Renewable Neophyte This is an amazing magazine! First issue I've seen is #20 (and yes, the color cover was what caught my eye) at my local Whole Foods Market. I never dreamed that the state of alternative power had reached this point. My mind is afire with ideas. Of course, as an apartment dweller, going alternative is kinda difficult. When we relocate we will explore our options more fully. The first project I see is converting our hydroponic vegetable garden (now under construction) to PV power. First for the nutrient aerators and heaters, and eventually including the fluorescent lighting system. I'll tell you more when I get this off the ground. Can't wait for the next issue. Til then, keep the faith! P.S. How do I find out what is in the available back issues? Do you have some index? Kevin L Corridon, Houston, TX Thank you, Kevin, it's good to here that the color cover is working. In HP issues #11 and #18 there are indices to previous issues. Every year we publish an index to that year's issues to keep the information accessible. Next one is coming up in HP#23. KJS You don't have to move to the country to get started, Kevin. Now's the time! See the article about efficient electric power use on page 11 of this issue for example. Grid connected folks can save bucks and the environment by applying efficient lighting, refrigeration, and other energy savers. All this high efficiency equipment can move with you to the country, and give you a great head start on your home power system. RP Perchance to Dream Dear Home Power, First off, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you've done. The world is becoming a much better place thanks to your efforts. I've received every issue since HP#1 and look forward to receiving a lifetime more of them. Don't sell out on us like "The Mother Earth News" did (now they call it "The Original Country Magazine"). Presently I am First Officer aboard the hospital ship " USN MERCY" in the Persian Gulf. What a mess we're in. I hope this can end peacefully and we can all get home alive. I wish that I could get a floppy disk to send this to you on. To help maintain sanity, I sometimes daydream about my future and the things I love; soaring, the outdoors and my partially completed AE powered home in the Tehachapi mountains of California. Your magazine is refreshingly peaceful in this hostile and trying time. My most recent idea is about converting a conventional gasoline vehicle to electricity. I have bought many of the books available on the subject, but have some ideas of my own. I want to start with a early 1980s Volkswagen Rabbit pickup truck. They are available with worn out engines at a reasonable cost. This vehicle is sturdy, lightweight and has a large cargo bed for storing a battery pack, solar panels or perhaps a gasoline powered battery charger. My theory is that you can use two battery packs so that one may be removed and be recharging (using wind or solar) while the other is in use. If a long trip is necessary, both battery packs may be used in the bed of the truck at the same time, or carry a gasoline powered onboard recharger running continuously to increase range. The pickup bed arrangement allows maximum flexibility for loading/unloading battery packs and equipment. I would be interested to hear or see if anyone else has experimented with this VW Rabbit pickup concept. I have many theories on Life. One is that aviation works like a self cleaning oven. Another is, chance favors the prepared mind. Sincerely, William S. Brewer, Fresno, CA William, get in touch with Michael Hackleman at Alternative Transportation News (ATN), POB 743, Mariposa, CA 90291 or call him at 213-396-1527. ATN specializes in electric vehicle information and access. The Rabbit pickup should be a viable platform for an EV. RP Electric Vehicle Dear Karen, This is the electric car I was telling you about, by phone, a month or two ago. As I said at that time the range is only about 40 miles (with all the hills we have), but the speed is over 70 MPH (we do not go over 60 or so). We are using 20 Exide GC-4 batteries in series for 120v DC. We will try to write more in detail and include some good black and white photos for your magazine. Hope you had a nice Holiday and hope your New Year is good and prosperous. Sincerely, Debby Henne, Robesonia, PA INSERTPHOTO Change for the Better Dear Home Power Crew, Have been wanting to write for a while now, and here's my opportunity. Really like and appreciate your magazine. Much useful and inspiring information and access to products. Some of the technical stuff gets beyond my capability, but then I just get other information from books, etc., to help fill in the gaps. Recently took an evening class in electronics to better understand how my system works. Especially like the nuts and bolts stuff - converted a standard small (7 cu ft) freezer by adding insulation, etc. as your article showed. Would also like to make a solar cooker and try using it to cook. Would like to ask Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze, how can this idea be adapted to a solar food-herb dryer? Also like the Things That Work! articles. AE answer to consumer reports. Use a lot of batteries around the house and recharge them from my PV supply. There are TOO MANY of those AC appliances that are really DC and "recharge" via a power wasting phantom load "cube" or internal transformer. Also use line cord switches for appliances for the same reason. I was amazed when I first hooked everything into the inverter and heard everything humming! Would like to see an article on outdoor lighting that is either AC or DC and self regulating (timer controlled) or motion sensing that is cheap, easy, DIY potential high and of course energy efficient! Lots of equipment out there - Real Goods, and others. Much is expensive, and what works best with what? DC timers are expensive; so AC means needing an inverter - how much phantom loss? Could use motion sensors - but fluorescent flood bulbs (AC cheaper here, too) going on and off is not good for the bulbs. Get the dilemma? I am from the city, originally, and think outdoor lighting is important to crime deterrence; in town or out in the boonies. I live in a conventional house with added energy efficiency _ insulation, low-E windows, high efficiency natural gas furnace, (I know wood is renewable, but the air pollution and fire potential are major drawbacks to its use). Instead I had a solar supplemental heater (T.A.P.) added to the house. This was to decrease my gas bills - They got higher as the years went by. So, what to do to get my increasing electric bills under control? PV to the rescue! If not for tax credits allowed for renewable energy equipment, I might not have gotten into a PV system because of the initial cost. But now, I'd like to be off the grid in the future by using a natural gas generator in winter when sun is scarce. I have a 30 amp system gel-type low maintenance 12v batteries, Heart 1200 inverter with charger, Sunfrost 12v fridge, and mostly fluorescent lighting. Keep up the good work, Pat Lambert, York, NY 14592 Well, your letter got my attention, Pat. I'm experimenting in solar food/herb drying right now. I'll write it up soon. KJS Hi, Pat. In general, more folks are going to 120 vac use via the inverter. The reasons for this are those you have mentioned (primarily, the appliances are less expensive and more available), and because of recent advances in inverters. See the article on the PowerStar UPG inverter on page 22 of this issue. Inverters are now more efficient and reliable. With an inverter that is efficient at low output power, all manner of 120vac devices that were phantom loads suddenly become faithful servants. In any case, 120 vac security or outside lighting is much easier to install. The large wire needed for long low voltage runs is expensive, and often costs more than the lights themselves. It is less cost effective to use fluorescent lights where they are turned off and on many times daily. The finite life offered by the fluorescents starter is the limiting factor. Incandescents are the best bet for frequently activated lights that spend less than one hour per day operating. RP Ecuador Environment Dear Home Power Readers, During a December visit to Ecuador I became aware of some grass roots projects of great environmental and social importance. Doug Ferguson, an Australian, working with the Ecuadoran government asked me about alternative energy possibilities for a long house being built this year for indigenous groups in the Andes. This will be a public meeting space to educate people on resource management, legal rights and perma-culture. Perma-culture would put an end to the slash and burn or yearly burns of fields that so depletes the soil and fouls the air. Solar-cooking information is another premier project they are working on. I have promised to look into donations, funding or cheap sources of solar and/or hydro equipment. Apparently there is a permanent stream at the long house site for hydro and I have asked for more specifics, but as I am currently in Mexico I have not received a reply yet. All that will be needed initially is some lighting for meetings at night, so they are not talking about much money. These people are at the forefront to a solution to the great social-ecological dilemmas of Latin America. I regret that this letter is so vague, but am trying to initiate things since they hope to install by fall of 1991. If anyone has ideas on funding or resources for equipment or how to approach dealers or wishes to participate in installation please correspond with me at: David Evans. POB 531. Moab. UT 84532 David, we salute you. KJS & RP Human Powered Discount Dear Home Power Folks, Thanks to Karen for the HPs' to pass around. They went like hot cakes. Interest in renewables is on the rise in our neighborhood. Thanks to Bob-O (& whoever helped) for prompt and safe shipment of our order. On the day bombs flew to Bagdad we disconnected the boat shop from the power grid and hooked up four K-51s and a Trace inverter. This is our demo unit for potential customers of Arcana Solar Sales. Also, with the onset of fighting in the oil war, we changed the price structure of our roadside oyster market. Customers using human-powered transportation receive a discount of 1/2 off. Transit riders and renewable energy vehicles get 1/3 off. We've had one pedestrian so far who qualified for a discount, and lots of interesting conversations with car drivers. Folk showing interest in the car-oil-war connection are given the enclosed flyer. One of our best "energy saving appliances" is our homemade passive solar human waste composter. We live in a 24 ft lifeboat (in the background with 2 Kyoceras on a Track Rack) so there is no room for a toilet like a Sun Mar. We use a common marine or RV type porta-potti with reservoir (5 gal), emptying about once a week for 2 people. The composter requires emptying once a year. The 4" vent is 10' tall, carrying about 2/3 of the water vapor out. The rest of the water condenses on the underside of the flat FRP glazing, dripping into a gutter on the lower edge to run off into planters (tire tubs) for irrigating. Grass and straw from the surrounding area is layered on top of each dumping, eliminating odors and insect problems. A 2" foamboard insulates the bottom of the simple box, which is 4'x8'x11" deep. The box is divided into 4'x4' sections for dumping alternately, allowing better dehydrating between loads. I should add that moisture is collected separately, treated with lime and rock phosphate powder to make superphosphate, and fed to the garden (aged 2 weeks and diluted). Willapa Bay (and our one-acre oyster farm) are in the background. The abandoned oyster scow, on which the composter sits, no longer floats, but the composter itself has floated on occasion, when extremely high winter tides flooded the surrounding field. Likewise, our life boat only floats on very high tides, normally resting securely on a pair of bilge keels. We live in the intertidal zone. P.S. Please include us in Ozonal Notes mailing list. Thanks. Keep up the good work. Pacifically, Larry and Marge Warnberg-Welling, Nahcotta, WA Sounds great to me. Thank you for your participation in educating people to renewables and living THE lifestyle. If you weren't so far away you could bet Bob-O and I would hike on by for few of those oysters. KJS. Pleased to meet you, Larry and Marge. I'll put you on the OOZIE mailing list. Although I've been working on the OOZIE Backwoods EV steadily, the info is still not ready to print. So, it'll be awhile. RP INSERT PHOTO Tables Turned Dear HP, In response to the HP letter from Chip Usal, Mt. View, UT in the Dec/Jan 1991 issue, I'd like to let him know that Tecnics made three models of turntables that were factory wired to run on 12 volts. Models SL-7, SL-10, and SL-15 were all high quality linear tracking turntables that had 12 volt input jacks. All three had stroboscope, pop up 45 adapter, quartz lock direct drive motor, and automatic start, stop, return, repeat, disc size sensing, and speed setting. In addition the SL-15 was programmable and the SL-10 included a preamp for moving the coil CARTRIDGE, which it used. Unfortunately these are no longer made. I got my SL-7 for $100.00 thru the local want ads. Locally, one of the stereo stores used to (don't know if they still do) convert turntables for 12v use. The Yamaha P-200 is a model they converted for use by a friend of mine. The store was Golden Ear in Santa Rosa, CA. All of these turntables used magnetic cartridges, which require a pre-amp. (i.e. you need a 'phono' input on the back of your amp, 'Aux' will not do.) In the past Hitachi and JVC made high end component portables with built in preamps. They no longer make them but they may be available used. Look for Hitachi J-3 or JVC PC-11 JW or JVC PC55. At the time list prices of these were high ($350 to $500). Sharp made a 'boom box' model GF8585 which had a preamp built in. It was cheaper ($250) but less versatile and of lower sound quality. 12 volt component preamps, which would allow virtually any portable stereo to utilize a magnetic cartridge turntable through its 'Aux' or 'CD' input, seem to be rare. The only one I'm aware of that is available is an inexpensive TSM kit #34 for &9.19 + shipping from Prospect Electronics, POB 9144, Allentown, PA 18106 (215) 770-9029. Hope that helps. Bear, Bodega, CA. Thanks, Bear, you are a veritable fountain of useful information. I get the idea that if we don't know the answers, one (or more) of our readers will. KJS Of Steam and Shavers Dear People, First; I REALLY was surprised and delighted by your 100 pg. issue! 'Nuf said! Comments: Issue 21, pgs 55 & 56, on fire tube boilers. I know it's talking about solid fuel fed systems, But! Stanley Steamer was a fire tube boiler and the safest also because each tube was itself a safety device. If one tube failed that was all that would happen as the outer shell (which was wrapped in piano wire) and both ends were extremely above the capacity of any of the fire tubes. Incidentally, flash boilers were and are the most dangerous. And these are much like the 'on demand' propane water heaters! 'Nuf. Question: On solar panels; is it possible to produce solar panels that work at Infrared frequency? If so, they could be used indoors all the time the wood stoves are going! Walls and ceilings, even the heat shields behind? I don't know anything about the light freqs and solar cells, but what about this void? Item; that does NOT work on an inverter. Norelco electronic shaver (model unknown) does not work on Power Star 200, but does work fine on 120 VAC generator. Power Star does work fine, but not for the shaver. I expect there to be a problem between the modified sine wave and the electronic control. Also; a cordless Norelco had a percentage meter (0-100%) of Nicad battery charge. I thought I had read somewhere in back issue of HP that the percentage of charge of a Nicad was difficult to determine. If so, then Norelco figured out something. Question on refrigeration: I have not seen any references to a RV refrigerator gas/12VDC/120VAC. What efficiency of the electric mode if used on 12VDC or small inverter on 120VAC? Would adding more insulation around increase efficiency? Anybody out there know? Question on Nicad batteries: Back in HP#4 an article on flashlite sized batteries A,C, and D. I have a Radio Shack Cat. that lists Amp. Hour ratings of their Reg. and Hi Cap. batteries - I have never found anybody else lists theirs - but Radio Shack batteries are well below the amp hour ratings you listed in the article. Just exactly were those you have listed? Not Panasonic or GE or anything I've seen in stores. Does Pacific West Supply carry them? Or who? You also mention 'Ripoffs' of C size in D casing. Is that the regular size D listed in Radio Shack at 1.4 Amp Hour? Etc., etc., maybe can clarify for a lot of HP readers! 'Nuf for now, Bye, Richard Cameron, Dillard, OK Hi, Richard. To the best of my knowledge there are no realistic thermovoltaic devices. PVs make power from visible (and near ultraviolet) light because their PV junction is tuned to those particular frequencies. Thermovoltaics are semiconductor junctions tuned to lower frequency radiation like heat. While we heard of several types, no are viable available to consumer use. The problems yet to be solved in thermovoltaics are : short lifetime, overheat damage, and low power output. Your shaver is probably using a triac or SCR for motor speed control. Anything using these sinusoidal only ac power control semiconductors will not run on mod-sine wave inverters. The battery charge meter on your shaver is strictly ball park. If it says zero, then your flat. If it says 100%, then you're at anywhere from 60% to full. All other readings are suspect. It is very difficult to determine nicad state of charge by voltage measurement. In general, a sintered plate nicad (flashlight cell) has a voltage of about 1.30 VDC when full charged and at rest. A totally depleted cell will show over 1.1 VDC at rest. Bottom line with sintered nicads is RUN THEM FLAT! Sintered plate cells have a memory and need to be totally cycled, so fully empty them before refilling. On small nicads. While Radio Shack sells many fine things, their nicads aren't one of them. I recommend the Panasonic nicads available from Digi- Key (800-344-4539). They ain't cheap, but I've beat up all kinds for years now and these Panasonics come out on top. My favorite AA is the Panasonic P-50AAR (recharges in one hour, capacity 500mA-h) for $2.65 each. Digi- Key also sells the 4 Amp-hour Panasonic P-400D for $11.03 each. The Radio Shack D sized cell rated at 1.4 Amp-hours is indeed a C cell in a D cell case. Radio Shack sells what they term a high capacity D cell rated at 4 Ampere- hours (part #23-140 for $7.95). I find the Panasonic cells to be of much higher quality, which translates into more cycles. RP Reject or Rebate TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I began in October, 1990 to get a mortgage on my home. I live in a rural area, thirteen miles outside of Santa Fe, N.M. city limits, and have no conventional utilities. I was fortunate to install a solar electric system before Ronald Reagan stopped the solar rebates that Jimmy Carter initiated. With the energy state of the world today, I would expect to be cheered for having alternative energy, instead I have been punished. I have been turned down eleven times and told it is impossible to get a loan from both banks, and private investors. I have tried to get loans in New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado. Still I am rejected. I would not mind if there were other reasons but the only one stated was solar electric. It is difficult to believe that solar energy is so unacceptable a risk. How can our nation be so blind and backwards considering our energy crisis? How can we, in all conscience be spending billions of dollars on a war fighting for oil without exploring and experimenting with alternative energies? Have we all gone mad? Do you know that not only is solar electric efficient, but is ecologically sound emitting almost no fumes into the air. Now, as a single woman, I am further penalized by our governmental income tax. Since I cannot get a mortgage I have no deductions and am forced to pay a high premium for defense weapons. I am outraged! I am a fifty three year old woman, having worked for thirty two years, supporting my government, living with integrity and being an ecologically and humanely aware person. Where are our priorities? Do we want to save the earth or don't we care? We must turn things around and become a conscience people NOW. Speak out for the earth! Your action to increase energy awareness would be greatly appreciated. Carole Silon, Santa Fe, NM Well, Carol, you are not alone in having difficulty finding financing for renewable energy systems. Banks are very conservative and using renewable in a home is radical cutting-edge stuff. Take heart, you are doing the best thing you can do- living on your own power. Your efforts stand as an example and are far more effective than thousands of letter to congress persons. Eventually the financial and political establishment will catch on, and it's the work of folks like you that will make it happen. RP Horse Power After seeing the picture of Karen's mare Oozie in issue #21, I was reminded of a subject that has not been mentioned in Home Power. Namely Horse Power - real honest to goodness HORSE POWER. I would love to have a couple of draft horses and harness and maybe a wagon. Unfortunately the price of all that makes it just a dream. Besides, feeding those giants would run into some bucks. But if your family is like ours and must always have a horse or two anyway, go ahead and put them to work. They would probably appreciate the extra attention and benefit from the added activity. First I must say that a light horse cannot be expected to go out and pull a plow or skid heavy loads. It could injure itself and maybe have an accident. Or perhaps become balky and uncooperative at the least. Our horses, Nipper at twenty-eight years old and Fanny Ann (the kid) at eight, have hauled supplies up to our place when the snow was too deep for our four wheel drive trucks. All you need is a willing horse, a heavy duty western saddle, a breast collar and a rope. We also acquired an old automotive hood found by the side of the road. You just tie your supplies onto the underside of the hood. Then attach one end of your rope to this hood and the other end to the saddle horn. Use a quick release knot or just wrap it around a couple of times and hold it just in case of an unexpected occurrence. Get on your horse and off you go. The hood slides over the snow like a sled and it carries a lot. Our horses have carried feed in tied on their backs when it was too muddy to get a truck in. They have hauled oak branches to sawn up for firewood. As an added bonus, they make a constant supply of organic fertilizer for the neighborhood gardens. All this and more from a good friend and companion. Patricia Walker, Big Bend, CA PHOTO CAPTION: Rick Walker and his mare Fanny Ann, hauling in hay.