At our mountain house, we had frequent power outages. After loosing power on Christmas day, we had it wired so that we flipped off the main and plugged in the generator. The only things we couldn't run were the oven and the dryer. Also had 500 g. propane tank for hot water heater and had a splitter in the line so that whenever I needed a new stove, I could get that propane. We had wood for heat - forested area. I also cooked on the wood stove at times. Riverfront property so there was water there and from the well. Critters abound as well as garden area and mature fruit trees. (This place is currently for sale.) We are now close to town in a place that has everything electric. Scares me nearly to death, but it's not forever - just for now. We are planning our forever place and have experience in what we would like and don't like in the way of sustainability. (We don't want batteries.)
I have lead/acid batteries. In about 5 years I'll replace them with newer 20 year technology batteries. That will take me past my life expectancy.At our mountain house, we had frequent power outages. After loosing power on Christmas day, we had it wired so that we flipped off the main and plugged in the generator. The only things we couldn't run were the oven and the dryer. Also had 500 g. propane tank for hot water heater and had a splitter in the line so that whenever I needed a new stove, I could get that propane. We had wood for heat - forested area. I also cooked on the wood stove at times. Riverfront property so there was water there and from the well. Critters abound as well as garden area and mature fruit trees. (This place is currently for sale.) We are now close to town in a place that has everything electric. Scares me nearly to death, but it's not forever - just for now. We are planning our forever place and have experience in what we would like and don't like in the way of sustainability. (We don't want batteries.)
I'll let you know how I'm doing, one month from now I'll be 77, I'm going out in the woods in a few days and cut firewood with my crosscut saw. I built our home to be energy efficient and only need around a cord of wood to heat it for the winter, unless we get minus temps that's all we generally need.I wont be felling trees not at my age, not just for firewood, and I don't need that much anyway, about 2 pickup loads does me all winter, our place is quite small.
I'm not sure I can answer all of your questions, but I'll give this one a try: If you have a load of 1500 Watts you can get that power from water turning a wheel, but it would be a lot of water falling a long way to run the generator which would provide the electricity. Remember, the amount of the water flowing (in meters per sec) and the speed that it flows (which is the same as how far it flows) are what you use to figure out how much power you can theoretically generate.So not sure if this should go here or a separate thread, but. . . do any of you have experience with hydro or even wind energy but direct currant. By that I mean something with a regulator on the line directly to the "appliance." I would be pretty much fine with alternate methods for most things, but we have a freezer. If it requires 1500 w. and there was live water that could spin a wheel? If so do they have the capability to cease when the freezer motor isn't running? Are there even such instruments, or do I need to invent one?
Hope my response isn't too late, but here's what (little) I know about growing potatoes.I want to master growing potatoes,both Irish and sweets. And beans that produce the most.
At our age I'm not too worried about much preps stored up fro some scalawags or neighbors.
Hope my response isn't too late, but here's what (little) I know about growing potatoes.
I've found out (at least here in Idaho which is growing season 6b) that I get equally good results from growing Pontiac Reds, Yukon Golds, or Russet potatoes; indeed, I have all three of them in the same bed right now. I plant the starts about six inches deep and 6-8 inches apart.
Sweet potatoes are different. They're roots (potatoes are tubers) but most of them will grow similarly to the "Irish" potatoes except that they are primarily southern US cultivars and are a bit more susceptible to frosts. I have had mixed results with sweet potatoes; I think that Murasakis (purple skin, white flesh) seem to be the most resistant to cold weather.
That's the exact wattage I installed on our motorhome, it was a learning process for setting up the solar backup system for our home because of how well it worked, we have a 7500 watt generator but it's only for extreme emergency when there hasn't been enough sunny days to recharge the battery bank, so far that hasn't happened because the solar array is work better than I had planned and I really don't like to run a high RPM noisy generator if I don't have too.We have a genny and store some fuel for it plus what we could siphon from our two vehicles. Heating and cooking can be off-grid here. We also have a small (400 watt) solar system in our RV that we could use. The RV frig/freezer is a compact 120 volt unit that can run for a long time off the solar system (as long as the sun shines most of the time).
Just using the generator occasionally to run the well pump we could live fairly comfortable for months.
We now have a 3000 watt system on the house for a couple of kitchen circuits.That's the exact wattage I installed on our motorhome, it was a learning process for setting up the solar backup system for our home because of how well it worked, we have a 7500 watt generator but it's only for extreme emergency when there hasn't been enough sunny days to recharge the battery bank, so far that hasn't happened because the solar array is work better than I had planned and I really don't like to run a high RPM noisy generator if I don't have too.
I read of some folks (need to go back and figure out which book) who had a small creek and very small turbine that charged their batteries as opposed to solar. Thank you for the formula! Hubby and I are both “mathy.” We are not to that point yet but like to know before getting into something rather than working from the back side.I'm not sure I can answer all of your questions, but I'll give this one a try: If you have a load of 1500 Watts you can get that power from water turning a wheel, but it would be a lot of water falling a long way to run the generator which would provide the electricity. Remember, the amount of the water flowing (in meters per sec) and the speed that it flows (which is the same as how far it flows) are what you use to figure out how much power you can theoretically generate.
I don't know if you can do math, but here's a formula for figuring it out:
Pth = ρ q g h, where
Pth = power theoretically available (W)
ρ = density (kg/m3) (~ 1000 kg/m3 for water)
q = water flow (m3/s)
g = acceleration of gravity (9.81 m/s2)
h = falling height, head (m)
So, if you have a waterfall that's 10 meters high (abouit 33 feet) hitting your turbine a a rate of one meter per second, your theoretical power available would be:
1000 X 1 X 9.81 X 10 =98,100 Watts or 9.8 kW
That sounds like a lot of power, but we're talking a lot of water falling a long way, which is not all that easy to find. Also, that's the theoretical amount of water you can get, but in actuality, you'd be doing well to get a 10% efficiency, which would probably be more like 9000 watts. And building such a system would be pretty expensive.
Hydro has a huge advantage over solar. On average solar only works 1/3 or less of the time while hydro works 24/7. So if you thought you needed, say 9,000 watts of solar you could get by with only 3000 watts or less of hydro.I read of some folks (need to go back and figure out which book) who had a small creek and very small turbine that charged their batteries as opposed to solar. Thank you for the formula! Hubby and I are both “mathy.” We are not to that point yet but like to know before getting into something rather than working from the back side.
Hydro has a huge advantage over solar. On average solar only works 1/3 or less of the time while hydro works 24/7. So if you thought you needed, say 9,000 watts of solar you could get by with only 3000 watts or less of hydro.
Renting is a bad limit! My wood burning stove heats, cooks, has saved the day (days) during power outages.I will just add this here: do you know how many Kwh you use per day? At our place up the mountain, I had it down to 6-12 regularly. That was with 2 freezers and a fridge going. Here, I'll just choke, cough, and sputter instead of sharing the number. What I have figured out is heat & AC are MAJOR drains. It drives me crazy. I wish we had another heat option. I am working on a back-up or companion to existing. Grid down, it would certainly help. (We are only renting this place so limited as to what we can do.)
I miss ours.Renting is a bad limit! My wood burning stove heats, cooks, has saved the day (days) during power outages.
What are "20 year technology batteries"?I have lead/acid batteries. In about 5 years I'll replace them with newer 20 year technology batteries. That will take me past my life expectancy.
What are "20 year technology batteries"?
Enter your email address to join: