Hams living the good life with Renewable Energy

[9M6MU]

Hi all, We are interested to share ideas and experiences with hams who by choice are living the good life.. away from the grid and enjoying a lifestyle closely interfaced with nature and self sufficiency concepts.

My wife 9M6DU and I have almost completed our remote Solar power enabled home and are now keen to share the experiences and challenges as well as the frustrations in creating a different kind of lifestyle..

Issues we are concerned with range from managing and exploring new alternative power/ energy sources, Net access and home brew projects. We love Recycling programs that are meaningful and contribute to the fun and adventure we have associated with our move back to the land .

Please feel free to visit our website at http://www.eagleplateau.co.nr

Looking foward to see you down the log..

73 de Alfons 9M6MU
Our Remote home Website (http://www.eagleplateau.co.nr)

[n6hcm]

a noble idea ... music that starts when you load the page is a total turnoff, tho.

[9M6MU]

Thanks.. have noted your comments.. and appreciate your thoughts ;)

[kl7aj]

Greetings, Alfons. Well, I do have a battery backup for my shack, and I do occasionally, "pull the plug" so I can exercise the thing....also gives me a chance to operate with no electrical noise, when the XYL isn't around! However, we don't have a lot of sunlight in the winter here to run solar panels. I guess I could put a thermocouple on my wood stove.....or a steam generator...HI!

73,

eric

[wr8y]

Do you air condition with solar energy? Or is Air Conditioning even needed over there? I am unsure of the weather you experience, but I DO get the idea that you get plenty of sunshine!

[9M6MU]

Hi eric,

We have looked at some interesting options too like a hydrogen fuel cell .. a few ham friends have demonstrated such a possibility at one convention. But right now we have a reasonable amount of power from our solar array.. 21 Siemens M55 53 Watts Modules feeding 24 Volts into a heart interface 24/240VAC power inverter. The Battery Bank is YUASA 2 Volts Tubular type stationary Batteries wired in a series parallel configuration. Its quite a sight ;)

But the fun part is just knowing you are running from a nice quiet power source.. and yes we do have a lot of sunshine here..

Btw, Airconditioning is not needed.. its nice and cool ;)

Our current activities are focussed on planting lots of tropical fruit trees, flowers and edibile amd medicinal herbs ..

de

Alfons and Doris

[W7MZV]

I ran on to this video called, "Burning saltwater to creat Combustion." It looked interesting. I have check to see if truthorfiction.com had anything on it. They didn't. You hams might be interested if it's not a hoax. Check it out at: May42007WKYCCleveland.wmv
Val Smith W7MZV

[W7MZV]

I ran on to this video called, "Burning saltwater to creat Combustion." It looked interesting. I have checked to see if truthorfiction.com had anything on it. They didn't. You hams might be interested if it's not a hoax. Check it out at: May42007WKYCCleveland.wmv
Val Smith W7MZV

[wr8y]

Quote[/b] (W7MZV @ Aug. 13 2007,22:16)]I ran on to this video called, "Burning saltwater to creat Combustion." It looked interesting. You hams might be interested if it's not a hoax.
It's a hoax.

[9M6MU]

I managed to download the salt water burner and watched the video clip. It must be an elaborate hoax if it is.. but if it is real then we probably have found something the world really needs .. power from salt water..;)

Back at our little self sufficiency project, we try to do our part by building small and portable power packs using retired 12 V UPS sealed gel battery from discarded computer related applications. Add some items like DC cigarrete light sockets for outputs connectors and meters from the junk box and we have a very useful accessory for lights, pumps, charging cell phones as well as powering our standby 2 meter rigs.

The whole unit is then conveniently housed in a discarded plastic gallon container which has a nice handle for portability.

We keep the unit charged using solar PV.. of course .. but you can also bring it along in your vehicle and charge from the cigarette outlet.. And you can bring it into the house and use normal household AC to charge the homebrew 12V portapack ;)

This is a fun project that is great for any ham who enjoys homebrewing.. Its very flexible and if you have a well stocked Ham junk box.. you should be able to get this done easily and at no cost at all.. yes free power ;)

[n3gad]

good to hear other hams are living off-grid. i am starting my 11th year, loving it. its good to know everything will work, even when the grid goes down. since i am not connected, i am the last to know..

chris/N3GAD
www.greenmountainsolar.com

[9M6MU]

Hi Chris,

I had a quick look at your site and I am very impressed ! You have obviously been enjoying renewable energy for a while.. Thanks for sharing your experiences via your articles.

Alfons / 9M6MU

[9M6MU]

Does anyone else have any more information about the power from burning salt water ? or is that really a hoax?

[9M6MU]

Hi all, Looking for hams out there that are going to or already living with renewable energy for their homes or shack.

I am very keen to share lessons gained from specific areas like maintenance of deep cycle storage batteries, controllers and other sources of renewable energy.

Our current battery storage has been reconfigured for 24 Volts DC to accomodate for input Voltage of a new Heart Power Inverter but I do not have a 24V Controller so I use the very basic one available.. manual.. 6am morning our caretaker turn the switch on and 6pm he turns it off to avoid any current backflow.

I am building a relay based controller but for the time being the manual system seems to be working well .
you can view the system at our website our yuwie dot com slash suria

[w6reh]

http://www.pacwind.net/

Wind Power

[9M6MU]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the inputs .. appreciate them all.

I am currently building a wind generator with recycled parts but it will be more than an evening or weekend project as I am also in between putting up some new antennas.

Also wind speed is not that regular or consistent where we are. I will be very interested to share with anyone reading this on a model/design that suits slower breeze ;)

The ultimate plan is to integrate power generation from various renewable energy sources.. and consistent with the low budget available right now. Our primary renewable energy source right now is still Photovoltaics. and you can view them at http://www.yuwie.com/suria

I took my digital multimeter out last week and tested voltage differentials on several live softwood trees around the area and got some interesting readings !

Anyway.. more news when i get some led lighted perhaps.