New Energy Watch

Surrette's new 2-YS-31PS

Pasted below is a press release about Surrette's new deep-cycle battery for solar and wind energy storage. Nova Scotia-based Surrette has a tremendous reputation in the battery world, particularly in the boat and marine industry. It's worth a visit to their website for at look at their video about how deep-cycle batteries are made. That would be www.surrette.com.

The take-home info in the press release is this: "The new 2-YS-31PS design maximizes cell size and bank capacity, which reduces the depth of cycles while increasing the battery’s longevity. In addition, the larger capacity allows users to minimize the number of cells in their system, cutting down maintenance time."

It's big, all right -- 200 lbs dry/285 lbs wet.

For prices on Surrette and other renewable-energy batteries, try www.dcbattery.com. They have a good FAQ file there.

Surrette Battery introduces higher capacity 2-YS-31PS battery to Solar/Renewable Energy market September 20, 2006 – Surrette Battery, a leading North American lead-acid battery manufacturer has added a new, higher capacity workhorse to its growing line of Solar/Renewable Energy batteries. The 2-YS-31PS features the same durability, performance and ease of maintenance as every Surrette battery, but its larger size and additional capacity of 3424AH allow the system to minimize parallel connections, thereby maximizing charge efficiency and reliability. The new 2-YS-31PS design maximizes cell size and bank capacity, which reduces the depth of cycles while increasing the battery’s longevity. In addition, the larger capacity allows users to minimize the number of cells in their system, cutting down maintenance time.

The new 2-YS-31PS is currently in production and will be available to consumers through Surrette dealers in the near future. About Surrette Battery Established in 1935, with a production facility in Salem, Massachusetts, Surrette Battery Company relocated to Canada in 1959 and is the Nation’s only remaining independent battery manufacturer. Modern ISO 9001 registered production facilities are located in Springhill, Nova Scotia with a distribution network throughout North America. We manufacture batteries for railroad, marine, motive power and solar applications. Today Surrette batteries are considered North America's best for the specific markets we serve. For further information regarding the 2-YS-31PS please contact: Darin Pettis at 902.597.3767 or 1.800.681.9914 or email: sales@surrette.com www.surrette.com 2-YS-31PS Specifications: Model: 2-YS-31PS Overall Dims: 15 ½” x 9” x 31 5/8" Weight Wet Est: 285 LB/130 KG Max Ht with optional Hydrocaps: 32 1/9” Weight Est: 200 LB/91 KG Capacity: 1993 AH 8 HR 2430 AH 20 HR 3435 AH 100 HR

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Ski areas go green

This isn't really a practical tip for immediate use, but it's good news, anyway:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Resorts Nationwide Energize Green Power Program
List of Ski Areas Offsetting Energy Use Continues to Grow.

LAKEWOOD, Colo.– October 27, 2006 – Alpine Meadows, Calif., Grand Targhee, Wyo., and Middlebury College Snow Bowl, Vt., recently joined 16 other ski areas that are offsetting 100 percent of their energy use by purchasing renewable energy. The list of 19 resorts includes: California’s Alpine Meadows and Sugar Bowl, Colorado’s Aspen Highlands, Aspen Mountain, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Buttermilk, Crested Butte, Keystone, Snowmass, Vail Mountain and Wolf Creek as well as Maine’s Shawnee Peak, Mount Sunapee, N.H., Heavenly, Nev., Mt. Ashland, Ore., Vermont’s Okemo Mountain Resort and Middlebury College Snow Bowl and Grand Targhee, Wyo.

All tolled, these 19 resorts are purchasing 258,574,498 kWh of green energy and their purchases result in the avoidance of 309,383,234 pounds of CO2. This is the equivalent of planting nearly 12 million trees or avoiding more than 120,000 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco.

NSAA launched its Green Power Program in September as part of the industry’s Keep Winter Cool program (www.keepwintercool.org) to combat global warming. Green power is generated from renewable and nonpolluting energy sources including wind power, geothermal power, small scale hydro-power, solar power or bio-mass power. To date, 47 resorts in 14 states are buying renewable energy for their operations. In addition, NSAA, the National Ski Patrol (NSP), the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) and the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI) are also offsetting 100 percent of their electricity use, as is NSAA supplier member BEWI Productions Inc., Waltham, Mass., producer of consumer ski shows. For more information visit The Green Room in the Environment section of nsaa.org.

Quietrevolution QR5

A British company called XCO2, based in London, has developed (have developed, as the British say) quite a beautiful helical wind turbine called the QR5, made of carbon fiber, with only one moving part --  the blade assembly of curved S-shaped foils that rotates around the support post.

It's a big machine. The blades themselves are 5m tall by 3m wide, and the bottoms of the blades are 9m off the ground. Total height is 14m, or about 45 feet. The turbine is designed to be almost silent, and relatively compact for its output, with the idea that it will serve well in urban settings where winds can be low in speed and and fluky in direction.

Maximum windspeed is 16m/s, or about 26 mph; it shuts down automatically above that speed. It begins generating power at 4m/s, or about 9 mph. There don't seem to be any electrical output figures or windspeed curves on the site, at least that I can find, except for a blanket estimate of
10,000 kWh per year at an average windspeed of 5.8m/s (13 mph.) That would be a bit more than one kilowatt of output, if my calculator is working right. I'll see if I can find out more about that from XCO2.

The cost of one of these things, including installation, is over $50,000 at today's rates. That's a bit of a showstopper, with a long payback time. It would be really interesting to see if they could make, say, a 200-watt model for a fraction of the cost, to compete with some of the smaller two- and three-bladed wind generators on the market.

The two pictures shown here are from the XCO2 website.

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

12-volt lamps

When you adopt the "let's get small" mentality, you may find that you can bridge a lot of equipment and system gaps by using simple DC 12-volt solutions. We always have three or four deep-cycle batteries lying around, ready to be slung into projects, and keep them charged with a small 15-watt solar panel from ICP.

For example, let's say that you have no AC sockets on the side of a room where you need a light. You don't need the light all the time, and you don't want to bother with the expense of a permanent installation. But you also don't want a wire running across the floor or all the way around the edge of the room, over doors, etc.

We solved such a problem with a 12-volt deep-cycle battery (about $80) and a Gruva light from Ikea ($10) Like a lot of Ikea lights, the Gruva is a 12-volt lamp that uses a transformer to change over to AC power. So we snipped the transformer off (don't get the urge to do this when the lamp is plugged in), bared the ends of the wires, ran them around the back of the bureau that couldn't been seen into without a light, rigged the light on the wall, attached the wires to the battery, and hid the battery in a wooden box beneath a clothes-storage hamper. It works well and doesn't look bad. We charge the battery two or three times a year.

The bulb in the Gruva is a G4 halogen, very hot and wasteful. But we only use it for about 30 seconds a day, so we're not guilt-ridden. If this were a light we needed a lot, we'd use a 12-volt cold cathode fluorescent (CCF) lamp like those made my Taylorbrite (about $56 from Defender Industries).

The photos show the Gruva lamp on the wall and the battery hiding place at the bottom of the stack.

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Coast Guard patrol boat on biodiesel

I recently went to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT, with some biodiesel experts, including Gus Kellogg of Greenleaf Biofuels, to meet with Andy Foley, an engineering professor at the academy who is running several renewable-resource projects with cadets. We went for a ride on an out-of-service Coast Guard 41-foot patrol boat (the original 41, according to Foley). The port engine was running a mixture of 20-percent biodiesel (B20), and the starboard engine was running straight diesel. This photo, taken after the engines had warmed up for about five minutes, tells the story. And that's only a B20 ratio.

An interesting sidelight was that the B20 had been stored in an outside tank at the academy for over a year, and analysis of the B20 compared with straight petrodiesel stored for a similar time showed no degradation compared to straight petrodiesel. Because straight biodiesel (B100) is known to have a shelf life of about six months in temperate climates, Foley's research suggests that cutting biodiesel by 20 percent with petrodiesel effectively preserves it and maintains its "potency."

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Small wind turbines

Big wind turbines are sprouting up and tying into utility grids all over the country. More power to 'em. As for small wind turbines that are used to charge DC battery banks, we've seen a lot of them at work on sailboats, but only a few used on home sites or jury-rigged on parked RVs.

Success of a small turbine for home use depends on how hard the wind blows in your area year-round, whether you're sited well enough to take advantage of the wind, whether you can mount the thing in a place where the noise won't bother you and the neighbors, and how interested you are in making batteries and DC power part of your life.

Here's the U.S. Department of Energy's page on wind power: Wind Energy Technologies.

One of the most common small turbines is the 400-watt Air-X, made by Southwest Windpower. In fact, the company says it's "by far the world's number one selling small wind turbine." The Air-X starts producing current at 8 mph. of windspeed. It's a bit hard to read the power curve on the PDF spec sheet, but it looks like it  produces 5-6 amps at about 15 mph.

Small, fast-turning turbines like this are, to my ear, pretty noisy when the wind pipes up. But noise is a subjective thing, and much depends on where the thing is located.

There are plenty of competitors. If the expertise of the dealer is an indication of a good product, then the KISS High Output Wind Generator deserves a look. It's made in Trinidad and and distributed in North America by John Gambill of Hotwire Enterprises. The KISS is engineered to work well at relatively low windspeeds. For example, it kicks in at at about 6 mph. and produces about 4.5 amps of current in 10 knots (11.5 mph) of wind, and 10 amps at 15 knots (17.3 mph.)

If you're more serious and you have some elbow room, you can take advantage of the larger stand-alone wind turbines, like those made by Bergey Windpower Company.

If you have experience with stand-alone wind turbines, click the "Comments" link below and fan the knowledge.

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Defy the disposable culture

Here's a nice program that we should encourage in all of our schools:

www.wastefreelunches.org.

According to that site, "It has been estimated that on average a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school."

The idea is to send food in reusable plastic containers, send stainless steel utensils that need to be returned home, don't used pre-packaged food bars, yogurt, drinks, and so on.

This is a tough one to implement every day. We've tried it in our house many times over the years with our kids, and the press of life has often made us resort to throw-away sandwich bags (usually waxed paper), boxed milk and juice, and even plastic utensils once in a while. Juice boxes are brought home for recycling, but far as this program is concerned, we have an "adherence" rate of maybe 70 percent.

Two points: First, reducing waste doesn't have to be all or nothing. Maybe we can't save 67 pounds comfortably, but saving 47 pounds per kid isn't so bad. Second, conservation almost always beats technological innovation. You can have the smartest, most efficient light bulb in the world, but it can't do better than being off.

Let us know some of your favorite conservation and recycling tips.

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Finding solar installation answers and installers

Sometimes it's hard to know where to get started. Here's a website that gives good basic information on home solar installations, and provides links to local pros who can do the job. It also has a really good online cost estimator that takes into account your locale, utility company, current electrical usage, and factors in available breaks and rebates.

www.findsolar.com/

What are your experiences with home solar installations, pro or con?

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Lamps, lights, and on-off mythologies

Incandescent lights are notorious energy hogs, especially when they're left running unnecessarily. They use a lot of power to produce relatively little light, and make heat in the bargain. We should replace as many of them as we can with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) , which use 75-80 percent less power and last up to 13 times longer (according to Westinghouse), create very little heat, and provide a warm light -- not as warm as incandescents, but better than LEDs.

We have a small house that doesn't get much direct sunlight any time of year. We run CFLs in places that are used constantly -- over the kitchen sink, over the dining room / homework / project / sit-around table, and at the bottom of the stairwell. We've found that they don't work as well in places where you need a bright light right away, for instance in the entryway, where we need to be able to see into the coat closet as we're rushing out, and don't have time to wait for a CFL to warm up. In this case we use a regular 100-watt incandescent, but only run it for 30 seconds or so.

So, is it bad to run a light for only a short period? 

Common wisdom says that you shouldn't turn incandescent lights on and off all the time, because the thermal cycling weakens their filaments prematurely. While this is inevitably true, the damage is not very significant in the context of the cost and normal lifespan of the bulb. The reduced energy cost when the bulb is off trumps the cost of any small percentage of bulb longevity lost.

What about CFLs -- do we shorten their lives by turning them an and off too often? The answer is yes, they do need to be allowed to warm up. If you turn them off and on repeatedly before they can warm up properly, they're going to expire faster than they normally would. If you won't need a CFL for more than 15-20 minutes, turn it off. If you'll be back sooner, leave it on.

Here's what looks to me like the absolutely skinny on this mythology from Lighting Design Lab.

GE Consumer and Industrial Lighting, also has a good FAQ file on compact fluorescent (CFL) technology.

What's your experience, pro and con, with CFLs versus incandescents and other types of lighting?

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Ethanol subsidies create demand in search of supply

There was a good article in the August 10 issue of Barron's on the ethanol situation -- "Against the Grain," by Bill Alpert. Alpert outlines the federal subsidies that makers of ethanol and biodiesel have enjoyed for many years, and the breaks given to automakers for preparing vehicles for ethanol, then goes on to balance the enthusiasm for ethanol around the country with the fact that there isn't likely to be enough of it to go around for quite some time, especially if we rely largely on our corn crops as the main source. Each bushel of corn yields about 2.8 gallons of ethanol, according to the article. University of Minnesota ecology professor David Tilman says that if we used all of the nation's corn crop output for ethanol we would only be able to replace about 12% of the gasoline demand in the country. Similarly, if we devoted all the soy crop yield to biodiesel we would only cover about 6% of the diesel demand. And this doesn't include the energy that would need to be used in order to produce these fuels.

The hope for the future, according to Tilman, will be to use other cellulosic sources for ethanol, like
grasses and fast-growing trees. The hitch there is that it will take a lot of money to tool up for the
extraction and production of ethanol from sources other than corn.

Source: Barron's magazine

Note: Barron's requires you to fill out an online form and register before you get to see anything. Annoying.

For more on cellulosic ethanol, see the following sites:

Ethanol.org: What is cellulosic ethanol?

Energy information Administration; DOE: Outlook for Biomass Ethanol Production and Demand

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch