An Engineer's View

The desire to be green exists in most of us I am sure. However, not all of us have cash on hand to “contribute” to the solar industry. What follows is the analysis of one family’s planning to use free solar energy without breaking the bank.

Preface:

My wife thinks I am a greeny weeny in my quest to harness the free energy from that big star out there. I say I am just trying to use Star Power. I like that name better than Solar Energy.

When you shop for a PV Solar Grid Tie inverter you are well advised to ensure the unit complies not only with UL testing, but also passes some form of Part 15 Class B test.

This gives you the best chance of not corrupting the communication ability of a licensed communications service such as FEMA and even Amateur Radio.

Even with Part 15 compliance there is a bit of risk involved with installing DC to AC inverters as they are inherently very noisy in radio communication bands. The better ones do their job and do it quietly.

This following is a myth.

“In electronics, a jack is a female part into which one inserts a plug, the male part.”

While often the case, the real definition is the jack is the more fixed of a connector pair and the plug is the less fixed connector of the same pair. Where two connectors are neither less or more fixed with respect to each other, both are a plug.

This was quite sensibly defined most recently in the IEEE-200-1975 standard. This standard was renewed in the 1980s and withdrawn in the 1990s. Even so it and IEEE-315-1975 form the basis on how to create reference designators in and around electrical equipment.

I was talking with a friend of mine who specifies battery technologies for a living. Our conversation drifted to the topic of electric vehicles and, more specifically, the batteries for them.

I suggested the idea that many times the good old lead acid battery is hard to beat for many applications, even ones with severe weight requirements because:

• Joule for joule they are heavier than newer battery types include Lithium chemistry variants, but they are not an order of magnitude heavier
• Most everyone knows how to deal with a lead acid battery

Recently my interests have turned again to alternative energy sources. Whenever I do this, I always find myself looking at the big picture of every energy sub-topic including sources, transmission and use.

For example…

Hybrid automobiles seem to be an interesting idea initially. However, if you take a step back and look at the entire energy equation you begin to see they don’t provide a benefit worth the extra costs frequently paid for the hybrid option. This benefit changes, of course, with the price of fuel, but generally, the market seems to price up the very benefit they claim to provide. We will examine more of this topic in another post. For now the point is the term “Hybrid Car” seems to be just a term the owner can brag about – even if the real benefit is not really there.

Recently I turned my attention to alternative energy including solar, wind and hydro.

I gave no hydro possibility, but still researched some of the offerings since many of the techniques apply to wind also.

This leaves solar and wind as possible sources of energy.

Solar can be further split into two categories: thermal and photovoltaic.

In this post I will summarize the findings applicable to my own situation.

SOLAR THERMAL

If you have an old fashioned open fireplace and have always wondered “there has got to be a better way to ‘do’ fire” here is your answer.

While doing research for a new front loader clothes washing machine, my wife and I looked closely at the offerings manufactured by LG. We saw models at Sears and Home Depot. The models and their features are very nice.

While at Home Depot we asked about differences between all the various models including LG. The saleslady spoke about this and that, but was particularly careful to understand where we would be placing the new clothes washer and dryer in our home.

My family and I stopped by Sears and Home Depot after Church this morning to take another look at front loader clothes washing machines. Our current top loader won’t rinse well and both my wife and I consider the front loader method superior to the top load for a variety of reasons which some may find debatable. That’s not the point of this post, however.

All the front loader clothes washer offerings from Whirlpool (Duet), LG, Kenmore, etc. have a companion dryer to match the style. Of course my wife is all over that and desires both a new washer and dryer so they will “match.” I just want to replace the broken appliance and get the washer.

I ordered a PowerCost Meter from Blueline Innovations in an effort to better demonstrate to my family the overall power consumption of everyday things in a home.

The hope is by seeing the cost per hour as things are turn on and off, increased awareness will suggest to turn things off. That’s the hope of the Power Cost meter it seems.

Please understand this meter does not save you any money on your power bill. It does not do any quack technique of saving energy. It simply reports your energy usage so you will be understand where your waste might be. It is up to you to do the actual saving.