Archive for the ‘DIY Green Energy’ Category
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Boat in a Hole — George’s Unique Rootcellar
Could not help passing this on.
This is George’s solution for a cost effective, relatively easy to build, and very functional root cellar.
After thinking about a number of ways to build a root cellar for their new place, they tumbled to the idea of using a fiberglass boat hull. It turns out these are available for reasonable prices. They provide a good, waterproof and strong root cellar.
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| Buried for root cellar use. |
They use it for both a root cellar and also as a bunkhouse.
 |
| The entry. |
While I suppose this might seem a bit sad to some boat owners, George points out that there are a number of derelict boats around that will never see use again, and this is a 2nd life that I’m sure any boat would like a lot better than just rotting away unused.
George’s full description of the boat for root cellar…
More on various root cellar designs…
Gary
Flow of River Hydro — Using Only Stream Velocity to Drive a Turbine
I get email questions from people who live on a stream and would like to use the stream to make electricity.
If the stream has some elevation drop over the property and the flow is decent most of the year, then the answer is that if you can meet the legal requirements, its possible to make electricity, and that it can be quite cost effective.
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| Quite a nice underflow water wheel. |
But, if the stream has no elevation drop, and you just want to make use of the velocity of the stream water to make electricity, then its more challenging. I’ve added a new section that goes into what’s involved in generating electricity only from the water velocity. It covers how to estimate the amount of power your stream might generate, provides a bit of design information, and it lists all of the home scale example projects I could find that seemed like they might actually work. Its a place to get started on your quest for free no pollution energy from your stream.
One of the reasons getting power from your stream is difficult is that while its clear that there is energy in that flowing water, it not nearly as dense as the energy you can extract from water dropping through an elevation difference. This plot shows you roughly how much power you can get from 1 sqft of flow area at various stream velocities.
Just a glance will tell you that if you have a 2 mph 6 inch deep stream, your power generation possibilities are pretty limited. But, if you have a deep 5 mph stream, there is some worthwhile power there.
I found a few commercial and few homemade examples of flow of river turbines and water wheels — the link below provides pointers to all the ones I could find. If you know of others please let me know.
The new section on Flow-Of-River hydro installtions…
The micro-hyro page for info on more conventional hydro…
Gary
ShySky’s Sunny Money Updates
All updates to the private Sunny Money site will be posted here. Check back often.
Boat in a Hole — George’s Unique Rootcellar
Could not help passing this on.
This is George’s solution for a cost effective, relatively easy to build, and very functional root cellar.
After thinking about a number of ways to build a root cellar for their new place, they tumbled to the idea of using a fiberglass boat hull. It turns out these are available for reasonable prices. They provide a good, waterproof and strong root cellar.
|
| Buried for root cellar use. |
They use it for both a root cellar and also as a bunkhouse.
|
| The entry. |
While I suppose this might seem a bit sad to some boat owners, George points out that there are a number of derelict boats around that will never see use again, and this is a 2nd life that I’m sure any boat would like a lot better than just rotting away unused.
George’s full description of the boat for root cellar…
More on various root cellar designs…
Gary
Flow of River Hydro — Using Only Stream Velocity to Drive a Turbine
I get email questions from people who live on a stream and would like to use the stream to make electricity.
If the stream has some elevation drop over the property and the flow is decent most of the year, then the answer is that if you can meet the legal requirements, its possible to make electricity, and that it can be quite cost effective.
|
| Quite a nice underflow water wheel. |
But, if the stream has no elevation drop, and you just want to make use of the velocity of the stream water to make electricity, then its more challenging. I’ve added a new section that goes into what’s involved in generating electricity only from the water velocity. It covers how to estimate the amount of power your stream might generate, provides a bit of design information, and it lists all of the home scale example projects I could find that seemed like they might actually work. Its a place to get started on your quest for free no pollution energy from your stream.
One of the reasons getting power from your stream is difficult is that while its clear that there is energy in that flowing water, it not nearly as dense as the energy you can extract from water dropping through an elevation difference. This plot shows you roughly how much power you can get from 1 sqft of flow area at various stream velocities.
Just a glance will tell you that if you have a 2 mph 6 inch deep stream, your power generation possibilities are pretty limited. But, if you have a deep 5 mph stream, there is some worthwhile power there.
I found a few commercial and few homemade examples of flow of river turbines and water wheels — the link below provides pointers to all the ones I could find. If you know of others please let me know.
The new section on Flow-Of-River hydro installtions…
The micro-hyro page for info on more conventional hydro…
Gary
A Small, Portable PV System for Camping, Emergencies, …
This is a nice, small, inexpensive, easy to build, very portable PV system from Kevin. He uses it primarely for camping — lights, radio, charging cell phone… But, it also would make a good power source to have around in emergencies, and a good project to learn something about solar electricity
A $1K Solar Water Heating System AND Open Source Differential Controller
A $1K Solar Water Heating System AND Open Source Differential Controller
Nathan did a really nice job of building and documenting his solar water heating system.
Recycled Bulk Milk Tanks for Solar Heat Storage
These tanks are made from stainless steel, and will provide a very long life. The tanks already include some insulation of some of the surfaces. The tanks are typically in the 300 to 500 gallon range, and the price of the used tanks is about $1 per gallon.