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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 45377 Location: yes
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Slim
Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Posts: 6533 Location: New England (In the US of A)
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 45377 Location: yes
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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jema Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 28098 Location: escaped from Swindon
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Slim
Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Posts: 6533 Location: New England (In the US of A)
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 45377 Location: yes
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Posted: Sun May 14, 23 11:19 am Post subject: |
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wealth is not how much you have but how little you need
that could be applied to energy use as well as the original context
my off grid electric is a few battery banks, some rechargeable "domestic shape" batteries and a folding pv panel, wires and control stuff etc
plenty for coms, light, satnav, low power pootering, camera, odd bits of useful kit and anything that will run on low voltage, preferably around 6v for max efficiency
there are other bits in the leccy bag that broaden the options for off grid and/or improvised usage of leccy
if you need a household or business size back up for stuff with a bigger energy need a car that can double as a battery bank and charge from the premises pv or other supply seems a good idea
a scrapheap challenge option is probably already becoming viable
if a car battery is aged to say 75% original capacity, it is not much use in a car, i would be more than capable as storage for domestic leccy
it might be best to put an old one in a tin shed rather than under the stairs
i know it is old tech and has assorted issues, but wet battery rigs have some good points for static use and robustness
sealed, gel, leisure batteries are ok so long as there is no inversion or transformation needed to feed the load the leccy it eats
match the leccy to the load is the tricky bit when supply, storage and loads are all different voltages and types of electron dance
back to my first bit, low power essentials, everything eats the same sort of food that the kit can easily make and store plenty of |
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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 45389 Location: Essex
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 45377 Location: yes
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Posted: Mon May 15, 23 6:39 am Post subject: |
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Reviews and what is on? not sure how to reference it, but i just saw a "how do they do it?" on quest tv
a ten min section on "how do they keep the power on?"
the answer was "surprisingly in the circumstances"
standard stuff like switching and pump storage were mentioned as just about coping when everything was going well
this is the bit that seems most relevant to this BEV thread
in the north eastern usa there are at least half a dozen "grid" systems they could share and or store leccy more efficiently if they all had the same frequency, grid voltages and phase structures
they dont, so they had built a spinning transformer that can do form as well as voltage depending on the speed of rotation for the conversion required
ummm, messy and it will have considerable energy loss even when it can cope with expected variations between supply and load
there was a chap promoting using cars as the local battery to smooth grid supply to load imbalance
he mentioned inversions in both directions, ie turn most of your leccy into low level waste heat during "storage"
and the 3yr old car battery tech was out of date before he started
for stand alone off grid, the battery unit of a vehicle could be used as a decent power store
as a community resource, i recon the tech of supply, storage and required loads is not suitable at the mo
to put it in a domestic way, i have lots of things that use very similar but slightly different voltages, currents and data but i have many incompatible USB sockets wires and plugs
between those and bike and between both of them and grid there are larger differences of leccy type
if , what is effectively one"urban" area has half a dozen different distribution systems joined up leccy will take more than plugging the car to the mains
hopefully nobody needs to electrocute an elephant to rationalize electrical energy tech for the modern age |
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 45377 Location: yes
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15539
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Posted: Mon May 15, 23 7:09 am Post subject: |
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Slim, in the UK our National Grid is all joined up, but of course the UK is a lot smaller than even some states in the US. It does make sense to link all grid systems together. It was certainly a game changer in the UK.
There was some stuff about flow batteries in one of the articles. It is possible to have holding tanks for the electrolytes separated by a flow battery and the charge can be held for a very long time. There are also batteries based on vanadium that are already in use for medium term storage. Some good news on that front, but as you say Tahir, this sort of thing should have been developed years ago.
We used to get a magazine when we were first married 50 years ago about self sufficiency in most things including electricity and it was talking then about solar roof tiles, which haven't happened yet I don't think.
As for working within your electrical means, we use mainly solar for things like lights, device charging, toilet water pump etc. in the woods, even if it means chasing the sun round a bit sometimes. For heavy loads like the potato bagger or rotary sieve we use for charcoal making we do have to use a diesel generator, but it is not on for very long, so uses very little diesel. |
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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 45389 Location: Essex
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Slim
Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Posts: 6533 Location: New England (In the US of A)
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 45377 Location: yes
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jema Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 28098 Location: escaped from Swindon
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