A Challenge

#21 04/01/10, 04:30 PM

I'm not so much looking to save money although I do think electricity prices will rise significantly in the not too distant future . I also believe the electric grid is obsolete along with most of our other infrastructure which doesn't seem to be much of a priority to the powers that be that are spending trillions of $$$'s that we also don't have . My main concern is to be as independent as feasibly possibly without giving up any more modern conveniences than I have to . At this point in my life I don't want to go primitive .
Tinknal , a small greenhouse could very well be in my future & I have been researching hydroponics & aquaponics . Whatever I produced would be for myself , family & friends . I intend to start another thread on this subject soon .

phrogpharmer · #22 04/01/10, 05:02 PM

I wonder if you could generate electricity with a small steam turbine using your natural gas to fire the boiler. It is my understanding that turbines can run continously for a long time. It may be cost prohibitive to set one up though.

tinknal · #23 04/01/10, 05:57 PM

Gaslamps?

#24 04/01/10, 06:29 PM

Gas lighting is something I've definitely considered especially for wintertime use & power outages . I would imagine they would give off a lot of heat so probably not so efficient during summer when using ac . Glad people are thinking about this . Thanks

I also did some quick reading on the bloom box & fuel cells & doesn't seem like anything in a residential size is available yet .

**Ross** · #25 04/01/10, 06:34 PM

Someone else has free Ng and uses it here on HT. Texican?

ronbre · #26 04/01/10, 07:32 PM

either a generator or what about heating water for a steam engine..

Jim-mi · #27 04/01/10, 08:03 PM

Live steam is very dangerous . . . . .
You really have to spend a lot of time learning before...................

There is a very wide range of price tags for NG generators . . . the more $$$$$$$ the better. . . .also meaning life.....

A good battery bank is going to be a very big buck..........
A good inverter/charger around $2000
Boy could I go that heated greenhouse aquaponics stuff......
Some sort of generator (NG) powering grow lites and water pumps...
Gas water heaters . . . . . .
Winter time >fresh veggies<

A good greenhouse "production" could/would offset some of your electric bill . . . . and you would be eating dang well.......................

artificer · #28 04/02/10, 10:25 AM

The only way I see doing this is to severely scrounge. Can you find a generator head from a dead generator? Can you find a moderately sized gas engine that you can convert? Tractor engine would be great, but a larger car engine that you can run slow and still get the power you need from it would be good. Heavy duty stationary engines that are nasty looking are your goal. You don't care about fuel economy on the engine with the free gas, so big, heavy, and slow are what you want for reliability.

Keep your eyes open. This isn't a short term project. Over the next year or so you might find something. CHEAP is the watch word. If the central air ever goes out, you can replace it with a unit that is engine driven. Might cost a bit more, but it opens up possibilities. Everything else can be powered off of batteries, but not the AC. There are heat driven AC units, but you don't want to know the price.

If you need this next month, you're going to spend a lot of money, which you'll probably never see a return on. Take the long view, and you might be able to find something.

A really off the wall idea is to get a car with a good engine that has been in an accident or doesn't drive. (bad tranny, rollover, rearended...) Use the AC compressor in the car to drive the central air's evaporator in the house, or add a second coil in the duct-work just for the cars evaporator. Use the alternator to charge batteries to power an inverter. With a bit of ingenuity you could power the entire house, as well as have AC.

Michael

Ray · #29 04/04/10, 08:48 AM

Back in the 1930's or 40's Allis Chalmers built and tested a fuel cell tractor, ran on propane? the more you pressed the accelerator pedal the more power you had instantly at your disposal, just like gas or diesel except there was no loud engine to let you know the power was building up and getting greater, this is why the farmers didn't like the tractor no loud noise to let the farmer feel the build up in power. It was just more power there as you pressed the pedal. the technology, patent, was sold to Teledyne who was then taken over by NASA, now it seems that a professor from NASA has come out and claimed to have developed this new wonderful technology of fuel cell ele. that can be used in every application, and is pushing it all over. BAH HUMBUG its all bull, these technologies have been sitting for decades and now the government is allowing a few out, the ones that still use fuel so the people still have to depend on it no mater what.. Never the less you can get an engine from them and use the gas to run it. they have new tractors coming out now that have fuel cell power, just do a search, it seems that all the old info from the 40's is nearly gone??? why, best wishes ray

cowbelle · #30 04/04/10, 09:16 AM

Back in the 70's I had a place that came with a wonderful old Minneapolis-Moline tractor (named Clementine) that ran on propane. She was a three wheeled monster that could pull any piece of farm equipment in the county. I don't know where she came from or anything else, but she was a great tractor (as long as you didn't hook the harrow on a buried water line that you didn't know was there!!) Then she looked like a bucking horse!

Johnny Dolittle · #31 04/04/10, 04:00 PM

Well seems you have everything on gas but a refrigerator/freezer.
Actually a refrigerator and and an air conditioner are essentially the same device having a condenser and an evaporator. So if you have a commercial gas refrigeration unit .... you could install it in a window opening so that the evaporator side of it is inside and put a fan in front of it to disperse the cool air.
... Similar to a reefer unit in a truck cargo box .... but yours powered by natural gas instead of diesel. Maybe just get a gas refrigerator and save a bit more on electric bill year around and let the air conditioner run on electric since it only runs in the summer anyway.