Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

There is likely to be a major war before too long. which will start in the middle east.

This will drive many of the powerdown scenarios mentioned here.

I guess my take is that as a nation Australia needs policies which are more directed towards self reliance and less towards dependance on others.

It wont prevent conflict, but it will make hard times significantly easier.

We are in are potentially in a very good position to do this, in relation to transport fuels and also electric power, but it does seem as if we are wasting our opportunities to do so.

There is an obsession with energy policies that favour existing industry structures and involve other inputs, like mining - to make thrid parties wealthy when really we should be doing things differently.

a national policy involving :

the building of solar power energy utilities,

fitting of domestic solar solar power on rooftops

retrofitting of existing infrastructure with more efficient ways of doing the same thing - such as public digital lighting

all need to be embraced as a part of a national energy strategy.

I know of someone who has plans to take a concave mirror or about 1m2 and have it pointing the light into a fibre optic cable. this is then fed directly into the hot water storage system to heat the water. Just a different way to cheaply modify existing gas powered hot water storage systems, without having to plumb in new water pipes from a solar powered system etc.

FJ if that all goes ahead do you rekon that you could get some pic`s of the system . I would like to see how it works and what it looks like

FJ, explain to me how he wants to send heat over fiber optic? The glass contained in fibre optics is an incredible insulator. UV light is essentially blocked because it is attenuated almost completely over a meter or two. Visible light is classified in Fibre Optics as cold light. Shorter wave IR can be transmitted (800-1200 nm) which could account for an increase in temperature however sending a concentrated light source down a fibre optic fibre would only destroy the fibre itself or the insulation. Plus all the heat would dissipate through the fibers as the light propagates down the cable. Unless he is using incredibly thick and insulated fibre optic cable ($$$$) I don't see how it would work.

Although if he can prove me wrong I will be amazed!!!

Bicycles are a viable solution to many transportation problems, especially when coupled with a good public transportation system. Bicycles are the most efficient intracity transportation available (being 5 times more efficient than walking) and mass use would free up a lot of fuel for important things such as construction and heavy transport. How many here use their bike whenever they can?

I moved to our new (old) house a year ago, and have been riding my bike to work 10km away every work day since. I have been quite pleasantly surprised in my improved health and just how quick riding is.

People often claim that such a change would not be practical for reason xyz, yet I was in amsterdam this year and it is remarkable how much you can do with just bikes - for example, tradesmen ride their bikes to work, with nifty toolbarrows on the front.

Recently I implemented a page to compute the effective speed of your car:
http://njhurst.com/~njh/blog/20061123
most of my friend's cars are slower than 20km/hr

great little app.

Doesn't work for tradies where kms driven is sort of linked to $ earnt.

EG, i drive from job to job to job maybe 4 to 6 in a day.

Still, great app.

Steve, yeah it's rather basic, I'm happy to improve it if you can think of how.

At this stage I think our society needs to look at moving commuters off the roads. I agree that many tradesmen need their vans and whatnot, but the majority of people on the road are just travelling to work.

Of course, the less we do now the worse it will be when the shit hits the fan.

You so right there Jaymie
I just bought my 1st House, I though with the 1st Home buyers grant I'll get grid connected solar installed, made enquiries.
Now I could be wrong, but from what understood from the reply they gave me. If I produce more electricity than I use, I get credits against future electricity usage bills, ( no money just credits), But the supply charge still needs to be paid for ( no credits for supply ). SO if I get council approval I'm looking @ Wind raps to run the AP ( lol when I build it)
Cheers
Ron
Sorry off topic from food miles.

ron: I doubt you'll generate enough to make credits. My parents have 1.5kW and even though their meter runs backwards on a good day, on average it's still all downhill. (You could generate considerably more if you were willing to step outside most PV enthusiast's comfort zones by using a tracking water cooled heliostat, but it would be large and complex and require computers and stuff to work)

It's all about cutting out usage. My inlaws had a 1 kw system installed, and at the same time, stopped turning on unnecessary lights etc and have been generating more than they use since.

But you can get that reduction in energy use without buying the 'solar system'. I bet that if you spent as much money on energy efficiency as you would spend on a 1kW array + inverter you would probably make more impact. I have a friend who uses 2kWh a day. That's 80W continuous. Sign up for a 100% wind electricity supply.

A good starting point is the 100Wh / day fridge made using a chest freezer with a 4C thermostat. We light our house with 10W (two well placed 5W compact fluoros) plus task lighting. (Our neighbours use 10 times that in christmas lights

njh, that was kind of my point. The solar system motivated them to stop turning on the lights etc, and has shown them what can be done by doing so. They are now moving house and building, and said they won't do panels again, just doing sloar passive design etc to reduce their usage.

Thats exactly right. I'm lazy in that respect becasue 1KW/H only costs abut 15c

But if every KW/h costs you blood and sweat and you only have a finite number perday due to self sufficiency we'd be amazed how little we need to still have many luxuries.

If i could be bothered i'd give you the specific and latent heat values of water, its huge (actually, i can )

how many people boil a full kettle of water for a cup of coffee? Not me, the jug is filled to about 700ml. It costs me nothing, the water boils quicker

Getting pedantic here, but its all good info to know, it takes 4.1kj/kgof energy to raise the temp of water by 1C but 2,270 Kj/kg to bring it to the boil once its at 100C. In other words if you started with a water temp of 20C and brought it to 99C for your cup of coffee you'd use 7 times less energy than if you brought it to the boil.

The most important thing about this whole deal is what were doing right now , were talking about it, people from across the globe discussing it as citizens of the world looking at what government , science and others are doing were aware of it and each in our own way is doing something about it Power to the People !!!!

Here in Weipa (arrrox 900klm north Cairns) we really get caned on food $50 carton beer $8-$9 box cerial $40 plus for the quick "something for dinner shop for two adults and two devil spawn", highest food prices in Qld apart from Thursday Island.

bloody hell!