[ale] OT Just bought my 1st & 2nd "lighting-class" LED bulbs

[Watson, Keith]

> Mike W, and all,
> 
> I've studied solar quite a bit.  I have a subscription to Home Power
> magazine.  I like the idea but getting payback in any good time frame is
> hard, in the South East, even if the wife problem were fixable.  Big
> problem is heating, cooling, and dehumidifying.  I tell people I could
> solarize my house for the price of the house.  A 15 KW array, for about $
> 150,000 would do nicely.
> 
> You only get the mathematical equivalent of 5 hours of full sun here per
> day.  That means that it's mathematically equivalent to a sun that comes
> up instantly, stays 5 hours, and is gone.  You have to account for the
> time when it's not as bright or is dark.  If I average my load throughout
> the month, I need 3 KW at all times.  Thus, a 15 KW array running 5 hr per
> day is about the same as a 3 KW load running 24 hr per day.
> 
> Also, when it's dark(er) and you still need power, you have to get it from
> somewhere.  So, you either need a battery bank weighing thousands of
> pounds or you need a grid tied inverter and net metering.  You can get net
> metering in GA, so long as the net solar output total never exceeds 2% of
> what the power company generates (as of the last time I checked).  When
> you're generating excess energy, your meter runs backwards or a second
> meter tally's your contribution.  When you are using more than you're
> making, your meter runs forward as usual.  The electric company bills you
> for the net of what you use plus a minimum maintenance fee no matter what
> you use.  If, at the end of the year, you've contributed more than you
> used, you might get the wholesale price for it, which is about $ 0.015 /
> kwh.
> 
> No luck when it storms, like ... er ... the last 3 weeks.  So the array
> has to be even bigger.  Not much production in the winter either, when the
> sun is low.  So the array has to be even bigger.  Unless I have LOTS of
> money to burn, like winning the lottery, I doubt I'll be solarizing.
> 
> Now, solar water heating can be much more viable.  But, as you said, you
> can have too much hot water.
> 
> What I REALLY want is a low temperature vapor engine that will run on a
> 170 degree hot water source rather than requiring a 300 degree plus boiler
> like a steam engine does.
> 
> What's sad is to think that we get about 1000 W / square yard of heat from
> the sun on to our roofs.  For a 50' x 50' roof space (at noon), that's 277
> square yards or 277 KW of heat hitting it.  I SO wish I could put that to
> use rather than paying the electric company to pump the heat back out of
> the house.
> 
> Hmm, I saw some neat semi underground houses on the travel channel.  10'
> below the ground, the temperature is almost completely constant, and earth
> is a pretty good insulator if you have enough of it.
> 
> We really do just about everything to work against nature, rather than to
> work with it.
> 
> Just for kicks, look up thermal energy storage system.  This is sometimes
> used with industrial buildings.  They may have a huge tank with ice water
> in it as cold storage.  Then, instead of "chilling" water to cool the
> building, they just run it through the ice tank.  Overall, it's much more
> efficient.  Eventually, you have to rechill the tank, but you can do that
> with off peak electric rates, etc.
> 
> I've given some thought as to whether you could do that with a house.  Say
> you have two 3000 gallon tanks of water.  (I'm strictly making the numbers
> up and haven't done a thermal analysis on them.)  Say you simultaneously
> heat one and cool the other by running a heat pump.  Then, when you need
> cooling, you pull it from the cool reservoir with a heat exchanger.  When
> you need air heat or water heat, to a point, you pull it from the hot
> reservoir.  You also use solar heat to reheat the hot tank and solar
> energy and or geothermal cooling to recool the cool tank.  At certain
> times, you could pump heat from the cool tank to the hot tank.  Like I
> said, I haven't done the math, but I bet there would be a way to make the
> house much more efficient.  It's especially frustrating in the spring to
> be heating the house at night and cooling it in the day.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Ron


Ron,

Have you considered using a geothermal heat pump?

Geothermal heat pump
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heat_pump


GeoSource Heating and Cooling Systems use the Earth as an Energy Source and Heat Sink
http://www.soundgt.com/earth.htm


12 Feet Under: 1000 Square Feet of Geothermal PC Cooling
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?245467-12-Feet-Under-1000-Square-Feet-of-Geothermal-PC-Cooling

http://preview.tinyurl.com/7p4phy9


Geothermal Computer Cooling Discussion
http://www.overclock.net/t/643120/geothermal-computer-cooling-discussion

http://preview.tinyurl.com/kfatcqx


PC cooling using 1000 ft^2 geothermal
http://hackaday.com/2010/03/22/pc-cooling-using-1000-ft2-geothermal/

http://preview.tinyurl.com/yf5zqll


Seven innovative ways to cool a scientific computer
http://www.isgtw.org/feature/seven-innovative-ways-cool-scientific-computer

http://preview.tinyurl.com/n6kjrd4


keith

-- 

Keith R. Watson                        Georgia Institute of Technology
IT Support Professional Lead           College of Computing
keith.watson at cc.gatech.edu             801 Atlantic Drive NW
(404) 385-7401                         Atlanta, GA 30332-0280