Coulson Energy Blog

I just spent the weekend entering in my Gas & Electric bills into google docs.

The MetEd Electric usage fluctuates through the year. Air conditioner, House Fan, as well as Winter months with longer nights that need illuminated. You’ll also notice that there is not much fluctuation in the cost of the energy proThese should be self explainatory.  Notice how the Gas usuage only went up slightly while the costs went up at an even higher rate.
Met Ed Electric

Met-Ed uses cost per kWh to compare energy providers.  Here is the current going rate, based on previous bills.

Columbia Gas

On October 4th, As part of the ASES National Solor tour we found our selves at one of the closest homes who have done alot in the way of alternative energy.

Here are a few things that we saw.

1. 2 – 3 kWh photo voltaic solar arrays (grid tied – no batteries)
2. Wind turbine (not tail, and doesn’t produce as well in our geographic area)
3. Discussed Geothermal (using the natural thermal properties of the earth)
4. Wind Mill that powers (an ice cream maker, or seed oil press)

Most of the stuff the owner installed him self (actually had contractors install it)

Something I found and thing it would be very interesting my readers.

U.S. Geothermal Resource (3-10km depth)

Open in Google Earth (672 KB – last updated: 8/19/08)

After getting the hoses connected and attached in our previous post.

We found yet another problem.

The AC pump from harbor freight was too powerful. It was sucking the water so fast, and hard that the hoses started to close. This in part was due to the force, and also the thickness of the walls in the hose.

The pump we got had a 115ft head (lift), at so many gallons per hour (see previous posts)

Solution:  Swap out the pump for a 12 Vdc.  This is called a “Utility Pump”. It works pretty good, and after further inspection of the sticker on the pump.  Max head 28′ at 260 GPH.  That makes sense, if I go over it will reduce the GPH.

One last thing to note, by swapping out from the AC long run use, to a DC intermittant use, I now have to figure out how to make it turn on and off at specific intervals.

Ahh.. the challenges of doing something new… someting on our own.

After many hours of trying to keep the down hose on the cap, I decided to try a different approach.  Retaining Pins.

Yet another trip to Harbor Freight for a container of different sized retaining pins, along with the wrench.  The wrench is highly recommended, if not required.

We also ended up getting a bung plug wrench.  It’s very helpful in tightening the plugs, and worked well with our hose adapters.

55 Gallon Drums

After getting a few responses from CraigsList on locating 55 Gallon drums (with lids).  My father and I decided to take a drive on Saturday.

Sure enough, we found an elderly gentleman (Mr. Albright) who is loosing his sight from diabetes.  He had about 50+ drums, selling for $8 a piece.   He had steel, and plastic, we opted for plastic.   He was a nice old man and we knew that just by talking with him, we made his day.

We were able to load all 7 drums in the back of my fathers truck, with only inches to spare for clearance.  These drums were used for transportation of food products (Tea in the blue barrels, and carmel coloring in the white ones for my father).

Here are pictures of all the barrels,

Cleaning

Out of all 7 of the barrels, I had 3 that had tea residue (leaves, and stains on the inside of the barrel).  How on earth am I going to clean these without cutting the tops off.

I have a solution from the local hardware store (home depot).

1. Corner grout brush (found in cleaning) $8
2. Wooden Handel ($5)
3. 1 drywall screw.

On thing to note, it’s not easy to get the brush  out, but it does come out.  Notice the one shot where the brush is pointed down.  This is just after I got the plastic to the point of opening.

There may be an easier way, but I wanted these done that day.

Here are some pictures.

Conduit

I also installed a 3 inch PVC pipe from my basement to my attic.  This will give me a conduit access to run hot water lines (with insulation), networking cables (for wireless) and anything else needing to go from basement to the attic.

Pumping Power… To pump or not to pump.

While experimenting with the pumps we found that a 500GPH 12V DC bilge pump that we got at a local marine store didn’t have enough power (centrifugal I believe).    The bilge pump only had enough for about 3-5 foot head.   This is a problem.

Simple fix, look for alternative pumps.  We found one at harbor freight.

$39.99 for a 1/2 HP AC pump with 5 amp draw.  Has 10 feet suction (intake), and 115 feet head (output).

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=1479

After priming the pump  (and reading instructions) I climbed onto the roof with the hose. It’s about a 20 foot difference between the water barrel, and the arch of my roof.    It was as though I was connected to city water.  I could put my finger of the hose, and squirt it even further into the air.  I think I was able to get it over the tree.

Harbor freight had other pumps, but did not meet our requirements (external due to the size of the openings, lowcost)

Ac vs Dc?  I wanted DC, but may just have to run it through an inverter.  Which since I am only getting 1.5 amps as is, may need to seriously upgrade the PhotoVoltaic system, but that’s down the road a bit.

I may take the bilge pump back, and see if I can get get a more powerful one (or a refund).

Here is the current setup of Panels, Controller, Batteries, and estimated costs.

• 2 Deep cycle Marine Batteries. (Battery Warehouse $80.00 each).  Tip: see if blemishes are available (have scratches).  while writing this I called around and found some for $39.99 each.
• 4 5v 350mAh solar panels (harbor freight for $34.99 ea @ harbor freight)
• 1 7amp/100Watt charge controller (so the batteries don’t overcook, fry, or catch fire) ($12.99 @ harbor freight)
• 2 grounding bars  (found at hardware store in electrical, used for circuit breaker boxes)
• 1 Terminal bar, to make connecting, and rewiring, testing easier
• 1 AC Anywhere modified sine wav inverter (DC to AC).  It is something I had laying around.  If you are going to do this, make sure you get a True or Pure sine wave inverter.  It’s better for electronics, and motors.  See previous blog post about it.

Solar panels mounted on a board, before mounting on the roof.  There are no wires that is connected later

Before cleaning up the area. Notice the block of wood on the left, where the neg/pos connections from the solar panels goto.  It worked, but I fixed it as shown below.

I just had to clean up the area.  Blocks on the far left are from a hardware store.  The are actually grounding bars used for electrical panels.  It just needed to connect all the leads together.  Notice I have more room for expansion :):):)

Battery bank, 2 12v hooked in parallel.  The smaller battery is not connected, I charge it once and a while from the solar panels.

While working on this post, I called around and found Battery Plus has some blemished (scratched) batteries. 12v (24, 31) not sure what the other numbers are, must be amp hours or something. Anyone care to explain? leave a comment

For the past few days, I have been pulling the PV panels from the shed and pointing into the light.

I mounted the 4 panels onto a board, and put ontop of my shed.

First I had to figure out a way for the attachments to work to reduce any gaps.  I figured out staggering the connections would work.  And it did better than I expected.

Solar array spacing for attachment points

Then all the panels were attached to the board like this.

Then the panels where put on top of the shed like so.  They are not screwed into the roof, only just laying on the roof.  It was pretty heavy, so I double it will move anywhere.

Solar Array in place

So that is all for now.

Later I will show the battery, controller, inverter inside the shed.

It’s time I let everyone know how I got started, and where I am at.

First, Harbor Freight was and probably still is having a sale on 5 Watt, 350mA solar panels. Usually $49.99 but for a while only $34.99.   http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=41144

A few days I went back later and purchased 3 more.

I also got a 7 amp / 100 Watt charge controller.  I didn’t want to fry my battery with to much juice.

You have to watch harbor freight as usually everything goes on sale sooner or later.  They also have a 45 Watt three panel, that I am patiently waiting for to go down in price.

After my father and I played with it for a little, we discovered that it was pumping out almost 24 volts.   If this was hooked to a battery for any extended amount of time, it would fry the battery.  So I needed a charge controller.

Harbor Freight to the rescue again (this time in automotive)

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94048

Mine looks a slightly different but the same specs.

Okay now that I go it working now what?

I have this 60 Gallon drum that I got from my Joe, my mom’s neighbor.  It’s filled with water, and pumped through black garden hose.  So now I can get hot water.

So the PV panel, charge controller, and battery were connected to a DC/AC inverter, the kind usually found at automotive stores, or wally world.  The max output on that is 300 Watts, modified sine wav inverter (more on wave lengths later).  If you have the choice from Modified Sine vs Pure or True Sine. Get the True or Pure sine wave converters.  Want more help?  http://blog.outsidesupply.com/inverters/customer-inverter-questions/power-inverters-true-sine-wave-versus-modified-sine-wave.html

Plugged into this is an extension cord that plugs into a small (AC) fountain pump that is in the 60 gallon drum filled with water.  I have found some DC pumps (bilge) pumps that would work, just have located any locally yet to purchase.

With water circulating in the hose and back into the drum, by the end of the day I have about 110 degree water.  Depending on the heat, and temperature the ground gets.

Water Temp at sunset

Today I finally got around to starting this blog.

A blog about a Father and his sun, living in the city… going solar.

No more high energy costs… why? because we are going to harness the free power, from the sun.

This blog will also contain information about wind, water and other types resources.

This is and will be a blog of experiements performed on my shed, and eventually on both our houses.