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Solar Power Wind

Modeling an air heater with a massy ceiling

Question:
Consider an 8′ cube with walls and ceiling with R-value R and an Ac ft^2 air heater with a screen absorber that keeps 70 F air near R1 glazing with 90% solar transmission, as in the Barra system. If 1000 Btu/ft^2 of sun falls on the south wall over 6 hours on [...]

Antarctica: reasons for visiting

Question:
why visit antarctica?  i guess if you have to ask … … then why would you go? I went during the so called Y2K…   why did I go? …as the mountain climbers would say… becuz it was there…. i put together a web page for a local texas middle school [...]

At last our review of the Mardi Gras cruise.

Question:
> I would have liked to have been able to hear the conversations in the >  captain’s office when he found out that the Mississippi was blocked > and he couldn’t get into NO.  Must have been some interesting > discussions with RCCL HQ about what the hell are we going [...]

HOW MANY MEGAWATTS

Question:
How many Megawatts does the US have in power plants ?

Response:
>How many Megawatts does the US have in power plants ?
I don’t think the US has any Megawatts in power plants. But in 2002, the US produced about 3.8 billion Megawatt hours of electricity. — ron  (off the grid [...]

Can a bike wheel be used to make a wind-powered generator? How?

Question:
How? Saw a photo of ‘functional-art’ and realized that it might be possible to use bike wheels for wind-power. Anybody know if made me wonder if bike wheels with vanes can be mounted horizontally on a stand, and hooked up to a generator? The bearings in a bike wheel are [...]

OT: Gas prices may reach highest level in history

Question:
Gas prices may reach highest level in history By NELSON ANTOSH and JENALIA MORENO (Houston Chronicle) The highest gasoline prices in history appear to be just down the road. Dwindling supplies in the face of increased demand threaten to push pump prices over the national record set last mid-March, when [...]

How feasable is it to use wood/coal stove to heat pool?

Question:
yep..go solar if you can’t afford the $$$ for a gas heater. Wood is way too inefficient. Ken

Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> I have seen that some people have their pools painted black to absorb more > heat from the sun and consequently raise the [...]

Wind Turbine,.. Here we go…..

Question:
Hello to the group,…     Looking for input on the decision to add a wind generator into the system. We live on a ridge top with what seems to be ample wind but we dont have any concrete data on average wind speed. What I do know is that for the [...]

8'Tall x 60'L solar chimney & windside wind turbine

Question:
Hi all, A 1 km (3000 foot) tall tower, such as is planned in Austraila, is like impossible for us little guys. Suppose, someone built an 8′tall 60′long, 2 foot deep solar chimney along the side of his house, what kind of airflow could you get? Suppose, that this airflow [...]

Electrical power generation in urban settings

Question:
>Yes, unfortunately I cannot build a personal nuclear reactor or put up a >wind turbine in town. So that leaves me dependent on dirty coal power here >in Iowa.
How about a generator in your garage running off of waste vegetable oil or raw soy bean oil, or biodiesel? How [...]