Loaded-Gun.Com - Anti-Social.Com's Rejects!
General Category => Politics, Philosophy, News and/or Current Affairs => Topic started by: (_)_)===D on September 14, 2009, 04:05:31 PM
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Hey man, what ever happened to your windmill project?
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Lack of funds and currently lack of time. I'll get back to it when it gets too cold to sail and work on boats.
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I'm thinking of doing a windmill project too. It would be a fun project to build even if it turned out to be impracticable
for more than charging a few batts. My son has about 18 45W pv panels set up and 4 or 6 deep cycle batteries I forget which connected through a big ass inverter. It will run lights and the PC for a long time or the air conditioner for about 1.5 - 2 hours. He built a small test windmill but he did something wrong there because he can't get any power out of it.
Something minor I bet but he got discouraged and stopped working on it.
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Zoomie Quixote.
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I'm thinking of doing a windmill project too. It would be a fun project to build even if it turned out to be impracticable
for more than charging a few batts. My son has about 18 45W pv panels set up and 4 or 6 deep cycle batteries I forget which connected through a big ass inverter. It will run lights and the PC for a long time or the air conditioner for about 1.5 - 2 hours. He built a small test windmill but he did something wrong there because he can't get any power out of it.
Something minor I bet but he got discouraged and stopped working on it.
Collaboration after Moshapalooza.
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I just don't get why alternative sources of energy suck so badly. Like, why are photovoltaic cells so fucking expensive, and trying to get any meaningful amount of energy from wind power at the home level seems like a complete waste of time.
It's like, if someone's got some kind of kick-ass breakthrough it's guaranteed quackery, and the stuff that actually works barely even produces energy. It's so fucking retarded.
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I just looked up CSP (concentrated solar power). I like that stuff.
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I just don't get why alternative sources of energy suck so badly. Like, why are photovoltaic cells so fucking expensive, and trying to get any meaningful amount of energy from wind power at the home level seems like a complete waste of time.
It's like, if someone's got some kind of kick-ass breakthrough it's guaranteed quackery, and the stuff that actually works barely even produces energy. It's so fucking retarded.
They are not expensive if you know where to look for them, how to compute optimum output at peak periods, compute total combined output for a given number of cells, how to connect them in serially in the proper configuration and numbers, and where to scrounge the materials to assemble them with little or no cash output. Also knowing how to build your own charge controllers and monitoring equipment from $20 worth of parts from Radio Shack and where to get free storage batteries is useful.
We should talk when I see you next month.
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That would be great. I've read about buying busted up cells from ebay and gluing them together and stuff and that seems pretty beat.
I guess my frustration as a lay-person comes from the apparent lack of effort made by the manufacturers to drive down the cost of solar energy. They've mired themselves in a "wait for people to buy it so we can lower the manufacturing cost" situation. Well, WTF douchebags? What kind of sense does that make? Very few people are going to plunk down 15 years worth of energy costs up front to buy your product, so now their genius plan is simply to wait for the cost of regular energy to become almost costly as solar energy. Then, they figure they can mass-produce and get the cost of solar on par with regular energy costs.
It's a real catch 22 that just seems un-necessary.
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Not only that but they would love to see home builders put out of commission. Those of us who are both poor and care about the environment are a threat to their profit margins.
Fuck 'em, I'll teach everyone who wants to learn how to do it.
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I used to work for a company which did solar systems. My take was that they were on crack for not having a single electrical/mechanical engineer in the whole company, and that solar electric systems were way too pricey to be worthwhile.
Solar heating seemed to work well, though. A little too well if the system isn't designed right and spews water just below boiling out of your tap.
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I think they've probably gotten that sorted out by now. Everyone here uses solar water heaters, and they work great... once you have the weather for 'em.
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Several of my friends have built homes that are mostly passive solar heated. Scot, who works for me, scrounged about 24 used double paned sliding glass doors and framed them into the south-facing side of his house. He says he only burned a cord and a half of firewood last year and didn't use the furnace at all. I have ideas for that but not in the ghetto burbs.
Solar and wind aren't that hard. You can learn 4 or 5 equations, put them on a cheater card in your wallet and carry a calculator. You can figure a house's needs in about a half hour and design an off grid system for it in another hour. But you should have grid tie or a generator as back up and you can more or less kiss central AC good bye.
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I love it when people think all solar hot waters heaters are solar panel powered.
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Mine is.
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You sure ? Most of them (for climates like 'ours') have the pipes going thru under the panels to soak up radiant heat.
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The one I'm working on now is 24 evacuable collector tubes, a heat exchanger and a 50 gallon stainless tank.
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Just remember to paint it black.
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You sure ? Most of them (for climates like 'ours') have the pipes going thru under the panels to soak up radiant heat.
I see what you mean. They're solar-heated, not solar-powered.
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Just remember to paint it black.
Actually it's glass in a stainless steel mainfold, like this: http://www.siliconsolar.com/solarhotwater.php (http://www.siliconsolar.com/solarhotwater.php)
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I like the simple ideas the best. Go figure.
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Yeah me too. 100 feet of 3/8" copper coil sweated to a 3'x7' sheet of copper, painted black and put under a sliding glass door pane, hooked to a heat exchanger and a storage tank. Cost: About $200 bucks.
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srsly, when I build a house in New Zealand, I'm gonna fly you out to do the interior, heating & solar everything. We can sail around the country on our days off.
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Dude, all you have to do is feed me and I am so there.
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done. I'll have the BBQ pit ready by the time you and your band of pirates pull into shore. Any of those hulls of your up for a pacific crossing?
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Not this year but soon. I still want that Pearson Vanguard, was out there today looking her over again. Anyway it's sailboat buying season. People would rather dump them than pay to have them hauled out, repainted and put in storage for the winter.
OK how to get to the South Pac without going through the Panama Canal and without going anywhere near Africa...
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The Horn. ~chuckle.
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Yeah. In a 33 footer. Sure.
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I hear the ice pack around Greenland is not what it once was
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Yeah. In a 33 footer. Sure.
Turn right at Punta Dungenness and you miss The Horn totaly.
edit: That takes you thru to the Strait of Magellan
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I hear the ice pack around Greenland is not what it once was
Excellent observation, Everest...
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In my experience in commercial projects, one of big reasons things like solar water heaters don't get used as much as they should is because engineering firms are afraid of the liability issues of fucking up a design.
I think kissing central AC goodbye would be a good thing.
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Yeah but it's always 74F in your cave...
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OK 7500 miles by going through the Panama Canal (which costs on average $2500USD) at 3 months, more or less, or 15,000 miles going through the South Atlantic at around 6 months. Doing the latter would have to be done mid year exposing me to hurricanes in order to be at the horn in the warmest part of the year, December - February.
Conversely, travelling eastward would be about 13,500 miles, 4 and a half months, could begin in December and would expose me to pirates on the west coast of Africa.
Panama Canal is looking better.
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Or, hitchhike to LA and fly down for under a grand. It's not as romantic, but you'll have an extra $24K to spend on booze
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Zoomie is turning into a Coleridge poem...
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (http://www.poetry-online.org/coleridge_rime_of_the_ancient_mariner.htm)
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I've been looking for the illustrated version of that for years.
One night, in Ohio, I cracked open one of my 100-odd year old books and spent a couple hours pacing back and forth with it, reciting The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to the Pogues' Turkish Song of the Damned, agitated by whiskey. Good stuff.
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Speaking of illustrated versions of things, I found the most lavish version of the Rubaiyat I've ever seen last year at the thrift store and got it for a dollar. It's out of this world. How I love blowing money in the name of thrift.
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I love it when people think all solar hot waters heaters are solar panel powered.
Define Solar Panel?
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So Zooms,
Here's my situation... My house is a rancher that faces due east. The roof of course, runs lengthwise north-south, with the eastern part of the roof receiving the most sunlight. The western side of the roof catches a lot of shade. The southern wall is almost always shaded.
The house uses electric heat (eww!).
What I'm thinking of doing is getting my feet wet with a home-brew solar heater on the eastern face of the roof, and if that works out well maybe adding a southward facing remote collector in the north-east portion of the clearing. Here's a little bird's eye view:
(http://www.d00dj00sux0r.com/images/solar_house.jpg)
Am I pissing into the wind here, or what?
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The problem you'll have is heat loss between the collector and the storage/manifold/point of use. I'd make use of the roof space you have by making a set of collectors that are tilted south and pivot over the roof peak to follow the path of the sun. You'd be best to have them tilted 21 degrees from vertical for direct absorption at mid winter. It sounds complicated and expensive but it can be built with scrap, some parts from Home Depot and an old rotisserie motor.
How do you plan to use the heat once you've collected it? Radiant flooring or fan coil extraction? Either way it will only heat your house as long as there is solar radiation to absorb, and will have to be drained on cold nights. I.E. you'll need a wood stove on overcast days and at night.
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I had considered making an array of collectors tilted southward as the most efficient way to use the rooftop space, but I was kind of hoping I could get away with a less obtrusive collector lying flat on the roof to kind of prove the concept and keep things really inexpensive.
For the rooftop system I wasn't planning on collecting the heat at all, just blowing it right into the house during the daytime and then using the electric heat at night.
We have a fireplace we could use as well, but I really don't want to start filling the house with soot, and I imagine that it's nowhere near as efficient as a wood burning stove would be. Unfortunately, installing a wood burning stove is not in my budget.
Really, I'm getting tired of these expensive ass electric bills and I'm hoping there's a cheap and easy way to reduce the load on our electric heaters this year, and hopefully use proven success to as persuasion to improve the system next year with thermal collection of some sort.
Dude, seriously. It's SIXTY FIVE FUCKING DEGREES OUTSIDE AND THIS WOMAN HAS THE CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONER ON BECAUSE SHE WON'T OPEN THE WINDOW BECAUSE THERE ARE BUGS OUTSIDE!
There are two screens that need to be replaced on the windows that require two people to put it in place, one outside and one inside and she refuses to help me simply because of her phobia of open windows.
Back to the AC... There's a kill switch in the attic for the AC that I would just go up there and throw, except she'll just call her dad (who does whatever she says) and he'll come over and turn it back on. If I cut the wires he'll wind up either fixing it or paying someone to fix it.
And remember how she goes into hysterics at the mention of insulating film on the windows? Well, obviously any heat collector I put on the roof is going to have to be unobtrusive. At least initially.
Man, I really need to get this woman into some kind of psychiatric treatment. She's fully aware that she has anxiety disorders but it's really becoming clear to me that she's only getting worse and worse over time. It's like each year there's one more ridiculous behavior added to the list that somehow costs us tons of money.
So anyway, keeping the heat at 65 and wearing heavier clothing during the winter is NOT what happens in our house, which is why I think there may be a benefit to solar heating even if it's during the daytime only, and even if it's not the optimal set up.
Hey, did I mention how all summer long she kept the central air on at like 70, and then kept the electric heat on in our daughter's room so she wouldn't get cold at night? Yes, that's right... She ran the air conditioner and the heat at the same time.
All... summer... long.
(http://api.ning.com/files/-usxqi*IvYn0m3c91lPLnoVUE3RdlyibgjUiyw81JS*Tbqr6ckAOUoDoN2CRs6QlYIg7BW1r8XBo7AfPh4LfN2anqul68HaE/Facepalm.jpg)
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I don't know where your unit is located, but you could potentially route a small duct from the outside to the return side of the unit w/ a manual volume damper. When it's nice outside, you could kill the condensing unit & open the damper. The central unit would still be on and blowing cool air, but you wouldn't be using electricity to run the condensing unit.
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Hmm... I might be able to work something like that out except I don't have any money for supplies cause I just gave the electric company $700!
Doh!
It's an excellent suggestion though! Maybe I'll be able to get that in place for the spring time.
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Dude you totally should not have knocked her up. Pregnancy releases hormones that do shit to their minds. You're boned, man.
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Tell me about it.
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(http://www.d00dj00sux0r.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/happy_house.jpg)
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That went without saying...
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I can't kill her, her father begs not to on a weekly basis.
:'(
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No jacuzzi for you then, ever.
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What, are you crazy? If we don't get a jacuzzi then how are we ever going to get rid of all the excess ice our fridge keeps on making?
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You should just sell your house and build a cabin.
Make the bitch deal with chopping any wood she needs for heating, and the managing of an ice box if she wants anything cold.
That'll learn her.
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Yeah, a cabin with no windows.
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Perfect plan!
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I keep the air in my house at 78-80 degrees all summer long, but when I go to sleep my roommate turns it down to 71! I wake up freezing cold. I bitched her out for it and she still did it again. The I said, "if you touch that thermostat I will start pawning off your things one by one to pay the bill." She owes me $800 for back rent and bills, so I used that to my advantage. I keep the windows open now since it is nicer outside, but she still runs the AC when I am not there, even with the windows open. It is driving me fucking crazy. I feel you cock'n'balls, I feel ya.
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____________________(_)_)===D
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I'm lucky le wife is worried about the AC affecting her voice. Read: I can use the AC whenever, and she never runs it when I'm not around
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I pulled off a major coup last night. While she was at work I turned off the AC and put a box fan in one of the windows. When she came home she tried to complain about the humidity but in the end she acquiesced and the AC stayed off and the fan stayed in the window.
It was great victory.
______________________~>(_)_)===D
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Baby steps brah. Baby steps. I know what I'm talking about.
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I love it when people think all solar hot waters heaters are solar panel powered.
Define Solar Panel?
Si and I know what eachother are typing about....but for you, Solar panel in the context I used it....what your average person would consider a solar panel.
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I heat collector is a solar panel.
Wheee! Now three of are playing the Hojo game!
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Only if the heat is from the sun.
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Duh. Where else would a solar panel get it's heat?
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You said heat collector is a solar panel.
A heat collector is just that...something that collects heat. The heat can come from other places than the sun. Geo thermal for example. Shit, A wild fire would charge your heat collector if it was close enough.
The way you worded it a heat collector is interchangable with solar panel, which is wrong.
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You said heat collector is a solar panel.
A heat collector is just that...something that collects heat. The heat can come from other places than the sun. Geo thermal for example. Shit, A wild fire would charge your heat collector if it was close enough.
The way you worded it a heat collector is interchangable with solar panel, which is wrong.
If someone says a heat collector is also a solar panel of course they're talking about a solar heat collector, not a pile of rocks next to a fire. I didn't word anything, your mind did.
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this is always entertaining.
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You said heat collector is a solar panel.
A heat collector is just that...something that collects heat. The heat can come from other places than the sun. Geo thermal for example. Shit, A wild fire would charge your heat collector if it was close enough.
The way you worded it a heat collector is interchangable with solar panel, which is wrong.
If someone says a heat collector is also a solar panel of course they're talking about a solar heat collector, not a pile of rocks next to a fire. I didn't word anything, your mind did.
You didn't say a heat collector is also a solar panel. The word 'also' was never typed by you. Had you typed the word 'also' you would be correct. You didn't, so you are not.
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We were talking about solar panels, it's natural to infer that the statement "A heat collector is a solar panel" means a solar heat collector, the word "also" is not necessary to make it a true statement.
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Your game gets boring rather quickly. The tenacity you display in winning it makes me think you may have an obsessive disorder.
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You created the game. I knew you were trolling. I am just giving you exactly what you wanted; A chance to post the above.
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Man, you're the king of trolls. I played your game for a little while, but I think you like it more than I do.
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You're still doing it.
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Screw this topic
HJ - when are you next in Japan?
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Next year. Your early summer. or thereabouts.
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sweet - keep me posted, I'll skip work and show you around.
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I really should do japan properly. Properly means about 8 or so 4 day weekends of a year. Its close enough and cheap enough.
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If you can be here for 3 nights, we'll head down to Kyoto and check it out. If you're on a budget there's stuff to do in Tokyo, but Kyoto is cool.
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We were talking about solar panels, it's natural to infer that the statement "A heat collector is a solar panel" means a solar heat collector, the word "also" is not necessary to make it a true statement.
hey! you are a cat
arguing dull semantics
and licking the screen!
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I know, right?