That's true, at this point chances are from a monetary standpoint renewable energy probably won't make sense for most homeowners. I'm from the Buffalo, NY area, and while we get decent sun I'm not in a rush to cover my roof with the latest PV technology. I do have a few panels, though, and I charge some batteries. My interest in RE is partly our of general curiosity (and partly out of the hope of minimizing my impact on the environment), and having a little bit of backup power should the grid go down. (We had a storm back in '06 that took the power out for 8 days.)
I'm actually planning to build my own inverter (as you may have guess from the other post), and would like to come up with a control scheme whereby I have a couple big deep cycle batteries constantly topped off with excess power here and there diverted to running my mail server. (Of course, with a Web interface for remote monitoring, and for linking to on/. so folks can go count the watt-hours and hit refresh every few minutes while they're bored at work.:))
If you're curious, you should play with it in a small system. You could drop maybe $300 or so (maybe less) and build a little one to run some lights or charge a laptop or whatever. Great way to learn, and great in the event of an emergency too.
True. Depending on where you are another option is to use tracking racks; I forget where the cutoff is as to what makes this preferable to say more panels or a more efficient charge control (MPPT), but it is an option.
Keep an eye on the prices, it should be interesting to see what happens over the next few years with renewable energy. I think it is becoming appealing to more people. Eventually if it came down enough so that a substantial portion of the population would consider using their unused roof space to offset their energy consumption (especially in the summer, when there's a lot of sun and people like to use air conditioning) our energy situation would greatly improve.
I might have to count on a.2 power factor, instead of.3-.4.
What exactly do you mean here? Residential electric customers don't get charged for imperfect power factor, and it shouldn't really affect how much power you put onto the grid via an inverter. (This assumes that the grid behaves as a load with unity power factor, as that's what the utility strives for.)
What exactly do you consider a workstation or a desktop? A corporate machine verses a home machine? A computer used for things like browsing the Web and Email, verses one used for programming or 3D modeling? I've done all of those things on the two main computers I use the most, a one a desktop and the other a laptop.
Well, yes and no, you mention a lot of things that could be grouped as switch-mode power supplies.
Making an inverter isn't really rocket science; basically one way to do it is to get your input voltage to say 170 VDC (maybe up from 12 or 24 volts from a battery, or down from say 600 volts from a solar array) and then use that to power a class D amplifier with a sine wave as the input.
Now, that isn't that hard to build. However, for an inverter of the type you might get to feed power from your solar array into the grid it gets more complicated. First, it has to run in phase with the grid, which isn't that hard. But then of course we want to have safety features in place, and the utilities will require UL listing. The inverter has to be able to sense over- and under-voltage and current conditions on both its input side and output side, not to mention variations in frequency in the AC line.
A possible problem is that of islanding. Say the power goes out on your block during the day. We don't want the inverter to backfeed the downed grid, and attempt to power the neighborhood. It's also possible that a neighbor may have a generator wired improperly, such that when he starts it up, he backfeeds the grid; ideally this should be detected as well so the inverter does not contribute. (Detecting these situations relies on above mentioned safety features; obviously you probably won't be able to juice up your whole neighborhood anyway, so if nothing else the overcurrent protection should shut the inverter off.) Yes linemen are trained to treat all lines as if they are hot, but it is still a safety issue. (There are some inverters that can maintain batteries too, so obviously they would just have to disconnect from the grid so you could still have some backup power for yourself.)
On top of this many modern batteryless inverters implement some form of maximum powerpoint tracking (MPPT), in which they adjust the conversion ration on the input to maximize the power from the array. And a lot of them even keep statistics, I think some even have Web interfaces. (Nice to have, but I suppose it would be a bit excessive.) So a lot more than you would think goes into that $3600 inverter.
The UPS you mentioned probably has a modified square wave output, from a comparatively simpler inverter circuit. (Higher end ones may have a sine wave output, but probably not the $130 one you mentioned.) Your computer PSU probably won't care, but things don't tend to run as efficiently on power of that quality, and you sure as hell can't put it on the grid.
Which illustrates nicely why I'm opposed to nuclear plants. Politicians will always try to run equipment beyond the specified safe limits to save money. The Chernobyl reactor was a perfectly safe design when operated within specifications, but people being who they are tend to want to go beyond petty things like safety regulations. Note that Japan has had a major leak nearly every year in recent history, and there have been mostly unsuccessful attempts to cover up all of them.
So what you're saying is that nuclear plants shouldn't be managed the way I manage my Gentoo install?
Just a thought, but have you played with the bandwidth limiting features of TOR? You might be able to make your connection a little more stable if you, say, only let TOR use a half or a quarter of your bandwidth.
As others have mentioned, just running a node without an exit policy is still very beneficial. It will still make the network faster, especially with hidden sites, which are only available on the TOR network. And, if you are going to run an exit, I think that the best course of action would be something like a dedicated box in another country, maybe Germany. Maybe even find a provider who will give you a couple IPs, so you can designate one for TOR, and use the other for Web hosting or whatever.
Efficiency isn't a big thing, yet. But as the cost decreases and people want to buy more, they'll need more roof space with a lower-efficiency panel. It's already an issue for larger (commercial-type) installations, where more efficient panels could save space, and thus wiring, mounting, etc.
I have one of these panels, a 10 watt one. I paid about $200 for it new. It's neat, especially since you can fit it in odd places. The high cost is mostly because you can roll it up into a type to store it. If you don't need that, it's not really worthwhile.
Probably because it's not as much of an issue for residential scale customers. In an industrial setting an individual customer may have several huge motors running. While the typical residential customer probably has a few big (relatively) motors as well, it's more reasonable to require compensation for the industrial customer.
I dunno, how about Ubuntu? Or Fedora? A lot of commercial software will pick a distro to support, like one of the two I mentioned (or something like RedHat Enterprise). If people can get it working on other distros that's great, it'll probably do fine.
I'm actually from the Buffalo area too. I actually have a small panel on my roof for for charging a battery and charging my laptop and running some other small electronics. I don't have the money for a big system like in TFA, but the amount of sun isn't that bad. The snow would be a bit of a problem but I could probably take care of it with the pool brush had I a large array on my roof.
Those are my feelings too. Photovoltaics (and wind) can scale down very well, and do so safely enough that a typical person could not only generate power in their own home but build and maintain the system safely themselves.
If he didn't want to go solar right away, just having the inverter/charger and batteries handy along with a generator would be a great help. With a setup like that you could utilize the generator better, so that if say your house is insulated and you don't need to run your furnace blower for another few hours you can shut the generator off and still have power for some smaller loads like charging/running a laptop. And with a good inverter like your Outback one the output will be pretty clean, allowing sensitive stuff to be run. And then with that in place it's not hard to add solar later.
Actually, even a smaller system is helpful. I've got a 32 watt panel up now charging a small gel-cell. It won't run the furnace but it will charge the laptop, cell phone, and UHF handheld radio, and run some lighting. It didn't cost a lot, maybe a few hundred dollars total.
I would say that part of it is that there aren't many options as far as buying a desktop PC with Linux installed. Well, there have been some, including products from Dell and those Wal-Mart PCs. But as others have mentioned Apple has had a following for years. Now the computers sell come running OS X, and the user base they had before along with their advertising makes people aware of the OS.
It would be interesting to see a company focus on taking say Ubuntu and make custom computers to run it on and then advertising them more like Apple. Maybe even with an Ubuntu Store, as someone else mentioned.
Slashdot Mirror
That's true, at this point chances are from a monetary standpoint renewable energy probably won't make sense for most homeowners. I'm from the Buffalo, NY area, and while we get decent sun I'm not in a rush to cover my roof with the latest PV technology. I do have a few panels, though, and I charge some batteries. My interest in RE is partly our of general curiosity (and partly out of the hope of minimizing my impact on the environment), and having a little bit of backup power should the grid go down. (We had a storm back in '06 that took the power out for 8 days.)
I'm actually planning to build my own inverter (as you may have guess from the other post), and would like to come up with a control scheme whereby I have a couple big deep cycle batteries constantly topped off with excess power here and there diverted to running my mail server. (Of course, with a Web interface for remote monitoring, and for linking to on /. so folks can go count the watt-hours and hit refresh every few minutes while they're bored at work. :))
If you're curious, you should play with it in a small system. You could drop maybe $300 or so (maybe less) and build a little one to run some lights or charge a laptop or whatever. Great way to learn, and great in the event of an emergency too.
True. Depending on where you are another option is to use tracking racks; I forget where the cutoff is as to what makes this preferable to say more panels or a more efficient charge control (MPPT), but it is an option.
Keep an eye on the prices, it should be interesting to see what happens over the next few years with renewable energy. I think it is becoming appealing to more people. Eventually if it came down enough so that a substantial portion of the population would consider using their unused roof space to offset their energy consumption (especially in the summer, when there's a lot of sun and people like to use air conditioning) our energy situation would greatly improve.
I might have to count on a .2 power factor, instead of .3-.4.
What exactly do you mean here? Residential electric customers don't get charged for imperfect power factor, and it shouldn't really affect how much power you put onto the grid via an inverter. (This assumes that the grid behaves as a load with unity power factor, as that's what the utility strives for.)
STFUnix
What exactly do you consider a workstation or a desktop? A corporate machine verses a home machine? A computer used for things like browsing the Web and Email, verses one used for programming or 3D modeling? I've done all of those things on the two main computers I use the most, a one a desktop and the other a laptop.
Well, yes and no, you mention a lot of things that could be grouped as switch-mode power supplies.
Making an inverter isn't really rocket science; basically one way to do it is to get your input voltage to say 170 VDC (maybe up from 12 or 24 volts from a battery, or down from say 600 volts from a solar array) and then use that to power a class D amplifier with a sine wave as the input.
Now, that isn't that hard to build. However, for an inverter of the type you might get to feed power from your solar array into the grid it gets more complicated. First, it has to run in phase with the grid, which isn't that hard. But then of course we want to have safety features in place, and the utilities will require UL listing. The inverter has to be able to sense over- and under-voltage and current conditions on both its input side and output side, not to mention variations in frequency in the AC line.
A possible problem is that of islanding. Say the power goes out on your block during the day. We don't want the inverter to backfeed the downed grid, and attempt to power the neighborhood. It's also possible that a neighbor may have a generator wired improperly, such that when he starts it up, he backfeeds the grid; ideally this should be detected as well so the inverter does not contribute. (Detecting these situations relies on above mentioned safety features; obviously you probably won't be able to juice up your whole neighborhood anyway, so if nothing else the overcurrent protection should shut the inverter off.) Yes linemen are trained to treat all lines as if they are hot, but it is still a safety issue. (There are some inverters that can maintain batteries too, so obviously they would just have to disconnect from the grid so you could still have some backup power for yourself.)
On top of this many modern batteryless inverters implement some form of maximum powerpoint tracking (MPPT), in which they adjust the conversion ration on the input to maximize the power from the array. And a lot of them even keep statistics, I think some even have Web interfaces. (Nice to have, but I suppose it would be a bit excessive.) So a lot more than you would think goes into that $3600 inverter.
The UPS you mentioned probably has a modified square wave output, from a comparatively simpler inverter circuit. (Higher end ones may have a sine wave output, but probably not the $130 one you mentioned.) Your computer PSU probably won't care, but things don't tend to run as efficiently on power of that quality, and you sure as hell can't put it on the grid.
I suppose I could part with one and still be feared.
What's the battery life like on laptops? Is it any better than Linux?
Which illustrates nicely why I'm opposed to nuclear plants. Politicians will always try to run equipment beyond the specified safe limits to save money. The Chernobyl reactor was a perfectly safe design when operated within specifications, but people being who they are tend to want to go beyond petty things like safety regulations. Note that Japan has had a major leak nearly every year in recent history, and there have been mostly unsuccessful attempts to cover up all of them.
So what you're saying is that nuclear plants shouldn't be managed the way I manage my Gentoo install?
Windmills do not work that way!
Just a thought, but have you played with the bandwidth limiting features of TOR? You might be able to make your connection a little more stable if you, say, only let TOR use a half or a quarter of your bandwidth.
As others have mentioned, just running a node without an exit policy is still very beneficial. It will still make the network faster, especially with hidden sites, which are only available on the TOR network. And, if you are going to run an exit, I think that the best course of action would be something like a dedicated box in another country, maybe Germany. Maybe even find a provider who will give you a couple IPs, so you can designate one for TOR, and use the other for Web hosting or whatever.
Efficiency isn't a big thing, yet. But as the cost decreases and people want to buy more, they'll need more roof space with a lower-efficiency panel. It's already an issue for larger (commercial-type) installations, where more efficient panels could save space, and thus wiring, mounting, etc.
I have one of these panels, a 10 watt one. I paid about $200 for it new. It's neat, especially since you can fit it in odd places. The high cost is mostly because you can roll it up into a type to store it. If you don't need that, it's not really worthwhile.
I heard this release is just Gentoo with the Ubuntu theme.
Ardour.
Probably because it's not as much of an issue for residential scale customers. In an industrial setting an individual customer may have several huge motors running. While the typical residential customer probably has a few big (relatively) motors as well, it's more reasonable to require compensation for the industrial customer.
So you think FreeBSD would work better for them?
I dunno, how about Ubuntu? Or Fedora? A lot of commercial software will pick a distro to support, like one of the two I mentioned (or something like RedHat Enterprise). If people can get it working on other distros that's great, it'll probably do fine.
High voltage DC is used in transmission, actually. Wikipedia has an interesting article. Seems it's better in some cases due to capacitance and such.
I'm actually from the Buffalo area too. I actually have a small panel on my roof for for charging a battery and charging my laptop and running some other small electronics. I don't have the money for a big system like in TFA, but the amount of sun isn't that bad. The snow would be a bit of a problem but I could probably take care of it with the pool brush had I a large array on my roof.
Those are my feelings too. Photovoltaics (and wind) can scale down very well, and do so safely enough that a typical person could not only generate power in their own home but build and maintain the system safely themselves.
If he didn't want to go solar right away, just having the inverter/charger and batteries handy along with a generator would be a great help. With a setup like that you could utilize the generator better, so that if say your house is insulated and you don't need to run your furnace blower for another few hours you can shut the generator off and still have power for some smaller loads like charging/running a laptop. And with a good inverter like your Outback one the output will be pretty clean, allowing sensitive stuff to be run. And then with that in place it's not hard to add solar later.
Actually, even a smaller system is helpful. I've got a 32 watt panel up now charging a small gel-cell. It won't run the furnace but it will charge the laptop, cell phone, and UHF handheld radio, and run some lighting. It didn't cost a lot, maybe a few hundred dollars total.
It should be fine as long as they're not screen doors.
I would say that part of it is that there aren't many options as far as buying a desktop PC with Linux installed. Well, there have been some, including products from Dell and those Wal-Mart PCs. But as others have mentioned Apple has had a following for years. Now the computers sell come running OS X, and the user base they had before along with their advertising makes people aware of the OS.
It would be interesting to see a company focus on taking say Ubuntu and make custom computers to run it on and then advertising them more like Apple. Maybe even with an Ubuntu Store, as someone else mentioned.