, you’ll have to apply for it through you’re local electrical company, most have rules, and you need to bid on it, in fact Canadian government has a program in place to pay you extra for every KW you sell to the grid, but you have to apply for that and meet all criteria.
If you get something like that done, I would love to see it, good luck!
P.S. Living off the grid will be more expensive , green energy is more expensive then the norm for a reason, not because it’s better for the environment, but because we have more laws to protect the oil companies then we do to protect the environment.
Cheers | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/16/2007 2:43:06 AM | I forgot to mention unless you wanna go back and forth to switches, you need a computer system to manage it, you could get your electrical/mechanical engineering degree, cause you will need to have one look at it every now and again for repairs, maintenance and inspections..
it’s not cost effective to run this on any scale, large or small, some investors got into it with inherited land, even with government subsidizing, realized it’s costing them as much as it’s making them, sometimes the cost is greater though. On a large scale Initial investment is huge, and sometimes will pay for itself in 15-20 years, ironically the large mills are only guaranteed for that long and they will even monitor them 24-7 for that long, after that you have to pay for its repairs, maintenance, inspections and monitoring....................you might as well buy a new one....................we’re back at square one, except now you may have to pay for the disposal of the old mill.................... | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/16/2007 6:03:19 AM | Love the feed back and hope everyone else is learning something as well. I realise that the initial investment is high, but with the cost of all fuel rising, am thinking about enegy costs' 20yrs. from now, technology is improving every year, and with careful consideration, I think this is feasable. I am looking at a property that is too far removed from the grid to doable any other way. It is a large property and has a lake on it, so there is the possibily of hydro, solar, wind and geo-thermal. I would design & build the house myself, with efficiency foremost in mind. I have seen a turbine that is attached to the chimney of a woodstove to catch the rising heat and being vertical takes less space, and supposedly makes a lot less noise. Energy storage is another matter, won't be selling back to the grid.
Any thoughs, info and encouragement appreiciated. | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/16/2007 6:09:50 PM | Google solar nova scotia, they have a lot of info on their site and a very informative book you can get at some bookstores downtown. also check out don rosco (sp), he is a NS builder who specializes in passive solar homes. a friends family has one of these places and heat their home entirly on solar and a small wood stove.
also check out this website, very ingenious simple design although a bit limited in terms of layout. http://www.thenaturalhome.com/passivesolar.html
this type of project has been really interesting me lately.
good luck | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/18/2007 11:27:19 PM | | My aunt built a passive solar behemoth of a house and her's is also heated by a small wood stove. I know she designed the place with infloor heating but I doubt it's ever been turned on. The combination of solar heat, a massive amount of insulation and that wood stove has kept that place quite warm. Now if she had only drilled a well before building... but that's another story. | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/22/2007 6:31:19 PM | I think the answer is not to get off the grid but get more people contributing to it.People have been searching for perpetual motion for centuries,we have it,the wind.Some transit busses in Australia have huge springs that when the brakes are applied they use the braking power to wind the springs up and when they take off they simply release them.Wave power that oscillates the inner workings of a generator.Mass under glass has been successful highly efficient diesels they use in Europe blow away the gas motor here.Mass transit in this city...the worst.Trucks destroying the roads that rail should be moving.Show me a bicycle path in the city that you could ride one end to the other in no time.There is no excuse for a city this small not to explore cycling for 6 months of the year.Most people you see jogging are going no where,then they jump in the car to go to go around the block to do a few errands.All the gyms should be hooked up to provide power to the grid,modern slavery. | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/22/2007 7:29:44 PM | | I drank two cans of red bull tonight and I feel like I can run on a wheel faster than a hamster!! vroom !! | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/23/2007 6:27:50 AM | ^^^^ yep, 14 hits of acid......
.... is too much acid !!! | |
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| Alternative Energy
Posted: 3/27/2007 3:55:28 PM | My parents are currently building a new farm house at their organic farm. Solar Panels, infloor heating, passive and active solar heating. All kinds of crazy stuff. They have this cool wood stove with copper pipes that lead to their hot water heater (in their old house). So they'd have to light to stove to take a warm bath. My mother is a member is Solar Nova Scotia.
It's the wave of the future baby.
=tWIGGETS | |
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