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SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,428

Re: An energy solution for Mars...

Mars means bringing what we need but here on earth we are at the mercy of the power companies even if the land we occupy has the potential to generate what we need.

Calliban

Member

From: Northern England, UK

Registered: 2019-08-18

Posts: 3,768

Re: An energy solution for Mars...

Mars means bringing what we need but here on earth we are at the mercy of the power companies even if the land we occupy has the potential to generate what we need.

I agree completely.  My power company here in the UK, charges me a rate that is equivelent to $0.4/kWh.  Every time the wife puts the oven or washing machine on, I can watch the pennies drip away on my smart meter.  It is depressing.

One of the things I have been looking into building for a while now, is an energy demand management system.  It would work something like this:

I would have a wind turbine, with a peak power of something like 5kWe, fitted with a flywheel.  I have a computer monitoring the power supply from the turbine and the loads within the house.  When power supply from the turbine exceeds loads, the computer automatically activates heating elements in my water tank, storing the excess energy as hot water.  The more excess power, the more heating elements are switched on.  The heating elements function as a sort of swing load, that the computer activates and deactivates as the gap between power output and power consumption rises and falls.

In each room, there will be a panel with a green light, an amber light and a red light.  If the green light is on, it means multiple heating elements are activated and I know there is enough excess power to run things like the washer, the cooker or equipment in my workshop.  If the light is amber, then discretionary loads in the house are using almost as much power as the turbine is producing and there might be one heating element activated.  I can maintain existing loads, but shouldn't add any more without switching others off.  If the light turns red, it means load is exceeding supply and the frequency of the turbine is slowing as energy is drained out of the flywheel.  I know that I need to shed load by switching off whatever I can.

This system allows the use of local renewable energy to meet the needs of a household without the need for energy storage in batteries or a grid connected system.  It does place a burden on people in the house to adjust their energy demand to the limits of supply at any particular time.  But from what I can see, this is actually cheaper and easier than attempting to back up power with huge banks of batteries.  It requires the ability to monitor power supply and adapt behaviour accordingly.  If power supply is zero for a couple of days, then we use candle for lighting and eat cold food or use a camper stove or wood burner for cooking.  In times of excess power, everyone can have hot baths.  This would also be the time to cut wood on my bandsaw and do welding in my workshop.

In summary, if we can adjust demand to whatever nature happens to be supplying at any moment in time, living off of renewable energy begins to look much easier.  But using an intermittent energy supply, means living an intermittent life and adjusting behaviour accordingly.  I wonder how many people could adapt to that?

Last edited by Calliban (2023-12-18 11:13:45)

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"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,428

Re: An energy solution for Mars...

Currently we are receiving high winds that have knocked out our power at 1pm est time with all of the rain and possible flooding.
We are currently on battery to supply power to a radio and led lights.

Update
Power is back up but many are still without with rising flood waters from rain run off.