Like a windmill or solar panels? Something even cooler?

 

well... I'm not very efficient, but I run on pasta. Around 200 Watts for a couple of hours until I overheat.

I read today that Lance Armstrong puts out 400 Watts for prolonged periods.

 

I have a solar panel. Just a 15 watt one made by ICP Global. It is connected to some lead-acid batteries that are also tied into my server's UPS. The power hardly ever goes out here, but when it does it sure is nice to be able to keep the essentials operating.

 

I don't actually have this (yet) but I've drawn up detailed plans for an emergency shelter for our family to be used in case of storm or nuclear fallout.

It's based largly on 1960's DOE specifications with some updated modifications.
One of its features is a communication package of tube and solid state receivers and other comm devices.
In case of extended power loss, these along with other low voltage devices would be powered by 2 lead-acid (car) batteries that are separated from the main shelter.

Power for the batteries in the case of extended mains outage is supplied by an in-shelter portable pedal powered generator.

That would be our renewable power source. Feet power. Hope we'd never use it.
We hope to begin construction in 2007.

 

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I've got dialup so I had a friend download your movie.

It took him forever to remember to do it but he finally did. He is delivering it to me today (Sat) after he gets done working night shift.

 

I'm not sure what you are really looking for, but my electricity provider is Green Mountain Energy, I'm on the 100% renewable plan, which currently in TX comes from wind farms in West TX, but GME is also working on a solar plant in TX.

 

You actually don't want to use car batteries. At the very least you should use sealed, deep-cycle marine batteries, but best would just be dedicated standby power batteries like Hawker Genesis batteries. Here's a good one in terms of cost per KW/h:

Genesis 70Ah battery

$155/ea if you buy at least 2, and according to the spec sheet, a single battery can provide 86 watts of power for about 10 hours, which is a lot of power when you're talking about low-draw items in an emergency situation. They list as doing 47 watts for 20 hours, so with two in parallel, that means you could have a constant draw around 40 watts or so for probably a good 48 hours solid. They also have an extremely long float charge storage life - 10 to 15 years depending on temperature according to the specification document.

 

Sorry Lakedude. I've cleared up my PM box.

 

My friend came over to drop off the video and forgot to bring it! He is getting back from out of town soon, maybe then I can finally see the video.

I'm not sure what I'm looking for. The renewable plan sounds cool. I live on a hydro lake but only 3% of my electricity come from hydro power.

It would be cool to start a "windmill" community with a bunch of houses powered mostly by one big windmill.

 

"It would be cool to start a "windmill" community with a bunch of houses powered mostly by one big windmill."

It sure would. Unfortunately, no community wind projects exist in the US, due to regulatory, financial, and local power companies' barriers to entry.

Feel free to PM me if you are interested in the sordid details. I'm not necessarily pessimistic about ground-root activism in wind-farming, but in the US a bit more inventivness is needed to circumvent the status-quo.