Off grid electrical info

[Stschil]

While browsing the interwebz this morning, searching for info on Solar PV electrical generation and battery storage systems, I came upon this site.

This may have been posted before, but hey, some folks are new and may not have seen it.

Just in the small amount of time I've been reading it, I've found some very pertainent information to my quest to kick the Southern Indiana Electrical Cooperative out of my house. (After my last electric bill, I think it might be cheaper to run a Dom Perignon fueled generator rather than pay their confiscatory prices for electricity ) Maybe it can be of some assistance to others here as well.

Alternative & Renewable Energy - ABS Alaskan

 

[oldschoolmuscle]

I've been pondering awhile ...

 

[bstewrat3]

Good link. I have been looking at wind turbines for a couple years but I need to get out of town before I can get one.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I've found some very pertainent information to my quest to kick the Southern Indiana Electrical Cooperative out of my house. http://www.absak.com/

I'm right there with you. $0.13/kWh is highway robbery. My co-worker just a mile from me is on a different provider and he is only paying $0.08/kWh. WTF?

 

[Stschil]

I'm right there with you. $0.13/kWh is highway robbery. My co-worker just a mile from me is on a different provider and he is only paying $0.08/kWh. WTF?

We had a lineman out to the house a couple of weeks ago who was telling me that SIEC is the Most Expensive electricity provider in the state.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I've heard you can buy used forklift batteries pretty cheap and recondition them. They are big and heavy, but hold a lot of charge. Anyone ever notice the goofy looking wind turbines at the electrical place off 465 near the old airport? Those things have been going balls out for what seems like forever even when there is very little wind.

 

[Stschil]

I've heard you can buy used forklift batteries pretty cheap and recondition them. They are big and heavy, but hold a lot of charge. Anyone ever notice the goofy looking wind turbines at the electrical place off 465 near the old airport? Those things have been going balls out for what seems like forever even when there is very little wind.

I've seen them. Pretty cool. I wonder how much current they generate.
Those are nothing compared to the wind farms on I-10 in NM and AZ, though. As far as the eye can see. What I can't understand is, sometimes only about half of them are running.


Just a heads up to anyone interested: Harbor Freight has 45 watt solar panel sets on sale (if you use the coupon in the flyer from sunday's paper) for $159 each. They come with a charge controller, two 12V CF light bulbs and a multi plug for 2V to 6V. You can buy up to three kits with the coupon. We got three and after my SoCal to FL to Indy swing (about a month long altogether) I'll be setting about getting them hooked up to the house.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I've seen them. Pretty cool. I wonder how much current they generate.
Those are nothing compared to the wind farms on I-10 in NM and AZ, though. As far as the eye can see. What I can't understand is, sometimes only about half of them are running.


Just a heads up to anyone interested: Harbor Freight has 45 watt solar panel sets on sale (if you use the coupon in the flyer from sunday's paper) for $159 each. They come with a charge controller, two 12V CF light bulbs and a multi plug for 2V to 6V. You can buy up to three kits with the coupon. We got three and after my SoCal to FL to Indy swing (about a month long altogether) I'll be setting about getting them hooked up to the house.

Here's the inherent flaw with wind power. What do you do with the extra electricity generated? There is no "storage facility". For this reason we will always need to run the coal plants no matter what, you can't just fire a coal plant up and go when the wind dies, it has to always be going....For this reason the wind farms are just a novelty as much as anything else, sure they take a bit of the lode off of the conventional methods and perhaps prolong their lifespan a bit in the process, but when consumption is low they must be shut down. In all honesty I HATE the giant farms out on I-10. They took a VERY beautiful pristine landscape and turned it ti shyt. With the money they've wasted on this crap they could have provided each of us with our own individual turbine and battery bank with cash left over. The ones on 65 north of indy are a continuous waste as I'm sure the others all are too, they pay the land owners $5000 per year per windmill to lease the property they sit on....I have a friend that runs a pilot car for the guys hauling those things all over the country, he's paid $2.82 per mile just to run a pilot car.....I'm thinking of changing jobs.


In short, I'm a "fan" (pun intended) of wind turbines, but only on an individual level and NOT on a mass scale where it is not much more than a waste of money so hippies can "feel good" about themselves.

 

[Stschil]

I have to agree with you about those things being an eyesore, TJ. I happen to love the desert landscape. It is kind of 'other worldly' to me. I guess I spent way too much time in the Mohave training at Ft Irwin's NTC.

And those ones near Wolcott***,,yeah. Huge waste of money. I think it's just another way of sliding farm subsidies down our throats without even knowing it, IMO.

 

[BigMatt]

Micro-Hydro is the way to go in Southern Indiana.

Ask the Renewable Energy Guru: SIZING UP YOUR STREAM FOR HYDRO POWER

This setup is complicated, but you could build something a lot cheaper. I like the thought of sealed pumps as turbines coupled to a motor as a generator. You can buy them already put together.

 

[Bill B]

Check out homepower magazine. They are very informative about all aspects of off-grid living, power, heat, insulation, etc.
Also, sandia national labs has several books on solar power that can be had for very cheap, they cover the gamut from site evaluation, system design, maintenance, etc. I got my set several years ago for, IIRC, around $15.
I'll see if I can come up with a link later.

 

[jeremy]

Thanks guys!

 

[Bill B]

Here's the link for Sandia:
Sandia National Laboratories: Publications
The books are free!

 

[GIJEW]

Unlike private turbines, the large windmills are just another "generator/turbine" attached to the grid and there's no for storage. They're computer controlled to regulate output and to adjust for changes in wind speed.
Unlike private turbines, they're actually efficient because they're 200' tall where the wind is stronger and they have 60' rotors.If you live on the high prarie or by the sea and get unobstructed wind, one of the residential turbines would make a lot of economical sense. Around here they're marginal. The same applies to solar power too. Fantastic in AZ,NM, etc. but at our latitude and with all the shade trees they're not so great.
You're probably better off investing in a generator for emergencies.

Here's the inherent flaw with wind power. What do you do with the extra electricity generated? There is no "storage facility". For this reason we will always need to run the coal plants no matter what, you can't just fire a coal plant up and go when the wind dies, it has to always be going....For this reason the wind farms are just a novelty as much as anything else, sure they take a bit of the lode off of the conventional methods and perhaps prolong their lifespan a bit in the process, but when consumption is low they must be shut down. In all honesty I HATE the giant farms out on I-10. They took a VERY beautiful pristine landscape and turned it ti shyt. With the money they've wasted on this crap they could have provided each of us with our own individual turbine and battery bank with cash left over. The ones on 65 north of indy are a continuous waste as I'm sure the others all are too, they pay the land owners $5000 per year per windmill to lease the property they sit on....I have a friend that runs a pilot car for the guys hauling those things all over the country, he's paid $2.82 per mile just to run a pilot car.....I'm thinking of changing jobs.


In short, I'm a "fan" (pun intended) of wind turbines, but only on an individual level and NOT on a mass scale where it is not much more than a waste of money so hippies can "feel good" about themselves.

 

[griegeba]

The coal plants have to remain same size or bigger in case wind stops !!

 

[jeremy]

The coal plants have to remain same size or bigger in case wind stops !!

What?!

 

[ATOMonkey]

My BIL installs solar and wind turbine systems for residential or commercial use.

He is licensed in IN, IL, and OH I believe.

PM me your contact info and I'll forward it on to him if you're interested.

 

[shibumiseeker]

The coal plants have to remain same size or bigger in case wind stops !!

Wind doesn't just stop at the scale we're talking about here. The utilities have numerous strategies for dealing with fluctuations in power production versus demand. Some methods require a long lag time to start up or to moderate production and these are used for base loads. Nuclear and coal are among those. Natural gas is used for faster reaction time to demand or production fluctuations, as are hydro (where feasible) and even diesel or LPG generators (the most expensive). Wind fits into the mix well because once the infrastructure costs are paid for the fuel costs are zero and the maintenance costs are low. Wind also is very predictable on a regional scale (not on the homepower producer scale, but on the scale of the state level) and as such allows for a pretty good source for baseload power.

The reason we have a grid is because it is much easier for the utilities to deal with power over larger areas. An excess of power generation on one part of the grid is balanced by an increase in demand on another. So power generation and consumption is very easy to average out on such a large scale, and it allows them to buy or sell power when possible to and from places that may have different demand versus production needs, rather than say, firing up a more expensive form of generation to meet a shorter term demand or having the expense of having to idle a very expensive plant that will take an hour or more to bring up to generational capacity.

It's a lot more complex than "the wind stops blowing."

 

[ranjah6]

Anybody heard of a perpetual motion generator. It is supposed to use magnets.

 

[longbarrel]

While browsing the interwebz this morning, searching for info on Solar PV electrical generation and battery storage systems, I came upon this site.

This may have been posted before, but hey, some folks are new and may not have seen it.

Just in the small amount of time I've been reading it, I've found some very pertainent information to my quest to kick the Southern Indiana Electrical Cooperative out of my house. (After my last electric bill, I think it might be cheaper to run a Dom Perignon fueled generator rather than pay their confiscatory prices for electricity ) Maybe it can be of some assistance to others here as well.

Alternative & Renewable Energy - ABS Alaskan

It could always be California, Arizona, New York, Nevada, or Texas