How much longer?

On Apr 8, 9:00*am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

Uh oh -- thread creep. *Good story, though.

Back during the LAST "energy crisis" in the 1970s, solar collectors sprouted
on rooftops like daisies. *Everyone wanted to harness all that "free"
energy.

Now, you say, could these not be made more durable today? *You bet they
could, but at a cost that would amaze you. *
One day these problems may be overcome. * Jay Honeck

Jay, Ill try to get things a little more on topic. The airport where I
keep one of my airplanes is run almost entirely on Solar power (There
is a small diesel engine for the well) . Most of the equipment ,
including the batteries, was purchased government surplus and the
system has payed for itself several times over. As an interesting side
note, all the hangars on the field are secondhand . I am 30 minutes
from a major metro area and I pay a buck fifty a month for a hangar.
FB

Jay, Ill try to get things a little more on topic. The airport where I keep
one of my airplanes is run almost entirely on Solar power (There is a
small diesel engine for
the well)

What parts of the airport are solar powered? Runway lights? Lights in the
FBO? How do they supply heating/air conditioning?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Apr 8, 10:08*pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

What parts of the airport are solar powered? *Runway lights? *Lights in the
FBO? * How do they supply heating/air conditioning?
--
Jay Honeck

No runway lights. One paved and two grass runways (Runways mowed by
fossil fuel burning tractor). EVERYTHING else, including the office/
bar is solar. I dont have one of those fancy electric hangar door
openers (I need the exersize anyways) but I do have electric outlets
in my hangar. The owner of the field is not a tree hugger or a
granola, I think he was just looking for the cheapest way to do
things.
As for heat and air; Swamp cooler in the summer (Or we sit outside on
the patio for our cookouts on the weekends) and the place is closed
much of the winter (Owner travels south for the winter and no snow
removal but you can land and take off when the runway is clear). I
will admit it is a bit out of the ordinary but I brought it up to show
a little of what is possible.
Frank

I will admit it is a bit out of the ordinary but I brought it up to show
a little of what is possible.

I think it's great (we, too, have a manual hangar door), and wish more
places would do this.

I'm curious how they are getting 110 volts for your outlets. I thought that
was unattainable with current (sorry!) technology.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in
news:M56Lj.112941$yE1.87006@attbi_s21:

I will admit it is a bit out of the ordinary but I brought it up to
show a little of what is possible.

I think it's great (we, too, have a manual hangar door), and wish more
places would do this.

I'm curious how they are getting 110 volts for your outlets. I
thought that was unattainable with current (sorry!) technology.

That's because you're an idiot.


Bertie

Jay Honeck schrieb:
I'm curious how they are getting 110 volts for your outlets. I thought that
was unattainable with current (sorry!) technology.

*hihi*

230V is doable. without problems. *doohhhh*

#m

Jay Honeck wrote:
I will admit it is a bit out of the ordinary but I brought it up to show
a little of what is possible.

I think it's great (we, too, have a manual hangar door), and wish more
places would do this.

I'm curious how they are getting 110 volts for your outlets. I thought that
was unattainable with current (sorry!) technology.

From what, solar cells?

A big ass inverter.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

On 2008-04-09, Jay Honeck wrote:
I'm curious how they are getting 110 volts for your outlets. I thought that
was unattainable with current (sorry!) technology.

It's been attainable to get 110vac from DC probably for the best part of
a century or more. The magic device is called an inverter.

I have a little solar photovoltaic panel on my shed roof for powering the
electric stuff in the garden, like lighting, pond pump etc. It currently
has 3 outlets - 12 volt DC, 6 volt DC (a DC-DC converter I built myself
for charging 6 volt lead acid batteries, for use with my bike), and 240
volts AC off an inverter.

Technology to make AC from DC, DC from AC, high voltage DC from low
voltage DC and all the combinations has existed for decades. It's very
basic stuff. I've made 1000 volts DC from 12 volts DC. It's not even
hard to do.

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.

Dylan Smith wrote:
On 2008-04-09, Jay Honeck wrote:
I'm curious how they are getting 110 volts for your outlets. I thought that
was unattainable with current (sorry!) technology.

It's been attainable to get 110vac from DC probably for the best part of
a century or more. The magic device is called an inverter.

I have a little solar photovoltaic panel on my shed roof for powering the
electric stuff in the garden, like lighting, pond pump etc. It currently
has 3 outlets - 12 volt DC, 6 volt DC (a DC-DC converter I built myself
for charging 6 volt lead acid batteries, for use with my bike), and 240
volts AC off an inverter.

But how useful is 10 microA at 240V? :-)

Matt

"Dylan Smith" wrote

Technology to make AC from DC, DC from AC, high voltage DC from low
voltage DC and all the combinations has existed for decades. It's very
basic stuff. I've made 1000 volts DC from 12 volts DC. It's not even
hard to do.

Right, not hard; just expensive and inefficient as hell, and in some cases,
almost unusable.

Most of the home level inverters are what they call "modified sine wave"
inverters. All that says is that the innards of the inverter cut the power
on and off rapidly, so if you read the voltage, it rises and falls in a
choppy square notched "sort-a-looks-like-a-sine-wave" if you squint real
hard.

The more sophisticated ones are more than three times the cost, which makes
them very expensive.

The modified sine wave converters will power most stuff without permanent
damage, but don't try to use your DeWalt cordless drill battery charger.
Anything that reads like a high voltage until you put the load on it will
fry, and it says so in the inverter's instructions, if you take the time to
read the fine print. Don't ask me how I know that.

They also put out a good bit of heat, and guess what. That heat is power
going out the window, in a big efficiency loss. Oh, and don't try to power
a refrigerator, or AC, unless you really want to see a big time efficiency
hit. They don't work very well, at all.

So, the long and short is that if you are using battery or Solar DC, you had
better be using as many DC units as at all possible, or your batteries will
not last very darn long.

I'm not against Solar, but everyone needs to know the limitations of doing
so. You need a specially designed system using mostly straight DC, or lots
of money, if you expect to get much useful power out of the system.
--
Jim in NC
--
Jim in NC