brogers

Pelosi really followed through on her promise to get gas prices down. Things have certainly improved, we're a lot better off at $3.50 than $2.50.

Big Smoothy

Any politician that says they can affect gas prices - except for a suspension/repeal of the federal gas tax, which is a pittance - is lying.

Politicians cannot do anything about this.

squanto

Quick question for maniclion, since he is the resident solar expert, or anyone else who knows...

If someone installed a solar system, I understand that any extra power they produce can be put back in the "grid" thingy and sold to the power company. So my question is, does this require any extra equipment, or a certain kind of power lines or anything? I don't really know anything about how this stuff works but I'm curious how much hassle this would cause, if any at all. Thank youse.

P.S. is the power that is sold back to the power company generally metered at the house or the power station? Not as important of a question but again just curious.

dg806

Hmm, if Billery gets in, watch her "troops come home in 60 days" and see that flop too.

www.sbmuscle.com

Big Smoothy

I don't think "troops home in 60 days" is her policy? When did she say that.

I think Hillary, honestly, has many Neo-Con views.

Back to the gasoline/diesel prices, not much can be done to bring them down.

dg806

I thought that was one of her big ideas to get troops home as quick as possible.

www.sbmuscle.com

danzik17

That might have been her position for that debate. Don't kid yourself though, she won't bring the troops home.

Ron Paul 2008

Journal: Boom goes the dynamite

lnvanry

none of the candidates will....its a talking point for them.

Even if any candidate was serious about bringing ALL (or at least 80%) the troops home they would have to convince the DoD to abandon their sacrifice in money and blood.

Bringing the troops home isn't as easy as the the presidential candidates placate it as.

Big Smoothy

I don't recall that.

Hillary must appease the Military Industrial-Complex (Iron Triangle).

She has many Neo-Con views.

maniclion

The solar power is fed through a Grid-Tie Inverter which takes DC PV voltage and turns it into 240 AC then it monitors the sine wave and frequency and jumps right in on that wave then it either ramps up or down the amperage as it is pumped through the solar modules.

The meter is the same meter that reads what comes in from the utility. I have seen them turn backwards when all the appliances in the home weren't cycling, I have watched them go from spinning fast to slow as a cloud drifts out of the suns path. If your meter isn't capable of spinning backwards you would have to change it. The only wiring would be the wire from the panels to the DC Disconnect to the Inverter DC In then normal house wire from the AC out to the AC Disconnect to either the homes Main Dist. Panel or it could have an optional Informational AC KWH meter prior then run to the Main Dist. Panel that would then feed to the meter.

These inverters also have to have what is called Anti-Islanding which means if the Utility goes down or the Power Company shuts it down to do work or fire fighters need a part of the grid down your inverter will sense no utility and shut off thus keeping itself from acting as a power producing Island.


Think of it as if you had a well on your land. You could feed that water to the public water works when you didn't need to use it you'd have to meet their pressure after that you could send it to them at whatever flow rate you wanted as long as the pressure didn't exceed their capacity. If they had a dual flow meter on their to read in and out then they would subtrat your output from what they input and the Net Difference would be your overall use. In California I believe the Utility pays you for any extra electricity produced because they can use that to feed to your neighbor or some one miles away. If you used more utility than the PV made then you'll owe them whatever the difference is. Here in Hawaii they won't pay for extra produced but your extras do carry over to the following month up to a year just like Cingular and their Carry over cell phone minutes plan.....

DOMS

Hey Manic, you probably already know, but they're discussing European-style (Germany in particular) pay-ins to promote green technology.

maniclion

Yeah Feed In Tariffs I heard Cali was talking about it but Cali has had some of the most awesome incentives in the country so I wouldn't be surprised if they did go with it. Here in Hawaii it's difficult to get the utilities to agree on anything especially on the outer islands but for good reason since such a large portion of their populations are grouped in one area if everyone were feeding the grid and a cloud loomed over one town it would drop the input to the grid drastically, they really need to push battery back-up grid tie in places like that to make a buffer for sudden drop offs of production. Here on Oahu we are so apread evenly that grid tie woks nice....but the utility is still hard to fight....

danzik17

I so want to buy a house so I can start doing shit like that. I want to eventually do a solar powered house that will feed extra power into a hydrogen electrolyzer to store it as fuel for when the sun isn't shining/in the winter.

Ron Paul 2008

Journal: Boom goes the dynamite

squanto

Thanks manic, I went from this to this

maniclion

I want to buy a plot of land next to a tall hill. Then during the day I would pump water up to a 100,000 to 200,000 gallon reservoir using PV and wind then at night I would open a channel and use a Hydro Turbine to make my night time energy, and that water would flow down to a second reservoir in front of my house, a nice clean swimming pond. That's one of the easiest ways to store massive amounts of energy for use when the suns gone. I wouldn't have to heat my water with electricity cause I would have solar thermal panels and I would dig a deep well and use the cool ground water chill it just a bit more and make a chill water system for AirCon which is just cold water flowing through pipes and fans blowing air across them to cool the rooms. Circ pumps are really cheap and efficient for uses like that and I wouldn't have to use much chilling at night cause the ground water should be just cool enough. If I needed to warm the home I would add another Solar Water Heater and Thermal Panels and have pipes that ran under my tile floors so the tiles would get warm and radiate the heat upwards. Of course I wouldn't need much of either since I would build my home like a partial under ground bunker with the back and part of the roof covered with earth almost cave like so it would naturally stay cool. Kind of like an Earthship but designed to look like a house and not a junkyard scrap heap some bum put together for shelter....

maniclion

There's a nice building on the Big Island of Hawaii near Kona made by the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) that utilizes a lot of those techniques, but the cold water they use is pumped from deep in the ocean. They cool the building with a specially designed wall that acts as an air scoop and it catches the natural breeze, blows it across pipes circulating the cold sea water the only energy used is the pump. They also use the cold sea water to irrigate their farms, they run black pipes over the plants and the sun produces condensation on the pipes and over the course of the day the pure condensated water drips onto the soil watering the plants of course this loop of pipes is after it's been used to cool the buildings on the property so that at the end of the run the water is warm enough that when they put it back in the ocean it doesn't disrupt the ecosystem...oh and they use the cold sea water to raise cold water sea food like crabs and lobsters. And they also can use it to make the temperature of the soil cooler to raise produce that otherwise wouldn't grow in hawaii's warm temps....

danzik17

Bit more in-depth than my plan but sounds good.

Ron Paul 2008

Journal: Boom goes the dynamite

Big Smoothy

We're aware of the trickle effect on the economy that is related to higher gasoline and diesel costs. But is there a certain price for crude that will really jolt the US economy. Now the price of crude is at $135. One analyst below claims $150 per barrel will cause problems. Not everyone agrees, but if crude prices continue to rise, things for us, will get worse.

Link: Oil price spike has wide economic impact - Eye on the Economy - MSNBC.com

Big Smoothy

There are a couple threads discussin crude oil prices and gasoline prices in the US. If any posters want to add comments, feel free to do so on this thread.

If people don't, and this thread fades, that's fine too.

As for America's untapped oil. It won't do much.

dg806

Take the speculators out and gas will drop to $2 gal says congress.

www.sbmuscle.com

DaMayor

Here....You can borrow my copy.

dg806

There enough for over 100 years for our use. It may take 10 yrs to get it, but it WOULD be worth it.

www.sbmuscle.com