Renewable Energy for the Poor Man

Radioactive fallout in North America

2011-04-26T23:55:00.000-07:00

This post is a deviation from my normal style of posting, but I feel that some things need to be said. The big news is the Fukishima power plant problems in Japan. First off, I'd like to explain that I was a certified nuclear engineer and power (steam) plant mechanic in the U.S. Navy years ago. I do see a place for nuclear power on subs and surface ships, but I'm not a fan of civilian based nuclear power. I believe solar and geothermal show much more promise without all the dangers. That being said, I'd like to discuss a few items of interest I've been hearing on the net.

What about the MOX fuel? One particle of Plutonium will kill you because it is the most radioactive substance on the planet.

I'm not sure where this myth started. Perhaps because people hear about Uranium all the time and not so much about Plutonium, that it sounds more exotic and powerful. It is true that for a given amount of Pu-239 and U-235, the Plutonium would be much more radioactive. They both decay with close to the same energy (sort of) but they have much different half lives. Pu-239 is about 24,000 years while U-235 is about 700,000,000 years. That means that Pu-239 will decay and release radiation 29,000 times more often than U-235. So, for a given amount stuck inside your body, the plutonium would be many times worse.

But lets compare with something else like Pollonium 210. Po-210 comes from Uranium and Uranium exists in small quantities in the earth's crust and a lot more exist in phosphate fertilizers. So, all the food we eat has Uranium in it, but it also has Po-210. Po-210 has a half life of 138 days which means it decays 1.8 billion times more often than enriched uranium and 63,500 times more often than Plutonium 239!

Luckily, we have adapted to trace amounts of radiation in the air, food, and water. But we haven't really adapted to the levels of radiation we get by fertilizing with phosphates. To make matters worse, people smoke tobacco that was grown with these fertilizers and the Po-210 gets lodged in the tar and stays in the lungs longer than it should. The body will get rid of it after a few months, unless that person continues to smoke.

I'm not saying that radiation is good, I'm saying that smoking is bad and people don't seem to care about smoking, or pollution, or living near coal plants. But they seem to be freaking about Fukishima. I'm just trying to stop the fear mongering and focus on the things we should really be afraid of.

Acid rain, oh yeah. Didn't it turn out to be no big deal?

Well, the media certainly doesn't talk about it anymore. But in actuality, it could be one of the biggest stories of the century with incredible ramifications to the health of the planet and the life it supports.

All plants have a root system that absorbs nutrients from the soil. The trick is, they only absorb water soluble substances. Aluminum exists in the earth's crust at about a 7% concentration. It is either oxidized or part of a salt of aluminum and therefore not water soluble. But when the rain is slightly acidic, it will dissolve the oxide layer on the aluminum and make it temporarily water soluble. Since aluminum is toxic to plants, you can see the problem. If you have seen the movie "The Road", you know where I'm going with this.

All the excess CO2 from burning fossil fuels and the sulfur from burning coal is making sulfuric acid and carbonic acid (among others) in the rain. Another problem is the uranium naturally occurring in the soil. It oxidizes as well and isn't water soluble until the acid rain hits it. So, with all our pollution and acid rain, we are getting far more radiation in our food, air, water, and cigarettes than our grandparents did. Enough said about that.

Fukishima has been pumping out radiation for a month straight and the west coast of North America is heavily contaminated now.

I live on Vancouver Island, so I found someone close that monitors radiation and here is what I found.http://saltspringexchange.com/2011/03/16/dont-panic-salt-spring-radiation-monitor/

These data points were measured on Salt Spring island. Notice the slight spike on the 21st of March. This was just over a week after the tsunami in Japan. Why didn't the readings stay elevated if huge amounts of radioactive particles were streaming out of the reactors?

Here are some graphs from Berkley for Cs-137 and I-131 in rainwater.

Notice that the spike happened on March 23rd, just after the Salt Spring island spike. Also note that the readings have been steadily going down to minimum detectable levels. Also note that on the Berkley site it says that at the peak for the Cs-137 you would have to drink 4,000 liters or about 1,000 gallons of that water to get the same level of radiation as one would get in a round trip flight from San Francisco to Washington D.C. I would worry more about the I-131 because it concentrates in the Thyroid gland which is about 1300 times smaller than a 180 lb person. Their chart says 136 liters to get the same radiation, but really it would be about a tenth of a liter. But I-131 has a short 8 day half life, and as you can see from the charts, not much is making it over here.

I also found a German site with some Fukishima power plant numbers.

And finally we have this site (Norwegian) and it shows Xenon 133 everywhere. Admittedly this looks bad.

But this is total column. It shows the total radiation as expected from the ground to the sky. Not that useful to us humans, so next I look at surface contamination less than 100 meters.

So, the fear mongering videos show the first images but not the more down to earth surface contamination predictions. Here is one they really don't want you to see, I-131 surface contamination.

That's right. Nothing shows up. From all of the above graphs it is obvious that there was some meltdown and radiation leak. But the pockets of fissioning must have slowed way down. The danger to North America is almost non existent at the moment. But that could all change very quickly. But even if it does change for the worse, the level of dilution by the time any particles get over 6000 miles across an ocean would bring the levels down close to background normal or less in some cases. It is kinda like one person spraying some hair spray at one end of a football field and someone at the other end worrying about getting hair spray in their eyes. Even with a good wind, it just aint gonna happen.

Japan admits daily radioactive release from Fukushima at 154 trillion Becquerels...

On April 5, the estimated amount of radioactive materials released from Fukushima I Nuke Plant was 0.69 terabecquerels/hour for iodine-131 and 0.14 terabecquerels/hour for cesium-137. When the numbers were recalculated according to the INES method (converting cesium amount into iodine equivalent), the amount released turned out to be 6.4 terabecquerels/hour (which was 154 terabecquerels per day.

That was the new story, but I have a problem with the way they convert Cs-137 to I-131 equivalent. I-131 has a 8 day half life and Cs-137 has a 30 year half life so they say the Cs-137 is 1300 times worse. But even though it is in the environment 1300 times longer, it decays 1300 times less often. In the body Cs-137 only has a 70 day biological half life because the body will eventually get rid of it. I-131 pretty much stays in the thyroid. By the way, the thyroid is about 1300 times smaller than the whole body of a 180 lb person. And Cs-137 has more power per decay. The net result is that I-131 is actually about 100 times worse in the body for a given amount. In the environment, for a short time, I-131 is over 800 times worse than Cs-137. After about 40 days almost all the I-131 is gone and you are left with Cs-137 in the environment.

Another way of looking at it is if you had just enough I-131 to give you cancer in the environment and you had the same weight in Cs-137, the cesium would be there for 150 years but at 1/100th the radiation effect in the body. And you could injest that level your whole life and never get cancer from it. I'm not saying Cs-137 is good, I'm just comparing it to I-131. And I think the conversion to Iodine equivalent is bogus. They should have just reported the numbers separately to avoid confusion.

Conclusion

People in North America worried about drinking the milk with radioactive iodine should worry more about drinking milk after the acid rain just made the grass more radioactive. Remember, acid rain makes uranium and pollonium temporarily water soluble and the roots will absorb it.

And people should worry about living downwind from a coal burning plant. Heavy metals and radioactive isotopes occur naturally and it is in coal as well. We burn it and that junk gets in the air. You get more radiation from a coal power plant than you get living next to a nuclear power plant.

And worry about smoking. I know your grandparents smoked until their 80s before they died. But we have more phosphate fertilizers and way more acid rain. The cigarettes of today are many times more radioactive than 50 years ago.

So, stop the fear mongering and focus on reality. There are legitimate things to worry about, but the radiation fear should be focused on Japan, not North America. .....At least for now.

Richard

Colloidal Silver updates - using the phone line

2010-12-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

I have experimented making colloidal silver / ionic silver for awhile now. I've learned several things:

more silver electrode surface area is better. I use Canadian maple leaf coins that I pounded with a sledge hammer to make them oblong. Based on how much of the coins are exposed to the water, I would need 12 gauge silver wire looped down 6 inches and back up 6 inches just to equal the surface area. And never mind the thinner gauges like 16 or 18 gauge. What happens is a certain amount of current is flowing, but with less surface area, current density is too high and makes too much silver per given area. Even though all the particles are the same size when they come off into solution, too much in a given area means they will clump together and make larger particles.
some form of stirring is necessary. Either manually stirring every few minutes, or having an electric motor to do the work is fine. The easiest is a hot plate like this.This isn't that hot, it is meant to keep coffee warm. You don't want too much heat, it could shatter your glass container.

There should be a way to monitor current flow. I make sure that I never get over 4 mA. It is interesting. When the current gets to 2 or 3 mA, then I would manually stir for about 5 to 10 seconds and the current would drop again. What is happening is that the silver ions are mostly between the two electrodes and the more silver , the more conductive. By spreading them out by stirring, there is less concentration between the electrodes and the current drops. If I use the heat pad, then stirring doesn't do anything. This proves that the heat is stirring the water enough!
The more voltage you have, the faster the process starts. But anything over 50 volts can be dangerous. The phone line is nice because it is about 50 volts and limited to 30 mA. With this simple circuit below, I limit the absolute maximum current to about 19 mA (I don't let it get above 4mA though). If I accidentally touch the probes together the red and green leds both light up brightly. Typically, I plug in phone line and when the silver probes are put in the water, the red led will light up to show there is a connection and electrons are flowing. The meter stays all the way down and the green led is off. If the probes aren't touching and the green led comes on and the meter pegs high, that means you don't have pure distilled water(I've accidentally used spring water and this happened). The container of water should be on a hot plate and after awhile( about 1.5 hours per quart) the meter will get up to the high side and the green light will be lit. No stirring needed because of the hot plate.

I placed the circuit in a small tin box:

I used about 25 ohms instead of the 100 ohm potentiometer for my meter shunt. But you have to adjust it so that it reads about 3/4 full scale when your silver is ready. You can use any old meter you find. This one came out of an old microwave detector I found for a dollar in the thrift store.

Another thing I learned is to not overcook it. I can get about 12 to 15 ppm and it is still perfectly clear. If I go over that, it will start to turn amber color over the next few days.
Also, you may have a 90% ionic and 10% colloidal solution when you first make it. But after a few days, it seems to settle into about a 70% ionic and 30% colloidal solution. At this point, the ppm meter reading goes down, but the laser tyndel effect goes up from the initial tests.

Cheap Air Conditioning - Part 2

2010-06-24T23:54:00.000-07:00

This is a follow up on my last post about cheap air conditioning. I started looking for a whole house fan but the ones I found looked fairly expensive. About $200 to $900 depending on what I was looking for. I didn't want to cut a hole in the ceiling and most of them wouldn't fit in my back window. I started looking at regular fans and finally box fans. A typical 20 inch box fan has about 2,000 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of air flow. A typical 16 inch fan has about 1000 cfm. So, I decided to pick up a couple of $24 box fans from Canadian Tire. The same fan in the states at Target has been seen for $12 or so.

I cut some plywood to fit the back window and cut holes in it to accommodate the fans. I took the front faces off the fans and used the grill as a template to mark the size and screw holes.

I cut the hole about 1 inch smaller all around than the grill. I used zip ties to hold the fan to the plywood by using the front face screw holes.

Here they are in the back window. The top one is upside down so it is easier to turn off and on. You have to have both running at the same time or it does no good. If just one is on, then the air just goes in a small circle. Both these fans blow out and that causes air to come into the house through the windows.

It is really nice. I turned them on and every window I opened had a really good breeze blowing. It completely refreshed our house air in about 2 minutes at a whopping 4,000 cfm. As soon as the sun set we actually started to get cold and had to shut it down.

The above picture is from a website for whole house fans. You can see what kind of savings can be accomplished based on where you live. I checked the wattage with my trusty kill-a-watt meter. It showed 142 watts for low, 153 watts on medium, and 164 watts on high. And that is both fans together. A window mount AC (that would only cool one or two rooms) uses about 1000 to 1500 watts. A full house AC can use 10 times that.

Richard

Cheap air conditioning

2010-06-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

Cooling off this summer is becoming a priority for most. Not so much for me because I live on Vancouver Island. A heat wave is 85F and it only lasts about one week every year. Most people don't have air conditioners here but the new house we are renting looks like it might get a little warm this summer, so I'm thinking of options. In the past, I've talked about using solar to cool the house. But I can't do that here because I rent. There are a few cheap options though:

1) Whole House Fan - A whole house fan is a powerful fan that is designed for ceiling mount and it sucks air from the house and pushes it into the attic. That, in turn, causes the attic air to be pushed out. So, if the windows in the house are open, then fresh air is sucked into the house and goes out through the attic. This has a cooling effect on the house.

But, being a renter, I can't cut a hole in the ceiling. Another option is to take a piece of plywood and cut a hole in it to mount the whole house fan in. I can size the plywood to fit in a window at one end of the house. Then with windows in other rooms open, the house will cool down. And I can take the fan with me when and if we move.

2) Swamp Cooler - A swamp cooler is designed for places that aren't humid. In fact, they only work in 60% or less humidity. Vancouver Island is very humid most of the year. But I checked some weather data and it turns out that during the summer, almost every day, the humidity drops to about 30 to 50% during the hottest time.

So, I could build a swamp cooler, many people do. All it is is a water reservoir with a wicking material and a fan that blows air across the wick. As the water evaporates it cools the air. But the other day I saw a humidifier in a thrift store and it was a only $8. I don't think I could build one for that cheap. It was the kind with a big cylindrical wick. (it has to be that kind, not just any humidifier) I'm guessing that it would easily cool down a medium size room. I'll do some tests over the next few weeks and blog about it.

One thing to think about it mold growing on the wicking material. So people have to clean them constantly or put a little bleach in the water. The bleach sounds a little harsh. A better idea is to add some homemade colloidal silver to the water reservoir. This will keep the water nice and clean. Although, the water will have to be added everyday, the silver doesn't need to be added every time. Just once a week is probably fine.

Richard

Poor Man's Lightning Arrestor

2010-06-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

If you live in a place where lightning is a problem, then protecting your equipment is a must. You would also need a lightning rod at the highest point near your house. Maybe this is your house or it could be a windmill or some other structure. But either way, you would need a metal pipe or rod at the highest point and pretty big wire going straight to a ground pipe. But even with a lightning rod, if lighting strikes on your property, then a huge static charge would still be in the local area. This could travel through your shortwave antena wire or power cable from your windmill and fry your expensive circuits.

The trick with lightning is that it hates to change directions. If it is traveling along a conductor to ground and the conductor changes direction, then lightning will want to jump to the next nearest conductor to ground. In the below picture, the copper power wire from a windmill is wrapped around a metal pipe that is driven into the ground. The wire is wrapped several times and then loops up and back down again before continueing to the charge controller. It is just clamped to the pipe with a zip tie.

Richard

Homemade Beck Magnetic Pulser

2010-06-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

Magnetic Pulsing

I've been looking more into the Beck Protocol since learning to make colloidal/ionic silver. I will be talking more about these technologies in the near future. It is important for a few reasons. First, I believe in independence. I don't want to rely on big pharma to get drugs that will probably do more damage than good anyway. Secondly, an economic downturn is happening and this technology makes treating yourself and loved ones very easy and economical. Thirdly, I just don't trust big pharma.

Today I will be talking about the magnetic pulser. In theory it is used for treatment of pain and also to kill off pathogens that are in lymph nodes and not in the blood. In other words, this is to be in conjunction with blood electrification. In fact, the pulser causes blood electrification during the 2.5 ms pulse. Actually, you get four jolts of microamps in the tissue for each pulse.

As the first pulse is rising, current flows. Then on the downsize back to zero volts at the coil causes a reverse current in the tissue. Then the back emf from the collapsing field generates a current in the tissue but at the opposite polarity as the initial pulse. Then a reverse of that when that field subsides. It happens each time the magnetic field changes or moves.

The trick with the strobe light is to turn it to the lowest setting that it will still pulse at. This takes longer between each pulse, but they are waaaayyyy stronger. So, do that for deep penetration. For more shallow treatments, use a higher or faster setting.

All you do is find a strobe or a camera flash. Take it apart and use a resistor to short out the capacitor.

BE CAREFUL WITH THIS CAPACITOR. IT CAN HAVE 300 VOLTS STORED AND CAN STOP YOUR HEART. If you are unsure, ask someone qualified in electronics such as a TV repairman or an electrician to help.

Once you discharge the capacitor, then you can cut the line to one side of the strobe light and connect the two wires going to the coil.
To make the coil, get some coated copper wire, called magnet wire. Try to use 15 or 16 gauge. I used 15. Make a jig like in the picture below and hand wind or you can stick a bolt through it and use a hand drill. I used electrical tape on it before I took the one wood plate off to remove the coil. You need to secure it somehow, because it will try to unwind slightly.

Also, when running, the flash tube gets hot after about 15 minutes. Take a break and let it cool down. As it gets hot, it offers more resistance to the coil. I put electrical tape on the front to block some of the light. But I kept the cooling vents on the top and bottom alone.

I also added two capacitors in parallel to the existing capacitor. Just make sure positive to positive and negative to negative and that the voltage rating is good. I used capacitors from two more camera flashes, so the voltage rating was about 300 volts. I have 450 MicroFarads now instead of just the 8 MFDs that are standard with this strobe light.

Richard

DIY Solar Intensity Meter - Pyranometer

2010-04-22T21:17:00.001-07:00

A pyranometer or solar irradiance meter is used for measuring sunlight intensity at a given location. It reads in watts per square meter or W/m^2. This DIY project isn't technically a pyranometer because it doesn't use heat in any way to measure light intensity. Instead, it uses a solar panel. This could be any small solar panel, like the ones in old calculators. Normally, a pyranometer and even a lux meter will do a cosine correction. What this means is that the meter collects light coming from all angles and measures it. It usually does this with a hemisphere shaped diffuser. But if you are testing for solar intensity for solar applications, then you don't need it. In fact, it is more useful without the cosine correction.

For instance, if a solar panel is perpendicular to the sun, then that is its max power. It's angle would be zero degrees and the cosine of zero is 1. If you turn it to 90 degrees off axis to the sun then you would get no power because the cosine of 90 is 0. (Well, you actually get some power because of reflected light hitting the solar panel)

Let's say you are testing a spot for solar and you use one of the expensive pyranometers. You place it on your roof and get 800 watts per square meter. Then you use the homemade version using a small solar cell. It shows 800 w/m^2 as well, but only if you hold it perpendicular to the sun. If you lay it flat on the roof like you plan on mounting the solar panels it shows only 480 w/m^2. So, in a way the homemade is better because it shows you which angle is the best for the most power.

You can't just measure voltage because it isn't linear on a solar cell. You have to apply a set resistance and then as the light goes up, the current goes up and the voltage goes up, but linear in this case because of the set resistance.

I start off by using an old volume control (potentiometer) and hook it up between the two solar cell wires. I then set my meter to milivolts. I want 1 milivolt to equal1 watt per square meter.

I then find a site that shows local weather statistics. I found this one that shows the data from a school very close to me. http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=109&type=day&size=large You are looking for the Insolation value.

You should wait for a sunny day with no clouds. Let's say that it says 600 W/m2 on the site. Go outside and aim the small solar cell at the sun. You must be outside, a window cuts down the numbers quite a bit. Now turn the volume control up or down until the meter reads 600 mV or 0.6 volts. Milivolts is easier to read though.

You can leave it like this or you can make it have a finer adjustment if you have a lower value potentiometer. You can carefully disconnect the potentiometer and measure the resistance across the two leads you were using. Let's say it is 100 ohms. Then use a resistor that is under that like a 47 ohm for instance. Then if you have a 100 ohm potentiometer it would be great. I happened to have a precision 100 ohm pot. It can be turned about 25 times around or so. Makes for a super fine adjustment. But I think just a regular pot is fine for most things.
This device is really great for estimating energy. Just remember you have to know your surface area and efficiency. For instance, if I read 500 w/m2 at a certain angle and I mount my solar panels at that angle and they are 2 meters square total, then that would be 1000 watts times my 15% efficiency, or 150 watts.

Or you could solve for efficiency in a real world example. You could also use it for solar hot air or water. You can see what difference glazing or double layer glazing makes...all before you build it.

Richard

Harness Hydro Power

2010-03-23T16:57:00.000-07:00

Hi, everybody. Sorry that I havn't written for awhile. I started a new job and have been busy.

A friend showed me this article today and I thought I'd share with you.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/1977-07-01/Harness-Hydro-Power-with-a-Trompe.aspx

I was thinking this could be made on a small scale as well. Like using 2 pvc pipes (12 inches in diam and 18 feet long standing straight up or partially buried). This would give about 200 gallons of air columns. The pressure would depend on the head of the incoming water. The water would be a stream and piped just like you are running micro hydro. In fact, you could run micro hydro just before the inlet. It would go into an eductor that sucks in air as water flows through it and into the piping. The water outlet could be elevated with another pipe or a automatically throttling valve could be set on the output. You could then use the water for irrigation, drinking, or direct back to the stream.

A schedule 40 pipe 12 inches in diameter can handle 79 psi and a schedule 80 can handle 137 psi.

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pvc-cpvc-pipes-pressures-d_796.html

Every 32 feet of water drop should give roughly 15 psi. So, typical property wouldn't see more than 30 to 45 psi. But if you bury the pipes you could add a little to that.

Colloidal / Ionic Silver constant current - Part 2

2009-11-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

Part 2

This is the AC version parts:

AC version soldered.

AC version put in a cottage cheese container. Notice that it puts out a max of about 39 volts with no load.

Here I started with a very clean jar and some 99.99% pure silver Canadian maple leaf coins.
Well, I did some experiments with just the AC constant current and decided I didn't like it. It didn't seem very efficient even after running all night. I decided to add a full wave bridge to the circuit to make it a DC output. At that point it was running at 0.5 mA.
This worked much better. It starts with a higher voltage and maintains a constant current. As the silver ions go into the distilled water, the resistance drops. This means the voltage has to drop just to maintain constant current. On one batch it started at about 9 volts and on a different brand of distilled water it started at 28 volts. That means the second batch's water was way more pure, even though they are both distilled.

Here is a pic showing the new DC version running for a bit.

This shows the oxide layer forming on the negative coin.

I had to take it out and wipe it off about once every hour or two. It seemed to take a little less than 1 hour for every ounce of distilled water. About 45 minutes per ounce. A small 4 ounce glass would take about 3 hours and a big 16 ounce mason jar takes about 12 hours. But, you will want to stir it every so often. I just stirred it when I cleaned the oxide off the coin.

I would "cook" it until the voltage output dropped to about 3 to 4 volts. The water would still be perfectly clear. But after a few days it would turn a amber color. I also would filter mine through a non-bleached coffee filter.

Here is a batch after sitting a few days. The jar was wrapped in aluminum foil to keep the light out. (Since this batch and switching to 45 minutes per ounce at 0.5mA, the water stays clear indefinitely. ) This picture shows what happens when cooking for 7 hours when it should have been about 3 or 4 hours. Although it did take a few days to turn amber.

That is a laser being shown though the liquid. This effect is the tyndall effect and it works even when the water is still clear. If you try it with just distilled water you will not see the laser path at all. So this is a good way to test as you are getting close to being done. And you can see something is happening because the voltage is steadily moving down.

Remember that the higher the voltage starts at, then the more pure the water. But if you take the same water and use different sized pieces of silver like silver wire instead of coins, then the voltage will change as well. So, if you are consistent, you can compare different water qualities.

I found that drinking it doesn't seem to help as much as gargling it and swishing it around in your mouth. Once it gets in your stomach, the ions interact with the stomach acid and form silver chlorides. The suspended colloids (about 15% of the solution) will go into your bloodstream. But gargling it gives you a much better absorption. You will need to gargle for 2 to 3 minutes and 3 times a day if you are sick.

Another great way is nasal spray. You can get a dark glass bottle and nasal spray top at most health food stores.

The other way, probably the best, is to use a nebulizer (ultrasonic). I haven't tried this though.
Let me know if you try this and what your experiences are.

thanks,
Richard

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Colloidal / Ionic Silver constant current - Part 1

2009-10-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

I've had some requests recently asking for a simple "poor man's" colloidal silver generator. I have seen a bunch of companies selling them online and they are all pretty expensive. I have seen a few hundred dollars or more. There are some cheap ones and plans for just using three 9 volt batteries, but those are dangerous. They don't make safe colloidal silver because they aren't constant current.

What happens is that you start with 27 volts and silver electrodes in the distilled water. As the ionic silver is formed in the water it causes the resistance of the water to drop. This makes the current increase and this causes larger particles of silver to form. As the resistance continues to drop, the current goes up and up. The body can't get rid of larger particles of silver. Small colloids and ionic silver atoms are easy to flush out though. The trick is to limit the current to less than a milliamp or so. I've developed two very simple circuits that limit the output to 40 volts and less than 1 mA (miliamp).

The above picture is the AC version that runs off of normal house voltage of 120 volts. The idea is really simple. You just need 3 identical resistors (all 47k or all 56k) and one small AC capacitor rated at 39nF (nanoFarads). The circuit is just a voltage divider and we are tapping into a 40 volt section. Just use two resistors in series in the R1 position and the third resistor in the R2 slot. You are supposed to use two resistors, but it is easier to get three 47k resistors than it is to find one 94k and a 47k for example. You could use the following web page to calculate different voltages if you need to:

http://www.raltron.com/cust/tools/voltage_divider.asp

If you have 240 volts for example, you could use a 270k for R1 and a 47k for R2. This gives a 35 volt output at no more than 0.7 mA before the capacitor. Try to use a total of 150k or a little more for 120 volts and use about 300k or a little more for 240 volts. This means about 0.2 watts and most of the small resistors are 1/4 watt.

The capacitor is calculated by using the following equation:

the AC capacitor equation.
A=amps
f=frequency in hz
c=capacitance..24 MFD is 0.000024 (you can use capacitance in MFD and divide by 1,000,000)
v=volts

A=2*PI*f*c*v

OR

c = A/(2*PI*f*v)

example with 220 nF (nanoFarad) at 120 volts 60hz
A = 2 * 3.1416 * 60 * 0.00000022 * 120
A = 1 mA

example with 39 nF at 40 volts 60hz
A = 2 * 3.1416 * 60 * 0.000000039 * 40
A = .59mA

The DC version is simple. You need three 9 volt batteries and a special type of diode called a current regulating or current limiting diode. HERE is a 0.75 mA version that only costs $1.94. And HERE is data sheet for a few others.

A typical 9 volt battery has about 350 - 500 mAH of capacity. At 1mA or less, the rating would go up quite a bit. But at 5 hours to make a batch of colloidal silver at 5mAH total each time, the batteries would die of old age before they actually run down.

But, in either case, AC or DC, you will need the following:

a very clean glass, final rinse with distilled water
two 99.9% or better silver wires or coins
alligator clip wires
distilled water
glass for storage that keeps the light out (or put in a dark place)
a AC appliance timer or some other reminder to stop the "cooking" process

When you do the first batch, have a multimeter hooked up to the silver probes as well. This way you can measure the initial resistance between the silver probes. It should be fairly high. Then set meter to voltage and turn generator on. You should see the correct voltage. After a few hours check back to see if the water is starting to turn slightly yellow. You can set the glass on a white sheet of paper to help see it better.

Your goal should be to have it mostly clear but with a slight yellow tint to it. Then turn of the generator and check resistance again. It should be much less than when you started. This way you know it was working. If that process takes 5 hours for a given volume, for instance, then next time you can just set the timer for about 4 hours.

The colloidal / ionic silver should be good for a couple of months if you keep it in a very dark place. Some uses are:

spray for disinfecting surfaces
mouthwash
cleaning wounds
use with a nebulizer to inhale
body spray and sponge bath in a emergency situation
eye drops
ear drops
hand sanatizing
killing mold
soaking toothbrush and brushing teeth
good article and many more here

There is a lot more I could talk about, like testing with a laser light for colloids. Using a set distance and size of probe to come up with resistivity and equating that to conductance and then to a rough ppm number. But that is another day. It is late and I'm off to bed. This weekend I'll take some pics of my AC ionic / colloidal silver generator. I just had the parts lying around.

Richard

On to Part 2 -------->

Underground Cold Storage

2009-09-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

If you don't have a underground cold storage and you have freshly picked fruits and vegetables to store, don't worry, you can make your own. I first heard of the idea using a metal garbage can. Just dig a hole, put the can in. Fill with things you want to store through the winter and then put the lid on and cover with hay.

In the above picture I thought a regular fridge would work. Just means digging a bigger hole. It does have a nice rubber and magnetic seal and the whole thing is insulated. I would still recommend putting hay over it. A small free standing cover would be nice so when it is icy and snowy outside, you can still open it and get things out.

One word of advice, don't put apples in with anything else. Keep them seperate. I remember reading that the apples off gas something and it will make potatoes turn green. Don't remember the details though.

Wind Power when the Wind Stops

2009-09-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

I know there is a big concern about wind and solar in which their intermittent nature may cause problems. The propaganda being pushed on the net is that they have to make back up coal burning power stations to go along with every wind farm to take up the slack when the wind isn't blowing. This sounds right at first glance but after careful consideration just doesn't hold up.

In reality, the wind farm is there to augment the existing electrical production so it offsets the use of fossil fuels. In other words, no backup coal power plant is needed. The wind farm means that whenever the wind is blowing then there is less coal or natural gas being burned. This is a good thing.

The only time it becomes a problem is when you get close to 20% of your power production coming from wind. Right now we are only at about 1.3%. But when that time comes, there are much better ways to deal with downtime than just making more coal power plants. One example is pumping air underground.
There are two ways to do it. The picture above shows the more inefficient way. But this is the only cheap way to retrofit an existing wind farm. It feeds the grid with electricity from the windmill and uses some of the power to pump air under ground into a empty natural gas well. When the wind isn't blowing, the compressed air will turn air motors or turbines that spin generators to make electricity.

The second way is to use wind turbines that have the air compressor built in instead of the generator. You can read more about it here.

Richard

Utility wants to deploy largest grid battery ever

2009-09-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

This story is all about "green washing" and corporate criminals that want to take advantage of new public moneys.

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE57P4PJ20090826

Basically we are looking at a power company and a lithium ion battery manufacturer making huge sums of money through grants from the Dept of Energy. What they fail to mention is that lithium ion batteries are only good for about 2 to 3 years and then they have to be replaced. So, it isn't just a one time grant. It is an ongoing cell replacement scenario. Why put some awesome, lightweight, high density batteries in a warehouse that could just as easily house cheaper lead acid batteries? The most effective recycling program in the world has been the recycling of lead acid batteries. About 98% effective. And large cells like in forklifts can last 10 to 20 years. Lithium ion is great for laptops, drills, cars and scooters because they take up very little space and they are lightweight. In a huge factory size doesn't really matter and, of course, neither does the weight.

But, really, why use batteries at all for this scenario? Wind and hydro can take up slack in the grid system all the way up to about 20%. And only then do you need to look into some backup system. And when and if we get to that point we could use other methods such as compressed air storage underground in abandoned gas wells. Or we could pump water up to the top of a hill and use hydroelectric at the low wind times.

Richard

Homemade Deep Well Hand Pump

2009-08-31T01:11:00.000-07:00

I found this site today and the "well" page is pretty interesting.
http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm

It talks about driving your own 80 foot well with a wooden hammer or a post pounder. And it explains the different type of wells and how to dig them. But I found this homemade hand pump the most interesting.

It is made of some hose adapters and a brass ball. It acts as a check valve. This goes down in the well and is attached to some stiff UV resistant irrigation hose. When you pull it up and down it starts pumping water. It may take a lot of effort the first time you set this up but after that it is much quicker because it doesn't lose its prime. I estimate about 50 strokes per gallon.
Also, even if you are going to use an electrical pump, this manual pump still comes in handy for when you first dig the well. It allows you to clear out the sand and silt very quickly.

This type of pump will work for years and doesn't require maintenance. Pretty impressive for just a few bucks at the hardware store. Looks like it would be great for emergencies or for off grid water pumping.

Richard

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

2009-08-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

Today I was browsing ebay looking at wind turbine stuff. I came across this link here. Here is an excerpt:

Wind Turbine 1000 watt. Complete system minus inverter and battery

This is the Best of the Best. Made in Michigan. Made in the U.S.A.

This high out put 1000 watt Wind Turbine is the best out there to start with;

The frame is made of 6061 aluminum aprox 52 inches long strong yet light. bolted together with stainless steel washers nuts and bolts. This unique designed lets you install the wires down the center of the tube so the wires wont get tangled up.This is truly a work of art.

Dont buy a frame thats made out of cheap steel from china then welded by a amatuer and painted over, the frame will rust crack paint will chip off and will look terrible in weeks

This heavy duty motor/generator can produce a 1000 watts as a wind generator. The wind generator is rated for 130 volts dc 8 amps and reversible (creates electricity spinning in either directions they have thick magnets and brushes inside the housing. The outside housing is painted with white epoxy paint.The motor hits about 12 volts at 12 mph start up speed is about 3-4 mph. This is a awsome motor.

Dont waist your money with one of those 200 watt systems

These blades our the best out there. You get 3 turbo torque aircraft grade aluminum. The blades are about 5 inches wide at their widest and 24 inches in length (diameter of swept area is aprox 52 inches) with hub. These are cnc machined with a dimensional tolerance of .005 inches. They are perfectly balanced and spin very smooth.they are light strong and will not rust built to last , low wind start up about 3-4 mph. Our blades can with stand 70 mph.our blades our field tested and under go hundreds of hours of prototyping.

-------------

This upsets me. Some people read this and don't see the problems.

1) It says a 1,000 watts - and we know that 8 amps multiplied by 130 volts is 1,040 watts. But, in real life we are charging a battery. In this case a 12 volt battery. If the battery is maxed at 15 volts and you put out 8 amps then that is only 120 watts. But in cold strong wind you can get up to 3 times the current rating, making this a 360 watt wind turbine system at best.

2) It only produces 12 volts at about 12 mph wind. But a battery is usually 12.7 volts or more and the voltage drop across the diode is 0.7 volts. That means that you need 13.4 volts or more to start charging. So, with a 4.3 foot diameter blade (52 inches) that means on a breezy day when the average wind speed is about 17 mph, you would only average about 50 watts of power.

3)This is one of those cheap treadmill motor that has very poor bearings. It will break under high winds and prolonged use. These motors don't produce any usable power until you get to high rpms and that means it is a poor choice for wind turbine use.

4) If the blades are 30% efficient and the motor is 50% efficient, then overall the system is 15% efficient. When I put that in my motor analyzer, I get the following:

So, the part of the description that says don't waste your time with a 200 watt system is obviously misleading. This system is basically a 200 watt system in a "real world" situation.

5) Notice that I used a TSR of 5 and RPM of 4500. But, that is very generous of me since most treadmill motors have a 5,000 or more RPM rating. Also, TSR of 5 implies that the blades have lift. A curved surface alone will not make much lift. You need a curved leading edge and a sharp trailing edge. I'm guessing that this blade would have about a 3 to 5 TSR rating.

6) I like aluminum, but remember, even the best aluminum will get micro fractures at stress points and they build up over time. But the thick pvc pipe painted with titanium dioxide paint will last for years.

7) Just because the blades can handle 70 mph winds doesn't mean that the little bearings in that cheap motor can handle that for any length of time.

So, this is about a 200 to 300 watt wind turbine that needs a very breezy location to make any usable power. And the motor bearings will break in about 6 months to a year. There is a way to use these motors and make them last...but this aint it.

Richard

Some more Fog Catchers

2009-08-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

I like the concept for collecting water from fog. There are a lot of places that could use this and it requires no electricity.

I have an idea that you could make electricity with this as well, using the "electret effect". But I'll do some more research into that and some testing before I write about that.

Have a good weekend,
Richard

Temperature Coefficient for Electrical Resistivity

2009-08-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

I remember telling someone in a forum about using stainless steel bolts as a shunt for use as a cheap current measurement. Someone else said that shunts are made with exotic (aka expensive) materials with very low thermal coefficients of resistance. I found this chart not too long ago and thought I would post it.

As you can see, stainless steel has a negligible coefficient. So, I feel vindicated. Stainless steel is exotic by the way. It is just mass produced and used for construction, thus making it pretty cheap.

Richard

Video of Motor analyzer update

2009-08-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

Here is the video showing it in operation. Remember, if you purchased this in the past then this is a free upgrade.

new version of motor analyzer released

2009-08-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

This is the latest version, 1.6, just released. It does VAWT and HAWT now and will save 3 motor configurations. If you have already purchased in the past, I will upgrade you for free. Just send me an email. There is a part that I'll change on the next release. It says, "Power from blades after friction losses" and should now read, "power from blades after all losses".

I'll make a video of the new program in action and post it on youtube and here.

have a good monday,
Richard

Scalable First Flush System for Rainwater Collection

2009-08-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a simple idea for a "first flush" system for rainwater collection. It is made of pvc pipe and the first flush section is made of 4 inch pipe. For every 18.5 inches used, it will hold 1 gallon. It is scalable by adding more pipes to the left side. I could use 2 pipes at 46 inches each and get 5 gallons of first flush capability, for example. The pipes have a bottom cap and a small hole drilled in them. This way, when the rain starts falling, the first 5 gallons would go into these pipes and fill up faster than the small holes at the bottom will drain. When the pipes fill up then all water after that overflows into the storage tank. This rinses away bird droppings, leaves, dust, bugs, etc. If you have a larger roof, you may want more first flush, such as 10 gallons or more.
It also helps to have a way to stop the leaves and big stuff from even getting this far. Some people use screened gutters, or "Rain Tubes", or a screened redirector right before it goes into the first flush section.

You guys have a good weekend.

Richard

update solar oven

2009-08-12T18:19:00.000-07:00

Got some flat black barbecue paint and painted the solar oven. I will let it dry tonight and then tomorrow put it in the sun to make sure any toxins can gas out. It is high temp paint but I'd like to be safe. Then we can start using it.

Remember, this one doesn't have insulation. When the temp outside is a little cooler, I'll raise efficiency by using the hot box cooker technique. I'll take a bigger box and place a thick blanket over it and push this cooker down into that so that all sides except the top are covered and well insulated.

Most people would build in the insulation but there are issues with that. Whenever the food steams it could get the insulation wet and mess it up. The hot box way means I can take out the insulation super easy after I'm done and let it dry if it gets wet.

Richard

Rooftop Savonious Discussion

2009-08-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

I'd like to talk a little about a vertical axis wind turbine positioned on its side. Yeah, I know, it becomes a HAWT when you do that. The main problem is that, in that position, it doesn't spin from all wind. But there are some advantages. Firstly, it is low profile and neighbors are less likely to complain. Secondly, it is technically easier to mount this way. Standing straight up means the mount point has to be way stronger due to massive torque effects. And thirdly, you can link several wind turbines in a row to share shaft power to one powerful generator.

There is also an advantage to putting a VAWT on the rooftop. When the wind comes, it is compressed upward and effectively gives the savonious more surface area of wind collection. If the wind is traveling perpindicular to the axis then you will get your maximum power potential. In the below example, there is a VAWT 8 feet long and 4 feet wide and it s laying down on its side at the rooftop. In this example the roof rises 8 feet. That means that whatever power the wind turbine would generate in a given wind is multiplied by 3. Of course, a different roof and sized wind turbine would generate different results. So, if it ran at 15 % efficiency normally, then on the rooftop it could be up to 45% efficient. Also note that wind at the peak of the house is stronger than wind at the ground level.

In the below picture you will see wind angles at 45 degrees from perpindicular to the axis. At 45 degrees, the wind turbine should appear to have half the surface area. So, half of 45% would be 22.5% efficiency, still good. At some angle greater than 45 degrees the silouhette would become one third of full and, due to the roof, would make the overall efficiency become 15%. In other words, you can get normal power even at extreme angles. An at perpindicular angles, get 3 times the normal power output.

Some roofs have sections that are perpindicular to each other. Another VAWT could be mounted there as well. That way you generate power no matter what direction the wind comes from. And even if you only have one, whenever the wind direction changes back to a better angle, the power increase more than makes up for the times when no power was generated. Just make sure that your predominant wind is the right direction, otherwise this just wouldn't work for you.

Richard

DC Motor Analyzer Finished

2009-08-11T12:13:00.001-07:00

Well, it looks like I've finished the updates on my DC motor analyzer software. I still have to do some more testing before I make it available but here are some screenshots. The yellow highlighted sections are new parts to the program. They are only highlighted here for you to see, the program normally doesn't show that. The first picture below is in the HAWT mode, or horizontal axis wind turbine. The second picture is in VAWT mode. So, you can do savonious or other vertical axis wind turbines.

Something to be aware of if you go to the VAWT calculator web page on my website, is that those computations also account for about a 55% efficiency dc motor. So, if you take a savonious and the blades are 15% efficient and the motor is 55%, then on the new motor analyzer software you would put in 8% efficiency. On the website, this was done in the background. But the new program gives you more control.

For instance, if you have blades that are 30% efficient for a HAWT and your DC motor is 60% efficient, then you can put 18% in the efficiency field and get a nice "real world" expectation. Especially when you put in the cable length and gauge.

I should have my testing done by this weekend at the latest and the new analyzer should be available for purchase.

Richard

Cardboard Solar Oven

2009-08-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

This is the third solar oven that I've made over the last few years. But this is the first cardboard one I've made. This first pic is the oven without the lid and the second picture is with the lid on.

I still have to paint the inside with some flat black paint. I'll leave the top back 1/4 or so unpainted.

My first test will be without any insulation, just like you see in the pictures. Then I will try the hot box cooker approach. I will take a bigger box and a thick blanket or two and push this down inside so it will be surrounded by the blankets except the glazing section. Then I will add a reflector and see if it improves. Although a reflector mounted on the back of a slant face oven is almost pointless unless the sun is really high, or unless you have a flat top glazing.
And something to be aware of is that (as is true for all solar) size is king, or in this case, surface area of the glazing is king. Here is a picture of a small solar oven that has a 1 square foot piece of glazing letting the sun in.
With the reflector put into position and if it is facing the sun perfectly it will have 3.5 square feet of solar collection. You could make a solar oven with a slanted face that has 3.5 square feet of glazing and you would get the same efficiency without the reflectors.

Also, be aware that reflectors can get in the way. If you don't rotate that funnel type every 30 minutes to an hour, then you will get shadows from the reflectors.

Earlier testing with a thin plywood solar oven with no insulation showed temperatures from 190F up to 225F on a sunny summer day. I expect about the same with the cardboard one.
I'll keep you guys posted.

Richard

Rocket Stove

2009-08-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

I was talking about hot box cookers the other day and thought this would be an appropriate method for bringing food to a boil and then using the hot box to finish it off. This one is really simple and made with just some adobe bricks.

I like the rocket stoves because they make a lot of heat with very little input. They fact that they are smokeless tells me that they are very efficient. And combined with the hot box method, this is an off the grid dream come true.

See ya Monday,
Richard