Hey man, what ever happened to your windmill project?

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.

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.

Zoomie Quixote.

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.

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.

I just looked up CSP (concentrated solar power). I like that stuff.

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.

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.

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.

 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.

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.

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.

I love it when people think all solar hot waters heaters are solar panel powered.

Mine is.

You sure ? Most of them (for climates like 'ours') have the pipes going thru under the panels to soak up radiant heat.

The one I'm working on now is 24 evacuable collector tubes, a heat exchanger and a 50 gallon stainless tank.

Just remember to paint it black.

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.

Just remember to paint it black.

Actually it's glass in a stainless steel mainfold, like this: http://www.siliconsolar.com/solarhotwater.php

I like the simple ideas the best. Go figure.

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.

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.

Dude, all you have to do is feed me and I am so there.

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?

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...

The Horn. ~chuckle.

Yeah. In a 33 footer. Sure.

I hear the ice pack around Greenland is not what it once was

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