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DesideriScuri -> RE: Germany's power grid destabilizing (9/12/2013 11:34:55 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DomKen
quote:
ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri
Any idea how much it costs to divert a river through one's yard to support a hydro-electric setup?
A lot.
From my research, I helped get my aunt and cousin mostly off grid due to grid reliability problems, the best solution for most people is a hybrid solution. Geothermal if that is possible is the best present baseline power source, it is however expensive if you don't already have a well deep enough to do the job. Vertical axis wind turbines are easy to site and work at fairly low wind speeds, 5 mph to 50mph. Solar is, IMO, the least useful but if your roof faces south a set of panels on the roof can provide a fair amount of power on days when you're more likely to run A/C. To be truly grid independent you will need a battery system and probably an investment in energy efficient appliances, obviously the less power you consume the easier it is to generate it yourself.
Taking Thompson's tongue-in-cheek coal plant in his backyard idea, I modified it to my own tongue-in-cheek divert a river idea.
I know alternative/renewable energy systems are cost-prohibitive upfront. I have an old, no longer used well somewhere on my property (the pumps are still in the basement, but it was converted to city water 5+ years ago and I have lots of other shit to deal with that comes before pulling an unused pump out). I have plenty of land for horizontal systems, which, I believe, are cheaper than vertical wells, if starting from scratch (if they can't use the well point already on my property). I would have no issue getting rid of the current landscape to bury lines for that. I'd even likely plant on top of it to protect it, somewhat, anyway, from invasive roots. I would love nothing more than to have a geothermal system installed. I just really need to find some sort of financial means. That's the only thing holding me up, to be honest. I would also consider adding on a roof-mounted solar air heater to augment the geothermal unit in the winter to keep from having to run space heaters and such. Summers would find me with no other form of air conditioning outside of the cooled air from the unit. I'd run a separate dehumidifier, when necessary. Fans will move the air as needed.
I'm extremely interested in VAWT's, too. I can see them popping up on my property at some point in time (provided the zoning commission gives me a variance; currently, only 3+ acre properties are allowed to have wind turbines, and I only have 2 acres; but this is likely more for safety and noise concerns that don't tend to apply to VAWT's. At some point, I'll likely tinker with some options for VAWT's, seeing what I can scavenge to throw together.
I have very little south-facing roof (the house my ex has, I really pushed for the site because the house would face north, allowing for a greater area of south facing, and unbroken roof for future solar panel installation). It seems PV may not be much in my future for that reason. I'm not against creating a "solar array" at some point, but that's not something I think it is likely to be financially smart at today's tech level.
But, yeah. I do love me some renewable energy sources.
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