AE Alternative Energy

[BIGGKIDD]

Anybody into this. I am just learning about it. Where we are going to move in the next year or two its the only option for power. With a wife & two girls electric is a must have.

Solar, wind, hydro are the basic forms of AE I know of. Right now we are producing our own power at camp in lunenburg. Where we plan to build in the future.

More to come.
Larry

[BIGGKIDD]

For starters we wanted to go with Hydroelectric. But our creek probably doesn't lend it self to this system. Here is a pic of our creek.



Ok change that to a short video. That gives you a better idea how the creek runs. This was taken 2 weeks ago. This is one of the wetter times of the year here in VA. We only own a small section of the creek. Out to the center for 80-100 feet in length. So a dam is not an option. There doesn't appear to be enough drop (head) for a run of river system. But then again like I said at the start I am just learning.

We have a start on a power system now. Most of this will move along to our house I hope.

These are the batteries we are running.






We are running 16 of them. Then things are running into a Wagon 5000 / 10000 inverter.





www.donrowe.com/inverters/wagan_5000.html

Here is our charging system at this time. A single 45 Watt kit from Harbor Freight.





www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90599

That takes care of the batteries when we are away. I plan on adding more panels as money allows.

This is what we use to charge the system when we are using it.



Its just a 70 amp GM alternator and a 5.5 Briggs & stratton Eng.

It charges the batteries at least 3 times faster than my regular charger and a generator. We run the charger 4 out of every 24 hours we are there. We are not drawing a lot of power either. Just a dorm fridge, 2 12 V fans and a few Compact Florescent lights. When we start building that will probably go up to 8 hours run time. If I run the charger while working this will help keep from drawing the batteries down to much also.

We are not green people but since this is the only way to have power where we want to live. It looks like we will learn to be green.

Larry

[BIGGKIDD]

I got the power (service) cables in the ground today. For this I had to dig a trench from the building to the camper. I also buried an extra cable set to run 12V DC. We have a few 12V items running. That cheapo inverter seems to work real well.







Thats the direct bury cable. 6666 aluminum. The trench is about 20-24" deep. I did use a old piece of 1.5 PVC to keep from damaging the cable with a weed eater. I put a short piece between the ground and the building and trailer to protect the cables inside. I haven't hooked anything up yet. Thats a rainy day project. Until then we can keep running the 12 gage extension cord.

On another note we only had to run the charger once this weekend. ;D ;D Good news. We got down there Fri. night and ran until this morning and still had 12.5V. We had the fridge running 3 to 5 lights and ran the microwave a few times. I also ran the lower hose heater on my tractor twice for about an hour both times. Thats forgetting that I used my porta band a few times. The batteries said 13.4 when we got there. I did have the 45 watt solar kit from HF on. I leave it hooked up running all the time. I almost didn't recharge the batteries at all. I don't know if the solar kit would have them recharged in a 5 day period or not. But I bet I'll find out before its all said and done.

One thing thats got my curiosity up is I checked the amperage on the solar panel today and its only doing 2 amps. It should be doing 3 amps. I wonder if one of the panels is not working?

Thanks for looking

KIDD

[halifax]

Hey Larry
You must be still busy with the new house still. Took your idea and made the small generator for my place.



I've been using it full time and the solar panel keep everything good when I'm not there. I can run a small refrig, lights, Sat TV, and the laptop all at once!

Had a little luck during the hunting season this year

Have fun on the house

Aubrey