Energy Projects. A Roll Call Of Members With An Interest

Q: We have had a few members/guests discussing "off grid" and alternate energy stuff. It may prove interesting to see a "roll call" of folks having interests/planned projects or better yet-completed projects in these areas. Even the low lying fruit like a cheapie solar fan'+ aaa/ aa battery charger counts. I saw my first solar thermal install when I was 7. The attic of a friend's house was fitted with patio doors on it's south face and black painted trash cans were part of it. -do you recall details of stuff from when you were 7 any better

A: I'd like to play with the tube based algae farm for biodiesel production. Or was it ethanol? Hopefully the diesel. I am currently semi-off-grid for water. It's not so much for environmental reasons as it is more of a political/principal issue with me. I haul my water in from a 3rd party supplier, and fill a small tank at home. The tank supplies a 12VDC RV type pump with a built-in demand switch. The demand switch will shut the pump off when the pressure reaches about 60 PSI. The pump is attached to a garden hose spigot that is open, and the city main connection is closed. I have a tee with an expansion tank so that I can use a water heater, but the expansion tank also helps to reduce the pulsing caused by the pump, and it also buffers about a gallon of water, reducing pump cycling. IIRC my dad used to sell the real "space blanket" stuff, Eagle Shield reflective radiant barrier, a couple decades ago. Nifty stuff, basically foil backed bubble wrap, engineered by NASA... YES! the "Reflectix" stuff is the originator of multiple factor reflective mode insulation. It functions in both IR reflective and transfer mode blocking effects. Which includes of course simple air flow blocking. There are flame spread/thermal upper limit ratings one needs to be damned careful with as exceeding them can be deadly! Let's say- this stuff can indeed get solar collectors above the stagnant air ignition runaway point frighteningly fast...The Space Blanket" single layer mylar stuff comes in grades from the soccer mommy dollar store/harbor freight crap up to some now sadly rare 20 mil aerospace grade single layer film. with a bastard hybrid of 1 mil laminated to 20 mil sheet that will delaminate under direct solar use to look like the "sunburn" it arguably is:> Aerogel WILL get cheaper with mass production and all the "rules" for thermal stuffs will change at that time. Deploying stuff that is so hygroscopic it burns fingers by dehydration will be non trivial indeed though. Hey - to dredge up a seemingly dead tech Beadwall! It was two pane glass with foam beads blown in /sucked out to change from solar collect mode to solar thermal retention. My Google searches seem to denote a KLF-like "unpublishing" of data on it too... Ah well- Eris does as she wills eh?.

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