Thank you for sharing. I would like to collaborate with you. I am in the same boat per se. I am located in WA state and am interested in on-site energy production for use on my property. Hydro power is a good option for me in the rainy months, and solar might be the best option in the sunny months. It seems like you are quite far along in your research. I learned quite some in your description so thanks for stoking the fire on this topic. Another type of energy that we are looking into is rocket mass heaters for efficient, clean burning wood heat for our buildings. And I have also been contemplating possibly a wood fired energy source. Have you been having any luck building your own electric generator, or finding a product you can use or modify?
First off, I havent really built anything yet. I just bought a milling machine because I do plan on getting started soon and will be making a lot of parts myself. . Mostly I have just been reading and like everyone else, Trying to figure this stuff out. There is a lot I think I know that could very well turn out to be wrong, but I will say what I think I know and hope someone that actually does know will correct me when I am wrong.
One thing I am pretty sure of is the best way to generate electricity is to reduce the amount you need and also to conserve the power you do make. To reduce your needs, you can turn to other alternatives such as solar water heater. My fist attempt at heating my hot water was adding a heat exchanger to my wood stove. I save power by using the wood heat for the house as well as save power by using the wood stove to heat my hot water. The first month I had the exchanger connected, I saw a $50 reduction in my power bill. My power bill actually averaged $50-$60 month less over the winter months than it did in the summer months. AC consumes as much electricity as heat when it comes to producing power. A friend of mine had a heat pump exchanger hooked to his hot water heater, some how it took the cold out of the water and produced cold air to cool his house and hot water for the sinks. The hotwater heater wasnt even connected to the power. This worked pretty well in his old house. He has since moved away and we have lost touch, but I sure would like to find out more about this type system. Producing enough power to run the fans to move the cold air is a lot cheaper, and easier than trying to heat water and run a ac unit. This also brings it back around to not being of much use during the winter months, like my wood stove exchanger not being of much use in the summer time. I can see having both systems should work year round.
Heating water using solar is pretty cheap to get started. I used a old 40gal hot water heater for storage with my wood stove, but I was also producing a lot of heat with the stove. A properly sized solar water heating system will also produce a lot of heat, but not is the same compact space. It doesnt really take that big of a solar collector, another friend used 4 2ftx2ft collectors on the roof of his house and was getting 180 temp water in Jan. He actually had to disconnect two of his small panels because he was afraid his small kids would get scalded in the bath tub. Storage of the hot water is the issue. He also used a 40gal hot water heater for storage. 40 gal isnt much when everybody starts taking baths and it doesnt renew the hot water at night, so if you run out of hot water, you have to wait until the next day before it will heat up again. That is why my plans include burying a 1000gal water tank to be used for hot water storage. I will have to size my solar collector to be big enough to heat that tank of water during the day, and the storage capacity will be large enough to make sure I dont run out of hot water for a couple of days of bad weather. I also want to try using the solar heated water to heat the house. I also plan on a wood stove, so I can heat water and the house that way if its needed.
My alternative plans for AC are to use the creek water to get the cold air. Now this wont be 30degree air, but this creek stays around 56f year round. I have checked it multiple times. 56f is a lot colder than I want to cool my house so its just a matter of pumping the water thru a heat exchanger with duct fans to move the cold air thru the house. Using a heat exchanger at the creek another heat exchanger at the house in the main trunk line of my duct work in a closed piping system, and the water can be moved long distances with a low voltage solar powered water pump, even if you have to pump way up hill. Of course, the farther you are away from the creek, the more water line you will have to run. You will find the plumbing will cost you more than the heat exchangers. The heat exchanger at the creek can be a simple coil of copper pipe under the water surface, but I suggest a commercial radiator type exchanger to install inside your duct work. If you get a commercial exchanger for the duct work, you can also use a valve to switch between using cold water in the summer and hot water in the winter from you solar heated water storage. You can even hook the valve to your electric thermostat to switch from AC to Heat just like it is now in most houses.
Cost, cost, cost. You really need to think outside the box to keep cost down. For instance, my wood fired water heater cost me about $60 to buy the copper pipe, the water tank came out of a house being remodeled and was being throw away,, a couple of fitting and some pvc pipe and I had it plumbed into my existing water lines. Paid for itself the first month. Scrounging things you can use is a lot cheaper than going to the hardware store. Also understanding the best way to extract the power from your stream is going to be different than the way someone else is doing it. The claim, or rule of thumb, is that you need a 1in stream of water and 10ft of fall to be able to produce any significant amount of electricity. That will be enough to charge your cell phone or run a few LED lights, but it isnt going to get it done when you open your refrigerator door or run your furnace fan to move your "green" ac or solar heated water thru a heat exchanger. todays cell phones have gps on most of them. You can download apps that will give you elevations. I would check to what you elevation is where your water source will be and then check the elevation where you plan on putting your generator. The difference will be your total head. You can construct a simple weir damn to measure water flow. Do these two things first. This will give you some ideal as to how much power you will be able to produce. I would also calculate my current energy consumption, then if your water power measures up to your needs, then you can get into the hard math and start sizing generators and battery storage, chargers and inverters, sine wave converters, pipe wire, and everything else that you might need.
