Solar power for my coop - I wanna be Green

[Buster]

Quote:
Not sure about NC. Your water table is about 3 feet in some places and ours is 100+.

 

[NurseNettie]

OK, I'm not sure how I missed this post the first time around---- however, I'd love to "see" some of your energy sources (ie pics) and if anyone has website links that you've found with good information, I'd love it you could share them!
We are looking to get some power to our barn before winter, so we can have lights (for us at night) and a heat lamp if we need it during the winter ( it can get to -40 for a bit mid winter). Our power was shut off to the barn when the electric company had to repair a breaker here, so, it's wired, but not connected anymore- argh!

 

[Firefyter-Emt]

Just one point on wood stoves, catalytic stoves are much better than standard stoves when it comes to smoke and produce about 90 percent less particulate matter. Plus, they can run 30% to 40% more efficient, and that means less wood to buy!

Scroll to the bottom of this page for some info.

http://www.woodheat.org/technology/woodstoves.htm

Oh, and Hey PC... Where in CT are you, I like they way you think!

 

[Yanna]

Professor-yellow's post about efficient use of resources in Asia is a good one -

I found some photos online a while back featuring an example of permaculture in Africa (I couldn't find them just now but here's an interesting video ). The photos featured a backyard permaculture setup in which a trellis was built over the rabbit hutch and chicken run on which were grown food crops. The vines shaded the rabbit hutch, the rabbit hutch shaded the chickens, the rabbit droppings attracted flies whose maggots the chickens ate and then, when the crop was harvested, all the leaves/vines were fed to the rabbits and chickens. The vegetables, rabbits and chickens were all used for food, ultimately - pretty nice system.

The idea of using human waste as a resource is quite sound, although having worked with "humanure" that was purchased from the City of Tacoma (when I still lived in WA), I will say that it does kind of smell funny. I would use it on ornamental beds rather than vegetable beds, even though it's "Safe" to use anywhere. I didn't care for the smell at all.

The use of regular old garbage as a source for generating ethanol was featured in a radio program on Chicago Public Radio a couple of days ago. I'd never heard of it before but it does sound like rather than putting all of our garbage in landfills, we could actually use a lot of it to produce cellulosic ethanol, sending the price of food back down where it belongs.

I have some permaculture videos and assorted information on my website; most of it is oriented toward urban folks but the ideas can be applied on a larger scale for those dwelling in more rural settings (perhaps! you can be the judge).

I know this thread was begun as a cheeky sort of joke but it would be great to see more discussion of this type here.

BTW, a healthy portion of the scientific community believes that Al Gore is full of poop - maybe some of us could chip in and get him a composting toilet .

Edited for Link Installation

 

[PurpleChicken]

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I like you. You can recognize sarcasm and make intellegent suggestions at the same time.

 

[Lea71]

You rock!! All kudos to you for making an effort to decrease your carbon footprint.....I'm off to get a solar ventilation fan...thanks for sharing.

I'll be looking for your posts more often...thanks purplechicken!

 

[PurpleChicken]

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Using a small solar panel, charge controller, and battery system can run low wattage
lights almost all the time. The trouble would be heat lamps. Most heat lamps are
greater than 125 watts which would require a pretty big system to stay on all night
during the winter months.

My suggestion for heat would be a low yield IR propane heater. You can get a 40 pounds
propane tank at Home Depot for $125 and the heater for less than that. A small heater
like this can be modified to work with a larger tank so you don't have to change the tank
all the time. http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200326072_200326072

How long is it from the barn to the house? Is an extention cord not possible?

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Thanks for the compliment. Just please understand this thread started out as a joke
based on real technology and ended up going in a good direction.

As I've mentioned on other threads there are all kinds of ineffective technologies
being promoted as "save the environment", "save money", "make your own power".
The key is sorting out the cr*p that works versus the stuff that doesn't.

 

[Frozen Feathers]

Sorry, I missed this earlier, but I would like to point out that methane contributes only 18% of total greehouse gasses, while Carbon Dioxide contributes somewhere around 72%.

Therefore I would suggest forgoing the barrel for storage of methane (unless of course you are using for energy) and instead equip your chickens with Carbon Dioxide reducing gas masks. The masks may inhibit the chickens to breath properly, in fact they probably won't be able to breathe at all, but anything that helps reduce your carbon footprint is much, much more important.

 

[PurpleChicken]

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But methane burns where CO2 doesn't. I like to take the CO2 to charge my paintball
gun tanks with. Around my place there is a lot of CO2.