Driftless Ramblings » renewable energy

Neat innovation in wind turbine design

astoner — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:52:09 +0000

I just came across a post on this swedish designed wind turbine. Why is it that we always think wind turbines have to look like air plane propellers? I like the look of this turbine. I’ll have to look around for a translator so I can read the manufactors page, http://www.homeenergy.se. I’d be particular interested in the minimum wind speed rating. Our areas is just borderline for most of the typical style units which kick in around 12 mph. If I’m deciphering the swedish properly I’m think this unit is probably similar at 2 meters / second so that makes it of questionable value.

Ease of installation would also be another consideration. Some of the units I’ve looked at only require a single pole which greatly increase the astectics of a wind turbine. With the possibilities of an increase of 20% – 60% on the cost of electricity some form a electrical generation is looking very appealing.

I hope to see thisbeing available locally in the United State before too long. It is amazing how much further ahead acceptance of a lot of these ideas are in Europe than in the US. Of course they’ve had much higher energy costs for a lot longer the we have in the US.

On a related note, the Coulson Energy Blog is up and running now and his first experiment is very interesting to me. I may well have to work on a similar system for heating some water to add some warmth to a worm bin over the winter. I’ll be sure to post periodic updates on the project if I do.

Allen

Window solar supplement

astoner — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:51:07 +0000

It doesn’t look like I’m going to get much use out of this window unit much anymore this year. With today being the first day of spring there probably aren’t too many more cold days left to see how well this will work. And unfortunately I don’t even have it done yet. It looks like it will have to be used next year.

I’m also not sure that the unit isn’t too wide by about a quarter of an inch for the window. I haven’t actually tried putting it out the window yet, but by my measurements I may wind up shaving down the one side to get it to fit.

Allen

Window Solar Supplement

astoner — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:30:39 +0000

Today I finally got to start on building the window unit passive solar heater that I’ve been meaning to work on. It’s actually coming together pretty nice, some of my cuts weren’t the straightest so the next step will be to use some ‘Great Stuff’ expanding insulation to seal up any holes and cracks that exist. Then I need to cut the divider pane to separate the two channels of air and come up with some sort of glazing for the transparent front.

I’m just sorting out how I want to do everything on my first one. If I’m happy with the way it turns out I’ll put together some instructions to put up as an informational page.

Allen

Solar heating window unit

astoner — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:49:31 +0000

I finally got the bulk of the materials needed to build the heat grabber. The large 4ft x 8ft sheets of rigid insulation were the most challenging, but they did successfully fit in our minivan, with no kids. The one thing I am missing yet is the glazing, or the glass to cover the front. I haven’t found a good source for the reinforced fiberglass, and some of the stuff that the local box stores carry would double the price of the entire project. I’m thinking of just trying some of the plastic that is used for weatherizing windows from the outside, I’m just not sure how translucent it will be.

I’m not sure when I’ll have the opportunity to work on it though, hopefully later this week. We are supposed to be having near record warm this week which would be good for painting the box black, but I don’t think I’ll have it done before then.

Allen

Renewable Energy

astoner — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:49:25 +0000

Since I became a father I’ve become more interested in the future and what we will be leaving for a children. I could go into a long rant here about the economic future of the USA, but that’s not what I want to focus on today. I want to focus on renewable energy from an individuals stand point.

I’ve long been interested in renewable energy. When we built our house four years ago I looked into all sorts of ideas, but due to cost constraints couldn’t utilize any actual renewable energies initially. What we did do was put a lot of conservation effort into the construction of the house. We built the house out of insulated concrete forms, use an on-demand hot water heater and dual flush toilets to save water. From checking with both our propane supplier and electric company it does seem that we are living a little more efficiently the last couple years. We have not made any drastic changes, adjusting the thermostat a degree or two saves some, switching to more compact fluorescent light bulbs to reduct electric usage. I do know we’ve added more electrical loads and have still reduced our electrical usage, but I’d like to see the reductions continue or getting bigger because I can still attribute a lot of the savings on the milder weather.

The cost of our propane has gone up every year for the past four years and our electicity will be going up for the first time this coming year. In an effort to keep our utility budget the same we’re going to need to be making some additional changes. I’m hoping that the heat grabber I referred to in my introductory post will save a couple gallons during the winter, but it will still take quite a while to save the cost of building it, but financial reasons aren’t the only reason I’m interested in doing it. Just reducing the amount of fossil fuels will be beneficial.

I’m also looking into a grid-tie wind turbine which should hopefully significantly reduce our grid electrical use.

As energy prices continue to increase it is becoming much more economical for the individual to look into generating some of their energy. This doesn’t even take into account the reduction of pollution and dependency on foreign oil.