Steam!

[silverbullet]

Steam-powered makes sense to me - especially if you have the firewood!

 

[jason867]

The question you are now asking yourself is most likely how I can power an entire house on that

Actually I wasn't. I've looked into this stuff a lot, and I understand how much power a normal house uses, and how much one can reduce their usage. I assume a lot, if not all, of your electricity production and usage is DC, not AC correct? 12 volts or something else?

 

[shibumiseeker]

Actually I wasn't. I've looked into this stuff a lot, and I understand how much power a normal house uses, and how much one can reduce their usage. I assume a lot, if not all, of your electricity production and usage is DC, not AC correct? 12 volts or something else?

Most of my power is 120vac. It's much simpler and safer to invert power than to A) try to run heavy wire all over the house (2-4ga or bigger), B) find 12vdc appliances. I have a few small low power things that I run directly off the battery bank, such as many things that take wall-cube transformers.

In the past my strategy was to have a large battery bank and larger inverter. Now my strategy is to have multiple smaller battery banks and inverter/chargers powering seperate circuits which not only gives me redundancy, but I also don't have the expense of replacing one large battery bank at once. As far as inverter life, other than a freak lightning strike, I've never had one fail. I still have the original Trace 2012 I bought like 22 years ago, it's used daily in the shop.

 

[jason867]

So what do you use for these battery banks? Some kind of deep cycle marine battery?

 

[shibumiseeker]

So what do you use for these battery banks? Some kind of deep cycle marine battery?

One bank is Trojan L16Hs and the other three banks are composed of 6v 220ah golf cart batteries in series-parallel. I have 2 banks of 4 of those and one bank of 2. I'm getting ready to add another bank of 4 and another inverter when I get more solar panels in a couple of months.

 

[jason867]

How long of a lifetime do you get out of these batteries? Not how long before recharging, but how long before they're unusable and need replaced?

 

[shibumiseeker]

Depends on the use. If I'm trying to use them with heavy draws like the air conditioner or the machines in the shop then I get about 3-4 years off the 220ah batteries before they won't allow the heavier loads to run. I'm only in year three of my new experiment, but the Trojan L16hs are still in use after almost 5 years and I have one bank of 4 that is 4 years old now and still running strong. The new strategy is to move older batteries to circuits with lighter loads after a couple of years, this SHOULD allow me to get as much as 6-7 years out of the 220ah batteries. When I'm done with them they have maybe 10% of their life left and they are eating more power from the charging systems than they are worth (batteries get less efficient as they age).

 

[Liberty's Teeth]

I see you chose a gas generator and agree with your comment about gas being more efficient/less intensive form of generating power. I was referring to a SHTF scenario where gas is no longer available. Right now I have electric right to the house. If I didn't believe that I was going to need it I wouldn't worry about it. I have a 4kw generator for non SHTF emergencies. I just feel that steam would be the most useful form of power generation after SHTF. I'm not worried about smoke, I have other tools to take care of people who might not like the fact that I am burning wood. Steam to me just seems so cool and would be the only "on demand" form of power in SHTF. And like I said before, how many people will enjoy hot showers after the defecation hits the rotary oscillator?

I also plan a few solar panels to charge my battery bank.

Another question. I know about the types of batteries that most people use with solar arrays, Surettes, etc. I have read on a few pages about people using forklift batteries!? What do you think about that.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Depends on the use. If I'm trying to use them with heavy draws like the air conditioner or the machines in the shop then I get about 3-4 years off the 220ah batteries before they won't allow the heavier loads to run. I'm only in year three of my new experiment, but the Trojan L16hs are still in use after almost 5 years and I have one bank of 4 that is 4 years old now and still running strong. The new strategy is to move older batteries to circuits with lighter loads after a couple of years, this SHOULD allow me to get as much as 6-7 years out of the 220ah batteries. When I'm done with them they have maybe 10% of their life left and they are eating more power from the charging systems than they are worth (batteries get less efficient as they age).

Have you tried the gel cel batteries? I used to haul them for cell towers used by ATT. Theirs weigh in at 3500lbs each and are completely sealed and cased in steel.....Let's keep this quiet though, because when the SHTF I'm raiding cell towers.......

 

[jeremy]

Not if the combustion was highly efficient.

The only time an efficient wood burner smokes is one start-up, and that is because it isn't hot enough to burn efficiently yet. Smell, yes, the smell will still be there, but I challenge anybody to take a modern, efficient wood-burner and tell when it is and isn't burning based upon visual smoke. Anybody trying to do that would certainly think that I never have a fire at my house, but I haven't turned on the electric heat yet this year. Smoke is just unburned fuel, if you burn that fuel up before it gets to the chimney there won't be any smoke signals.

The only time you can really tell that we are burning wood out of the Stove in the Shop is when we have it in "Turbo" mode feeding it Used Oil...

 

[1911Shooter]

Steam is a great source of energy that is reliable and its seen its far share of time of use. If you happen to have a stream or river around you could also look into a turbine. If I remember correctly they are fairly inexpensive to us and buy.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Have you tried the gel cel batteries? I used to haul them for cell towers used by ATT. Theirs weigh in at 3500lbs each and are completely sealed and cased in steel.....Let's keep this quiet though, because when the SHTF I'm raiding cell towers.......

Gel cells have some advantages and disadvantages. One of the bigger disadvantages is much higher initial cost for minimal gain in cycle life.

If you're going to use a 10k ah battery bank you'd better have a charging source that can match it because you'll eat a lot of power just getting the bank to accept a charge.

The battery matrix is a complicated one involving sizing the bank to match the system and expected loads, cycle life, depth of discharge, maintenance, expense, and so on. There's no one magic battery system.

If I had unlimited funds I'd buy nickel-iron cells, which would last the rest of my life, but they'd be more expensive in the long run compared to just buying new flooded lead acid cells every few years because a bank that would give me a similar amount of standby power I currently have would cost around $30-40k, and they would require more generation capacity because they are less efficient.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Steam is a great source of energy that is reliable and its seen its far share of time of use. If you happen to have a stream or river around you could also look into a turbine. If I remember correctly they are fairly inexpensive to us and buy.

Please share your experiences with steam power and hydro, I'd love to hear more as I'm always looking for cheaper and easier ways to generate my power.