Posts Tagged ‘Power’

After reading this article at EcoGeek.com about Sapphire Energy, I did a little research on algae-to-oil and what I found was that the industry had two problems to tackle:
1) Competitive algae.  When using open tanks, naturally occurring algae competes for resources and space.
2) Getting the oil out of the algae.  It has to be heated [...]

Brain-storming is where you list any idea that comes to mind, no matter how wild or insane it appears.
Here are a few alternative power ideas that we came up with, that now do not appear to be quite that far off:
1. Store lightning. Two problems, you’d have to control the lightning strike and then [...]

I wrote an article for GroovyGreen.com about 30 used greenhouse panels I picked up last weekend. I got a phenomenal price, all 30 for $50.They are 4 feet x 8 feet and normally sell for about $40 each.
Read the rest of the story here.

Judy of the Woods has instructions for these fantastic looking vegetable oil lamps.
Judy used wire, wick, vegetable oil, a container and hand tools to make these oil lamps.
She lists some advantages of oil lamps:

very cheap to run – can even burn used cooking oil
the fumes are less toxic than those of paraffin candles or mineral [...]

An article on AC vs DC on Treehugger.com sparked some interesting comments…
This comment especially caught my attention. In it, the commenter mdpd looks at some basic electrical calculations to show why we use high voltage AC to distribute current around the nation.
The short answer is this: We transmit electricity at high-voltages because [...]

AutoBlog and Engadget are both running stories on the Chevy Volt. What once was only a concept car, is now actually going into the production pipeline, according to the AutoBlog article.

(photo from AutoBlog)
The Chevy Volt will be designed in two versions, one fuel cell and one a series hybrid. The hybrid sounds [...]

Wind power. I’ve been looking at wind turbines and there are some great ideas out there.
Here is a 17 foot, 1.5kw home built unit. It looks great! There is also a 14 foot version. Amazon.com has these two commercial units: 900 watts and 400 watts.
Almost every wind turbine I’ve seen has [...]

As we are heating more and more with wood I have often wondered if it really makes sense. Am I really using less fuel or am I just fooling myself?
I have to burn gas to run the chain saw and we use electricity to run fans to blow the heat around the house.
Also, I [...]

When we purchased our home in 2002, it came with a wood stove. Not a small one either, a massive hunk of iron, nearly 100 years old that had cooked countless meals.
Our first year in the house, we used it off and on, more for entertainment than real heat. We even cooked a [...]