mdpub.com— The story of how one man got electricity off the grid. It can be done, and it is not as hard as we have been led to think.
Jun 19, 2007View in Crawl 4
@ all the people who mentioned putting power back into the grid; its not quite as simple as just plugging in and letting it go. There are issues with system stability and things of that sort. I don't understand it completely, (ME, not an EE) But its an issue to be dealt with.
This is what i hate about renewable energy. IT'S NOT f**kING RELIABLE! What is the difference between nuclear power and coal powered factories? They are pretty much reliable. You can get energy day and night. With wind and solar power the power is limited to the time where the speed is actually sufficient enough to generate enough electricity and when the sun is out. But what happens on cloudy days that isn't actually that windy? Now Lets smoother these ideas with a pillow ok? The only way renewable energy would actually work is if there was a huge battery that could store the excess energy and you could buy that batter. For example in the Artic they get 24 hours of light for weeks. Use solar cells there to get energy and store and then ship back to the UK.
@Ottonet metering means that they just roll your meter backwards so that they only charge you for your "net" energy usage. unfortunately most utilities still will not issue you a check for excess power consumed. for example, I live in california in a PG&E territory and they have several different types of net metering agreements (based on the size of your system, how often they check your meter, etc) but they all basically boil down to "if you produce Xkwh and consume Ykwh then your net utility bill will be either ((X - Y) * $/kwh) or 0, whichever is greater." is it fair, not really, but at least it's better than nothing!
Its no hard to do, and powering a laptop is child's play. You can easily build a turbine that will give you 1kw per hour. If you live in a high wind area (avg 14mph or higher) you can power your house at a fraction of the price of solar panels. There is tons of info out there about how to do it. If you want to build your own wind turbine just do a little research, find the supplies online, and put it together. I have made HAWT and VAWT. check out <a class="user" href="http://freewind4me.com">http://freewind4me.com</a>
Not a hard problem to solve. You just need to make more power than you need and store it in your batteries to cover the cloudy days. Use solar and wind. Usually when its cloudy the wind is blowing so you can get your power from there. You could also grid tie and use your electric company just as a back up. They have to pay you or give you credit on any power you put into the line. If your getting credits from them then theres your "big battery". <a class="user" href="http://freewind4me.com">http://freewind4me.com</a>
malcolmreynoldsJun 19, 2007
So, uh, what happens when the wind stops blowing?
themajorJun 19, 2007
@ all the people who mentioned putting power back into the grid; its not quite as simple as just plugging in and letting it go. There are issues with system stability and things of that sort. I don't understand it completely, (ME, not an EE) But its an issue to be dealt with.
aldhelmJun 20, 2007
This is what i hate about renewable energy. IT'S NOT f**kING RELIABLE! What is the difference between nuclear power and coal powered factories? They are pretty much reliable. You can get energy day and night. With wind and solar power the power is limited to the time where the speed is actually sufficient enough to generate enough electricity and when the sun is out. But what happens on cloudy days that isn't actually that windy? Now Lets smoother these ideas with a pillow ok? The only way renewable energy would actually work is if there was a huge battery that could store the excess energy and you could buy that batter. For example in the Artic they get 24 hours of light for weeks. Use solar cells there to get energy and store and then ship back to the UK.
maino82Jun 21, 2007
@Ottonet metering means that they just roll your meter backwards so that they only charge you for your "net" energy usage. unfortunately most utilities still will not issue you a check for excess power consumed. for example, I live in california in a PG&E territory and they have several different types of net metering agreements (based on the size of your system, how often they check your meter, etc) but they all basically boil down to "if you produce Xkwh and consume Ykwh then your net utility bill will be either ((X - Y) * $/kwh) or 0, whichever is greater." is it fair, not really, but at least it's better than nothing!
mcdanijrSep 16, 2007
I have just created a site with pictures of a wind turbine that I Just made. Come check it out and tell me what you think of it and what I could improve one. Thank you. <a class="user" href="http://www.freewebs.com/destinationwindpower/">http://www.freewebs.com/destinationwindpower/</a>
alwuzhereMar 5, 2009
Its no hard to do, and powering a laptop is child's play. You can easily build a turbine that will give you 1kw per hour. If you live in a high wind area (avg 14mph or higher) you can power your house at a fraction of the price of solar panels. There is tons of info out there about how to do it. If you want to build your own wind turbine just do a little research, find the supplies online, and put it together. I have made HAWT and VAWT. check out <a class="user" href="http://freewind4me.com">http://freewind4me.com</a>
alwuzhereMar 6, 2009
Not a hard problem to solve. You just need to make more power than you need and store it in your batteries to cover the cloudy days. Use solar and wind. Usually when its cloudy the wind is blowing so you can get your power from there. You could also grid tie and use your electric company just as a back up. They have to pay you or give you credit on any power you put into the line. If your getting credits from them then theres your "big battery". <a class="user" href="http://freewind4me.com">http://freewind4me.com</a>