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Junior Member
 
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| I agree with WOS and DB, windmill technology needs work still but with the money being ploughed into electric cars hopefully the battery technology will improve. I will say though that the technology is improving so dont base you prejudices on "out of date" info and stats. As far as nuclears go i really believe the end of the cold war really hurt this industry, up untill the wall fell many governments were investing obseanly huge quantities of money into nuke research and the power generating side of the industry really benefitted from this money. Nuke fusion was really the light at the end of the tunnel and maybe another 25 years of cold war may have realised the dream. Power generated from Nuke sites supplies over 70% of the energy used in France. If you ever have the chance of driving down I39 through the middle of Illinois you will drive past loads and loads of the utility windmills and I think we are investing further in more. Has anyone made there own windmill? The electronics get a bit OTT for grid connection but maybe to light a remote barn or a dark path or a chicken coup maybe feasible?
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Average Member
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your point is very good Brit. I've read The Forgotten Man. In that book it speaks briefly about wind teck and how the electric co-ops messed with wind mill sales, and in kind, new wind mill teck. I'd say that if Wind were left to it's own devices, the ability to improve would grow. However it is so subsisted that it can't. What is the incentive to make a more productive wind mill if you KNOW your company will get a check? For that matter, what reason do they have to produce a lasting product?
PVT business here in the world of energy has done far more than any wind company that has come in for these reasons. When the wind farm trucks made great ruts in the church lawn, they were not interested in fixing them. Natural Gas companies have offered to do things to keep in good standing with the consumers.
I'm OK with nuke myself.
Electric cars don't really thrill me because the battery teck, and other aspects of there production, along with the fact that some "plug in" cars take electric from the grid, and that means something must be burned to make that juice.
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I am all for electric cars, and the reason is surprising. I love snowmobiling and the reason is because of the incredible amount of acceleration. Current gas powered cars can do the quarter mile in like 9 seconds (hot rods) but right off the showroom floor, a snowmobile set up for asphalt racing will beat it by 2 seconds. The snap factor on a sled is incredible. But from what I heard, electric cars have an even better snap then snowmobiles. In some ways they will not only be green, heck they might actually be fun to drive. I say bring them on, anything to beat my boring commute to work.
As for homemade windmills, if you go to www.theotherpower.com" you can see people are already doing this. I have the fabricating and welding ability, but 90% of what they build is wiring and I am not good at electrical stuff. It was my weakness on the railroad even though trains are essentially electrically driven tractors. So are tug boats!
But I do have the place to try it. I live on a hill and I get a really good views of the prevailing wind. I would like to talk to my Dad (a mechanical engineer) and do a windmill project together even if it just powered our homes (partially).
Interestingly enough, the Amish here use windmills, but not to power generators of course, but to pump up compressed air. That would save a lot of electrical loss if appliances could be air driven instead of electrically powered. Just a thought on what others are doing.
One crazy idea I had is using a windmill to heat my home. Converting mechanical wind power to electricity to heat is a waste, but what if a windmill compressed water through a very small orifice? We all know on our tractors when you pump oil through the relief valve on the hydraulics, it gets super hot, super fast. What if a windmill compressed water and that water helped run through my radiant floor? My system only needs 76º water to operate, so getting water from 47º to 76º is not much of a hurtle. As I said, its a crazy idea but I like the simplicity of it, and heating a Maine home in the winter is more of an importance then reducing a small electric bill.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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Average Member
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well, oil is thicker and not the same as water.. I don't know how that would work. I know many Amish who have air powered tools, the trouble with wind here however would be the inconsistancey and low wind speed.
Many Amish here who use air tools for carpentry and other jobs do so for long hours so the consistency is a factor. They do use wind for water pumping here.
However they have a very large water tower and I could see this as being an issue for most people who worry about water availability these tanks are very very large.
E-cars are fine... but I refuse to drive one unless it can pull the loads I need it to pull each day. I'm always taking tools to the site, or bringing home a skid steer, bull dozer or other trailer. Those smart cars might work for people but not people who have things to pull haul.
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Junior Member
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| DB I dont think a small wind mill would give you very much heat, I dont know what kW output a car or truck alternator gives but by the size of them I would guess maybe a quarter kilowatt, with this you maybe able to warm yourself in a heated blanket. For heating I would use solar energy (use the sun to grow trees and then burn them) We heat our house with wood and we get pretty cold here as well. I do have a gas tank but last year we only used about 200 gallons of propane and this was basically my daughter switching it on to warm up in the mornings. We just have a big stove in the living/family room and keep it loaded all winter, I use about 2.5 full cords of oak/hickory/cherry or maybe 4 cords of Elder. I actually last year used the elder from thanksgiving untill year end then graduated onto the better woods for the 2.5 cold months. Getting back to wind, I think a small car alternator wind mill could light maybe 10 of those screw in fluorescent bulbs that run on about 11 watts quite easily and this would light a pretty descent length of path. My wife has to walk maybe 200 yards through woods to get to the back paddock and when there is no moon it is really dark and when the coyotes are howling it is pretty scary for a poor little English girl (and her husband). Flashlights work good on the walk up but when we return laden with horses it can get quite dangerous. Electric cars, I must admit coming from a country where gas is expensive and cars are pathetically small one of the things I really like out here is having big cars. I also wonder about all the rare heavy metals and acids that electric cars use ( the sourcing and ultimate disposal of) Another thing I wonder about is the longevity of the electric cars. When I buy a new cell phone they say the battery will last at least 2 years, well they dont they start to loose there storage capacity after about 4 months and are shot within a year especially when you work outdoors and the phone gets hot and cold, what happens to the electric car batteries when the car is a few years old especially through our winters?
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Average Member
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And there are so many limets on new plants to make battries that only a few old plants are around. So demand/supply would be a factor if we had all Ecars.
and LIKE you Brit, I want a big car. Some people want a boat, some a horse.. I like my truck. It's not an ego thing. contrary to what the green hippiy folks would like to imply I'm not a mud bogging redneck, That's just my little pleasure. That is why this is America and not France.
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| WOS Ever since I was a little boy and saw on TV American Trucks I wanted one, I really P155ed my wife off when we first moved to the US and the first thing I bought was a 1965 Ford F100 before we even had a bed. I still have it and use it to carry stuff around off road but now have a Chevy 2500. I am the unusual person on the road, I can actually afford to buy a new car but I use 8 year olds because I couldn't live with depreciation. Mind you I do spend too much with the local mechanic.
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That is what I drive, 2500 HD... or the S10.
The man who works on my trucks is Amish, but he has the same truck as I do.
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Senior Member
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I understand guys, but for me...while it took getting used too; I now like my small car. Call me crazy but it gets 37 mpg and work is a mere 22 miles from home. Big deal, I nearly drive back and forth to work on a gallon of gas...I really like that. With an electric car, I could do even better...I mean its not like tugboats are ever without power (shore power @ 120 volt/208 volt) then there is the back up generators and the back up generators for the back up generators)...so yes electric power does work for me as my car could always be plugged in.
As for firewood, call me crazy but I actually don't burn one pound of firewood. I have a radiant floor heat that is propane powered. It only costs me 1700-1800 to heat my 2100 square foot home (in Maine mind you) but the wife is scared of burning wood, and my parents home was burned to the ground due to one of those outside wood stoves. I am not really scared of them, but the lady folk say no, so I burn propane.
So what I do instead is cut wood from the woodlot (I have plenty) and haul it to the papermills and take the money from that and buy propane. In some ways it is a lot easier because its all tree length wood. Just cut the trees down, knock off the limbs, haul them out to a road and then its off to the mill on a truck. No blocking up, no splitting, no stacking, no mess in the house, etc and the wood from the farm is essentially being used to heat my home, just not directly.
The upside is, I can cut any kind of wood because if its not like its actually being burned. I mean the market is what it is. I can sell just a few pine logs for lumber and make a lot of money on only a few trees, or I can sell low grade hemlock to be made into paper. The downside is, if it is hemlock or any lower grade wood, I may have to cut twice as many cords to heat my home as it would to cut firewood. In other words, instead of cutting 4 cords of firewood, I have to cut 16 cords of hemlock to make enough money to buy propane. It all depends upon what I want to cut, but overall that does give me more options for the woodlot. I am not just limited to cutting 4 cords of hardwood every year.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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| I belong to AAA and a couple of years ago they had an article in their magazine about E-cars. Everyone was raving about the lack of carbon fuels to power the vehicles and how non polluting they are. One slight piece of information was missing and was pointed out by AAA. It seems that the amount of electricity needed to recharge the vehicle was huge compared to the normal household usage. That caused the monthly electric bill to rise considerably. If the number of E-cars increased the generating plants would have to increase their output to keep up with the demand from charging the cars thus causing an increase in carbon output by the electric plants. Another factor left out was the cost of the batteries for the vehicles. They are expensive and only last about a year. I'm all for going green but you have to look at all the options before you can make a decent decision instead of jumping on the bandwagon. Like was said earlier, cutting back on your personal consumption is one sure way to help.
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