Alternative energy

[mangyhyena]

Forgot something. You can also purchase stationary bikes to produce electricity for recharging batteries via pedal power. Not real practical for powering your home, but enough to recharge small electronics, like laptops, cell phones, video players, radios, and such. You could charge deep cycle batteries with them and use an inverter for low drain items, like HAM radios for communication.

Also, those solar yard lights are pretty handy for a few reasons.
1. They can provide light at night, obviously.
2. They recharge AA batteries. You can remove those batteries in the evening and use them to run other things, like your cell phones and such with the right adapters and conversion units.
3. They are fairly inexpensive, considering they are also a battery recharger. Having lots of them means if one breaks down, the others should keep working. Redundancy.

Lastly, you should figure out a way to get your vehicle to recharge your deep cycle batteries as a backup way to recharge them. If you make wood gas and you run the vehicle on wood gas, it would make sense to bring a few deep cycle batteries with you when you drive and recharge them on the fly.

[Beprepared]

All great points, thank you for the post. I've been interested in the wood gasification for some time know. Quite viable for us rural mountain folk. I need to brush up on my fabrication skills a bit.

I also like the the idea of horse/livestock/dog teadmills to charge batteries.
http://www.co-ar15.com/forums/showth...t=20019&page=3

[mangyhyena]

All great points, thank you for the post. I've been interested in the wood gasification for some time know. Quite viable for us rural mountain folk. I need to brush up on my fabrication skills a bit.

I also like the the idea of horse/livestock/dog teadmills to charge batteries.
http://www.co-ar15.com/forums/showth...t=20019&page=3

I haven't seen a treadmill that charges batteries for sale. I'll have to do a search for it. I like that idea a lot. Would be nice to get some use out of my dogs for a change. Food in and energy out instead of the usual crap I get from those mutts.
Also, I've had this crazy idea to make a long treadmill, put it on an incline, then have the family take turns riding it down. If I had enough people and pets I could keep it going for hours without anyone getting overly tired. Would keep the kids busy (Out of my hair!) charging the batteries with enough energy to run their nightly video/gaming entertainment. Don't know how that would work out, but it seems possible.

For the wood gasifier, you might contract a local welder. Bet you could find a few that are out of work and who wouldn't mind doing some welding for cash. There are a multitude of DIY plans for them online. The more current plans are more efficient than the earlier models, but any of them will get you a working unit. Also, look up wood gas storage. It's possible to store the gas in pressurized cylinders via compressor for later use, like driving or running a generator when solar panels or windmills aren't working up to par due to weather conditions.

[Hoosier]

You might consider a Stirling engine for creating power. DEKA has one but I don't know if it's available yet: http://www.dekaresearch.com/stirling.shtml They convert any heat into rotational energy using a closed-loop internal expansion system. They need a hot source and a cool source to work efficiently... if you had a wood powered fireplace for heat/light, the exhaust gas just up the chimney could power a Stirling engine. Kamens is designed to be used in the 3rd world, powered by cow paddies, and used to power the Slingshot, http://www.dekaresearch.com/water.shtml which will turn any water into pure drinking water efficiently.

You could also capture surplus power and convert it to hydrogen through the relatively simple process of electrolysis, and store it for later use either to be burned or fed into a fuel cell. The fuel cell is expensive, but has the benefit of producing pure H2O as a byproduct. Storing hydrogen requires a double walled tank with water in the outer layer, as it likes to sneak through even the smallest of cracks in a weld. Turbines, internal combustion, and even open (invisible) flame can also harness hydrogen.

H.

[Irving]

How can you make such a long statement about bucking old methods, then suggest 100 year old wood gasification?

[jerrymrc]

just fixed your quote Offgrid.

Here in Colorado I would agree that the no sun/no wind is a very short time span. I remember Offgrid's setup and as I remember there was enough capacity to go a number of days without both.

Even on the worst days there is still some output from solar. It may not be what ya want or could use but it is still there.

[mangyhyena]

How can you make such a long statement about bucking old methods, then suggest 100 year old wood gasification?

LOL. Because wood gas can run your vehicle and a generator, covering transportation and electricity if the power company fails and/or gasoline and diesel are not resupplied to the gas stations. Out of curiosity, why does an old technology like wood gas, and perhaps alcohol, sticking with your line of thought, fall short for the purpose of providing fuel? Both alcohol and wood gas can be produced at home and can run internal combustion engines.

If you've know about newer technology that can do what wood gas does and can be done at the home level, please share what you know. BTW, a wood gasification unit costs about 5K if you buy it new. Is there another way to ensure you can still run your vehicles and a generator for less money should our energy systems fail us all?

[Irving]

I was just commenting on the dichotomy of your statement. I don't think there is anything wrong with wood gas generators. I've heard of people putting one on a trailer and using it to power the vehicle pulling it during the Great Depression.

[mangyhyena]

You might consider a Stirling engine for creating power. DEKA has one but I don't know if it's available yet: http://www.dekaresearch.com/stirling.shtml They convert any heat into rotational energy using a closed-loop internal expansion system. They need a hot source and a cool source to work efficiently... if you had a wood powered fireplace for heat/light, the exhaust gas just up the chimney could power a Stirling engine. Kamens is designed to be used in the 3rd world, powered by cow paddies, and used to power the Slingshot, http://www.dekaresearch.com/water.shtml which will turn any water into pure drinking water efficiently.

You could also capture surplus power and convert it to hydrogen through the relatively simple process of electrolysis, and store it for later use either to be burned or fed into a fuel cell. The fuel cell is expensive, but has the benefit of producing pure H2O as a byproduct. Storing hydrogen requires a double walled tank with water in the outer layer, as it likes to sneak through even the smallest of cracks in a weld. Turbines, internal combustion, and even open (invisible) flame can also harness hydrogen.

H.

Hoosier, thanks for the info. I had never heard of DEKA before. That Stirling looks promising. Hope they wind up manufacturing it in the future. I'll keep an eye on them in case they do manage to pull it off.

I looked into hydrogen several years ago. There were a lot of warnings about storing home made hydrogen in pressurized tanks as the tanks would explode if the hydrogen was not pure enough. I hadn't heard of storing it in a double walled tank with water in the outer layer.

[gnihcraes]

Forgot something. You can also purchase stationary bikes to produce electricity for recharging batteries via pedal power. Not real practical for powering your home, but enough to recharge small electronics, like laptops, cell phones, video players, radios, and such. You could charge deep cycle batteries with them and use an inverter for low drain items, like HAM radios for communication.

Also, those solar yard lights are pretty handy for a few reasons.
1. They can provide light at night, obviously.
2. They recharge AA batteries. You can remove those batteries in the evening and use them to run other things, like your cell phones and such with the right adapters and conversion units.
3. They are fairly inexpensive, considering they are also a battery recharger. Having lots of them means if one breaks down, the others should keep working. Redundancy.

Lastly, you should figure out a way to get your vehicle to recharge your deep cycle batteries as a backup way to recharge them. If you make wood gas and you run the vehicle on wood gas, it would make sense to bring a few deep cycle batteries with you when you drive and recharge them on the fly.

Over the years of thinking and preparing for the emergency situations that I might need power for, I've found it's a lot cheaper and easier to keep a good small gas driven generator available. I have AC when needed, I have DC when needed. I have gasoline storage just for this device. If needed, I have plenty more fuel in several vehicles and motorcycles on site. It only uses 1 gallon every 4-6 hours on light load, if it even needs to be run at all.

Several years back, there was a bad storm here in Denver, power was out, several lines were down here in my part of town. It was 72 hours before xcel had anything up and running. I ran the fridge, furnace and a couple lights and TV during that duration with only a couple gallons of gas. Didn't need the laptops, computers, cell phones. Ham radio was up as needed and was charged or run from the generator when it was running other devices. Several cars have batteries in them if needed to run the ham equipment.

Having to purchase agm batteries, alkaline battery adapters, and maintain this entire system all the time it's not needed I would find difficult and financially stressing. I've tried to run the inverter directly off the battery before, but the voltage of a standard car battery wasn't enough for the inverter to function. It needed 13.8+ for the inverter to work and the battery was only able to put out 12-13 volts. Had to run the engine/alternator to keep the voltage high enough, this was counter productive, waste of fuel for what I got out of it.

Don't get me wrong on this, I'd love to have some solar panels, a wind turbine etc. and hopefully some day I will, money permitting.

Anyway, just some random thoughts and experience.

Thinking about it, I'm pretty good shape...

Generator
Fuel
Propane
Propane Heater
Food
Water
Guns
Ammo
Bows
Arrows
Sleeping bags
Camper
Vehicles
Ham Radios

Lots of other misc. items. Fire, Light, etc. Better off than a lot of neighbors and friends.