I agree completely that most of what we consider necessity are not. The problem is that SWMBO is city bred and very much feels entitled to her energy sucking comforts like AC and dishwasher. two of the biggest energy wasters around.
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Hey Andy and Billy we all suject to our SHMBO’s expectations. My born and bred very contry girl gave me dictates on laundry cycling when she left this morning.
Hmmm. At least 1-2 loads a day. And only ME generating just one of those loads a week.
She does have two houses with two automatic washing machines available to her (I blame these wonderful nearly “one button” machines for this excessive “Needs”!!)
She does have two outside 30 and 40 foot long 4 and 6 lines solar cloths drying lines to use. I’ve seen these all loaded up simultaneously.
Sigh. Cloudy, wet rainiy season Nov through March these will NOT work.
Yeah. The two electric cloths dyers get the work out then. Inside rack drying here is a sure way to respiratory infections - TB, being the worst. Just too much humidity, moisture loading ups into our houses.
So trick is to not build design for a flip-switch “just like normal” woodpowered systems.
Why sould a woodgas vehicle be expected to perform just like a Dino fueled? Be happy it will work on wood.
Belive me once the Grid does go down and you are able to give her more than the in-the-dark; without power, neighbors with lighting, refrigeration and an operating machine washer you will be the Hero.
Yep.Yep. Space cooling on wood energy is a much tougher nut than space heating with wood…
Only way to cut this down to a personal woodsweat capable size would be to stay normal grid. Then with grid take-out events and a single window one-three room AC capability will get you kissed. A hurricane/tornado country scaled solution.
REgards
Steve Unruh
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This subject is worth bringing up again and unless there is sulphur, or water in the gas I can’t see much of a risk. It may energy wise not efficient…but, can’t see why it can’t be safely done
It depends on how much you are trying to compress it as it is a mixture of gases. Since it is flammable, you also have to be careful of going boom from a stray spark, which could be like the electric motor on your compressor or static electricity. Generally because of the energy input into the system to compress and the low energy density of the gas, it isn’t worth the risk.
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About the a/c issue. I was wondering if anyone had considered a peltier type cooler with a fan set up. It wouldn’t cool a whole house, but it would take a lot less electricity and possible cool a small well insulated bedroom.
There are two technologies which you might want to look at, one fares exceptionally well in hot environments, and the other in humid hot environments.
For hot places, you might want to look into solar collector concentrator arrays heating a pipe with water (or antifreeze in the winter), and part of the heat from that would go to a heat storage silo made of soilcrete/dirtcrete and isolated/insulated with aerated concrete (the bubbles make it a great insulator), and most of the heat would go into a stirling engine used for power generation (or a steam engine using a water-alcohol mix, to work better at lower-than-water-boiling temperatures). Depending on where you live, a hectar of land dedicated to solar collector concentrator arrays could generate enough electricity for AC and a fridge.
For hot humid places, mist updraft towers work even better. Though the tower/chimney would have to be as tall as possible and made out of a thermally-conductive material (i.e. metal), and wide enough for enough airflow to happen. It also needs a transparent funnel above the ground, to concentrate the hot humid air to go into the chimney. When the funnel connects to the chimney, you can have a wind turbine to generate power, and you can use pipes for passively pull air from the rooms which need cooling to close to the wind turbine.
If you cannot find a large enough pipe by itself, you could make one, or even welding together multiple smaller ones. Do keep in mind that many chimneys had either a metal tip above the brickwork, or a ceramic tip, for the very same reason of passive air current. And you can even supplement the power of the chimney by using a fire to heat the humid air, when it’s cloudy, or during the winter (especially if it snows there).
Also, since SHTF is considered, fitting your system with a gearbox and drive shaft connected to a few gearboxes with plugs for mechanical power would be usable to power devices. Using pure mechanical power to run a blender, a grains grinder, a washing machine, a fridge and so on would likely be the best, in the case of an EMP or CME (corronal mass ejection), so long as the contacts are not metal, to not arc-weld together. Adding a layer of rubber/plastic/ceramics in between the metal contacts would keep a large-enough spark from happening.
If you can get a chimney going a few meters above the tree line, and have it painted black/dark, it would produce at least some updraft, which you can use for cooling the rooms you want cooled.
Then you should also look at having a water tower, to have high-pressure tap water. You can also use the tower as a solar updraft tower, if you plan it well. And since I talked about using mechanical power, you could also use the water pressure to generate mechanical power, for your needs, if you want.
An updraft-powered water pump can be used to refill the water tower, with the excess water going into the water-powered generator to refill your batteries, or going into a lake you could use for fishing and you could funnel over the lake for the updraft tower. You can also use the mechanical power for heating (i.e. the water, either for shower or to keep it from freezing) with a water-brake windmill, and if you have water and wind, you can use ceramic evaporative coolers (and you can even make them from cement) for air conditioning, instead of having to use electricity for it. And you can throttle it depending on how much water you supply it.
Again, evaporative air conditioning would do the trick better, as long as there are air currents and the air is low humidity. And a solar chimney would create just that wind. Also, the updraft creates lower pressure, which helps condensation, up the chimney, if it’s tall enough. A normal house chimney is most likely not tall enough, thankfully, but the wind it produces can be used in low-humidity environments for evaporative cooling.
Relevant links:
https://medium.com/rockbottom/updraft-tower-chimney-the-hidden-solution-of-green-power-a172e877e2ee?k=37357768fd666484d4fd0d34c86cfac0
"Updraft Tower/Chimney — the hidden solution of green power"
https://medium.com/rockbottom/rock-bottom-to-industrial-revolution-needed-technologies-6752f584171d
"Rock Bottom to Industrial Revolution — Needed Technologies"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3M-GVdz1xo
"Soil Cement - Simple & Cheap Home Application [Homemade]"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPjMMH7QzKU
"Homemade Soil Cement Slab"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSLJCPR1Prw
"Air Crete Machine for Under $30 (DIY)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGlDsFAOWXc
"Stirling Engines - the power of the future?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPg7hOxFItI
"How does a Steam Turbine Work ?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCGVTYtJEFk
"Solar Tower Energy in Spain, Madrid"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-P3xPdz35s
"How It Works : drive shaft BIKE"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY-KWeYTU40
"Pedal-powered machines created to help farming families in Guatemala"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzqJS_EJV94
"Human Powered Machines - Can Pedals Power the World?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZwfcMSDBHs
"How Water Towers Work"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbyL--6q7_4
"pelton turbine"
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/02/heat-your-house-with-a-water-brake-windmill.html
"Heat your House with a Mechanical Windmill"
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2019/05/evaporative-air-conditioning.html
"Evaporative Air Conditioning"
Please remove the limit of 2 links per post!
You’re encouraging people to split an already big post into an even bigger set of many smaller posts.
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Correct Joseph, reading some of these posts you think they were mouth pieces for big oil or big gas. Its like listening to Karens or Nervous Nellies while they shell out obediently their $3.00 plus per gallon of propane. In the late 1800s they ran the industrial revolution with Gas producers and engines that ran off coal and wood gas. Towns lighted their homes with “town gas” they used gasometers to store it. Bio digesters use flexiable gas covers to produce and store a portion of it till its compressed. I watch youtube videos of people compressing and storing it up to a year and then lighting it and it burn beautifully. Is it because an individual can easily produce gas from wood and charcol to produce his own useful gas and not have to depend on volitle high prices that change at the frequency that you change your underwear? It that why we have the chorus of you cant do it or its dangerous?? Bull crap you can build a gasometer with relief valves. You can fill a propane tank with relief valves. Yes you use relief valves just like on a compressor tank or a boiler. And you can install 2 for redundancy if you want. And a gasometer rises and falls as its filled. Yea you can conveniently compress any other gas on earth, ugh but wood gas or charcol gas heaven forbid, its impossible or its too dangerous. Bull Schitt.
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No Jeff,l its because its dangerouse for one to compress it. We are not talking about storing our problem is compressing with half ass engineered contraptions. Get tar into those compressors and you can suck air into the system. Compress air with H2 and it WILL blow up. Hydrogen embrittlement is also be big problem when using high presure.
Second is where you going to get the energy to compress the gas?? The gas energy density you get out is less than the energy required to compress the gas in the first place. So whats the point? Might as well use the energy producer you use to compress the gas for the end aplication to begin with.
Then another point how long you think a propain tank is going to last? A 40 lb tank would not run a gas grill for more than 15 minutes. Again whats the point. You could rig a blower to suppoly gas directly to that grill easier and with way less overhead.
No one here has an issue with gasometers or storeing woodgas. The point is compressing this gas is dangerouse and no one here is going to endorse something that could lead to injury or death. As for the end application its simply not worth the efforts when there are easier ways to achieve the same outcome.
In fact I am working on a system that can just that but safely and efficiently with a gasometer system.
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