Easier Way Of Living By Using Power Off Grid

[wild20 0]

I am so tired of power outages. When you live anywhere near trees, it happens, so I wild20, have an idea, the very first one in this forum as a matter of fact. I have always been interested in off grid power supplies, I even researched it. I think we should be switching to off grid power supplies. For several reasons. You see, it forces people to use more wildlife friendly sources, and makes it easier, a whole new business on maintenance too. cities will still run using the power companies, but homes will run off of other stuff.Power supplies vary but include, power cells, like they use for cars, wind, and water, but more likely solar panels. On the roof, solar panels can easily power a large house. I battery bank will be stored in the basement or garage and allow the house to run for three days during bad weather with no problems. However, in order to increase this length without sun, power usage will be cut and monitored by the owner, using a small panel that cuts and controls power to different parts of the home. You never want to cut the power, because it uses a lot to run it again, but in rooms such as bedrooms, power can be cut down to one outlet.The appliances will also need to change, energy star will be good, but more efficient ways should be sought after. I would go to use more economic washers and dryers that use less power by using more efficient energy converters, such as low power motors utilizing differently built gears. Dishwashers are nice, but use to much power. We should switch to something that runs with less time and less power. commercial runs run with less time, but use power like no tomorrow. That would have to change as well.Basically, my grand idea is make life easier by not having so much power. Switch to power that won't make you have to call the electric company whenever the power is out, you control it your self. What do you guys think?

[Janissary 0]

Hmm, maybe but in your suggestion you take in charge. So actully it isnt easier but rather safer.I mean, it's not easier becasue you have to it all by yourself.But, it's more trustworthy becasue you did it yourself, noone else can pluged you out

[savge17 0]

Sigh, if only we used Fussion energy more often. We need more cuclear powerplants. France has so much power that they have an eccess of power witch they sell to their neighboring coutries. It would be so much cheaper and more efficient.

[OpaQue 15]

The Idea is pretty nice. Basically, I had thought about saving power in a different way.We can use Sensors within rooms to detect people. If a person is found entering a room, the lights will be lit automatically. The advantage is, If he leaves the room, they will be switched off or atleast switched to Low power mode.I will be writing an new topic on this soon.. but I hope you get my idea.

[gaea 0]

Getting off of the powergrid is a pretty smart idea. The days of fossil fuels are numbered, hell we've already surpassed peak oil (even by the most conservative estimates. In two or three more decades gaoline powered engines will be completely archaic and useless.Weither we'll switch to an existing technology, or create something entirely new is still yet to be seen. Right now solar power looks like the most promising alternative. This company named Pyron released a new type of solar panel about two months ago. It uses short focal-length lenses to concentrate sunlight directly into the photovoltaic cells. This allows them to generate about 800 times the electricity of a conventional solar panel the same size. On top of that, they are signifficantly cheaper than the coventional versions (about $18,000 versus $32,500). It has been estimated that if we filled a 50 square mile portion of the desert in the midwest with these solar panels that it would be enough to supply the entire US with power. Pretty crazy stuff.

Edited March 27, 2006 by gaea (see edit history)

[wild20 0]

OpaQue:Your idea is good, but lights should not be turned off completely, this uses extra energy to get the current running again. They key? During the day, the lights dim to a point where you cannot see the light, but the current still runs, nut needed the extra energy to start it up again.gaea:There you have it gaea. That is what I am talking about. Clearly you are WAY ahead of me, and the time period you are in Thanks for clearing that up. Where did you get this info? It is amazing. I didn't know that those cells were so far ahead of others. Eight hundred times more power?! Crazy dude! That would be very effective. The government should look into this. Not that they would listen anyway. They would rather burn up are resources,..literally.

[jlhaslip 4]

The government should look into this. Not that they would listen anyway. They would rather burn up are resources,..literally.

Off-grid power is hard to tax...

[wild20 0]

Hehe? Tax? Who says you need to tax? you are not selling it, and it isn't going to anyone else but you. you don't earn money, you don't give money, it is like taxing people for having a computer, you don't. Just my opinion.

[gaea 0]

gaea:

There you have it gaea. That is what I am talking about. Clearly you are WAY ahead of me, and the time period you are in Thanks for clearing that up. Where did you get this info? It is amazing. I didn't know that those cells were so far ahead of others. Eight hundred times more power?! Crazy dude! That would be very effective. The government should look into this. Not that they would listen anyway. They would rather burn up are resources,..literally.

 

I actually first heard about it on the Guerrilla News Network (a leftist news site...lots of good news, but some of it isn't fully supported with facts). As far as the (us) goverment looking into it, they have way way too many ties with big oil companies to seriously invest in switching the country to alternative energy. I mean come on they're giving people tax breaks for buying SUVs and Hummers! Kinda absurd. If you want to learn more information about the end of fossil fuels I'd recomend seeing a documentary named "The end of Suburbia." While I certianly don't agree with all the conclusions that they draw (i think we'll have enough forsight to atleast partly change over to alternative energy before the fossil fuel crash), it is still a very informative and interesting movie.
Edited March 27, 2006 by gaea (see edit history)

[wild20 0]

You think? I mean, we are paying people to use up more oil basically. It makes me mad! I think we should put more into solar then oil. We waste moeny and other countries have good reason to think we are wasteful. We are! "The End of Suburbia"? Is it good. Is it a movie? Or more like National Geographic? I will certianly check it out. Thanks.

[Zythrix 0]

Ya know, there are lots and lots of people around the world who have solar panels on their roof or, basically, a miniature hydro-electric power facility in their back yard connected to the river or creek or whatever happens to be behind there. Lots of people also use the wind for power, setting up small fields of windmills that send electricity back to a house. But solutions like that don't work everywhere. You can't rely on the sun for power because there is nighttime and cloudy days. You can't rely on a creek or river for water because somehow the water could stop (though this is probably the most consistent natural energy source). You can't rely on wind to gather electricity because it just isn't always windy.We need something like cold fusion to REALLY abolish fossil fuels =)

[wild20 0]

Zythrix:Ah, but you are wrong in one point. In every climate in the world, we have at least one of these three basic natural sources. If you don't have hydro or sun, you have wind. If you don't have wind or hydro, you have sun, and most cases wind too. Wind is always abundant.These new technological advances are great, but they are not going to develop fast enough to do any good for a time, so we need something now. Energy star is great for homes running off-grid too. I just think that as a start, we should use natural forces. Once we have that, start working on new technology and see if we can find something better. Just my opinion of course.

[Joe2Chance 0]

A couple a months ago i saw a documentary in tv of a guy that invented a "machine" that with low energy could make alot of energy, as for example, with only two car batteries he could produce energy to mantaine a house for a year, but he said that the government did not allowed it!! Maybe because that could ruine the energy industry, don?t know if its true, but I saw it on tv, and the machine looked pretty amazing!!Imagine the millions that he would make, and the millions that other industries would loose and all the money we could save!!!Since that docomentary I never ever heard anything about this, does anybody heard anything??Stay well.

[gaea 0]

A couple a months ago i saw a documentary in tv of a guy that invented a "machine" that with low energy could make alot of energy, as for example, with only two car batteries he could produce energy to mantaine a house for a year, but he said that the government did not allowed it!! Maybe because that could ruine the energy industry, don´t know if its true, but I saw it on tv, and the machine looked pretty amazing!!
Imagine the millions that he would make, and the millions that other industries would loose and all the money we could save!!!

Since that docomentary I never ever heard anything about this, does anybody heard anything??
Stay well.

That's rather vague. Do you remember any more of the details...a name for instance?

Your words to ring a bell for me, specificly in relation to something called Zero Point Energy. The concept is rather complex, and requires about a college level understanding of phsyics to comprehend. The link is to wikipedia's artical on it, which is fairly concise yet informative. It was first "discovered" by a man named Hendrik B. G. Casimir. While it seems that his theory is scientificly sound (or I gather that the majority of the scientific community believes so), it is usually ignored because we have yet to see concrete results from it. For more info about that see the "Free energy devices" section in the linked artical.

[AlternativeNick 0]

well you see, the problem with some of those power sources, such as hydroelectric, completely ruins an otherwise healthy river environment, i mean think of all the fish that die because they cant get past the dam, and if they get through it, theyre sliced and diced in the turbines. also, wind power plants can completely destroy an ecosystem as well, because they force changes in air currents as well as harming birds and insects, which in turn effect other essential parts of the environment. other than that, i think solar power is the way to gothat and the fact that you can run a diesel engine off of vegetable oil