Solution for electrical cost issue

[ihrsetrdr]

Well, the 5 ton A/C unit is on the roof and pumping major cold with the quickness:clap:, but this 13 SEER unit won't solve the problem of excessive electrical comsumption by itself. A CoGeneration install will be the ultimate(big) solution, but that is months away. The first phase of my "little" solution is earning dividends already; I quit drinking alcohol :eek: about five weeks ago. Not only was my blood pressure dangerously high, but it was just flat out time to lose some weight and start taking care of my body as well. I went to the doctor this morning and found my blood pressure to be DOWN from a high of 182/120 to a much closer-to-normal level of 130/78. Even lost ten pounds. :D I know I'm rambling but he's the bottom line:
(1) 6pack/day x 30=$100/month for nothing
(0) 6pack/day x 30=$100/month to spend on FOLDING. Capeche ? ;)

Phase 2 will be to quit smoking, which will be worth another $140 that the wife will gladly see going towards folding, rather than in her face in the form of smoke! ;) ;) ;)

[sno.lcn]

Glad to hear you got your blood pressure down, 182/120 is crazy high! Quitting smoking should bring it down a lot more. I should probably start drinking less too. It could be worse though, I just had to pay college tuition and get $500 in books.
If you figure out any tips for quitting smoking, be sure and let me know! The drinking I'm mostly okay with, but I need to quit smoking BAD!

[AlabamaCajun]

Proud of you man, that's awesome for both your folding and your longevity. Besides we like having you around for the value you bring to the boards.
I have to figure out what costs the most. Cooling this place or all the other stuff like water heaters and lights left on. I do have a security light that runs 24/7 because the sensor failed, that 24 hours of folding just during summer daylight hours. I gave up what little alcy I drank about 7 years ago when the wife tossed out her cigs. We do still have wine on occasion so our vices are high tech stuff and lifes expenses.
While on the subject of save power, I've found enough info to power folding layers on 12VDC making them adaptable for Solar and Autobattery. I found 5V and 3.3V DC-DC regs and Jameco Electronics to provide those 2 rails. The main issue is that some rigs may be a little fickled to run at slightly less that 12 volts but most could be VCore adjusted to compensate. The other issue I have to solve is the 13-15V input during charging. I could build some regulators for that means design and testing. I may have to sacrifice a celly and K6-2 to the volt gods to make this project a reality.

[sno.lcn]

Woah! Solar?! You got a linky of some sort on exactly how to do this? I'll cover my roof with panels.

[cp]

Glad to hear dude, that is a MAJOR life style change that takes either alot of motivation, or discipline.


Well done, and good luck.

[ihrsetrdr]

The sigs will be hard to put down, for me. Remember this thread (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=431996)? The doctor gave me a little advise- just take away 1 sig/day from a pack(2 the second day, 3 the 3rd day etc) until you have no more butts to smoke. :eek: I won't be attempting the tobbaco ban for a couple months, but for sure before T'giving.


AC, I bet that yard light eats healthy; probably a minimum of 175 watts? I use motion sensing outdoor lights, which I think are more security functional than a constantly lit fixture. When one of the motion sensing lights come on, it grabs your attention.

Solar powered rigs? If you need some extra PSU's to experiment with, I have several that are in good condition that I'm not ever going to use; I'll send them to you sans frais.

sno, solar is really pricey; $15k to $30k. Wind generation isn't much better.

There in Atlanta, don't you get your power from that nuke plant over by Hartwell? Duke Energy?

[hallen]

These folks have a catalog with lots of solar info/products.

http://www.gaiam.com/retail/gai_content/learn/gai_learnCategory.asp?category%5Fid=168

Solar looks to be about to arrive. Especially when the Power companies start to imitate the oil companies.

For your cig habit you can't light a wet cigarette so whenever you hold one or a pack make them wet. Pretty soon you'll stop buying them.

[King Warg²]

hmm...solar...i could have all kinds of fun designing circuitry for a solar generator that charges / provides power by day and runs off stored power by night...

[ihrsetrdr]

Great link hallen, here's another link also: TheEnergyStore (http://home.altenergystore.com/).


For your cig habit you can't light a wet cigarette so whenever you hold one or a pack make them wet. Pretty soon you'll stop buying them.

Knowing me, I'd just stop making them wet. ;)

[iceage]

This thing is a beaut. Ah, Cogeneration....if you were only cheaper.....:D

http://www.microturbine.com/index.cfm

[AlabamaCajun]

Yes that yard light is sucking more than the rating I'm sure. As for the cigs it's definitly hard to quit. Some of the people I know banded smoking in their own house and cars. This limited the times they smoked. I wish we could smoke a couple a day and not get hooked but they make you crave them more even with a one. Take your time and make it a long term goal.
Thanks for the offer on the PSU, I have 2 sitting idle at the moment that were freebes so I've got that covered. The thing is they are designed to run on AC, if I do this then I will be using DC. It might be possible to ghetto one to run at 20-24V but I didn't want to get into too much experimenting. Then again, that might be the answer. If I hotwire directly into the dc circuits would have the three regulators I need.

[AlabamaCajun]

This thing is a beaut. Ah, Cogeneration....if you were only cheaper.....:D

http://www.microturbine.com/index.cfm
Sweet, I was on an electric companies grid that used them. They were running them on lignen, a resin fuel byproduct from paper and wood production. We have several Hydro plants and nukers here in the southeast. For the most part power is available. If Las Vegas converted all of it's lights to LEDs, I think the west cost could solve at least some of it's evergy needs. I have a feeling that all of the power generated at hoover is just used to light the strips in Vegas.

[TollhouseFrank]

how did i do it? I cut it down till i would smoke every other day. then every 3rd day. then every 4th... every 5th.... every 6th.... every 7th... etc.... till i no longer felt the need....

sure, i still smoke a stoagie every now and then.... (el cheapo's.... can't afford the good stuff right now)...... but it's not like my pack a day habit i had during college...

[ThePCGuy]

Congrats ihrsetrdr. I don't have a vice with alcohol or smoking, however I like to eat :). I've slowly been coming down, but it'll take awhile. Eitherway, for all of you alt. energy junkies, check out, http://www.otherpower.com. At the bottom of the page there are links to a few setups involving home-made wind generators, and solar systems. Neat stuff.

- Jim

[Silver]

Been looking at solar/wind some myself. Unfortunately the house is surrounded by trees and not much wind to speak of short of a 100 foot tower. Working on the smoking as well. Hoping that changing the farm over to core duo will help the situation some. Farm is down for the summer due to the 50% summer rate increase. Bill went from $230 to $86. Am anxious to get them up again but need the time to upgrade the ten mobo case and for the winter rates to come back.

[Joeteck]

Woah! Solar?! You got a linky of some sort on exactly how to do this? I'll cover my roof with panels.


WAY to expensive. I've already looked into it.

You need to buy high power and effient panels. Cost around $1000 each, for 208 watts of output. These are SHARP panels. A standard house hold has 100AMP service. thats 12,000 watts of power.

100 AMP x 120 Volts = 12,000 WATTS.

Each panel produces 208 Watts. To make 12K watts, you'll need 58 panels. Most setups are do about 5K watts. 28 panels @ 208 watts = 5824 watts DC. Once it goes through the converter, you loose about 800Watts. So 5K is usable.

Not many poeple use 100Amps all at once, which is why the 5K solution will work.

But at a price. 28 x $1000 = $28,000, plus the Inverter, and the crossover box to your main panel.

[sno.lcn]

So it would take how long to start actually saving money?:rolleyes:
Thanks for the info.

[Oric]

Well if it saves you $200 a month, then it would pay for it's self in about 10 years.

At this point I am going to throw out a "what if".

What if a person was to do an alt. energy conversion on just the room where the farm resides? Also what if a person was to do a combo of wind and solar on said room?

[WarriorII]

If, it floated, then said person could call it a boat. :p

[ihrsetrdr]

Well if it saves you $200 a month, then it would pay for it's self in about 10 years.

At this point I am going to throw out a "what if".

What if a person was to do an alt. energy conversion on just the room where the farm resides? Also what if a person was to do a combo of wind and solar on said room?

That could be less expensive per kw/hr produced, mainly because it would be home-built rather than installed by a contractor. Also, there wouldn't be the expensive equipment for an interface with the electric company.

I'm still very much interested to see how AlabamaCajun's project shapes up.

[Joeteck]

That could be less expensive per kw/hr produced, mainly because it would be home-built rather than installed by a contractor. Also, there wouldn't be the expensive equipment for an interface with the electric company.

I'm still very much interested to see how AlabamaCajun's project shapes up.


I do know that most of the solar installs, the meter spins backwards...

EDIT: Here is the panel (http://solar.sharpusa.com/files/sol_dow_208W_SS.pdf) I was talking about a few posts back.

[ihrsetrdr]

Home Energy Magazine (http://www.homepower.com/) is an interesting source for basic co-generation information. I shall continue searching for additional information and learning sources until the day that I get a solar or wind system installed.

It's time to change the way I do business; not only for my personal health(ie: no smoke/no drink/lose weight etc) but because of the fact that electricity demand will outstrip any increase in production, especially here in California. The only possible scenario where-by electrical production has a chance of keeping up with demand, is if "the BIG one"(earthquake) hits, and causes such devastation so as to cause large scale migration from California. Even then, having a source of electric supply independent of the Grid would be most advantageous.