Day 912 (Daily Post)
Day 912. It is another overcast morning here and I am getting off to an incredibly slow start as the sun makes it's inevitable trek up over the mountain and the birds sing their melodious songs outside which do nothing if not sooth me a bit and make me want to lay back down and drift back off to sleep. Alas though here I am sipping my espresso and pecking out letters that lead to words, words that lead to sentences and sentences that lead to paragraphs on this tiny device.
The cloudy weather of late (nearly a month of it now) has definitely got me once again thinking about ways to supplement my solar electricity generation with other sources and while yes the notion of a fossil fuel backup generator seems to be always an option it is absolutely an idea that I vigorously reject because after over a year of not using a generator I would like to keep it that way. So my mind turns inevitably towards hydro-electric, thermoelectric and good ole human pedal power which I still think is probably the most reliable because calories in equals electricity out and as a bonus the physical exercise is always going to be beneficial especially during the winter months.
The pedal power devices made by K-Tor are still the best thing that I have seen on the market yet especially in regards to portability, durability and just how little space they take up along with the decent amount of amps that their larger units produce. Basically though the idea of being able to produce electricity on demand 'rain or shine' at any time of the day/night as long as I am willing to do some pedaling is extremely appealing.
If I had not gotten the news that I have to move I would have had my micro-hydro turbine array (it is actually pico-
hydro but few folks know what the heck that is) running by now off one of those high elevation springs here. I was so close on implementing that particular project that it definitely annoys me a good bit that I spent all that time developing the springs and testing various elevations and how much the array would actually produce. All in all though that 'testing' phase is not something I regret because I learned a great deal and it showed me that my idea would actually work given the proper terrain and elevation is present and it also lead me to figuring out ways to create the required elevation (head) that I would need by pumping water via excess solar power uphill to a storage tank which would act as a 'battery' for the hydro array which come to find out is one of the oldest ways of storing energy and is simply called 'the pumped water method.'
One thing that I have definitely noticed along the journey of my electricity independence saga is there are an incredible amount of quaky devices out there that just don't work and although I have not fallen for the ruse of them the internet is awash in viral media depicting their 'miraculous' ability to create 'free energy' and what I basically feel about those types of things is that they are a total waste of energy to research or even entertain as serious solutions. My unsolicited advice is to just avoid anything that uses the term 'free energy' and spare yourself the headache of sorting out the science from the pseudo-science/quackery.
Anyway I should probably wrap this up and get the hell on with my day and see what I can accomplish before the thunderstorms arrive later in the day.
