This is the second in my series of preliminary thoughts about growing things, power and livestock.
As I want to achieve independence from "the grid" as much as possible I am thinking quite long and hard at the moment about alternatives for generating power and heat (two different things as you'll see) without having to hook up to power cables and a remote generator. It is interesting, as you are reading through these options, to consider just how well a lot of them mesh together; wind/solar providing the power for the compressor and pump in ground source heating, for example.
Of course I am going to be connected to the grid at first; it would be nice to not have to rely on it though.
So without further ado here are the technologies and techniques I am considering at this stage.
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| A classic petchka (wood burning stove) |
The first and most important element in heating will be my petchka. I am planning on installing a rather large one in the kitchen which I can use to cook on, and which will also potentially heat a back boiler and run a set of radiators throughout my heated living area. This is all very much up in the air at the moment and I am really open to any and all suggestions for solutions here. The petchka will burn normal logs and coal, which I will have to buy in. As I settle and if I decide to stay full time I may purchase some woodland of my own to source my own logs from. This will be far in the future though.
EDIT - Thank you very much to Annette for taking the time to contact me about Rocket Mass Heaters. I have spent a little time just now reading about them and these look perfect for my needs; require less fuel to burn, provide a long lasting heat from the cob mass around them and can be shaped to provide heating under a bench or winter bed *always thinking*. Here is a fascinating link for you with some cracking pictures of examples.
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| How Ground Sourced Heating works |
I have about 2.3 acres of land, most of it tilted slightly to the south, which makes it ideal for installing a ground sourced heating system. Basically I will dig trenches in my land and bury piping throughout it. This will then have a solution pumped through it which will get warmed by the fact that earth is warm. The resultant heat is exchanged out of the solution and used to heat water for the house.
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| Pipes at the bottom of a Heat Source Trench |
I have also seen diagrams which suggest that you put a compressor onto the system which increases the temperature differential. I am not totally sure what relevance this has (I am early in my thoughts for this). If anyone has any more advanced knowledge, or links to awesome websites to research, please comment them below.
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| Solar powered hot water |
Bulgaria is a very sunny country, even in the winter when it is very cold the sun still shines. Solar power will have to be part of my suite of heat and energy generating tricks. I picked the first image (above) as I am not limiting my thinking around solar to the classic shiny panels on the roof (though I will have some of these) but am going to look at other creative solutions to harvesting this energy.
This is another excellent solar energy idea.
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| The classic roof-bound solar panels |
I will probably invest in some classic style solar panels as well, I have a rather massive surface area on the roof which it would be silly to not make use of. These will provide electricity rather than heat which will be stored in massive batteries and then combined with the normal grid supplied electricity.
EDIT - thanks to @anubeon for this link to hybrid solar panels as an option.
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| Geothermal Energy |
Geothermal energy is very similar to ground sourced except you are going deeper into the ground, accessing heat from the ground itself, rather than using the fact that earth stores heat from the sun. I am fascinated by this as basically you just need a REALLY deep bore hole, a pump, and a heat exchange. It could be quite a high capital set up cost but I can see this providing 100% of my energy for next-to-zero ongoing cost and without any interference from weather or climate.
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| Geothermal pipes go deep under ground |
Due to the invasive nature of this, and the potential cost, I think this will be the last idea to be pursued. I am really interested in it and if anyone has any knowledge, as previously mentioned, please do shout. One page I found was this
really interesting one about digging your own wells; as the school is on a mountain I am not sure it'll be very relevant but it's interesting non the less and he does have a specific entry about geo thermal energy.
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| A simple wind turbine |
Finally for this update I am certainly considering wind power. The position of the school is on a ridge and it appears to have quite steady wind coming across the valley. Wind can be a useful addition to my energy requirements however I do not think it would be sensible to rely entirely on it. I would have to make sure that any turbine was positioned with aesthetics as well as generation in mind; they are not quiet machines.
So there you are, these are my early thoughts. As per, I will probably laugh at my naivety when the final solution is in place but I've got to start somewhere.
All good stuff, Roo. As you rightly say, first things first. Get your reliable sources in - grid leccy, wood burner - and then build on it. I'm loving the idea of being energy independent.
ReplyDeleteYou should check on the geo-thermal stuff, at lot of setups that are billed as geo-thermal are actually just ground storage for when you have less space. If you want to actually get heat out of the ground are are looking at a borehole about 1k feet depending on what the are is like could have to be much deeper. The more radioactive the local rock the better. I can't find the original source of the info. I remember working out that in the UK it would cost about £10k to get the hole drilled plus the cost of the piping, but from that you'd get water that was about 50 degrees c pretty much constantly.
ReplyDeleteA source of heat like that is very useful not just for keeping warm, if its sunny you can fun piping through polly tunnels and grow crops pretty much year round. Also you can use it to heat uncovered ares to allow planting of crops earlier. I've also seen stuff with freshwater ponds using the waste heat to get the fish to grow all year round instead of of slowing down for the winter.
In the UK you'd get screwed by the hippies thinking you were fracking but I'm guessing in Bulgaria you cold just forget to tell anyone and slip the local planner a few quid...
HI, very interesting post again! Have you thought about using a masonry stove in your house? They use less wood & burn more efficient then those metal wood burners, I have installed one of those ordinary wood burners in my house and it uses up a lot of wood compared to what you would use in a masonry stove, you also have heat for a lot longer, so in the morning your house would be still warm. In Germany and Austria lots of houses use these masonry stoves. And the heat is so healthy!
ReplyDeleteI have to continuously put wood on the fire to keep it going in my wood burner if I don't want to put coals on. There are some english websites about them, Google masonry stoves or rocket mass heaters, I like Paul Wheaton's website (a permaculturist), he has a good informative link on his site.
I've been researching rocket mass stoves for a few months now and they do sound incredible BUT I've read that they don't actually work that well in very cold climates and end up back smoking badly. The other downside of their efficiency is having to stoke them every 30 minutes or so. I'm now getting my head around Masonry heaters which work by burning a big fire twice a day and then the masonry gradually releases the stored heat and they can incorporate heated benches, hot plates and oven too. It's a very old concept and there are millions of them in use in rural Russia. Here's a link showing how to build one http://www.mha-net.org/docs/v8n2/wildac12g.htm The Masonry Heater Association sell 3D plans showing how to build one in great detail.
ReplyDeleteHi there, thanks for all your comments :) they are gratefully received and I really appreciate all the advice etc.
DeleteI will have a look at this masonry heater thing :) i think I saw some stuff about them but they didn't look as much fun as the rocket mass stove...
thanks again