Oil Crisis? The End? The Future?Well we are now into 2008 on our humble home planet, Earth...
Some may ask why I created ‘Home Brew Power’. Was it to save the planet from self destruction? Was it for monetary gain? Was it to try and educate our children about the planet’s finite supply of fossil fuel? Could it have been to help others reduce their gross overuse of electricity and power in general?
All of the above are just some of the driving forces behindwww.HomeBrewPower.co.ukOver 2007 I have actively been in discussion groups about the following topics.
1. CHP (Combined Heating & Power) Units using ‘Carbon Neutral’ Fuel Sources i.e. WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil), SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil), Ethanol, Wood, Wood Gas and more.
2. Generating Electricity with a Stirling Engine (Hot Air Engine) with the primary heat sources been either a ‘Wood Stove’ or a ‘Waste Oil Burner / Furnace’
3. The overall efficiencies of Solar PV ‘Solar Photovoltaic’s’ which currently runs commercially at around 14-16%. To put it in an easy to understand format, ‘If a 1000MM x 500MM solar panel facing the sun was receiving 1000W of radiant solar energy then of that we are currently able to harvest approx 140 – 160W in the form of direct current electricity.
4. Micro Co-Generation, on a domestic scale, grid-tied wind turbines producing mains electricity that in times of excess can be fed back into the national grid system automatically, crediting the consumer with a reduction in their electricity bill. Currently in the UK we are allowed to Grid-Tie up to 6KW (constantly) back into the national grid as domestic customers.
5. Learning how to live on a much reduced amount of fossil fuels for heating and power. It really has been an eye opener to see how much the average human consumes on a daily basis. We as a race are hopelessly dependent on fossil fuels; the things most take for granted consume huge amounts of power. For example taking a shower (Electric Shower), making a cup of tea (Electric Kettle) Central Heating (Gas / Oil Fired Combi Boiler) Watching TV for hours on end and leaving electrical appliances on standby 24/7.
The topics above have, for as long as I can remember, been extremely important to me but they are now making it into the mainstream public eyes via the TV, Radio & Internet. Right now the government are dressing up the ‘Green Schemes’ ‘Carbon Reduction Schemes’ creating yet another cash generating revenue for them. Soon I imagine the hype will calm down and we will be back to the important issue of ‘Life After Fossil Fuels’www.Homebrewpower.co.uk is currently decanting to a brand new Website Format, the existing Blog based website has served well for the previous 2 years but it is time to bring some new dimensions to our community.
Kind regards
Andy Mahoney
Home Brew Power
Off-Grid Power Installer - UK)
www.homebrewpower.co.ukMobile: 07504 50 50 89
HomeBrewPower Yahoo Group On Carbon Neutral Power
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homebrewpower/Labels: CHP, Fossil Fuel Crisis, Fossil Fules, Micro CHP, Wind Turbine, WMO, Wood Gas, WoodGas, WVO