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The Ontario Government is preparing to unveil a program next month that would encourage homeowners, farmers, schools and community co-ops to set up renewable energy systems by letting them sell "clean" power to the grid at a fixed premium. (Tor. Star Aug. 22)
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Back in 1989, we visited a Canadian bookstore in Paris France while we were living there for six months. We found a renewable energy book written by Energy Probe in the 1970''s. George read it a dozen times, and proceeded to spend our last year of university reading anything he could get his hands on (not to mention trying to convince me to go off-grid in the house we were to build the following year). We sized our future system using the sizing chart in the NRCan publication Photovoltaics: A Buyer''s Guide. We quickly realized that the amount of electricity you want to use directly relates to the cost of the system. We reworked the chart many times and managed to design a system to power the loads we felt were absolutely necessary. We decided that three 51W Kyocera photovoltaic (PV) panels, four 220Ahr golf cart batteries, 30A charge controller, and a 600W modified sine wave (MSW) inverter would be adequate. The total cost of this equipment in 1992 was $2400 –– THE LITTLE SYSTEM THAT GREW in 2003 the cost would be closer to $1500. With this equipment we ran a few compact fluorescents, small 12V TV/VCR, 12V Shurflo water pump (still working 11 years later), kitchen mixer, battery drill charger, 2A vacuum, sewing machine, food processor and blender. The panels were fixed to the south side of our house. George made two thermosyphon solar hot water panels that supplied ample hot water on sunny summer days, but little in the spring and fall. You guessed it-cold showers three months a year. In the winter, water circulated through a water jacket (not to be confused with a water tank) in our 1940''s Beach cook stove (rescued from a neighbour''s field and is improving with age). The water was extremely hot and was thermosyphoned into an insulated tank upstairs. This stove is still the only source of heat in our house. After two years of buying a block of ice every three days for a small cooler, we decided a fridge was in order. To run the 12 cu.ft. manual defrost Danby (great fridge), we installed a 600W Whisper wind generator on a 30-foot pull-up tower. Power output turned out to be inadequate. Having no fuel-fired generator, we had to act. We raised the wind generator to 75 feet and now had power to spare. We spent hours mesmerized by the wonderful sight and sound of the wind generator; and often opened the skylight above our bed to have the soothing sound lull us to sleep. We can see the wind generator about a mile from home and it''s a most welcome sight. To reduce consumption, the fridge was insulated and the back vented to the outside. Before this, we experimented with running well water through a car radiator. It proved adequate, but the small detail of uncontrolled humidity killed the project. Original ideas can be great, but don''t forget the little details. The little inverter could barely run the new fridge, but succeeded for four years until they both died. Fridges like big inverters and inverters don''t like being overloaded, so size accordingly. A good rule of thumb is to oversize your inverter from the beginning, because you will always end up needing more power in the future. Most of the other components, however, can be added to gradually. We purchased a Trace DR1512 next and it has run anything we plug into it including table saws, 6hp shop vacs and even a thickness planer. It sometimes puts up a fuss ,but keeps doing it. Over the years as our loads have increased, we''ve purchased more PV panels one at a time. Our biggest improvement came when we mounted the panels (now ten-for a total of 650W) on a manual tracking structure high above our garage. We sold the wind generator to a friend as the wooden blades were chewed up by hail. Turn off a wind generator at the first hint of hail. The new wind generator was also a 600W Whisper, but now had much improved blades and a wonderful control center and metering system. In order to boost solar output, we purchased an MPPT solar charge converter from Solar Converters in Guelph. It''s a truly magic box that results in an increased solar output of 10% in the summer and 40% in the dead of winter. George''s father patiently managed to semi-automate the tracker (having only to be reset each night) by coupling a 60V gear head motor that runs directly off a small 12V panel and is geared down through some bicycle wheels and gears to track the sun in a clock like fashion. It rotates continuously at half the speed of the hour hand of the clock. The output of the MSW inverter caused many quirky problems most notably with electronics. The last straw was the difficulty we had in running our newly purchased Fridgidaire front-loading washing machine. Most of the quirks of the MSW inverters can be overcome, but we decided to purchase an 1800W Statpower Prosine (pure sine wave) inverter. This allowed us to reserve the bigger, tougher and less expensive DR for the shop. Primarily for looks, we purchased a stainless Conserv (formerly Vestfrost) fridge. It gave us a fairly large freezer, but uses slightly more power than our modified and insulated Danby, which was smaller and had a tiny freezer. We plan to remotely locate the compressor away from the cabinet, but have not yet done so. We burn 5 gallons of diesel a year in our single cylinder Lister Petter (soon to be run off veggie diesel) coupled to a car alternator. We could easily do without the generator, but tend to get lazier the bigger and better our system gets. We should all remember that it''s a lot easier to conserve energy than it is to make it. Our second set of golf cart batteries lasted again only three years. Our answer to this problem was the scrounging of a set of six very used 400lb Varta batteries. They have close to 2000 Ahrs of storage. These are roughly 5 times the size of the old golf carts. I have an energy pulser on them and over the last 5 years they have been improving in capacity, despite being 17 years old. We now run lots of lights, breadmaker, Conserv fridge, 12V TV/VCR and water pump, hot water circulation pump to heat the radiant floor in the addition, train set, 12V car stereo, food processor, pasta maker, blender, ceiling fans (all night in humid weather), outdoor lights, LED Christmas lights, grain grinder, computer and printer, washing machine, 10 Amp vacuum cleaner and many large power tools. We now have a Cadillac of a system, but it was sure fun starting out with a Pinto. We don''t think we would be as intrigued and impressed with renewable energy without the bumps along the road. We have recently acquired two 1970's Swiss Elektro 6.5 kW wind generators and two 110- foot towers. They will provide us with over 60 kWh/day. We have never consumed more than 5 kWh/day. We will soon heat our 3500 square foot home with electricity as well as being able to have an electric clothes dryer, a dishwasher and an electric stove. We could even have air conditioning, but would never want it. Good things come to those who are patient!!! In the end, no equipment has worn out due to proper use. Any faults can be attributed to overloading, and all of our equipment is still being used in some fashion. As your system grows, very little becomes redundant.
RENEWABLE ENERGY FOR THE INDIVIDUAL Sunday, November 13/05
For more info call Vitold, 519-923-3005 co-sponsored by CFRE
QUOTABLES... Charles Caccia, former Chair of the
It was only a little over 2 years ago on that fateful August 14 that we were reminded how dependent our lifestyle is on electricity: The Big Blackout, as it turned out, was a system failure in Ohio that reverberated throughout the Northeastern U.S. and all of Ontario and brought life to a standstill. Have there been any lessons learned on how to conserve electricity? It doesn't look like it, because this summer record amounts of power were consumed and several times our system was threatened by blackouts. The Energy Minister issued a number of appeals for energy conservation, but as far as we are concerned support for that vital part of our energy picture needs more than just public appeals. That's why CFRE in partnership with the Glenview Park Secondary School in Cambridge started a project to introduce residents to the energy saving fluorescent light bulbs. Nearly 5,000 were distributed together with information pamphlets for other money saving ideas. Another benefit of this project was the potential avoidance of 150 tons of Greenhouse Gases.Now you might wonder why we choose to reprint the article "The little system that grew": it also has to do with the Big Blackout. People with off-grid systems didn't suffer the inconveniences and possible losses of most power consumers. With electricity rates rising investing in off-grid or at least in renewable energy emergency stand-by units becomes more sensible, so there is a story how to start small and work towards the ideal of an off-grid system. Our board members got together at a meeting in August at the most central location for all: Port Hope. Besides the task of up-grading our website we decided to simplify our web address which is now a straigtforward www.cfre.ca The coordinator asked for measures to lighten his load and was happy to have volunteers for a newsletter- and a workshop/display committee sign up. On the fundraising issue it was decided to again promote our partnership with Escarpment Telecom(ET), especially since their rates have just been lowered again and seem very competitive with other carriers. It is a painless way of donating to our work as ET will split their 20% commission with CFRE through our RENEWABLE TELECOM (please state that explicitly on your application!)For people who make a lot of overseas calls they have calling cards who have unbelievably low rates(see inserts). Another fundraising source are our beautiful environmental t-shirts with the eye-catching logo and message! Following a personal invitation the coordinator attended the Shared Air Summit 05 in Toronto in June. The Premier and David Suzuki were keynote speakers and the Energy and Environment Ministers chaired expert panels on air quality. During question period he got a chance to promote a provincial Solar-Roof program. In a response to a follow-up letter the Energy Minister promised to ask the Ontario Power Authority to look into solar applications. In July he attended another event, a Dialog Session organized by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization(NWMO) for about 50 invited guests. This federal government agency will have to come up with a plan to manage the deadly nuclear waste safely for many hundreds of thousands of years! The coordinator joined with quite a number of participants calling for a speedy phase-out of nuclear reactors and deal responsively with whatever amounts of radioactive fuel bundles are already accumulated.
After 1 1/2 years of continuous service the coordinator needs a holiday! So he will be in Germany for 5 weeks til mid-October to visit with relatives and also to attend an international wind energy conference in Northern Germany. We can learn a lot from Renewable Energy Development in Germany and I'll do my best to bring back valuable information. Have an enjoyable autumn, the 'golden' time of the year! CFRE board members with their
Please help us in our fundraising efforts to avoid a rise in our membership fees due to increased electronics and mailing costs. A painless way of donating would be to sign up to Escarpment Telecom, who have just lowered their rates and certainly seem to be competitive with other carriers. CFRE has partnered with them for years under "Renewable Telecom(CFRE)" and we thank those members who have been donating through RT! We have included their pamphlet with price lists and hope that you will consider switching and signing up. Just make sure you specify "Renewable Telecom (CFRE)" at the bottom where it says "Partner Charity"! Another benefit comes with the fact that you can get a charitable receipt of the 20% portion of your bills at the end of the year!! And for those generous members who are already looking for some relief from their income tax there is always a way of getting charitable receipts by making cheques out to CCWM (Citizens' Clearinghouse for Waste Management), writing on the bottom line "Donation CFRE" and sending them to our office for forwarding Please consider helping us with our important work!!
QUOTABLES...Margot Roosevelt in "Winds of Change"
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