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Off Grid Solar and Wind Power Houses

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posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 11:49 AM
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Originally posted by mybigunit
Im thinking of using in line water heaters sven that way Im only using energy when I need it as far as the water heating. I cant do the underground because of the layout of the land and not only that I have got my brick house plans already but I will insulate the hell out of it. What do you guys think of in line water heaters also. Remember self sufficiency.


They require 14 to 15 psi to operate.

Why not get an old water heater, strip the shell off it, paint the tank black, put tin foil around it to reflect the sun, and put it on the roof covered with aquarium type glass.

Thats 40 Gallons minimum of Hot water for free, just the pumping effort.

Half this post got eaten by the Borg..., but you get the idea without all the tech specs that dissappeared when I posted.

Best Regards,

Blitzkreigen

[edit on 4-6-2008 by Blitzkreigen]



posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 11:52 AM
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Good thread there is some very interesting stuff here.


I was wondering if anyone is making hydrogen fuel cells for home use yet?



posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 11:57 AM
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Yes they have and are testing in homes right now....the idea is to make everyone home with a cell and inturn can put power back into the grid.
similar with wind farms in Europe.
Your Canadian friend,
Sven



posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 12:00 PM
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reply to post by Blitzkreigen
 


No I didnt see any specs and to answer another person this is one company who does the in line water heater for the house.
www.takagi.com...

and Im looking at the in line water heaters because they use the power on demand. The 40 gallon use power all the time unless you go unplug after every use and frankly I dont want to have to plug in and un plug my water heater. That in itself should save a lot of electricity.



posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 12:00 PM
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Originally posted by LDragonFire
Good thread there is some very interesting stuff here.


I was wondering if anyone is making hydrogen fuel cells for home use yet?



Does Collodial Silver count?...

Too diifficult to make a Matrix to hold the hydrogen gas. Requires elements like platinum I believe and other fine metals, in a honeycomb ceramic matrix. Pumps and safeties, metering and jetting.

Way too explosive for me. I dont even like being around batteries charging.

They make Great Science Fair Experiments for middle school, using pencils and a 9 volt battery in a salt solution.

Why not crack Sea water, using the Tide as a pump to flood the cells?

The byproduct may be pure water, that could be delivered to Desert Areas, al a Las Vegas.

Wow air raid siren test... More Later.

Blitzkreigen



posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 12:00 PM
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Originally posted by LDragonFire
Good thread there is some very interesting stuff here.


I was wondering if anyone is making hydrogen fuel cells for home use yet?


Ive never heard of it do you have links?



posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 12:06 PM
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Hydrogen fuel cells aren't very efficient I think especially for homes.



I've been following this dude for a while. I'm going to try the off the grid thing I already bought land down in Mexico, I'm just gonna try it out for a while and maybe post it on a blog or something.



posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 12:09 PM
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You can use one of these for sure.....have had much experience with this.
You may want to ensure 2 things....

1. Here in Ontario Canada we are adding a small 20gal tank to the instant heaters....simple not enough for HIGH demand of hot water in an average household
(so you have been warned)...worst is you need to add a small tank.

2. Make sure you get the one with Heating also not just domestic.
So you can use floor heating and/or baseboards and/or a unit heaters (great for garage). (I have a great detail of this system with alllll the details) more then happy to email it you you....ensure the contrator got everything


The other option you can look at is a Combo Unit....a HWT with a Fan-Coil(s) and the heating is from the HWT so you don't waste so much energy.
(have details of this to).

Hope it helps....your Canadian friend,
Sven



posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 01:28 PM
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I definitely would recommend you do this if you have enough money.

In fact I recommend something like this guy.




Basically his home is powered by solar panels that change batteries when they give more power than he is using. When the batteries are full, it uses the excess power to make hydrogen that can be used to make even more electricity.
This is definitely something I plan on doing my self when I can afford it.



posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 01:40 PM
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reply to post by firesoul
 


Ok that video was just AWSOME!!!!! I want to meet that guy man and have him help me out. Great find Star for you.



posted on Jun, 4 2008 @ 07:31 PM
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Originally posted by Blitzkreigen
If you go Wood Heat, like a Franklin stove, your "in like Flynn".


is that a hacker slang term referencing the movie Tron??

if not, it should be.

I'll be adding more to the post later.
i'm doing the same thing bigunit, but on smaller scale.


-



posted on Jun, 5 2008 @ 10:51 AM
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You could add a Trombe Wall to your house. These are used in some of the Nordic and Alpine countries of Europe/Scandinavia.

en.wikipedia.org...



posted on Jun, 5 2008 @ 10:11 PM
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the video is great.

The main HVAC system (Equipment in the basement) is a ground source heat-pump...go to my mechanical link section under hvac lots' of manufactures there....and talk to local ventilation contractors i'm sure they would be more then happy to help you....and if' y'r going exotic...get
the best vent. contr. you can get.
Also try to include a HRV system...bit more money but worth it in the long run...plus cleaner home


The one thing I did notice in the video was...even he had to have power
hooked up then disconnect from the grid......guess what i'm saying is have
a backup plan and reg. system just in case.
Your Canadian friend,
Sven

I put that instant boiler detail on flicker.com link below...or type in search:
boiler, air-handler (will show this detail)
flickr.com...
and try just boiler in search find lots' of pics to.



posted on Jun, 17 2008 @ 04:46 PM
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reply to post by FredT
 


About the battery issue, you may want to look into the Battery Life Saver



posted on Jun, 18 2008 @ 01:34 PM
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reply to post by mybigunit
 


Sorry for any typos,

So you want to live off the grid do you? I will first start by saying that living off the grid is a full time job in and of itself. It requires dedication, hard work, and eats up most of your free time. It is probably the most rewarding way to live having said that. So with out further adeu:

The construction of your house should be such that the house is centralised to one heating source. No long halls preferably half walls where aplicable. And make sure that central pipes (like water pipes are near the central heating as well (broken pipes in the middle of no where suck) you really need to think about the design and layout of the house.

Go with a wood burning or coal burning stove. It's up to you. Pellet stoves suck. they are good in theory but in such high demand the pellets can be hard to find. plus you can burn just about anything in a coal or wood burning stove... can't do that with a pellet one.

Construction of the house is essential. what you make your house out of will dictate how comfortable your house will be during hot and cold seasons. You won't be running an A/C or central heating regardless of how many Battery banks you install. I recommend Adobe as it is one of the best insulators you can build your house out of. If you want to be cheap you can go cinderblock but make sure you stuff every single block with handfuls of fiberglass insulation (make sure blocks are completely sealed). Also, and this is important, build your house from east to west, not north and south. This will allow for passave heating from windows in the winter and keep the house shaded for the summer.

Roofing: Go with a tin roof at an angle. It will not only reflect the sun but installing gutters around the whole thing means you can channel all rain water into a cistern for later use.

Windows. double pained. If going for passive solar (why wouldn't you?) build large window on the appropriate side. Insulated curtains are great for summer to keep the the heat out. And in the winter open the curtains during the day and close them at night to keep the house warmer.

Pipes: Copper or Pvc is a good option. Make sure all pipes can be acsessed somehow without having to rip apart anything like walls floors etc. build the house with a crawl space or trapdoor to pipes and whatnot. GET ICE LOCKS for your pipes. (it's a nifty little spongy rope type thing that goes into the pipes so if the pipes freeze they don't explode).

Hot water. This is up to you. you can go hot water heater, Inline water heater ( expensive but good) or hot water solar panel (super cheap and super good)
Hot water solar panels can heat water up to 50 - 100 gallons 160 F even in the winter and there is no propane or electricity used.

garden: green house. go green house. you can farm in the winter. do what ever size you want but go off the 10 by 10 theory of gardening and digging down 10 feet instead of spreading the crops out more. you can have a smaller more managable green house with less work and more crops.

Live stock: A good food supply is always good. depending on where you live you can make the decision of what to buy. Good things to have are Chickens or quail. You always have eggs and meat) and are realitivly simple to take care off.

Electricity. You Don't need ridiculous amounts of electricity. But you will need some. depending on your needs 1 solar panel with a 6 to 12 batter parellel array will be more than enough. you aren't going to be using things like microwaves or hairdryers or giant plasma screen tv's anyway. Probably not even a desktop computer ( i know people who do but they are super rich and have no problem wasting lots of money of gasoline for their back up generators evertime they run out of battery juice.) Get a wind generator as well (if you live in a windy area)



posted on Jun, 20 2008 @ 12:20 PM
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Good post above....good comments and great recommendations.

Plus hoping you keep us posted on your off-grid home (with pics be nice), I know im excited for you and can't wait to see how everything turns out. Hopefull one day I can do the same, and learn from any mistakes you make.

Your Canadian friend,
Sven



posted on Jun, 20 2008 @ 02:39 PM
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reply to post by Anonymous ATS
 


Great post. Im going to be building a log home I think. There are no long hallways or anything like that. I will be using microwaves and Tvs and all the normal stuff even though Ill be off grid Ill be living a somewhat normal lifestyle. I will be doing wind and solar as stated in a previous post and will be spending around 25k on solar, wind, and battery equipment. Im hoping I can live a normal life with that kind of budget if not then maybe Ill raise it some. Ive looked into wood burning stoves a little and the idea intrigues me. What do you think about log homes will that work well you think?



posted on Jun, 20 2008 @ 02:41 PM
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Originally posted by svenglezz
Good post above....good comments and great recommendations.

Plus hoping you keep us posted on your off-grid home (with pics be nice), I know im excited for you and can't wait to see how everything turns out. Hopefull one day I can do the same, and learn from any mistakes you make.

Your Canadian friend,
Sven



Oh I havent even started building yet but when I do I will be posting pictures for all to see. Total self dependence. In fact I still have yet to finalize on some land I was even looking into Canada seemed like you could get a lot of land for cheap. Im looking for at least 20 acres or so.



posted on Jun, 20 2008 @ 05:45 PM
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reply to post by mybigunit
 


A long post, sorry for typos.

I got cut off last time with the maximum amount of characters. and there is somemore stuff i wanted to tell you.

Don't go with vaulted or high ceilings. keep a low celling profile. maybe a little over 9 feet. high celings lead to higher energy consumption. Even when talking about wood or coal. lost heat is more logs on the fire witch is more wood you have to cut witch is more work in the long run.

bah. emergency... I'll leave by saying that when using high capacitor resistance appliances I.E. Microwaves, and hairdryers you really have to watch out with your deep cycle battery system. deep cycle batteries are made to float around 90-95% energy capacity at all times. a 1000 watt hairdryer can drain a full 6 24V batteries in parellel array in about 10 min. Thats about 5 days worth of energy when you live off the grid.

I'll post again and get all the stuff i wanted to get in there next time.



posted on Jun, 20 2008 @ 06:04 PM
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Mybigunit,

I know you've probably thought about this, but have you heard one of those windmills run? There's a constant "WHHOOOOMMM WHOOOMM" going on 24/7. That's going to be something you live with everyday. I think it might drive me crazy if I had to hear that going on all day everyday. But then again, you could also think about it as the sound of saving money and being comfortable.

Also, I'm sure you've already thought about this, but don't forget the maintenance work that will go into all of your equipment.



I, personally, cannot wait until the "cheap" solar cells come out! The film that goes on the roof or the side of the house. I'm all for that. I really wish we could get it affordably. Does anyone know what it would cost to convert a 2400 square foot house to solar? I live in the piedmont of NC and there's no wind to speak of on a regular basis, I don't have a stream running through my property, GEO thermal? I have no idea about that at all! So I'm thinking solar, without going broke converting.




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