I am Totally "Green"

[Dave Smith]

Hey There
Alternative power has always tickled my imagination but have never really had time to pursue it. Now I do however I don't really know where to start. I have a Handyman Business & can fix, build virtually anything. Any ideas?

[Dale Sheler]

A little information would be nice, do you live in an apartment? Single family urban? Or in the country with room for a wind tower or possibly a stream for hydro?

[Dave Smith]

Dale
Thanks for replying. We live in an old house in the old village of Waterdown. It's a frame house & actually its in a pittiful location as far as access to wind or sun. We are surrounded by massive old walnut trees.,,,,,,,, Right now, I'm more interested in knowledge. My long range plans are to sell & build an " off the Grid " home myself.

[Ralph Day]

Bear in mind that off grid can cost a lot of money. If you're building in a location where it costs an exhorbitant amount of dollars to bring utility power to your site then off grid is the answer. However, where you'd be paying 15cents per kwhr utility you'd be spending $1-$2 per kwhr off grid. Been there, done that.

There's lots of construction threads on this forum to go along with the solar/wind/hydro/balance of systems threads to give you an idea of what's involved.

New construction is a great way to start with the lowest power consumption possible. 3kwhr per day is not impossible to acheive, depending on your needs and wants. (needs...light,water, heat, refrigeration...wants, big screen tv, garage door opener, air conditioning etc etc).

If you're determined to build off grid then you have a much larger selection of possible building sites away from Hydro One, land being cheaper away from towns and cities...less ameneities and less taxes. Of course, as close as you are to Hamilton will make that a challenge.

Welcome to the forum...you just need to change your ''handle'' to your real name as per the forum rules.

Ralph

[Dave Smith]

OK
First,,,,How do I change my Handle?
I;ve often wondered why we don't harness the wasted power from our vehicles. Most of us have to drive ridiculous amounts to do virtually everything these days. We normally drive alone so why can't we pack extra batteries in our trunks and some kind of wind turbine onto our vehicles. When you got home you could just plug the car to the house to transfer the power back.
Please excuse me,,,,,my typing is terrible & it is quite a chore to post anything so most posts are short & lacking detail.

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Smitty,

I've sent you a PM (=private message) regarding the name/handle change.

As to saving power while driving: Bolting anything onto your car to generate/store energy will also add to the fuel use. Since nothing is 100% efficient you will in fact spend more energy to create that additional electricity than you get back.

There's a simple solution to making cars more fuel efficient, but in some parts of the world I'll be called a heretic for suggesting it: Just make fuel $10/gallon (or more). You'd be surprised how quickly we had cars that do 70+ miles/gallon, and how suddenly we can do with a lot less driving.

-RoB-

[Penny Walters]

Hey guys i noticed you were all taking about being fuel efficent, and how to get that engine to travel further for less. Well I would say the best thing to do is to definitley remove any excess weight that you may have lying in the boot of your car. Secondly using bio fuel, this will reduce your expenditure on fuel and it also burn cleaner that petrol. Therefore your not only saving money but your also helping environment; its a win win !

[Dave Turpin]

If I won the lottery I would build an Earthship. Check them out. Use almost no power at all.

For your current house, though, probably the best thing you could do would be to get a solar audit/quote. Most companies will do it for free, and at least you will know IF your house can possibly go solar economically.

I got it done, and unfortunately there was just no way to put enough panels on my weirdly-shaped roof to make it worthwhile. It would have cost $30,000 to put 4kW up there. Wish I had a south facing gable roof!

In any case, trees can be trimmed.