Anyone here generate your own electricity?
 

If so, is this bullshit? http://solarwindplans.com/ under $200? WTF? I was under the assumption that solar panels/wind turbines are quite pricey...

when are they gona harness the power of farts?

I could def power a lot with mine these days.......

I just remember one of my grandparent's old house fans. They never had air-conditioning. The would start their fan in their attic, open windows... and bam... cool house. Worked really, really well... just saying.

What happened to some of the old ideas?

I hate these types of sites. 99.9% of them are worthless and a waste of time. Not even going to bother reading but go by the old saying - you get what you pay for.

lol thats a scam site to collect leads..

jesus

Probably a very crappy conversion rate.

Say no to Taco Bell... seriously.

I generate my own electricity, but I leave it all inside your girl.

;)

I have a fully solar powered home. If I can get that for $200 and they work, I will kill myself. We spent around 30k for the entire house.

Just for a solar water heater, it cost me around $700. However, this is Thailand and the price here for such a thing may be more (or less) than the average. I don't know about prices outside of here.

I have three solar panels on my RV charging four deep cycle 12 volt batteries with a 2000 Watt Continuous/4000 Watt Peak Power Inverter
(Power inverter takes 12 volt DC and makes it 120 volt AC)

Paid $400 for the panels and inverter, got the batteries free from craigslist
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/pho...2499/92464.gif




http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/pho...0599/90599.gif


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=90599
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92464

My Hamsters

yes around here every apartment has a solar water heater.... if you install your own solar system on your roof you can sell it for profit to the electricity company....it costs a lot more then $200 though, it's probably a scam.

I have a friction generator hooked up to the shaft of my penis. Everytime I beat my shlong I generate enough power to light New York City for an hour. Anyone in NYC had any blackouts lately? I didn't think so :1orglaugh

very cool...id like to have my own power or at least supplement it.

i have heard of guys in northern ontario and northern quebec who install water mills...as they have many streams and rivers on their property....they then sell the hydro they produce to the hydro companies

i often wonder why we dont build huge wind farms up and down beside the large iron power lines that run everywhere...the land is already there...many of the areas would have enough wind...

Lots of states are giving money to people that make the switch and also most of the local power companies will purchase the power from you.. Most likely that is what they mean. If you get the rebates and sell total power you generate for the first month or so, you can most likely make enough back to have most of the coin back in your pocket.

In my opinion its well worth it.

about 2 years ago I researched and wrote a handful of articles for an alternative energy company, and I'm serious when I tell you there is NO WAY you can get a whole system for $200.
Only for wind, you need the guy wires, the tower, the actual wind turbine, the inverter, the batteries... you name it! Try getting all that for $200!

Very interesting,actually!

You can build your own wind turbine and solar systems cheaply and easily. Those sites are scams to collect leads. But there's sites like Instructables that have SHITLOADS of plans to build stuff.

I have been researching this for a bit. I have found good systems for 20K. My electric and water bill is about 1k every month. I got a big house, but it gives me big bills to match.


Solar is the way top go. With the right batteries and solar cells, you will get no electricity bill.

in fact you should consider the yield of these solar panels


sun (100%) --> light (XX %) --> panels (YY %) --> electricty (ZZ %)

if the yield is higher it is more expensive.

We installed a huge solar panel to power a pump down a 80ft deep bore hole. Cost $10,000 AUD. We water all out stock with the water drawn up from the bore and hope to bring water to the house for shower and washing purposes soon. Bit salty to drink unfortunately :-( great swimming pool water though!

Solar panel next to the bore...


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3513/...a602f50d_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2577/...29ae678f_o.jpg

How come you didn't use a good old windmill? I guess probably the same reason you didn't use a wind generator... no wind? :winkwink:

Windmills set up are around $2,000 from what i can remember. I used to work on a farm and they are the biggest pains in the ass to maintain, i spent proberly 10% of work time maintaining the bloody things, the washers were always wearing out inside or the barrels would wear or get grit in them, then as you pointed out, no wind = no water! There was quite a few times when there were weeks of no wind and i had a water pump pumping day and night out of a particular well to keep cattle and sheep alive. We have had the solar pump operating for 18 months now and it hasnt missed beat, even on a cloudy day, it still runs.

That is looking too cheap..

lovely info - i have house plans for a stawbale house and want to be off the grid in a couple of years - looking for the right property

how long do those solar panels last?

Someone needs to figure out how to make shingles that double as mini solar panels. :2 cents:

Going 'off grid' is where it's at.

except when the only "high speed" Internet I can get is via satellite...

the mrs. is looking at setting up our own power plant; we have nearly continual sunshine and nearly continual high winds (high desert area) ? a lot of folks here use solar and the sexy new "hi tech" wind turbines are small and powerful, but, a nice system can run $30K or more

T Boone Pickens, Pickens Plan

Been trying to make that happen for a while now-

I think the typical warranty for reputable brands is 25 years.

It's been done. :)

I couldn't agree more...
Most of them are just scams and nothing more...

I dont ...

Not only been done, companies are working and near finished with a printable solar cell.

Site listed is a fraud. The cells are more expensive than 200 each, and a inverter will run ya another 400-800. Batteries can be obtained fairly cheaply if you shop around are frugal.

Wind turbines should not be the blade type, they are to prone to damage, require more maintaining, and do not give the best results in all wind conditions. You should be looking at the spiral cylinder type blade systems. They work in all wind conditions, even minimal winds. Plus they require less space and lots less maintenance.

Geo thermal is not cheap and not available everywhere unless you have major money. Hydro can be obtained pretty cheap and easily if you have year round running water on your property. Alcohol to electric conversion is one of the cheaper routes if you do not have water, only major expense besides the converter is have the crops or sugars to produce the alcohol in the first place. Then again nothing is stopping someone from generating it from steam either.

Real trick is to have the best ones for your conditions all working in tandum for you. One of the main reasons my main property buy I am searching for has been so difficult. I have so many wants on my list and I want at least 80% of them and 100% of the mandatories. Not easy but not impossible either where I am at.

Here's a water wheel setup I came across in a remote mining town I visited recently... not sure what it's connected to (if anything) but it looks cute! :upsidedow

http://thsrv.com/p/wp-waterwheel.jpg

Sweet! There's many differing micro hydro implementations. Differing prices to fit differing locations. See https://youtube.com/results?searc...1&oq=micro+hyd