Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

most of the time here (I want one, I want one, I want ten...)

I thought a while back of incorporating some small fans (like those small squat hot air extractors on factory roofs) into a house design... unfortunately never got built...

Then recently thought I might try and put to use a couple of roof ventilators ("whirlygigs") to try and trickle charge some batteries...

Research led me to this guy whose system works with virtually no wind (2m/sec) all the way up to typhoon strength.... coincidentally there was a news snippet on ABC today...

Micro Wind Turbines

Think this could have significant implications for household use...

salesman at Jaycar said the only problem people have had is not securing them enough - high wind comes and rips their new wind generator in 2. Concrete the base and conrete the guy wires into the ground.

Ron,
nice to hear you are moving off the grid. As for batteries...has anyone thought about lithium-ion? I use these in my video camera and they are the best I have ever used. Over the years almost all battery types ahve been in the video cameras I have used...sealed lead acid, ni-cad, niMH...but nothing compares to lith-ion. I am wondering about the worth of using a bank of sony batteries in my system II. Not that expensive really ($60-80 each) and 7.2V 19.9Wh. Still havent done the math to know how long this will run pumps though...

"Still haven't done the math to know how long this will run pumps though..."

About 2 hours tops. Going on the fact that 12V pumps will be underpowered. Lithium Ion is fine for camera batteries. But 1. Cost a fortune for serious power. 2. Are VERY bad for the environment. 3. Sony will rip you off!

For cheap battery banks don't look past SLA ~$50 for 12 25AH (300W) My battery bank is 2500 W @ 24V. I have 8 26 AH SLA batteries. When I can afford it I will move up to some better batteries.

Wind power in medium density residential areas is very inefficient unless you can get the generator above all the trees out of the turbulent zone. If I had the room and a long enough pole I would starting making a wind gen tomorrow. Plus getting shire approval would be interesting to say the least.

lead acid as long as they are deep cycle would seem the go! SLA falls under this category i think.

Hey, probably not the best place for this but if people are interested in discussion then i'll move subsequent posts to another thread.

For those that believe peak oil is a reality then do some google in stuff like peak copper and peak aluminium and the like, possibly peak lead too, but not sure?

The lithium batter'es reminded me of this. i can tell you that the price of copper has gone up 500% or more in the past 7 years or so.

Also IF peak oil is a reality then two things will come along with it

1) much higher refining costs for things like laluminium, copper and lead due to increase in energy costs

2) increase in demand for things like lead acid batteries and hence lead etc, etc.

3) add 1 and 2 together an you'll arrive at 3!

Tim, that's exactly why I posted the linked article....

Think this sort of research is not only directed squarely at the problems you indicate ... but would seem to be showing encouraging results....

The more I look the better the figures seem to be .... I'll happily defer to greater expertise though LOL

Steve: Lead acid is fine for small wind or solar farmer (like me) as long as you have a charge controller with equalize function and also get a good desulfator to maintain the batteries. Trick is to keep number in parallel to a minimum.

ROZ:I had tabbed the article, just never got around to reading it... I will do now though thanks. I have wanted to build one for years, I have plans, materials, bearings, magnets all ready to go (somewhere in the shed) just no where to set it up.

I say everyone buy a few kilos of solid copper now. Vacuum seal it and you will be set. Think of every thing you through away that contains an electronic circuit, every battery (that should not go in the bin), every computer, keyboard, mobile phone, dead plug pack, wire and cable. They all contain, copper, aluminum, lead, cadmium, GOLD and nickel that is all going into land fill. It costs more money to salvage, extract and refine these waste metals than it does to mine some more out of open strip mines.

Is 3 somewhere in the ball park of say goodbye to cheap electronics. Or we are all screwed?

I think the European lead free campaign is really making a good effort, banning import of all non lead-free electronic products. LithiumIon can go a long way in the future but disposal and manufacture has a huge toll on the environment.

The techie at solar sales was telling me. I forget the exact reasoning now. That is why most commercial systems use multiple 2V 1000AH batteries in series to make up the 12 or 24 volt then parallel them up to get the desired amp rating. eg. 6 X 2 to get 12 V @ 2000 AH.

In parallel you get a cascade effect where they may not charge or discharge evenly. So any with a slightly higher internal resistance or problems from manufacturing spread, will not charge evenly. Again an equalize function will help in this regard and will even out the cells. Mine does it every month.

Sulfation will occur in all old or poorly maintained batteries. I suppose because car batteries are vented, the electrolyte can escape and requires topping up. But SLA batteries in this application are stationary (crystal don't work loose) and sealed (can top up electrolyte) sulfation can still occur. SLA batteries do not like complete discharges either. Ie run them down flat (<10 V)

NJH: Thanks for picking up on that.... I am starting to get a bit rusty.

Here in the US we seem to be behind on the idea of renewables, like solar and windpower. We are also having problems getting acceptance of tidal and geothermal (naturally occurring hot springs/geysers) being used.

Another thing is each of our fifty states has individual laws concerning "Net Metering". I am not sure if you have that in Australia, but from what I understand it is mandatory in Germany and other European nations. (What net metering involves is whatever electrical energy that you produce in excess of your needs must be bought by the utility company and a credit given to you to offset whatever energy you consume when your system falls short of meeting your needs.) This has encouraged property owners to install systems because they know that they will offset the costs of setting up the system and they will also reduce the need for non-renewable energy and production plants.

In my state net metering is not mandated by state law, so whatever system I was to set up will be for my one uses, and at this time will have no chance of my recouping my investment. The plus side of it is that I can reduce my dependency upon the grid, and decrease my carbon debt. The negative side is most commercially produced systems here are either prohibitively expensive or inadequately small. So that means I will have to use whatever research and local talent I can recruit to assist in putting together a viable system for my use.

We have it over here Moke, but I'm not too sure how viable it works out to be for paying off your alternative power source.. Still every bit helps ..

Earthbound, Like Australia, there are still some places here in the US where you have no grid resources available, so you have resort to using alternative energy. Solar power is very big in those areas that get plenty of days with clear skies, and wind power is catching up, but right now there is no concerted effort here by the government decrease the overall dependence on non-renewable energy sources.

Same as here in Australia Moke... The governement is too concerned about "the jobs that will be lost" if we stop using coal. There's no concept that your just changing industries and instead there will be thousands of new jobs in areas of sustainable energy.. I think in reality it's just pressure from the coal industry..

What can I say, our current President is from Texas!

What can I say, our current priminister is... well, words escape me....