I might be mistaken, but I think there is a significant performance drop at low temperatures with solar cells... someone please correct if wrong.
Wood pellet fueled heat engine (Stirling, Ericsson, etc.) turning a series of low RPM generators (windmill type) with radiant heat to melt all that solid water outside your door as well. 8^) Even us metropolitan suburbanites day dream of distributed power and energy independence. Our inspiration does not necessarily come from significant weather events however, but from the postman each month.. ha ha. My biggest concern with getting off the grid is that the mob will show up at my door when everything else goes dark and quiet... but then again I am a cynic. I always expect the worst. -john -----Original Message----- From: Stephen A. Lawrence [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 3:38 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Vo]: Musings on grid-independence and personal alternative energy Here in southern Ontario, frequent ice storms are the norm and 2/3 of the power lines are above ground. Back in 1998 4" of ice accumulated on everything and the whole region was without power for a couple weeks; since then there's been lots of talk about buried wires but very little digging has actually taken place. Living in a house where not just heat, but hot water, cooking, and the pump that brings in the water used to flush the toilet all depend on electricity has led me to the conclusion that a little less direct dependence on the grid might be a Good Goal. The folks who lived here before us put in a nice new fireplace which actually gives off heat when you use it (unlike the conventional "Middle Ages style" fireplaces which suck in air through the chinks in the walls, and so tend to cool things off). But a warm house without drinking water or flush toilets still seems suboptimal. (Come to think of it, after the power goes out and the battery backup sump pump's battery runs down we'll have plenty of water, but not really the right sort...) So, I've been daydreaming about covering the roof with solar cells and filling the basement with batteries in an effort to gain some security against the vagaries of "Acts of God", as the failure of badly-designed systems due to predictable events is generally called. After a "mental walk-through" counting watts, it appears that, more or less in line with Terry's recent post, something like a kilowatt or so of continuous power would do us (if we turn off all unnecessary lights and don't use the furnace), and that suggests something like 50 square meters of solar panels to charge up during the day and something approaching 20 automobile batteries to carry the house through the night. Do any of you have any experience with such an approach? Is it stupid even to consider such a scheme, given that we're a little more than 45 degrees north of the equator? Is there a more rational approach?
