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I don't post often but when I read the headline of this topic, I wanted to add my two cents. After reading the article and everyone's posts (most posts being irreverent or poop-joke related) I have finished another chapter on my book of human ignorance.

As U.S. citizens, we live in a wasteful society of throw-away everything and unlimited (we think) natural resources. When you go home tonight, make a note of how many lights you have on in your house. If you live alone, this will be a good test to see how much energy you use, if you have family members, roommates, etc you can also monitor the total energy consumption in your house. OK, so you got five lights on and you are the only one home. Now add the energy used to power your fridge, microwave, water heater, stereo, dishwasher, TV, computer(s), aquarium, Nintendo, space heater, furnace, the list goes on. Are all these items 100% necessary? of course, this America and we demand convenience 24/7.

I am no better than you, I waste energy and it bugs me to go outside and watch the power meter spinning like a twirling dervish when I got the guys over for band practice. But I am aware of what I use and I do my best to conserve energy. I live in the NW US and we have lots of hydro-electric power plants on the Columbia, I am not a save-the-salmon radical but I don't want to see all the changes we make on the environment in the name of power generation to go waste on every single light in my house. If there is a new technology to limit energy use, I am all for it. In fact I have a few solar panels and few devices (lights & a TV) that I can use with my "free" power. In our lifetime, home-based power plants (natural gas-hydrogen based fuel cells, PV, wind power, etc) will become popular and necessary in many highly populated areas. Third world countries need this technology now since its price is low and their living conditions are so medieval compared to ours that any change for them is better than nothing. Our turn is coming soon.

My fifteen minutes are up. Here are some other links on energy-related websites/products.

Home Power Magazine

Jade Mountain Alternative Energy Devices

here (I keep getting a fcuking lameness filter abort, if I dont write anything here. Geez)

Also, a review of most of the winning books are here

We've already seen articles (on /. even) on digital paper. Onve this technology is created and marketed how long until you can buy a "book" that you can plug a chip, disc, or other media in and the text appears? Personally I'd love a device like this, as much as I love normal books, I'd love to carry fifteen of them in my pocket and be able to pop one of them in my "paper book" at any time to read them. The look and feel of a normal book would be there with the convenience of a digital format.

Isn't that title of Haldeman's (was it Haldeman?) story?

John Varley, actually, and it was only 16 years ago. Of course, the seminal work in the net-comes-alive genre is Vernor Vinge's 1980 True Names.

Is thermoelectric generation being used in this device to capture the waste heat for electricity? I didn't see any reference to the specifics of the heat conversion on the pages. Granted, the efficiencies of TEG are only now approaching 10 - 12% (last info I had), but all that heat is wasted otherwise.

A few years back, I developed a project for microwave repeater stations with one of my sites having no possibility of commercial power available. I picked the project up in the middle after some of the hardware had already been purchased, so I didn't have full latitude to develop the power sources. I also had no previous experience in this field and really no physics background. I had to learn all this 'on the job' and on the fly. If I had it do over again, I would do it differently.

Now, on to the meat:

If I was doing the project again, I would use a TEG for the power source at this site. The site now has 400 sq. ft. of solar cells, a 30Kw propane generator and 3000 amp/hrs of battery capacity (there are a lot of microwave and other radios on the site.) This requires maintenance at least a couple of times a year, quarterly is better. The generator has to be serviced, the propane filled, etc. And the site is inaccessible due to weather for at least 2 months of the year (the top of an 8000' mountain.)

TEG has been used for years with great success. The basics are that TEG is based on thermocouples. Like the opposite of the Peltier effect for you overclockers. Heat is applied to one side of a P-N junction and the other is cool, electrons flow from the junction. These have been used for remote power for many, many years. In doing the research for this project I talked to a tech at a radio station in Montana that had been using a unit to power their remote transmitter for almost 15 years. He said he checked the site once a year and cleaned the orifice on the burner every two years, but it probably wasn't necessary. He said the minimum life expectancy was more than 20 years.

Granted, this doesn't get away from having to provide some kind of fuel to burn at a site, but there are no moving parts, no noise and little environmental impact. And no oil changes for an internal combustion generator. In my research, I found that the TEG burned less fuel than the propane generator also.

If the GE unit isn't using TEG (or some more efficient method) for capturing the waste heat of this process, they should certainly consider it.

I just wonder what kind of power could be recaptured from the waste heat in the average house? I did a google search and saw a unit that replaced (wrapped around) the exhaust stack of a diesel truck and generated up to 1Kw. It was intended to replace the alternator, but I can see all kinds of environment benefits, such as powering the refrigeration unit in a semi trailer without the addition fuel being burned and polluting.

In understand that the upfront cost of TEG is pretty high, but there are certainly good applications for it. I talked to several of the vendors at an alternative energy expo in my town six months ago, and only one of them had ever heard of TEG and he didn't know what exactly it was.

I'm surprized that this technology isn't used more.

Here's a link to a place that was advertising a 27 lb. 5000 watt generator a while back.

There are also links that describe the technology.

You probably want to take a look at the Brass Cannon pages for information about a Solar recharging modification.

If you consider using the thin-film cells from Jade mountain, you can mount them on a standard 3Com/Palm flip lid, by using ring crimp-on connectors, positioned over the ears of the lid and the holes on your Pilot.

This is particularly cool news for me because I'm the IT guy at an ecological products/alt energy company. ;-) I'd love to have energy-saving hubs, switches and servers; if nothing else, reduced air conditioning bills could save us a substantial amount of money every year, and that kind of talk makes even skeptical folks smile.

We've got part of the office lighting and some of the computers on solar power now. We've found that the key to making it work involves more than just better/more efficient technology; it requires discipline as well--weaning ourselves away from the lure of instant-on products which are always consuming power, for instance.

Real Goods and Jade Mountain, among others, have been selling these for several years now, for a wide range of laptops.

...and it IS number 2 on the Internet top 100 SF/Fantacy list
So I guess that there are a couple of people out there, who's read the book :-)

Getting back towards the subject, has anybody used one of those batteryless torches where you squeeze the handle to light them up?

I've got one, and it's much more annoying than a Radio/Torch with Solar and Dynamo charging of internal battery.

I also have about 8 Swatch "Autoquarz" watches (like the Seiko Kinetic) and a Solar Swatch. I have too many Autoquarzes to keep them all running, but I can mostly keep the Solar running just by leaving it somewhere that gets a little sun.

On the other hand, I had a solar-only radio and had a lot of problems keeping that charged - being able to wind my new radio is a major advantage.

I guess I'm saying that we should have as many ways to power things as we can think of, so keep the kinetic powering of laptops going, but also work on embedding solar panels into the lid.

Now if Jade Mountain would just help me work out which solar kit I need for my Sharp Actius...

Kris.

Win a Rio (or join the SETI Club via same link)

• CPU/Mobo - needs to be minimal power consumption so it can run idle even with very little light and periods of darkness. I'm currently planning on using strongarm, but I haven't decided on any particular board.
  
• Storage device - large but low power consumption; speed isn't much of an issue. An eeprom-based storage device might be the best, but I really don't know enough to decide yet.
  
• Display - know of any good non-backlit lcds? ...any at all? :) Power consumption isn't a big issue, since the battery can supply power when the display is active, but I do want to keep it as low as possible.
  
• Network interface - some sort of wireless ethernet for short range, plus something like freewave's wireless terminal adapter for long range (it uses a bit of power, but I think I could handle it...although I might change my mind if I see the price :).
  
• Photovoltaic power supply - I'm open to suggestions, but Jade Mountain's look nice...