It's political, not technical!

[rhetoric]

I'm not necessarily against the war in Iraq, but I wonder how many homes could have been outfitted with a set-up like this for the price of our foreign policy in the mid-east. Oy.

Almost makes me feel bad about burning wood! He lives in New Jersey and produces all of his own juice. Great little video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEdQRVQtffw

 

[saichele]

It's a great video, and yes, it's political not technical, but political also means economic. The tank farm is larger than many people's back yards, and the tanks themselves probably cost more than any car I've ever owned.

 

[velvetfoot]

'A mile of thick wall copper tubing in my front yard'. Sounds expensive.
So, he stores enough energy in his batteries and hydrogen (the equivalent of 40 gallons of gas?) to get him through the dark and I imagine in Jersey, cloudy, winter days and nights?

 

[Corey]

Dang - the video is blocked out at work but already I'm starting to cringe.

From what others are saying, it seems like this guy put a huge amount of money and resources into some 'green' energy source and now claims to have the equivalent of 40 gallons of gasoline in stored energy?

I should probably wait until I can see the video, but just for some quick numbers - the last time I looked copper pipe was well over $2/ foot, so I would expect his mile of pipe to be $10,000+ For all his work, he has stored the equivalent of 40 gallons of gasoline? That's about 4.5 million BTU give or take a few. Now I don't feel too bad spending a weekend and a couple gallons of gas to cut a cord of hedge. By most accounts that will net about 32 million BTU - 280 gallons of gasoline! I generally burn about 3 cords/yr to supply ~80% of my heat. If this guy only has 40 gallons worth of energy stored, I hope it is a short, warm winter in Jersey.

Corey

 

[webbie]

Everything is political in some sense....and as they said on the radio yesterday, ONE DAY in Iraq = health insurance for 250,000 children!

I have not seen the video, but it is interesting how we could probably turn the clock back to 1979 and see all the exact same stories. In fact, I was on "real" TV a couple time back then as an "less" energy proponent. The real "political" question is whether our society and economy as a whole will get greener each year, or whether we will go backwards once the perceived "threat" is over (threat being high prices, etc.)

 

[velvetfoot]

The video isn't political at all.
It's technical, and interesting.
The big tanks he uses to store H2 at low pressure that he derives from electrolysis from excess electricity.
He has a PlugPower fuel cell unit fired by the H2 for backup electric in addition to storage batteries.

All very interesting.
How useful is all this in the NorthEast though?
I've been out of touch.

 

[rhetoric]

You're absolutely right -- the video isn't political. My point is that the problem is political. Of course he has a wildly expensive set-up, but just the fact that he generates 160% of his energy (in the summer) w/ solar alone IN NEW JERSEY tells us that we don't need perpetual motion machines to meet our energy needs and protect the environment. What we need is public policy that helps make home energy production more economically viable. Prices will only come down if there is financial incentive and I'm just afraid that by the time fossil fuels are to scarce enough to motivate other forms of energy (that is, if we wait for the market to push us into wind, solar, etc.), the planet will already be cooked.

He has another video about his hydrogen powered car in which you can hear a BIT more of his political side. I'll post that on a different thread.