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From The Editor’s Laptop All right, I’ve done it. I’ve become energy self-sufficient. Let’s
run the checklist. I’ll prove it to you.
by Larry D. Barr, Editor
Electricity generation: wind and PV. Water pumping: 12 VDC from
I’m a member of quite a few Internet email groups for various the renewable system. Water heating: solar. Cooking: methane
facets of energy self-sufficiency and off-grid living. Although I (from the hypothetical cows, remember?) Vehicle: biodiesel. Space
spend quite a bit of time reading and, in many cases, responding to heating: wood, of course. I cut every piece with my chain saw and
email, I don’t begrudge a moment of that time. The interchange of split it with my hydraulic wood splitter.
ideas is always interesting and educational. There are times when a
post, or a series of posts, will definitely make clear that there are “Say what?” you scream in outrage and indignation. “You’ve led me
as many concepts of off-grid living as there are folks who talk to believe that you’re energy self-sufficient and yet you’re using
about it. dino-fuel to cut and split your wood? What kind of fool do you
take me for?”
It seems that some folks consider off-grid living to be living with-
out electricity and running water. Others would like to do it while Oops. Guess I missed something.
still retaining the 42” plasma TV, the electrically heated hot tub,
every kitchen appliance known to mankind and enough amps left So, what have we accomplished with this little exercise, hypothetical
over to run the electric SUV buffer. So, which one is really living though it may be? As far as I’m concerned, if we can decide that
off-grid? there are, in fact, varying degrees of energy self-sufficiency, I’ll
be happy.
In my opinion, if neither one is deriving their power from the local
utility, they both are.We’ll get into the discussion of total energy The simple fact is that being truly and completely energy self-
self-sufficiency in a minute. sufficient involves more than mounting a couple of PV panels and
hoisting a wind generator. There are a lot more things to consider
Operationally, the only difference between the person living with in our quest for energy self-sufficiency than just our source of
no ‘modern’ conveniences and the guy with the luxury spread is electricity.
that one of them spent more money to set up his off-grid home.
Well, that and the fact that one of them is much more comfortable The important thing, I believe, is to take the first step. Off-grid
than the other. But remember that comfort is subjective. living is a great beginning to total energy self-sufficiency and the
first step to living lightly on Mother Earth. And that must be our
So, is there a common definition of “off-grid” and, if so, what is ultimate goal. ldb
it? To my way of thinking, if you’re generating your own electric-
We Tried Something
ity from renewable sources, you’re off-grid. That’s based on the
definition of the electrical distribution infrastructure as “the grid.”
But are you truly energy self-sufficient?
Why you NEED a and Velomobiel.nl than I did anywhere else. After scoring a few
test rides, I was smitten. I knew that I must have one before I the
next winter season set in. I almost made it... The first snow fell
Velomobile about a month before I picked up the Cab-Bike.
As near as I can tell, the word “velomobile” originated in France. I’ve also quickly realized that you need to make a slight adjust-
Some of the first velomobiles were made by the Velocar company ment in thinking if you’re a cyclist considering a velomobile. It’s
in France in the 1930’s. These early Velocar velomobiles were not a bike or even really a trike. A velomobile is a human powered
four wheelers and quite heavy. Velocar is the same company that vehicle. They still have all of the usual bicycle parts (pedals, a
produced some of the first production recumbent bicycles. In chain, bicycle tires and wheels) but the experience of riding a
1934, a rider broke the one hour speed record on one of their velomobile is much different than riding anything else. They weigh
bicycles and recumbents were subsequently banned from bicycle a fair amount so they don’t climb particularly well, but on flat ter-
racing by the Union Cycliste Internationale. rain they really fly. Basically the same performance characteris-
tics as many other recumbents but on velomobile they’re just am-
I acquired my first Velomobile (the shiny new Cab-Bike featured plified. Most have full suspension so you’re fairly isolated from
in several of these pictures) at perhaps the perfect time... early bumps and road imperfections. Fully enclosed models like the Cab-
December... in Europe. I’m from upstate New York and consider Bike and the Leitra also leave you fairly well isolated from the
myself to be a rather hardy soul when it comes to cold weather. rest of the outside world so may not be the best choice if you like
I’ve gone through month-long stretches where the temperature to ride in groups.
never cracked zero degrees Fahrenheit with barely a shiver. But
the cold in central Europe is something all together different. It This is definitely not to say that they are any less fun than a bi-
rarely gets below plus twenty or so on the Fahrenheit scale but the cycle. In many ways they may be more fun. The speeds that you
air is VERY damp. The moisture contained in the perpetual Euro- can maintain under your own steam while traveling on level ground
pean winter fog is downright bone-chilling. It can penetrate the are always quite pleasing. Commuting to work in almost any weather
warmest material that any clothing manufacturer could dream up without the aid of any fossil fuels is also very satisfying.
in an instant. Throw in a few steep descents and the frigid winds
that accompany them and you have a rather unpleasant bicycle com- The primary thing that keeps most people away from velomobiles
mute. is the cost. You can purchase a very nice used car for the price of
the average new velomobile. I can vouch from personal experi-
I tried to suck it up over the winter of 2003/2004 and I did manage ence that money should not be a limiting factor. My Cab-Bike with
to ride into work often enough that my co-workers began to ques- options cost me about 5600 Euro (about $7200). But after all is
tion my sanity, but I still was off the bike enough that my physical said and done I will have only paid about 2000 Euro out of my
and mental health suffered a bit. Over those months, I spent a rather pocket and I raised that money by selling my now obsolete second
large amount of time on the Internet shopping for a Velomobile. car. Since velomobiles draw so much attention, the rest of it is
At every major bike show I attended I spent more time around the
booths of companies like Leitra, Cab-Bike, Flevobike, Aerorider Continued on Next Page
March, 2005 Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter Page 4
the concept. As I said in my last ESSN, article... It takes a long
Velomobile . . .cont. time to get into really good cycling shape but getting into pretty
easily paid for with advertising. If I didn’t want to keep the prime average cycling shape doesn’t take nearly as long as you would
spaces for myself, I could have easily paid for the whole thing with think.
ads without selling the car. Driving a billboard might not be for
everyone but it sure beats the heck out of paying full price! Of Many cyclists buy a velomobile thinking that it will make them
course there’s also the money saved by not burning gas, not paying faster. In the right terrain and conditions this is definitely true. But
for car maintenence or insurance and the money you’ll save on if you live in the hills this may not be the case. Above ten mph or
doctor bills due to your increased fitness to take into account. so it at least feels like the aerodynamics are helping you but if
You also don’t have to buy things like fenders or racks or panniers. you’re grinding your way up a long slow grade you’re basically just
Even the most impractical velomobiles have enough storage space pedaling seventy pounds worth of trike. On my rolling hill com-
for a small load of groceries or a weekend’s worth of camping mute the Cab-Bike is as fast as most recumbent bicycles but defi-
gear. nitely not any faster. Something like a Quest would probably have a
bit of an edge. However, if you live in the Netherlands or Kansas or
There is the possibility of building your own. There is of course Florida a velomobile is probably going to make you very happy.
the crude but effective choroplast route of you’re particularly handy.
And if you don’t want to do all of the work yourself, Gabe Devault That about sums up my case for owning a velomobile. The cost is
of Easy Racers is working on a fairing kit tentatively called “The high, but fairly easy to offset. And you can always build your own...
Pod”. He’s currently fitting it to a Sun EZ Tadpole but the idea is to They’re not always faster but they often are. More importantly,
make it adaptable to a wide range of touring trikes. VelomobileUSA they let you get where you need to go in almost any weather in
has also obtained a license to build the Alleweder (in the original relative comfort without burning any gas or paying for any car in-
Flevobike flavor and the newer Alligt version) and they have made surance. What can be better than that?
it available in a kit at a reduced cost. If you don’t want to buy a
recumbent trike to use a platform, Greenspeed and Hellbent offer
plans for their trikes.
Let’s do one just for practice, OK? The label on your 120
VAC toaster oven says 1450 watts. Substituting the num- Direct current measurements are similar, but require
bers into the equation yields I=1450/120. Therefore, I, the different meters. Inductive meters are available from
current draw in amps equals 12.083. Easy enough. You re- automotive supply vendors such as NAPA, Mac or Snap-
membered that from last month, right? Good job. On. All you do is hold them against the wire, and read the
measurement directly from the meter scale. As with most
What if there’s no rating plate or label on the device? No things, you get what you pay for and accuracy improves
problem, just do a bit of measuring. There are several meters with price.
available for current measurements. One of my favorites
for AC circuits is the “clamp-on” type shown in Photo 1.
Just clamp it around the hot wire of a circuit and read the Photo 3
current directly from the scale. It’s shown with an adapter I
built to facilitate measurements of cord connected appli-
ances. The amp measurement is what you’re looking for, so
there are no calculations to do.
Photo 1
Photo 6
Electricity 101, continued . . . the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. These connectors
should be adopted by the RE community as well. There are
The most important device in any electrical circuit isn’t the too many different connectors used for DC circuits in off-
battery or other power source, not the load be it a lamp or a grid homes and we should adopt the PowerPoles as the stan-
computer, it’s not even the wire between the two. It is the dard for 12VDC circuits in off-grid homes and systems.
circuit protection device, a fuse or circuit breaker. What
makes a fuse, a lowly fuse, the most important device in an
electrical circuit? Very simple, it’s the device that is respon-
sible for interrupting the flow of electricity in the event of
an overload, and thereby preventing a possible fire or other
damage. Since it’s that vital, it’d be good to know how to
select the right one. So, let’s find out how to do just that.
First, strip the insulation from the wire for a distance equal
to the wire cavity in the connector. You want to fill the cav-
ity, but you don’t want any bare wire hanging out on either
end. Next, place the conductor inside the terminal and crimp
solidly. That was easy, wasn’t it? Use a proper crimping tool.
You can’t do a good job with a simple pair of pliers and all
you’ll do is ruin a terminal if you try to use wire cutters. See
Photo 8 for a step by step progression of making up a con-
tact for an Anderson PowerPole.
Working from left to right, you’ll see the proper strip length
for the connector on one lead. An uncrimped contact is on
the other. Note that no bare wire is exposed. Looking at the
crimping tool, there is a rounded side of the die cavity and a
side with a protrusion. The contact must be oriented in the
die so that the slit is to the rounded side. If you do it the
other way, you’ll deform the connector and the connection
will be worthless. The right side of the picture shows a prop-
erly crimped contact and a finished PowerPole connector.
Take your time and look around when buying tools. You’ll
have to live with them for a long time and you want to
make sure that they “fit your hand.” ldb
March, 2005 Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter Page 9
It’s Too Cold And Cloudy NORFOLK, VIRGINIA Annual Total HDD 3495
Introduction to Biodiesel There are a few ways in which this technology is still con-
sidered experimental, however, which drives some people
by Maria ‘Mark’ Alovert to focusing on do-it-yourself biodiesel rather than SVO con-
version.
In our first two issues, ESSN presented two biofuels with
much promise for do-it-yourself energy self-sufficiency- Biodiesel is the other vegetable oil alternative fuel technol-
methane digester and straight vegetable oil (SVO) technolo- ogy of note, and it produces a fuel that requires no vehicle/
gies. In this and future articles, I’ll be introducing you to engine modifications, and no changes to driving habits.
another biofuel- biodiesel, an ester formed from vegetable Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil by chemically react-
oil or animal fat reacted with various alcohols. The simple ing the thick vegetable oil with an alcohol, usually metha-
biodiesel reaction creates a clean-burning “diesel” fuel nol. The chemical reaction lowers the viscosity (thickness)
which works with no engine modifications in any diesel of the oil to a consistency very close to that of diesel fuel,
engine. Biodiesel can also replace petroleum in many forms and removes the glycerol portion of the vegetable oil, which
of home heating oil equipment. Biodiesel is produced on a is thought to be a potential pollutant if burned in less-than-
commercial level worldwide, and can even be made easily ideal circumstances. The glycerol forms a byproduct, which
in a backyard or farm setting. In keeping with ESSN’s focus can be used in various applications (soap, or as a molasses
on energy self-sufficiency, I’ll be presenting the do-it-your- replacement for cattle feed).
self outlook on biodiesel production in these articles.
Biodiesel Resources
Biodiesel Homebrew Guide- everything you need to
know to make quality alternative diesel fuel from
waste restaurant fryer oil , by Maria ‘Mark’ Alovert,
$15 by mail through:
http://www.localb100.com/book.html
http://www.localb100.com/testbatch
In-depth visual guide to the process of making a test
batch of biodiesel. The process will also be fully de-
scribed in Mark’s article next month in ESSN.
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc
This is the best biodiesel homebrewing discussion fo-
rum on the internet. Ask me questions about this ar-
ticle there! Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter
essn@rebelwolf.com
http://www.veggieavenger.com/media
This forum is an equipment plans gallery- learn to
build a simple biodiesel processor Editor/Publisher
Larry D. Barr
http://www.localb100.com
More links and details about biodiesel Contributing Editors
Steve Spence
http://www.biodieselnow.com
An even better forum on biodiesel policy and activism Laren Corie
Al Rutan (RIP)
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/biodieselbasics Maria Alovert (Girl Mark)
This is an email-based biodiesel discussion, for those Mike Nixon
who prefer lists to forums. Please feel free to discuss
Lisa Craig
this article here!
C F Ls
Compact Fluorescent Lamps
Off-Grid Journal
that I can’t think. I need a vacation. My father-in-law went
to Florida for a few weeks, we should have joined him.
by Steve Spence, Director It’s time to give a few specifics about what we have done to
reduce our electrical needs. All our lighting is either com-
www.Green-Trust.org pact fluorescent, or an occasional long tube fluorescent. All
phantom loads, like TV, Stereo, Microwave, and any other
15 Degree’s above zero, and we are being told to look for 6" device that’s on when it’s off, is on switched outlet strips.
of snow tonight. The Groundhog saw his shadow, forecasted Our stove is non-electric propane (pilot lights), our water
more winter. so we ate him. Ok, so we didn’t eat him, but we heater is propane (we are planning a solar preheater for this
are tempted to eat the the raccoon who has taken up resi- spring), and our dryer is propane heated, but electrically
dence in our garage, and has been helping himself to the tumbled. We had a propane fridge, but it was too small, and
VeggieGen fuel containers. developed a bad combustion issue, so we replaced it with a
electric which will run off our inverter and battery pack
I’m planning a major upgrade for our rainwater recovery when the generator isn’t running. We have a front loader
system, including all new rain gutters and a new collection washer that’s very energy and water efficient as well. The
tank. Last years experiment with a 55 gallon slow sand fil- only devices we have that will not run from our 2500 watt
ter was a success, so I’m doubling capacity this year. inverter is the washer, the dryer, and the well pump, a 1/2
hp Gould jet pump.
Our Amish neighbors have promised to come over with a
team of horses, and plow in a few inches of aged horse ma- We have 90 watts of PV with 675 ah of battery storage for
nure for the garden. I’m thinking of what veggies to start in night time use, and a 12.5kw vegetable oil powered diesel
the greenhouse in a few weeks, and wishing I had more generator which is our primary power. Details on this sys-
maples on the property for syrup making. I miss doing that. tem, with planned upgrades, will be provided in a series
starting next month.
I’ve got 7 face cord of wood out front to stack in woodshed,
which has had snow on it since the day I finished piling it. The toughest lessons we have had to learn is that electricity
Guess it’s going to be a while longer before it gets indoors. doesn’t come from an outlet, heat doesn’t come from a ther-
Yesterday we broke the glass on the new woodstove. Next mostat, and self sufficiency means you don’t call someone
time I will make sure the wood fits before slamming the door. when things break.
Picking up a new door tomorrow. My flu medication pre-
vents me from thinking too clearly, and from caring too much Onward and upwards .....
March Madness!!
ESSN Advertising Sale
For the month of March 2005 only . . .
ALL Ads* are 25% OFF
Contact Steve Spence at:
ads@rebelwolf.com * except classifieds
March, 2005 Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter Page 16
Quarter Page
ESSN 3 /8” W X 47/8” H
5
way $75/month
$300/6 months
to get your $500/year
message out to
Classifieds
the $0.25/word/month
Renewable Energy 20 word minimum