Alternatives to Electrojug?

[loneranger]

Has anybody had any experience with solar panels i.e. installation, cost etc.etc? Do you know of any companies that spee? Is it possible to run all the energies of a house off solar (5/8 kw)? Not just water heating. All these questions, .........and more!! Anything (generator?) as an alternative to Electrojug?

[huegus]

loneranger said:

Do you know of any companies that spee? Is it possible to run all the energies of a house off solar (5/8 kw)?

Where exactly?

loneranger said:

Is it possible to run all the energies of a house off solar (5/8 kw)?

guess not

[mambo]

Cheapest place to find all that equipment is Italy. Already 10 years ago I once rented an apartment on an island that ran completely on solar energy. It had a small solar panell (perhaps 40 x 40 cm) and during the day it charged the batteries, ran the fridge etc.
During the night we had lights (12 V) in the whole house, they could even run a television on it, but we never tried.
Nowadays solar panels have become more efficient and you could therefore change to solar power.

I know that the prices in Croatia are rediculous, in Italy you can buy the same items for sometimes half the price. I can refer you to an company for electrical supplies, SIME, in Vicenza, Veneto. They will know the producers and will also be able to tell you where you can best buy it. If you bring your Croatian address etc you can buy without IVA..........whether you officially import it then in Croatia is your problem.

[markcognevich]

I live in a small town south of New Orleans Louisian. On the tv the other night it showed two men that were running two houses off of solar panels. They were still hooked up to the power lines. I guess just because if something happened to the solar panels. They said it cost them $10 dollars a month to run the two houses. But here in the US if you produce energy the energy company has to buy it from you. So the power they produced they made a couple of hundred dollars. So yes you can run a house on solar power.

[gmh]

that's right, you can make enough electricity via solar panels that you can actually sell it back to the main grid. Several people in austrlalia do this. The initial set up costs are high, but the long term savings make it qhite viable. You can also use wind generators and there are these little generators that go in your plumbing, so that everytime water moves through your pipes, you make electricity.
The better option here would be to buy a donkey and get it to walk around in circles all day long to run a generator.

[davidzg]

gav said:

that's right, you can make enough electricity via solar panels that you can actually sell it back to the main grid. Several people in austrlalia do this. The initial set up costs are high, but the long term savings make it qhite viable. You can also use wind generators and there are these little generators that go in your plumbing, so that everytime water moves through your pipes, you make electricity.
The better option here would be to buy a donkey and get it to walk around in circles all day long to run a generator.

I'm not an expert on this subject and I know direct sunlight is not needed for these panels to "generate" as it were. I would suggest that the weather in Croatia would not be as good as Australia for such schemes. Especially not in Zagreb, seems like the summer finished before it started.

[gmh]

true australia has more sun, but you just get more panels if you have less sun. I was away for the most of summer, as I here it, it was pretty crappy all over the southern regions of europe. September then is set to be hot and sunny extending in through mid october by my amateur forcasting.
The donkey is still the way to go.

[stephania]

how cruel!

[gavul]

the weather forecast or the donkey thing?

[valiant]

i have been thinking about making a wind generator. there is usually some wind blowing in dalmatia thats probably enough to chgarge the batteries. electricity here is tooooo expensive. and you need a day off work to bay bills here. and my telephone was recently cut off cos i havent been paying bills. every time i tried using the phone..some recorded message tels me to dial a o800 "free" number ..hahahahhahahaha. but i cant from my phone. i guess im connected to the recorded message but i cant use the "free" number. hahahahha. weird. as eff. so i sent a fax with my last four payments 2 days agofrom the post office9) ...as required by the lazy buggers. and still they havent connected my telephone. the people that work behiond the bench at electra are idiots too . lazy and you do everything fo rthem. my dad has been yelled at there for not knowing what forms to fill . but they didnt know that my dads from australia and that he turns absolutely psycho in situations like these. so he has gon psycho there making the ladys behing the bench wish they hadent ever got a job there ... trough their connections. i saw a lady that works at the local post office go crazy cos she had to help a customer with some paperwork. the lady behind the bench didnt want to help her and was going on about how her health is deteriorating because of this customers quiries. bloody hell. i know of an aussie girl who got a job a few years ago at splitska banka in split. she was freaking out how the tellers were having coffees while customers were waiting in line. anyway...as you can imagine. nobody listened to her. she was forced to quit her job.

[gmh]

I'll stick to the elctriclal side of your post valiant.
It's easy enough to make your own small wind generator to charge some 12volt batteries.
You get yourself a car alternator(generator) from your local wreckers or flea market. Then find yourself some fan blades, either from a ventilator or the cooling fan from a car. Aluminium or plastic would be preferable. The alternator should already have a belt wheel attached to the rotating part, so then it's a matter of centrally attaching the blades to the wheel. You'll want to make some kind of water proof cover for it to protect it from the elements a bit.Most likely you could adapt a plastic bucket.
You're also going to want a big fin tail thingy attached to it on the opposite side to the fan, and some kind of swiveling mechanism, so it can always turn to face the wind.I wouldn't recomend 360 degree rotation as it is quite hard to get a swivel join for the electrical wires, and you want to avoid getting the wires all twisted. You mount the whole thing up on a bloody long pole and Bobs your uncle. The thing with 12 volt is that it disipates quickly over distance, so the thicker the cabling(higher amperage rating) the better. Probably you could just get a 60amp truck battery, because you're not likely to be able to run anything but lights from the power you could generate. Flouresent lights use less power, but those little 12volt halogen lights that are popular these days are ok.
To suppliment the power on days of low or no wind, you may want to rig up an old exercise bike with a simlar system, only it's your pedalling that makes the power.
As a disclaimer, I should say that I've never tried this, but in theory it should be a goer.
You can get a device that fits inline with your water and waste water pipes so when ever there is water flowing, you create a little power. Every little bit helps.
If you need any other elctrical advice, feel free to contact me. It's what I would have been doing if I hadn't become a street performer.

[Graham - Bosmere]

Gav, I am not sure that you would get the gearing set to produce a sufficient output from a car alternator. I have a wind generator for use in the UK and it only produces enough to trickle charge a battery and it is certainly not enough if the battery is going to be deep cycled on a regular basis. Photovoltaic tends to have better outputs on a domestic/leisure scale but it can be expensive if you want to produce large amounts of power. The last time I checked it worked out at GBP15000 approx to install a system capable of outputing one unit (kWhr) in sunlight. It would probably be a little more efficient in Croatia, but the photovoltaic cells start to loose efficiency once they get hot. The best return on investment has always been to spend the money on reducing consumption rather than generating your own power. Mini hep schemes are supposed to be quite good but I am not sure about the costings of these and the legality of installing them without HR government permission.

[gmh]

You could well be right about that Graham. From memory, I think the alternator in my truck gives out 13 volts at about 1.4 amps at idle speed.
If there was wind where I live, I'd give it a go just for fun.