Alt fuels was Re: [AT] Gasoline $

[Indiana Robinson]

On 10 Aug 2005 at 16:40, ken knierim wrote:

>> 
> Growing trees and burning them for fuel isn't overly efficient either
> (less than 1% according to my reading), but it works, it's cheap and
> it's low tech enough that even I can do it to a small degree. 
> 
> Ken 
>



	One of my own criteria/wish for power/heat is that it should NOT have to go through a 
meter... :-)
	I am fond of the concept of "point of use" generation of power. I like running my 
calculator on its own tiny solar cell instead of off of the grid even if its draw would 
be almost unmeasureable. I like the concept of solar powered fence chargers. I also like 
low tech. I own an email list called Cheap Power on Yahoo with almost 350 members and 
another group called Cheap Shelters with almost 800 members that all think pretty much 
the same way. You know you can find whole big crowds of guys that will stand in line to 
tell others that something will not work and why. Sometimes though it is like bumble bee 
flight and guys thinking for themselves find ways to do what the experts say will not 
work. I was not impressed when they spent $10,000 putting in a solar system in the white 
house years ago to provide "part" of the hot water for one wing. Most any amateur could 
have done better than that for under $1,000... I "was" impressed when I saw a guy 
generating a steady 2 amps 24-7 with part of the  flow of a small stream running through 
an old squirrel cage blower for a water wheel and turning an old automotive alternator.   
:-)   He was charging a couple of batteries that he only pulled a light draw off of for 
short periods and it served his modest needs. It wouldn't put a dent in my needs but it 
worked for him and I can applaud that.
	There are now commercial systems that use an engine to generate electricity to charge a 
battery bank and use the engine and exhaust heat to heat the house and the water cooling 
heat to supply hot water. I have seen it hailed as a great invention but the amateurs 
have been using them for years.

-- 
"farmer", Esquire
At Hewick Midwest
      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...

Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish Highlands,
Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. In America 100 
years 
before the revolution.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net