On Thursday 24 April 2008, koder wrote: > > Recreational vehicles and yachts use solar panels to power some decently > sized storage batteries. If you put up enough of them you can run a > computer system. batteries are all fine and good, but require frequent replacement (every 1-2 years down here in the desert), and have hazardous materials in large quantities.
> > Unfortunately the cost of solar is escalating. My original system cost > under a thousand dollars. Today it would probably be twice that. yep. that makes it harder for those on a fixed income to get anything worthwhile out of such systems as well (cost higher than cash available).I am sure I could build a full sized panel over time (by adding smaller modules to it). > > Of course when I build the next one I will ask it to do more with the > additional expense. > > My wish list consists of more panels, bigger batteries, and a wind > powered generator for cloudy days. same here, except I would like to build all my stuff from easily available materials. call it a poor man's energy policy. :) > > There are a number of sites in the net dealing with the topic of solar > direct to batteries. They are far from complete. You will have to > supplement with written material. I'm already getting that and worse. a lot of the diagrams online for any fuel cell are of the simple overlay type that are meaningless to those of us who want to build such a unit. so far, I have found NO technical diagrams or even any materials lists for something as simple as a PEM fuel cell. Now I have found plenty of places that sell individual parts for such (such as the backing plates, the PEM material itself and the field flow plates). > > This is some different from the fuel cell systems you asked about, but > the fuel cells are using battery and solar and adding in the > inefficiency of the hydrogen. The hydrogen is great for energy > containment and transportation such as powering your car, but the > equipment is a bit pricey. actually, from my reading, hydrogen is very efficient (unless you "burn" it in a system similar to internal combustion engines, then you are stuck with the waste heat, mechanical losses, etc). Direct conversion to electricity is 5-6X more efficient at a minimum (unless you are having to convert carbon heavy fuels using a reformer, then it drops below 50%). > > Cost will be directly related to how much electric you intend to use and > store. You can start with part of it and expand as budget, knowledge and > goals expand. well, from what I have been able to determine, one can get (from a properly designed fuel cell) approximately 3 watts/cm^2 of fuel cell surface area. that means that you don't need something monstrous to power a house. a fuel cell stack made up of plates 10x10 cm 10 cm deep will give you roughly 3 KW of usable energy. This is not theoretical, its the same type of units they use on the space shuttle. > > If you want to go further let me know. There are several people in the > area working on this. I definitely do. hey, if it means getting a paying job to do this as well, I'm all in! --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
