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Hybrid Cars, Solar Energy, Alternatives....

Motokid

Motokid

New Member
Has anybody really started to think about buying some of the alternative means of transportation or heating due to the events of the past month?

I've been looking at the hybid car thing a lot, and possibly a corn burning stove for the house instead of a wood burning stove for heat. Did you know there are stoves that burn corn???? There are.

The hybrid car situation is pretty bleak here in America, but I'm sure in the next 5 years the number of choices will balloon. For my needs, and my family needs, the Toyota Prius (spelling?) has the most appeal. Plus, in city driving gets over 50 mpg....nice.

What will it take to get you to spend the extra cash to go alternative? How high would gas prices have to go to get you to change your vehicle?

Does anybody already have a hybrid car? What about solar panels for hot water, or something like that? I'd love to know about anything you have or do that's a bit out of the ordinary in terms of conserving energy. Besides keeping your house feeling like a freezer.
 
Here's just one link to a corn stove site:

http://www.goldengrainstove.com/index.htm

Check out the comparison costs of heating using various fuels...
plus, ther's no need for a conventional chimney...next to no pollution at all...I'm digging this option....if anybody has one of these please chime in here...I'd love to know a few things.
 
The main thing we do differently is we have a tankless hot water heater. It only heats the water as we need it, and we never run out of hot water. We have a large family, and there's often someone washing dishes while somebody else is taking a bath. The pressure might go down, but the hot water is still available. My dh wrote an article about tankless hot water heaters that was published in Backwoods Home Living a few years ago.
 
What is it? How does the water get heated if there's no tank? Please explain. What's the source of heat for the water? Oil? Gas?

More....I want more.....give me more info....
 
It runs on gas. We have to keep the pilot light lit, which is sometimes difficult when the wind blows hard. :D

I think the article was in issue #43, which is oop, but all the articles are included in the 8th Year Anthology.
Go to www.backwoodshome.com for a look at lots of free articles, and to get to their awsesome forum. CountrySide magazine might be useful too.
http://www.countrysidemag.com/index.htm


Be sure to let us know if you get a Dexter or two :D
 
But see....that uses a common fuel that has limited quantities...

I have looked into a passive solar water heating system, but have trouble with the cost, maintenance, and where to put it aspect.
It would have to go on my roof...it would look rather unsightly I'm afraid, and what does it do to the shingles, and roofing costs, and lifespan of the roof?

I can't use an active solar heating system do to the winter temps here in my area.
 
Those magazines and forums like that are good places to start your search for information. I know that in my area, gas is cheaper than electricity, so that's why the tankless hot water heater was a good option for us. We also have(how could I have forgotten!) a wood burning stove we use for extra heat. When Y2K was a big scare, we bought a solar-powered generator for our water pump. It never got installed, so I can't tell if it's worth the money or not. The problem with using solar power in the wintertime, when you might actually need it for survival(!) is cloud cover. The weather service can tell you the average clolud-free days for your area..although it sounds like you might already know :)
 
wood burning stoves....the cost of wood is growing as fast as oil...it's messy...it pollutes...and you need a "real chimney"....not very efficient, but certainly better than just a standard fireplace....

check out the corn burning stoves if you get a chance....I am really interested in this...and in your area (Kansas) I would think corn is pretty cheap to come by....
 
My family uses solar energy for water heating and producing electricity.
We had to invest a lot of money, but we sell the electricity for about 60cent per KW. The price is guaranteed for 20 years, so in the end we will be profiting from it - as soon as we repaid the credit, that is.
 
Rigana said:
My family uses solar energy for water heating and producing electricity.
We had to invest a lot of money, but we sell the electricity for about 60cent per KW. The price is guaranteed for 20 years, so in the end we will be profiting from it - as soon as we repaid the credit, that is.
Click to expand...

Do you know if it's passive or active solar?

Do you know offhand how long it might take to re-coup the investment? 10 years, 15 years....????
 
We thought about a pellet stove, but figured even bad wood would be easier to replace if things went bad. And that's the other thing about wood. It helps to know what sorts of wood are available in your region. We got a huge supply of "free" wood that was the sorriest mess to burn AND most of it didn't fit our stove and had to be cut down..which meant a lot was just left to rot.
We also have a coleman campstove that was my dad's and extra fuel for that. To go with it, we bought an Amish cooking box-it sits on top of the campstove and has a gauge for baking. It works great on the campstove,but was useless on top if the woodstove since the woodstove is superinsulated and has a marble slab on top. We had to be careful about the surface temp since we had toddlers when we bought it. If I were buying one now, I'd be a little less concerned about that and more interested in something I could use to heat up a pot of soup if the power went out.
 
I think it's active solar.
About the investment: that depends on many factors. How long does the sun shine where you live? How much money will you get (here the prices have reduced to about 55 cent here this year)? Are these prices guaranteed? And how much space do you have?

We have a fairly big photovoltaic system (more than 100m²), producing about 20000 KW a year. It will take about 10 years for us to pay off the credit, but not all the money goes into the credit. But I live on a farm with a lot of space and in a region with a lot of sunshine, so the general conditions are probably very different for you. Producing electricity won't pay off if you do it just on a small scale, I suppose.
 
Rigana said:
I think it's active solar.
About the investment: that depends on many factors. How long does the sun shine where you live? How much money will you get (here the prices have reduced to about 55 cent here this year)? Are these prices guaranteed? And how much space do you have?

We have a fairly big photovoltaic system (more than 100m²), producing about 20000 KW a year. It will take about 10 years for us to pay off the credit, but not all the money goes into the credit. But I live on a farm with a lot of space and in a region with a lot of sunshine, so the general conditions are probably very different for you. Producing electricity won't pay off if you do it just on a small scale, I suppose.
Click to expand...

cool....I assume the solar panels are on the ground...not on the roof....
 
Efficiency and survival often do go hand in hand ;)

Looks like we will need to lay in a good wood supply, move the kids upstairs to sleep at night(think slumber party style) and dressing warmer. If that's not about both effeciency and survival, I don't know what is. Oh, and we may have to cover the windows with blankets as an extra layer of insulation. So much heat escapes and cold air enters through leaky windows. That's another area to look at, windows,doors, and attic insulation. So much to think about :eek:
 
Motokid said:
What will it take to get you to spend the extra cash to go alternative? How high would gas prices have to go to get you to change your vehicle?
Click to expand...

IMO alternative fuel sources for cars wont be a realistic alternative until we are getting nearer to the end of the oil reserves. There is currently too much money involved in the oil business to really challenge them, and they are hesitant to change their products. The biggest problem for most alternative fuels is the lack of a real distribution net like gas stations. You wont use a hydrogen car if you cant get hydrogen at every gas station and its hard for people to start a hydrogen station when noone is driving a hydrogen car. Hybrids can work, but dont give that much of a benefit.

I'd love to know about anything you have or do that's a bit out of the ordinary in terms of conserving energy. Besides keeping your house feeling like a freezer.
Click to expand...

I see heat pumps as a good and reliable means to conserve energy used for heating the house. It does not take that much space, and if i'm not mistaken the initial cost of setting it up aint that terrifying either. It will probably be pretty common in a few years, at least in new houses.
 
Heat pumps in our area are not efficient enough if I've got my facts right. I did not think they were good for temperatures below freezing?

Hybrid cars are certainly the way to go now...it's really the only alternative for transportation. Getting 50-60 mile per gallon in a Prius over about 22-24 in my mazda pick-up truck has some major advantages when gas is sitting at or above $3.00 per gallon.
 
Motokid said:
cool....I assume the solar panels are on the ground...not on the roof....
Click to expand...

They are on the roof of our all-purpose hall, where we keep the tractors and so on. I could post a photo if you're interested.
 
Rigana said:
They are on the roof of our all-purpose hall, where we keep the tractors and so on. I could post a photo if you're interested.
Click to expand...

Sure. I'd love to see it.

What prompted your parents to invest in this? Are they just enviromentally concerned or is there other reasons? Is it a common thing where you live, or are your parents trail blazing some new territory?

Does Germany offer tax incentives or tax breaks for such an investment?
 
It depends ofcourse on what car you are comparing with, but a normal economy car comes very close to a hybrid in terms of fuel efficiency. Esimates for fuel consumption for hybrid cars is based on a very specific driving style that not many really use. So in reality the fuel efficiency of a hybrid and a normal economy car is very close. The hybrid is better, but is it enough? Hybrids are still considerably more expensive than normal cars. At least over here.

Heat pumps can also work good for low temperatures. It depends on the available heat sources and the system itself. There are differences based on if you use air, water or the ground as a heat source. Normally heat pumps based on a air source is more problematic in colder areas. I have no idea what systems you can get in your area. In scandinavia with temperatures far below freezing they have been using the ground as a heatsource i think. Apparently they are saving about 40% of their heating costs.
 
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