Questions on off grid systems

I want to build this instead. Imagine a generator that used biomass directly that is silent. https://youtu.be/8-dCIkJAjyM

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Bruce are you saying that once you re moved the vent cap it was flooded inside or did you refill each of the cells ?
I have messed around with sealed AGMā€™s in the past that were over charged and tried wetting the glass mat with no real luck extending its usefull life .
If that battery has liquid inside of each cell then for sure you have been ripped off as they have no loose liquid in them as the glass mat will absorb it all and look dry when opened up

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My 5 Kw solar is chained to roof and gets covered with snow . I have net metering and get full retail rate . This varies by what state you live in . I hired two separate installers second guy knew of first guy and said he had never finished a job , so I was right to fire him . Wanted charcoal gasifier powered 200 volt dc treadmill generator to power solar inverter during night , but I would only get about a hours run time . It would be nice to get some data for value of pound of charcoal produced power . Not really worth it .
Something should be said for flow battery . I do not want to say it .
I was thinking of water wheel over 12 feet tall .

This!!! The gold standard! The ultimate. Instead, I fool around making mufflers for 1800rpm generators. Instead of silence, I look for the sound I can stand to listen to. Even wind turbines are loud.

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Yes as per the pictures. They are flooded.
Itā€™s not the first time Remy has burned me. I bought $20k worth of Full River AGMs that were supposed to be made in Americaā€¦when the pallet came off the truck, the first thing I saw was ā€œmade in Chinaā€. Their salesman lost his job over that one.

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The Corliss engines/ boilers burned 1 lb of coal to produce 1 HP.
http://www.exothink.com/Pages/btu.html
12.5k btu for a lb of coal.
4.5k btu for wood
9.7k btu for charcoal
There are some weird an amazing factors controlling burning wood to make electricity.
(Insert everything this forum has been talking about for years, right here. I donā€™t want to tell you how to suck eggs).
The most important point ends up being: Can you stand the labor involved? Efficiency, is not as important as getting the thing done that you want to do. If efficiency is the most important thing, then move to a place where a nuclear power plant is generating super critical steam and expanding it through a turbine. Those fellas are 98% efficient. One just has to move to a place where they donā€™t charge too much for the electricity.
It all depends on the constraints you place on the project.
One of the biggest constraints people donā€™t think about is fuel refining. Waste vegatable oil powered engines have to have a filtration plant on board. Wood fueled producers have to process raw wood into carbon. All this is complicated, and not fun to do on the side of the road. Most people just pay for fuel that has been refined to the special degree that their engines require. Those are the extremes, we operate in the middle of those extremes. If you like to make wood chunks and turn them into charcoal, then making electricity with that fuel can be very rewarding.

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Very interesting video indeed MattR.
You can kinndaā€™ date the original broadcast by the when CNN originated. The suits and ties. And the haircuts. Late 70ā€™s to early 80ā€™s I think.

Related to this slow expansion contraction was what I finally saw in Stirling cycle engines and even piston steam engines versus internal combustion piston engines.
Slow pressure push makes for larger assemblies versus a near explosive power release pulse of energy.
This was back in ~2007.
Had the wifeā€™s best friends husbands explain to me his fascination with golf.
He demonstrated the torso winding up to released spring like deliver energy clear out to the end of the club head. Now. Do this with precision control!! Work drive that ball out with delivered power and precision. And then work on consistency.
Along about the same time Iā€™d been trying out different powered firewood splitters.
8-15 tons force a slow weak joke. 22 tons force barely able, and slow. 34 tons; 10.5 hp fast recovery driven, got to match what Iā€™d done in my 20ā€™s thru 50ā€™s with a good well formed 7 pound ground down from 8 pounds, splitting maul. Wind up Whack. Must be precise on the delivery. With enough power delivery. Consistency a must.
And I later even evolved to a lighter weight 2.5 kg Stihl brand splitter maul. Actually a forge marked OCHUSENKOPF EURO PROFI. Iā€™d aged weaken and had to trade strength for speed of delivery.

Brought me back to respecting IC piston engines. Take a sudden near explosive energy release and convert to smooth power delivery for work.
Ehh. Yeah; a bit noisy. Yeah; a bit stinky. Yeah can have some shaking vibration.
But ever so compact. Portable. Fun, even.
S.U.

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32 tons; 10.5 hp splitter and a maul and a wedge and a 16 pound sledge hammer .
Used to be two man hand saw , was no grid .

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I tried roasting the quarter sized wood chips on corrugated roofing over a fire . Then put them in black plastic troughs that I would pull out to the sun and drag back into shed for weeks . Finally filled up gasifier and just left it . Then I started making charcoal from smaller wood chips and made two charcoal gasifiers . They were very easy to build and run but I do not have them powering anything .

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Charcoal for melting aluminum.

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This guy is a complete overload, but one of his videos shows him building a small graphene based battery. Thought it would fit in with the above video. Not sure where the video is out of his many many.

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We moved down to Mo. From Croswell Mi.
We left so much behind! Stuff that had been kicking around for too long.
Once I get my house built next week.
We will be doing the pros. and cons. of each and everything that needs electricity.

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Most if not all his videos are out of his lab and no this is not at his home. Robert has developed next generation graphene based technologies for some rather large companies.

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Hey guys. I know many of you are knowledgeable about solar power/panels, etc. Does anyone know where the ā€œbestā€ place to find such equipment is currently?
Also, I keep seeing used panels on ebay. Is that just a bad idea? or not?
We are wanting to get the well, a few lights, and some limited refrigeration set up so we donā€™t have to fire the big woodgas generator all the time if/when we lose the grid.

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Billy Iā€™m not an expert with solar, just know enough to get by, but Iā€™m planning on buying panels from Rich Solar. Mostly because they have Shop Pay so you can break up the total into 4 payments, and their shipping is free. https://richsolar.com/

I follow this guyā€™s YouTube channel for solar and battery stuff. Hereā€™s his website where he keeps his recommendations
https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/

I donā€™t know anything about it Billy but a guy on my homesteading site just posted this link and he is a long time off-gridder.

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Billy, if itā€™s mainly for powerouts the ball and chain will be batteries. The small amount of power needed to keep them charged is nothing. Almost no point using solar if the powerouts are shortlived. You could just as well grid-charge. If the shtf long term you will be forced to run the wg-generator anyway, for more powerful applications. Well, unless you make huge investments.

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Yeah, I know, but it would be nice to have continuous on demand for the well, etc.
But are you suggesting just to use batteries for that and then charge them with generator?

You have had some unusual weather go through your state recently Billy. You want to know something interesting about solar panels? They are like sails.

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