Solar Powered Home Brewery

[squirrelpirate]

Pics??

see above

+1

Thanks for the pics. I'd like to make some homemade solar panels or wind turbines sometime. The Solar Decathlon here in DC motivates me to do more, and this certainly does as well.

[bcmaui]

LED Bulbs?

I can't stand the light produced by CFLs. I use them for outdoor lighting and the garage only.

Anyone have suggestions for LEDs that are equivalent to 60 watt bulbs for use in a living room?

What about flood lights for track lighting?

I've seen prices that range $10-$100 per bulb.

Thanks,
The Fool

You can get CFLs that produce the same light as regular lights. Finding LEDs that do the same is usually more costly. When CFLs first came out they were that awful white fluorescent light but now they are much softer and much closer to regular bulbs.

Just purchased 12 of Sylvania's Reflector 50 CFL's for some ceiling cans I have in high use areas. They start off with the pukey yellow color I have come to associate with CFL's, but after a couple of minutes the color improves significantly. A 14 watt CFL is producing about 80% of the visable light that the 50 watt lamp it replaced. The lumen rate is supposably higher, but I am not seeing it.

Day one and two were both overcast and about 7kWh was produced on each of those days. Sunny day today and already made 10kWh today at 3pm of the 12kWh per day best case energy production this current system is supposed to produce daily. I'll need at least to double and possibly triple the PV system size to break even on our power usage.

edit: made 11.75 kWh today - good sunny day near equinox benchmark - it's key to have little to no clouds between 9am and 3pm for peak production. The panels should make even more power if the air temp was cooler if everything else remained the same.

[Brandt]

You could get rid of your 220v appliances and get energy efficient models. Get an EE clothes washer which spins more water out than a regular machine. That way you only have to use the dryer for <10 minutes instead of 45. If you bake, you probably won't want to get rid of the oven.

[bcmaui]

That last link was crap - here's a better one:

http://www.sunny-portal.com/Templates/P ... tList.aspx

search zip code 96768

look at "Makawao, Maui"

you can also search your area by zip code (or beginning of zip code - 967 does all of hawaii except honolulu at 968) to see if any are close to you

[bcmaui]

Received first power bill with PV running during the entire month.

We have reduced the amount of power we need to purchase in half - from 26 kWh per day to 13 kWh. And this month has been a bit rainy and overcast for 2 of the 4 weeks.

If this economy ever turns around I should be able to add enough panels next year to add a walk-in beer storage room and still zero out on my power purchased from the grid.

http://www.artisanmaui.com/PVathome/MECO.pdf

[bcmaui]

You could get rid of your 220v appliances and get energy efficient models. Get an EE clothes washer which spins more water out than a regular machine. That way you only have to use the dryer for <10 minutes instead of 45. If you bake, you probably won't want to get rid of the oven.

May consider that soon - the clothes dryer is currently the biggest electrical energy hog in the house (I have no A/C or electric heating). 10 years ago I did shell out some coin for a very energy efficient (at that time) washing machine (Maytag Neptune) and the following year was able to afford a matching clothes dryer. If they have improved significantly better in the past 10 years - that is a great tip.

The only 220V appliances I have are: 1) Oven/stovetop, 2) Clothes Dryer and, 3) 120 Gallon Water Heater (but is only backup to solar roof heated water).

And you have me thinking - if there was an inexpensive way to capture the waste heat from a clothes dryer and store that in the hot water tank, you could gain some energy there as well.

[Brandt]

I have heard of a system which stores excess heat energy in the ground as a bank to draw from later. Lots of water pipes buried with a secondary heating system buried in the same ground perhaps? Maybe you could set up a copper coil to capture the heat from the dryer vent? It's a good question I keep asking my self: how to capitalize on waste heat. I want to heat my water in winter with the wood stove I use for heat, supplemented by solar. I love how my pottery kiln heats up all the water supply lines in the house when it's running, and have though of ways to capture that heat as well. Waste heat is always going to happen, but it's nice to reclaim a little bit of it where you can.

[Brandt]

BC. Just wanted to give an update that I finally went over to that solar company full time now, and I couldn't be happier. My first job last week was to install their largest to date PV system at a sausage factory. I love this company and the work we do. If I have to do actual labor for a living, I'm glad it's something like this where I get to be a part of sticking it to the power company!