Was: what everyone is up to: renewable

[Hivemaker.]

What about methane generators from waste food ect,any good.
Still getting waste veg oil for around 25 to 30p a litre.

 

[Brosville]

Personally, I reckon it is probably the most under-exploited renewable technology - there are already commercial systems in production - in India "gobar gas" is widely used for cooking, and the great self-sufficiency guru John Seymour included details of a biogas digester in his 1970's book (recently reprinted) - "The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency" - very highly recommended book by the way! I can't help but look at a slurry lagoon, or vast pile of poultry poo and thinking "poo-power!"
It's on my "must have a tinker" list.......

 

[Hivemaker.]

Watched a tv program a few months ago,and most of the Chinese used small methane generators to provide the gas for all the cooking.

 

[plumber]

easy to make you only need a bit of land for the digester and a pile of sh@@
sorry biological waste

 

[plumber]

Hivemaker
get my oil for nowt whats your processor home made or off the peg.
peteinwilts
GSHP with underfloor heating ace . the sales dept they sell you stuff you do not need. coupled with mini hydro fantastic the paper work is a pain.
used to run a Marine tank 1000watt metal halide lighting plus pumps and skimmers not to mantion cillers who needs central heating.

 

[hedgerow pete]

i am well into green technoligy and its uses, alot of it just works for the soul rather than the plant. quite a few people have pointed out the cost repayment plans being several life times but as some hows perfect house does not include services there are plus points.
the biggest problem that i keep running up against is space or area.
If i was to own my house , which i dont i rent since i lot mine but say i did
things i would put into say a terrace house in town rather than the country pile
! insulation massive piles of it as much as posible inside and out
solar yes but not electric best use is hot / warm water
talking of water what about a grey discharge pipe running around the flower beds. if your into digging the idea of a very large tank burried below thw back garden works to collect rain water, methane digestors work best in a set of six houses set up to run a small genny for everyone spower supply

 

[BKF Admin]

Are you still allowed to have big piles of poo hanging around now though?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Plumber.
get some of my oil for nothing,but not enough to run 4 trucks,unit was ready made by a friend of mine who has a buisness making them in different sizes,and sells them all over the country,easy to make though.
He also runs a new veg oil supply buisness,and collects all the waste,i buy most of my waste oil from him in 1000 litre tanks for funny money. He has been in the veg oil buisness for around 25 years.

Yep Admin, they are known as dung heaps,fairly common in the countryside,they spread it on fields.

 

[plumber]

admin
my yards full of crap

 

[plumber]

Hivemaker
what do you do with the glyc are mixing with saw dust and burning it ?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Have loads of the stuff,some we take back to my mate who sells the oil,thought of going into soap production..lol.but recovering the methanol first.

 

[plumber]

Muswel
you should try to fit a Flat Plate Heat Exchanger (FPHE) out of an old combi boiler will work a lot better

 

[plumber]

Hivemaker
I demeth my bio in the processor via a venturi and condensor and then water wash it and bubble dry with a bit of heat. use lamb and chicken fat mix with plam and liquid oil in the summer and save my best oil for the winter months

 

[Hivemaker.]

Never reclaimed any meth yet,bio just goes through a dry wash filter.

 

[plumber]

whats in the dry wash tower resin or oak shavings this links A1
http://www.graham-laming.com/bd/main.htm
graham designed a system that uses a venturi driven by the pump to pull in and mix the methoxide. it then can be used to pull air a round the system and through a condesor to recover the meth dead easy to make. (venturi a bit of a pig)

 

[Hivemaker.]

Sounds good,the meth recovery system,i use resin in the tower.Link to a you tube vidio the guy i'm talking about made when he started making the units.

Bio star 80.
http://video.google.co.uk/videosear...sult_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CBgQqwQwAw#

 

[MuswellMetro]

I have always wondereed about using producer Gas in a 4 stroke engine, it was used to run the No 34 Bus route...as in my Avitor, during the war

i seen american simplified wood pellat producer gas system using wet sawdust rather than the anthracite burner used by London transport in WW11


...a whole heat system based on a quieter pertol engine modified by set the timing would produce heat in adunance

There was a really cracking TV series 20 or more years ago about Victorian Gardening, including relating how the old gardeners would produce the most amazing array of out-of-season exotica using "hot beds" in their greenhouses and coldframes - essentially a heap of horse manure covered in soil.........
As for biodiesel, that's something I omitted on my quick flit through renewables - combined heat and power! - a friend of mine has shown that you can (in a suburban Surrey house) run a Lister diesel on waste vegetable oil, giving both electricity, AND house heating from the cooling circuit........in a well-insulated shed, its acceptable even in suburbia (a Lister don't 'arf thump!) - the problem is that waste vegetable oil is now pretty pricey as all the commercial companies are after it to reprocess into biodiesel...... some get round it by running on "lard" - the solid cooking oils, but even that is now getting short- so my pioneer friend is now tinkering with woodgas to run the Lister.........
Fisch Haus? - well, you've got the pretentious name, all you need to do is make them by the million out of garish plastic, charge a price that would make an investment banker blanch, and you could retire early.......(include a course for the owner's au pair/nanny)........

 

[jimbeekeeper]

As a pro active greenie, we have the solar hot water system, and it gives us "free" hot water for 6 months of the year when no heating of water is required, and for the other 6 months it does aid the heating of the water even on a cold sunny day.

BUT, would I have it again? Possibly not. E7 and VERY well insulated tanks are the way foward.

Insulation, insulation, insulation is the main point. Possibly air, to air heat exchangers with a very well sealed house (almost gas tight), but giving clean fresh air vire the heat exchanger which is warmed air via the exiting air.

Ground source is a bit of a myth, nice for under floor but no good for hot water.

I have toyed with the idea for micro CHP systems, and started with Listers, but I have now "gained" a nice Pramac 6kw diesel generator which I mainly plan to use for brown outs etc. Change over switch to be fitted soon, and I am building a generator house for it which will be supper sound insulated.

Biggest issue with the UK is our power stations, if the government (s) (Lib/Lab/con) had got their fingers out X years ago and invested in new CLEAN nuclear power stations we could all have clean and efficient electricity and electric cars can then be classed as green, rather than the current electric ones that the simple people forget the electricity comes mainly from coal burning power stations.

Ideally power should be produced local to reduce looses along the power lines, so maybe I might progress to my own nuclear plant soon

 

[MuswellMetro]

Yes i make and use bio diesel,from waste oil only.

Takes about ten minutes of your time,to produce 80 litres at a time ,thats the size of the tank.

it is when i read of bubble washing and drying etc, i get confessusbledddd

my posh new VW bluemotion car bought from my retirement fund does have a big warning..no bio Diesel, so it only the 1996 run around that my wife uses for work that i use. Rapeseeed in (NOT CORN OIL)...165, 000 miles...should have another 100k in it

though just driven today250mls to bristoland back..65mpg@ £1.05 ltr in the bluemotion including a jam on M25..it would in the 1996 be 40mg @ 80p ltr Rapeseed so £5 more expensive...but renewable

my landrover 88...eek...if i ever get it going again does 30mpg on pure rapeseeed but is less noisy and low particualte emmision but isstill going to be banned by the Greater london M25 emmision control Zone in 2012 when they have admited most particualte in london now come from tyre rubber not diesel

 

[Hivemaker.]

Waste oil is much cheaper,or even free, never used new oil. Plus you could do like some of the Americans i was reading about,make soap from the waste,and sell this to car wash companys, which gives you nearly free motoring.