Green Power Generation Research
April 14, 2008
If you’re using a computer you’re most likely plugged into the national grid of your nation’s energy production company and paying a monthly bill to keep your connection alive. I’m starting to research the whole green idea and power is one of the biggies to address. I thought I’d head over to boycott-riaa.com as I haven’t visited in a while and see what they had to say and the first article I see is An Electrifying Situation by a guy who calls himself Dave. Could that be Dave Navarro? Well, I don’t know but let me tell you, he pointed out that hooking into an American Energy Company vs. an Electric Company is a much better idea and he explains why that is, and dammed if I can’t agree! So I do. Dave’s article points out that, at least in his state, surplus energy that you feed back into the national grid sets up a situation where you are paid by the Electric Company for adding to the available power supply. The calculations offered, if true, demonstrates a remarkable way to power the community and have a powerful green effect.
Closer to a Green Home
When I looked a little closer to home, I discovered that there is apparently some difficulty converting photovoltaic energy from solar cells into electical energy. Heat is pretty easy. but according to a Kiwi builder buddy, by name of Kevin, who has more than 52 years of experience in building and has built his own house to a design ahead of his time, you cannot get more than 12v DC out of a photocell - not enough to power a computer.
However, he tells me that a friend has a small wind turbine mounted on the roof of the garage at his lifestyle block and that this is generating enough power into batteries to power his computers pretty much every day. I’m going to be looking into that a bit more soon as I finish setting up establishing a legal library at Allforart.
Kevin’s house is ahead of its time in green design and accessibility. It has a wheelchair ramp and access, solar heating, a water tank that receives rain water off the roof - 3000 liters(!) on a beautiful rainy day, and a great vegetable garden which with a good compost heap coming along nicely and amply contributed to by the neighbors. Kevin designed the drainage before he built the house and laid the piping to ensure that water run-off would do the job of filling the tank. This tank cuts the water bill in half since it has been installed.
Now if he can harness the wind that blows reasonably steady up there on the ridge…free power! It’s that or find a lot of hamsters! I’m going to keep looking into this particular subject of wind-driven power generation and will let you know what I find out as it comes to light.
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I’ve thought about the idea of a home that generates its own power. Here’s a website that shows you how to create your own wind turbine
http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.html.
It’s a bit technical, but they do a good job of explaining the process, and use lots of images. Something else to think about, is we all can do something….our first step is understanding how I personally contribute to the issue. Through some simple lifestyle changes, we can make a difference. Find out what your carbon footprint is here: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/