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Wild Food Handbook print your own handy pocket foraging companion and hedgerow herbal, or get the FREE plant list with details on edibility of over 350 plants. 
■ Download a copy now In this Section Last update: 19 February 2005 Critical Mass To develop more projects to share with you and run this website, I need funds. By donating even a small amount, you can get the ball rolling. For more information please visit the ■ Support page You can also support this site when making your amazon purchases through these links at no extra cost to yourself. TipsWhen installing solar PV panels, opt for a shunt regulator rather than a solar PV regulator, as this gives the option to expand the system with a rotary generator (wind or hydro). You can run solar panels with a shunt regulator (with a dump load), but you cannot run a rotary generator with a PV regulator. PV panels are not damaged by turning the power flow to the batteries off, therefore PV regulators will simply cut off the panels (usually through pulse width modulation) when the batteries are full. If such a regulator was used on a rotary generator, the Voltage and resistance in the windings would rise dramatically, heating up the wire and melting the insulation causing shorting and irreversible damage to the generator.Another advantage of using a shunt regulator for PV panels is that the power produced by the panels is not wasted when the batteries are full, but can be put to good use, typically in the summer, for a coolbox, which usually runs on 12 Volt electricity. |
PowerHere you will find out about my off-grid power supply - solar, hydro, batteries, inverter, wiring, and loadsThere is no mains electricity at the site. All electricity is generated by four 75 Watt BP solar panels, and I have just installed a micro hydro turbine, the Water Baby from Energy Systems and Design, Canada. This hybrid system should provide me with all my needs summer and winter. 
Water Baby hydro generator with the pipe and nozzle removed 
Solar tower History When I first moved to the site, I got my power from the shed of a very kind neighbor. I had two 65 AH leasure batteries, one connected up to my loads, the other charging in the shed, and swapped them around once a week. I did this for a few years. During that time I also tried out gas for lighting, but the consumption was very high, the light very unpleasant and accompanied by a constant hiss, not to mention the health implications. Early on I bought a Rutland wind generator and rigged it up in the windiest spot, but that was still too sheltered. Eventually I bought two BP 75 Watt solar PV panels, a charge controller and a new set of 185 AH deep cital batteries. The panels gave me plenty of electricity in the summer, but during the winter, on this shady site, they only produced a negligable amount of power, in the milliamp range on a grey day. For a brief time I supplemented the solar power with a hand-crank generator, which I converted to pedal crank. It was an old army field telephone generator, and already had the right Voltage and revs for human power. Although it would generate enough for low power lighting without exertion, it was certainly not enough to run a laptop computer, however efficient the design. Another two panels followed the next two winters, but multiples of near nothing, is still near nothing. As I wanted to spend fine days in the summer working outdoors, I did not want to be tied to doing any computer work when the power was available at that time. The best solution was a hybrid system with a micro hydro generator, rain is plentiful in the winter in Wales. A survey done on the river concluded that it would be possible to get enough for my needs with a relatively inexpensive generator which would be submerged in the river (the Ampair generator), however, the river can flood very quickly, and there are often trees and branches washed along which would smash the generator to pieces, and there is the small point of the river being an SSSI, and the nature council would not favour an installation, even one with fish protection. I could have built a small one to run from the springs at the top of the hill, but with a million and one projects, I just couldn't spare the time. Then I heard about the Canadian micro generator, the Water Baby, the smaller sister of the Stream Engine, and a new design. The data looked promising, and so I sent away for it. I installed it over the last couple of months, and after a few teething problems, I was getting enough power during the wettest spells of weather to run the computer up to 18 hours a day (yes, during the first stages of producing this website, I sure did burn the midnight hydro power). Presently, after a few weeks of dry and grey weather, my batteries are very low again, as the springs go down quickly, when not replenished, but the weather forecast is good, plenty of rain. An inch or two of rain will give me enough power for several weeks. Payback period
The payback period is the length of the life of the system. What I mean by that is that you are
being payed back every day with the benifit of light, music, the use of your computer, and whatever
else you use electricity for. Oh, you meant cost? What is the payback period on
your car, a bottle of wine, your TV, chocolat, a vacation......? If you can raise the money to pay for it
without going short on necessities, you can aford it.
 what are Feeds/RSS? / your privacy There are practical ideas throughout the site, but here are a few ideas for self reliance you might also like to explore:  Foraging for Wild Food Download a free list of 350 plants, with additional information on parts used, and how to consume, as well as safety notes. You never know when it may come in handy.  Homemade Vegetable Oil Lamp Easy and quick to make, and cheap or even free.  Cold Vacuum Sealing Find out how to cold vacuum-seal jars to preserve food (not just jam!) and keep things dry. Its done cheaply and uses recycled jars, very simple home-made valves and a simple, widely available hand pump.  Hydraulic Ram Pump Rule of thumb instructions for building a low cost, low flow pump without the need for welding, and using off-the shelf material.  The DCMC Binding System (Dirt Cheap Milk Carton Binding System) Learn how to make a versatile binder with waste materials. There are many more useful aids to getting organized in the office craft section . |
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Related pages
■ Tinkering
DIY projects
■ Hydro
details of the hydro generator
External links
■ microhydropower.com
Makers of the Water Baby and Stream Engine
■ builditsolar.com
excelent off-grid resource - not just solar
■ altenergystore.com
details of the Water Baby
■ ampair.com
a run-of-river micro hydro generator (also known as the Jack Rabit in America)
■ www.kimberconsulting.com
Low-Power Computing for Renewable Energy Environments
Linux and Windows Consulting and Software Program Management
■ homestead.com
links to sites of people living off-grid
■ off-grid.net
an off-grid forum/blog
■ cat.org.uk
Centre for Alternative Technology
■ techass.com
10 LED cluster which can run on Voltages from 2.2 to 13.8 Volt and can be dimmed
■ homepower.com
Magazine for off-grid living back copies on CD download latest magazine free
■ maplin.co.uk
Electrical and electronic supplies
■ Pico turbines
