Balancing the Green Life

[Paul Bailey]

With the new time of use meter that arrived 4 days ago and the 74 indicating my past 4 days use( YES guys thats 18.5 Kwh/day). Alot of us have mixed feeings about this in the group for reasons of the big Brother is watching and monitoring your useage based on time(coming soon) This may or may not be in your favour dependant on your lifestyle and conservation efforts. Paul:) Lets keep those meters rolling at a MUCH slower pace!!!

[Ralph Day]

Lets keep those meters rolling at a MUCH slower pace!!![/QUOTE]

Rolling or incrementing (rolling sounds better)

That's a pretty good daily consumption for your household Paul (do you call yourselves a swarm?)

Ralph

[Rob Beckers]

18.5 kWh/day is great compared to the Canadian average (somewhere around 33 kWh/day)! It's also a whole lot better than the use in our own big-old-house. Paul, if I remember right you have PV supplying power as well, right? Is that grid-tied? How much are you producing on an average day?

Ralph, you're completely off the grid. What's your average daily use?

The writing on the wall is that electricity prices are set for a sharp increase in the near future. All fossil fuels have gone up substantially in price, not just oil. That'll be both a good and bad thing; I truly feel for those that are already struggling to make ends meet, increased energy prices will make their life so much harder. On the other hand, people (in general) won't get serious about conserving energy and sustainable energy sources until prices go up.

-RoB-

[Ralph Day]

Hi Rob
I think our usage is about 7kwh per day. It's hard to tell without any kind of metering of usage...only inputs.

This week i "had to"charge with the genset, today i'm running the distiller as a diversion. Those 5 days or so of inclement weather made the gen charge advisable. The batteries had been sitting at 80-85% state of charge for several days so a charge was really a preventative measure re: sulfating.

Les MacDonalds'consumptions are less than ours by a lot. They have to watch more closely than we do as they can't just fire up a genset when needed (3-4kwh per day i think). I'm not nearly as careful about usages in the summer as during the winter...you can count on getting out of a hole more quickly in the summer (that's an amp hole).

Rlaph

[Joe Blake]

Well, looking at my power bill, I seem to be averaging in the vicinity of 11 kwh/day, but that includes my use of my "water-from-air" condenser, which drawing 450 watts, runs 24 hrs a day for about a week or so to fill up all my small tanks and bottles, and then runs a couple of hours a day to "top up". Further, that consumption also includes my work, since I work at home. In summer time this is more than covered by 160 watts of PV cells, when I generate a small excess.

There's no artificial heating in the house, and very little (mostly solar powered) cooling.

Joe

[Ralph Day]

Hi Joe
Would what you refer to as a water from air condenser be what we call a de-humidifier? Essentially it is a refrigeration coil with a fan blowing air past it. Moisture condenses on the coil and drips down into a bucket (to be disposed of!! horrors!!). The idea is to remove the humidity in basements or such other spaces as needs drying out. Many people keep them on boats, or use them to dry out boats during repairs.

I tried to run one on a diversion, but the cycling on and off of the refrig unit was unhealthy for it. If used now, it's just on a timer set to run at a time of day when power is in excess...or so hoped.

Here the problem is getting rid of moisture. The well for drinking is full, the 3000gallon tank of rainwater for total house use was overflowing yesterday...so my "water from air" water is surplus to requirements. I have used it in my little distiller (for battery water), but if it's coming right out of the air there'd be no minerals in it anyway. Hmmm. Gallons of the stuff every summer. Kill a watt meter says it uses 385 watts while running. I can't remember how many litres of water it will remove in an hour, not much anyway. My other way of drying the basement is to open the windows and let mother nature do the work...best done on a dry windy day, usually when i'd have the electricity to spare. THe worst days are dank, cloudy rainy...when the renewables are at their lowest production.

Your setup reminds me of Luke Skywalker's home on Tantooine...a water farm. Looked dry in the movie.

Ralph

[Joe Blake]

Hi Joe
Would what you refer to as a water from air condenser be what we call a de-humidifier? Essentially it is a refrigeration coil with a fan blowing air past it. Moisture condenses on the coil and drips down into a bucket (to be disposed of!! horrors!!). The idea is to remove the humidity in basements or such other spaces as needs drying out. Many people keep them on boats, or use them to dry out boats during repairs.
Ralph

It's a dehumidifier, plus.

http://www.airwater.com.au/awproducts.htm


Instead of the condensate going into a bucket, it goes through a series of charcoal, ceramic and reverse osmosis filters, then through a sterilising ultraviolet light tube, and into a storage tank, from which very clean water can be drawn.

During a good period it will produce over 15 litres per 24 hour period (although the makers claim 28 litres.)

Although at present we are in the first true "winter" winter in several years, with days of rain in a row (compared to our previous drought winters), Australia is still the driest continent (after Antarctica apparently) on earth, so
anything that produces even a small amount of drinkable water is looked at with fondness. Have recently been getting the hint from government that the cost of fuel, electricity and water are going to be increasing in the near future.

A secondary benefit in winter: The refrigeration circuit obviously removes heat from the incoming air and disposes of it via the "hot coils". However, to conserve energy, the cold (dried) air passes through the hot coils and helps to cool the refrigerant. However, the air coming out of the back of the machine is still about 10 degrees C warmer than ambient, so by turning the machine backwards, this exhaust air goes into the main room in the house, keeping it warm(er). In summer time, although the expelled air is still warmer, I aim the air flow behind the big kitchen refrigerator, which generates aero-turbulence which increases heat transfer from the fridge's hot coils. However, I've yet to work out how to get this heat out of the house. I'm thinking along the lines of sun-powered Peltier devices, a couple of which I have lying around doing nothing.

Joe