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HOME CONSERVATION OF ENERGY

Before delving into potential power sources it is important to think about how to reduce the amount of power one needs to use and how to conserve the power that is available. Efficiency is the key here. If we leave the lights on or keep the TV plugged in (even when off), we are using more than we need. Did you know that almost every electronic plugged-in appliance is draining power even though it is not turned on? It is called a “phantom load”. Lots of phantom loads add up to a steady power drain. Plug those electronics into a plug strip and turn off the plug strip when the appliance is not being used. Turn off the lights you are not currently using. Do you really need to light the whole room with a big bulb when reading a book or would a small high intensity reading light conserve more power? Standard incandescent bulbs waste power in the form of heat. Compact fluorescent bulbs make less heat and are thus considerably more efficient than incandescents - unless the incandescent is used for a short time (like in a closet) because fluorescents take a bit more power to “fire up”. The most efficient lighting to date is a sulfur light. These use microwaves to stimulate sulfur to produce light. These bulbs pump out light like miniature suns. The light from one bulb is channeled to other locations via fiber optics. So far, these are very expensive and are not available on the open market. The next efficient light is an LED (light emitting diode). There are some great LED flashlights on the market these days. LEDS do not get hot, last almost “forever”, are hard to break, and use very little power. In my opinion, LED lighting is the way to go. While not yet available in local stores, LED clusters (multiple LEDS in a single housing) can be purchased over the Internet. The initial purchase cost is a bit high but not really when you count in how long they last and how little power they consume. In a normal home, lighting takes considerable power but refrigeration takes much more. Super insulate the refrigerator with 6” or more insulation. Put the compressor on top so that the heat from it rises away from the refrigerator, not up through the cold box like standard models. With a front opening door, every time the door opens the cold falls out. Use a model which opens like a chest freezer. The most energy efficient location for a refrigerator (in the northern hemisphere) is on the north (shaded) wall of the home close to or in contact with the ground (which is 55 degrees F). Do not put a refrigerator where the sun can shine on it! AC (alternating current) refrigerators are not as efficient as DC (direct current) refrigerators. DC refrigerators usually operate at 12 volts and can be run directly off a battery bank, which can be charged by solar electric panels (photovoltaics), wind generators, and microhydro units (which usually produce DC power). The refrigerators mentioned above are “compression cycle” machines. They are more efficient than the propane fired “evaporation cycle” refrigerators found in RVs and in many off-grid homes. Solid state refrigeration can be accomplished with Peltier Junction chips (some coolers which plug into cigarette lighter sockets are available) but the are not very efficient. Ultrasonic refrigeration (very efficient) is possible but not yet available on the open market. Forget about electric stoves, ovens, hair dryers, plug-in heaters, base-board heaters, hot plates, or anything which uses electricity to heat a coil of wire. These are very inefficient and hard to run with alternative energy systems. If you need a clothes dryer, a propane or natural gas dryer is better than an electric one. Try hanging the clothing in the sun on a line. It will save you much power. Room heating should not be electric. A well-designed solar home that is super insulated can get by quite well with a woodstove or a small propane or natural gas powered heater to augment the sun’s power when it is not shining on the home. Super insulation is the key here. So is using an “air lock” hallway (with two doors) to keep the cold from getting in. Air conditioners are a huge drain on power. It is best to use the coolness of the earth itself (55 degrees F.) to cool your home. It is easy to construct a simple system of parallel pipes which run through the ground and into your home. Outside air is drawn in through the pipes and is cooled by the earth. The moisture in the outside air condenses in these pipes to produce distilled water. This is called an “air well”. During the summer, the home should be shaded by trees. Homes which are bermed or built into the ground (earth sheltered) are easier to cool and heat. Cooking should be as efficient as possible. Solar box ovens (insulated boxes with black interiors, a piece of thermal glass on the front, and a reflector to focus more sunlight into the box) work great as long as the sun is shining - even in the winter! Electric stoves should be avoided. If you must use electricity for cooking, a microwave oven is more efficient than an electric stove because it cooks faster. Natural gas or propane stoves are much better. Steamed vegies are tastier and have more vitamins than overboiled ones and steaming saves a lot of power. The more raw food we eat the less cooking is needed. In the electronics world, small is better. A laptop computer uses far less power than a desktop model. A small screened TV is more efficient than an large one. Choose your appliances, electronics, and tools based on efficiency as well as performance. Do you really need that component stereo CD system or would a Walkman with earphones work just as well? Do you need your a VCR in your home or would it be more fun to watch a movie with others in the community shelter? At the very least, turn off the lights when they are not being used! Conservation starts with awareness. If we are going to live closer to nature we have to start by learning to conserve nature’s gifts. Remember: the more power we use the more power we have to produce.

ENERGY PRODUCTION - tapping power

note: If you have already read the above article on “energy conservation” (if not you might take the time to do so), you will know something about the need to conserve power while cooking, heating, cooling, and using electricity. Without a basic understanding of energy conservation, the following information will be without a foundation. Here are some prime candidates for small-scale energy transformation:

SOLAR THERMAL - Sunlight contains an incredible amount of energy. When sunlight falls on a dark surface, that surface heats up. Trapping sunlight, heating something up, and storing that heat are what solar thermal is all about. Super insulated buildings can be heated by solar energy (as long as there is sunlight). Solar thermal systems can be divided into “passive” and “active”. Passive systems have no moving parts. A black painted tank filled with water and exposed to sunlight is an example of a passive system. An active system has moving parts (blowers, pumps, valves, etc.). An example of an active system might be a rooftop mounted solar thermal panel filled with antifreeze (so that it does not freeze during the winter) that is connected to an indoor insulated water heater. There is a pump which pushes the antifreeze through a heat exchanger coil in the water heater (where the trapped solar heat is given over to the water) and back again to the rooftop solar thermal panel where it picks up more heat from the sun. Active systems tend to break down and should not be used where a passive system will suffice. Both active and passive systems can heat air, water, and even rock. Passively and actively heated solar building both use some sort of thermal storage system (water or rock) to trap excess solar heat and release it gradually over time, maintaining an even temperature indoors. Some people have even constructed solar thermal “heat engines” which turn sunlight into mechanical power to spin generators, pump water, and run drills, lathes, and fans.

SOLAR ELECTRIC - The proper term for this is called “photovoltaics” or PV. PV panels are composted of PV cells. Several panels wired together make up a PV array. PV must be pointed at the sun. Power production is reduced when the sunlight strikes the cells at an angle. PV cells are more efficient in cold weather. Commercial PV cells for home power production transform about 10% of the sunlight into electricity. There are experimental and NASA related PV cells which have a much higher efficiency but they are either very expensive or not yet available. Commercial PV cells are not cheap either but they do not make any noise or pollution while producing power. PV output is DC (direct current) and is usually stored in a battery bank. The battery bank can be tapped direct to provide power for pumps, electric motors, and compression cycle refrigeration (which run more efficiently on DC than AC). An “inverter” may also be connected to the battery bank to produce 120VAC (standard wall current) with about a 5-10% reduction in efficiency. Electric systems which are not connected to the grid are called “off grid” or “stand alone”. PV systems may also be “grid intertied”.

WIND POWER - Wind power can be either mechanical (like those old fashioned towers with the large bladed fans which were used on farms to pump water from wells) or electrical. Wind powered electric generators cost far less (watt per dollar) than PV systems and are hooked up to a battery bank just like PV. If there is a steady and strong source of wind, wind power is a good option. Wind machines need to be at least 50’ above the ground. The closer to the ground (or house or trees) the more turbulence there is and the less power produced. The higher the tower the greater the chance of a lightning strike. Wind power works where there is wind and is a fairly efficient conversion of environmental energy.

WATER POWER - Microhydro units are used to tap flowing and falling water and convert that energy to electricity. Microhydro systems are hooked up just like PV and wind generators. If the flow and fall are strong and steady enough, microhydro is a great option for continuous power production. Another water trick is to use the falling water to turn a wheel to provide direct mechanical power to grind grain, spin fans, and power drills and lathes. A community with an abundance of falling water is lucky indeed!

EARTH POWER - Below the frost line, the earth is about 55 degrees F. Tubes or pipes can be laid through the earth and air or water pumped through those pipes. This is called “geothermal”. During the summer this system can be used to cool a building. During the winter, this can be used with a “heat extractor” to provide space heating. If you are using a conventional propane or natural gas furnace or even a woodstove, the air used for combustion should come into the building through ground pipes, using the earth to preheat the air to 55 degrees F. When coupled with a solar thermal system, excess summer heat can be pumped/blown through these same pipes, heating the ground below the building and raising the ground temperature by a few degrees.

BIO-GAS - When organic animal and human wastes and garbage decompose in anaerobic conditions (without oxygen) they produce a mixture of gasses which contain a high proportion of burnable methane. Home scale methane production does not work since we do not produce enough waste. Community scale systems, especially if there are farm animals to provide manure, can be made to work. The gas is not very high quality and, when burned, does produce some pollution, similar to propane or natural gas. Natural gas is mainly methane.

BIO-DIESEL - By using emulsifying agents (usually chemicals) dirty fryer fats from restaurants can be recycled into bio-diesel and may be burned in diesel engines to run vehicles or even back-up electricity generators. Bio-diesel pollutes less than petroleum diesel fuel.

ALCOHOL - Alcohol (with the proper government permits) can be made from excess grain, wood chips, and sugars. It can be burned in most internal combustion engines with slight modifications to the carb and the replacement of plastic tubing with metal. Burning alcohol pollutes less than gasoline but still creates poisons which are normally exhausted into the atmosphere.

HYDROGEN - Hydrogen is burned with oxygen to produce heat and water vapor. There is no pollution in this reaction. When hydrogen is burned in open air there are some nitrogen oxides produced (very little). Most internal combustion engines, gas stoves, gas dryers, and gas refrigerators can be converted to burn hydrogen. There is another way to “slow burn” hydrogen called “catalytic combustion” in which hydrogen is consumed without a flame at the surface of a rare metal catalyst like platinum. Some space heaters are “catalytic heaters”. Another way to burn hydrogen is in a fuel cell. Fuel cells use a catalyst and a series of membranes to combine hydrogen with oxygen to produce heat, electricity, and distilled water. Small scale fuel cells are just coming into the consumer marketplace and may be even used to power vehicles without pollution. Hydrogen can be used to enrich bio-gas to make it a more usable power resource. The trouble with hydrogen is that it does not exist on earth in any appreciable quantity - except when it is bound to another element. Water contains 2 hydrogen atoms with 1 oxygen atom. It takes more energy to split water into H and O than the energy one gets by burning the two to create water! In other words, if you already have the energy to split water, why not use it direct? On the other hand, if you have excess energy (such as summer sunlight), why not use that energy to split water? The subject of splitting water and the methods of doing so are being studied in detail by experts and inventors all over the world in order to prepare the way for a “hydrogen economy” which some people believe will take over at the end of the fossil fuel era. I hope so. We should look deeply at this technology. It is a good candidate.

We hope this short introduction has been useful. We left out some more esoteric energy production schemes (OTEC, tidal, wave motion, etc.) because they are not practical for a land-based sanctuary. further discussion happens at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/andorprojex