Man Raises a Duck in His Beard

Bullitt said:

I have seen those rocket stoves on YouTube. It uses the hot smoke to warm up the walls and seats, and the heat is retained. It seems to work well.

You should check out Solar Cabin on YouTube for information on setting up a simple solar system. Since you are using wood for heat, you should be able to power everything with less than a 2,000-watt solar system. It is heating and cooling that uses most of the electricity. The guy with the Solar Cabin channel uses wood for heat and some propane for his stove and on-demand water heater, and his solar power system is only about 600 watts to run his refrigerator, lights, TV, computer, etc.

Some states allow a person to sell electricity that they put back into the grid. This is the simplest way since all you need are solar panels and a grid-tie inverter for an on-grid system. If you produce enough electricity your utility company will pay you.

Click to expand...

Yeah I've been reading and watching a lot of videos, I'll really amp it up when I'm about ready to actually do the first set of stuff. My state will buy the extra electricity. It's set up pretty nicely, I think. They do a 1:1 credit ratio. 1 kwh used = 1 kwh produced for each billing month. So I don't need nor want to go off grid, although I'll do modular backup system though, if I can, and I think I can but need to read more.

Now, any credits that roll over are then worth a percentage of a credit. I can't remember the specific value but it's somewhere between 40 and 60%. So to break even you need to factor in that percentage if you produce more electricity in the summer then in the winter and/or your usage changes.

At the end of a calendar year you can let the credits roll over to the next year or cash them in. So most likely at first I will just roll them over so I don't have a bill ever, but if I'm producing enough, even during the winter that I won't have a bill anyway, then I'd cash them in. By doing the system myself, I'm looking at 3-5 years to pay for my initial investment, at current prices. Estimated life span of my equipment is 50 years. If you factor in my time and assign a reasonable living wage to my time, it's much longer but I really don't tend to look at it that way.

I'd also like to tie in some wind power, maybe some micro hydro electric and very likely some themo electric. I could use a bank of TEG's in with a heat exchanger/heat sink systems that connects my RSMH to my inground floor heat system.

20 watts of tegs running for 24/7 is the equivalent to 100 watts of solar panels in southern cali in the summer in terms of total output.

In the event of an outage and say my panels are covered in snow or it's raining, cloudy, at night, whatever, even a 20 watt TEG system could keep my lights on and a freezer/fridge reasonable cool.

I'd like some exercise equipment connected in too, eventually. I know the output is ****, but bicycling at an average speed for an hour will power some basic lights all day.

I'd like to look into biogas more too. I'm thinking a small biogas unit that collects and stores the gas in a tank that can be used to run a generator during emergencies. The overall efficiency will suck, but just the backup safety net at such a low cost is just amazing.

Spongiform said:

Yeah I've been reading and watching a lot of videos, I'll really amp it up when I'm about ready to actually do the first set of stuff. My state will buy the extra electricity. It's set up pretty nicely, I think. They do a 1:1 credit ratio. 1 kwh used = 1 kwh produced for each billing month. So I don't need nor want to go off grid, although I'll do modular backup system though, if I can, and I think I can but need to read more.

Now, any credits that roll over are then worth a percentage of a credit. I can't remember the specific value but it's somewhere between 40 and 60%. So to break even you need to factor in that percentage if you produce more electricity in the summer then in the winter and/or your usage changes.

At the end of a calendar year you can let the credits roll over to the next year or cash them in. So most likely at first I will just roll them over so I don't have a bill ever, but if I'm producing enough, even during the winter that I won't have a bill anyway, then I'd cash them in. By doing the system myself, I'm looking at 3-5 years to pay for my initial investment, at current prices. Estimated life span of my equipment is 50 years. If you factor in my time and assign a reasonable living wage to my time, it's much longer but I really don't tend to look at it that way.

I'd also like to tie in some wind power, maybe some micro hydro electric and very likely some themo electric. I could use a bank of TEG's in with a heat exchanger/heat sink systems that connects my RSMH to my inground floor heat system.

20 watts of tegs running for 24/7 is the equivalent to 100 watts of solar panels in southern cali in the summer in terms of total output.

In the event of an outage and say my panels are covered in snow or it's raining, cloudy, at night, whatever, even a 20 watt TEG system could keep my lights on and a freezer/fridge reasonable cool.

I'd like some exercise equipment connected in too, eventually. I know the output is ****, but bicycling at an average speed for an hour will power some basic lights all day.

I'd like to look into biogas more too. I'm thinking a small biogas unit that collects and stores the gas in a tank that can be used to run a generator during emergencies. The overall efficiency will suck, but just the backup safety net at such a low cost is just amazing.

Click to expand...

It seems you have many projects planned.

From what I have seen solar power seems to be about the most reliable. It is also simple, clean, and quiet. And the cost is now about $1 a watt for solar panels. Check Craigslist for solar panels for sale in your area. And you can buy a Chinese-made grid-tie inverter on Ebay pretty cheaply. You can buy a 1,000-watt grid-tie inverter for about $200. You want an inverter or inverters that can handle more power than you will use so it won't overheat. Often the inverters are stackable, so you can buy smaller ones as you have the money and connect the inverters together to handle more power.

Wind turbines are particularly good in the winter to offset the reduction in sunlight when it is cloudy and days are shorter. Missouri Wind and Solar has some reasonably priced wind turbines. http://store.mwands.com/wind-turbines/
You usually need a different grid-tie inverter for a wind turbine. Many wind turbines also need a dump load. If your grid electricity goes down the wind turbine needs to have a load so it does not spin out of control. A hot water heater with a DC heating element can be used as a dump load. Or you can have DC-powered lights as a dump load.

If you had something like 800 watts of solar power and an 800-watt wind turbine, I think you would have all the electricity you needed because you are using wood for heat. But that would be about $2,000 for the system including the two grid-tie inverters, the wiring, the dump load, and the mounting pole for the wind turbine.

I would suggest you buy one solar panel and one grid-tie inverter to start, and then you can build from there. A 300-watt solar panel, a 600-watt grid-tie inverter and wiring will be about $450.

You can build a wood frame to mount the solar panel or you can put the panel on a roof of a shed or house. You just want it high enough so that it is not covered by your winter snows.

You may already know all these things, but I hope it is helpful.

Bullitt said:

It seems you have many projects planned.

From what I have seen solar power seems to be about the most reliable. It is also simple, clean, and quiet. And the cost is now about $1 a watt for solar panels. Check Craigslist for solar panels for sale in your area. And you can buy a Chinese-made grid-tie inverter on Ebay pretty cheaply. You can buy a 1,000-watt grid-tie inverter for about $200. You want an inverter or inverters that can handle more power than you will use so it won't overheat. Often the inverters are stackable, so you can buy smaller ones as you have the money and connect the inverters together to handle more power.

Wind turbines are particularly good in the winter to offset the reduction in sunlight when it is cloudy and days are shorter. Missouri Wind and Solar has some reasonably priced wind turbines. http://store.mwands.com/wind-turbines/
You usually need a different grid-tie inverter for a wind turbine. Many wind turbines also need a dump load. If your grid electricity goes down the wind turbine needs to have a load so it does not spin out of control. A hot water heater with a DC heating element can be used as a dump load. Or you can have DC-powered lights as a dump load.

If you had something like 800 watts of solar power and an 800-watt wind turbine, I think you would have all the electricity you needed because you are using wood for heat. But that would be about $2,000 for the system including the two grid-tie inverters, the wiring, the dump load, and the mounting pole for the wind turbine.

I would suggest you buy one solar panel and one grid-tie inverter to start, and then you can build from there. A 300-watt solar panel, a 600-watt grid-tie inverter and wiring will be about $450.

You can build a wood frame to mount the solar panel or you can put the panel on a roof of a shed or house. You just want it high enough so that it is not covered by your winter snows.

You may already know all these things, but I hope it is helpful.

Click to expand...

Thanks, some of that I have worked out already but not all of it.

I'm leaning towards the more expensive enphase inverters but that should last a lot longer/be more reliable. I'll have to work out the specifics of exactly which pieces when I have a final starting budget, I'm not sure what it will be just yet. If I can do a bigger inverter and it doesn't butcher the efficiency to run it at low loads then I very well may go that route. I know the higher the inverter rating the cheaper it is per watt.

You've got to admit though, it is a cute picture!

I think this is very sweet. I use to sleep in bed with my duckling, poult, and 2 chicks all on my chest, because they wont go to sleep any other way....but i loved it and miss it now that they have all grown....

Just a quick update, the followup story (short version) is up on youtube here.

An official story with pics went out to the media and ended on the dailymail first.
They were supposed to put a link back to the video, but they forgot or changed their mind. Unfortunate, that many views would have paid for the rest of my house.

Anyhoo, Peeps is doing good. Been working on teaching (her?) not to be so **** spazzy. Still pretty high strung but has mostly quit that extreme prey reflex when I walk by and actually calls me over to be hand fed all the time.

If anybody is still interested, here's just a little update. I took Peeps for a walk today for the first time, trying to leash/harness train em. (ps: can anybody tell by looking, male or female?) Peeps was born around the middle of december.

looks like a girl so far..