On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 7:37 AM, Erik Christiansen <dva...@internode.on.net>wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 11:29:23AM -0600, Jon Elson wrote: > > > > > Yes, but if you are 20 miles from the grid, and the only person out > > there who wants to hook up, the power company will usually charge you > > a HUGE fee, well over $10K to bring out the lines. If you are really > > lucky, they might be planning on bringing power out your way, so you > > should always ask, but the answer may not be pleasing. > > When we last asked, about 20 years ago, it was about $60k to connect out > on the farm, and about 20 acres of forest would have to be bulldozed for > the line. Prices aren't likely to have fallen much, and now we have to > plant 10 trees for every one we 'doze. > > > I agree, running a Diesel generator 24/7 is totally insane, and the > > off-grid home power people have all sorts of solutions for this. > > Yeah. There's plenty to do outside, so who needs power until dark? > With the help of a full-sized gas refrigerator, that works for us. > In the evening we arc up the genny. > > > For low-power appliances like digital alarm clocks, they have 12 V DC > > versions with crystal oscillators for RV use, and LED lighting would > > be the best thing to get, and run off 12 V power, too. You could run > > the rest of the place off batteries and an inverter, and fire up the > > generator once a day to charge the batteries. Get solar panels to > > charge the batteries for days when the machine shop is not being used. > > Get a Beagle Board and car-type LCD screen for you general purpose > > computer, the Beagle only draws 3 W and the 12 V LCDs take maybe 8 W > > when the backlight is on. The Beagle can't run EMC2 just yet, but > > eventually there will be a real time package for it. > > If we still lived out there the whole time, I'd do much of that. (And > get new deep cycle batteries for the 24v [1] inverter.) But we lost > between 600 and 700 large trees in the storms in 2006. That's several > thousand tonnes of hardwood, which will rot away in 50 years or so. > Burning fossil fuel in the petrol generator isn't as appealing as a > steam engine fooshing away quietly, with some boiler management > electronics, and an automatic stoker. (It's just that boilers are a bit > dangerous, unless you go for a monotube.) > > Erik > > [1] A 48v sinewave inverter would be better, but expensive. > (Even at 24v, the DC draw is hefty when you pull a few amps of 240v) > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Increase Visibility of Your 3D Game App & Earn a Chance To Win $500! > Tap into the largest installed PC base & get more eyes on your game by > optimizing for Intel(R) Graphics Technology. Get started today with the > Intel(R) Software Partner Program. Five $500 cash prizes are up for grabs. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/intelisp-dev2dev > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > Hi to All who responded or were interested: It will totally amazing at the number of structures that will be off the grid over the next decade. More to come next year. Thanks Don ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Increase Visibility of Your 3D Game App & Earn a Chance To Win $500! Tap into the largest installed PC base & get more eyes on your game by optimizing for Intel(R) Graphics Technology. Get started today with the Intel(R) Software Partner Program. Five $500 cash prizes are up for grabs. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intelisp-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
