[aprssig] Shack backup power

[Charlie Gallo]

On 6/5/2011 Keith VE7GDH wrote:

> Charles KG2V wrote...

>> Have you actually been following the "known reserves"
>> of Hydrocarbon fuels (particularly Natural Gas)?

> Not at all....snip...

> OK. What do you propose we do after this 4 digit period of
> years has passed by? It won't direct you or me, but I would like
> to think that mankind can keep living on earth up until the time
> that the big bright object in the sky is extinguished. Look at the
> damage we have done in a bit more than 100 years. Just think
> of how much more we can do if there are hydrocarbon reserves
> sufficient to allow us to continue like this for thousands of years.

> With "huge" hydrocarbon reserves or not, would you recommend
> that someone NOT install a grid-tie inverter to help the rest of
> the country out as well as themselves?

> 73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH

Oh, I have NO problem with running any kind of solar power system, I've helped install 3 systems, including an old fashioned hot water system back in the late 1970s, and have worked with various systems.  I've even run the numbers for my house.  Unfortunately where I live (NYC), it doesn't pay with the distinct lack of rebates, where if I lived 2 miles east, it would (Con Ed has NO rebate program, LIPA does, which is why the Home Depots in Nassau have solar power classes, and the ones in NYC don't.)  I also have the disadvantage of a roof that basically has East and West exposures, with East blocked by a hill - can't even grow plants except for extreme shade tollerant.  

I just don't like the "we're gonna run out of energy' tact when it turns out we won't (or at least any time soon, anyway)

I keep trying CFLs - in my OLD house, I think circa 50% of the lamps were CFL, and that was 10 years ago.  There is something about the fixtures (all ceiling cans) that just make them NOT work here - I actually get crazy short lifespans, as in shorter than an incandescent.  I've actually spent quite a bit changing windows, AC units etc to high EER units etc

Thing is, if you are REALLY, and I mean REALLY worried about this, you should be seriously pro modern Nuke designs with modern fuel reprocessing to eliminate the  waste storage issue.  The proliferation issue which caused President Carter to ban reprocessing (and which I belive RR lifted, but) is a 'closing the door after the horse is gone' issue, because we have a lot of 'smaller' states making their own fuel at this point (Read Iran, North Korea, India, Pakistan, etc).  Either that, or be looking at the Thorium cycle

I can see and DO say "Let's try to cut back, look at what it does" without shall we say being Chicken Little, waste, of anything is downright stupid, BUT deciding where to put the most effort shouldn't be a matter of dogma,  but a scientific decision, by EACH small group.  Food stream ETOH is extremely borderline, you can argue it it's a net positive/net negative on the waste/energy front, but we know it has done crazy things to food prices

Grid Tie solar is a fairly GOOD choice in many places, and whoever came up with the idea of doing the systems as grid tie should win some award

Wind, if you are in the right location can be good, but I do tend to worry about the unintended issues of wind disruption (and yes, it's measurable downwind from a big wind farm - hey, the energy comes from somewhere, eh?)

My only point is, saying " but it is our grandchildren
that will see what happens when we "run out of oil". is a mis-statement of the worst kind, that actually undermines a GOOD position, because it makes the argument look like it's based upon false assumptions 

BTW the huge GOOD 'Green' thing about Marcellus shale gas is that there is enough of it (when I say there is a lot of it, I'm NOT kidding), that it has the potential to make burning Natural gas MUCH (and I mean MUCH) less expensive than burning coal (and it's MUCH cleaner), and has the potential to basically shut every coal powered plant in North America in a fairly short period of time.  The DOWN side is that it DOES require Fracking, which is extremely controversial, and in some places it HAS caused issues, but at the same time, they HAVE been doing fracking of oil fields for decades, so it's NOT like an unknown


-- 
73 de KG2V - Charles Gallo
Quality Custom Machine-shop work for the radio amateur (sm)