1st entry of 2006

[windtech]

My first entry of 2006. We now have a third excuse for less time for building wind gennies. A 8.1 lbs boy to be exact. My passion for alternitive energy remains the same. I look forward to the day when I can build these things every week. I now have 3 gennies but only one flying. City codes --- o well. My house in the country will soon be on my planning list. Happy new years and Happy wind gen building. It's amazing how this board has grown over the past several years. Congrats to all the people who work to keep this info comming to us. My rough outline for this year is as follows

1. build at least one more dual rotor machine and have it flying by june.
   
2. continue to educate and experment with Hydrogen (carfully I might add)
   
3. If time permitts finish my electric van and have a gennie inside the back
   
   

   be able to mechanically raise it in the air about ten feet or so to recharge

   batteries when the van is not in use.

4. last but not least HAVE LOTS AND LOTS OF FUN !!!!!!!

[scottsAI]

Why Hydrogen?

[pyrocasto]

Why not? Hydrogen is great and easy to make. I think it would great for energy storage if we could just fix a few things such as the storage containers. Plus it's so easy to make. :-)

[Waterfront]

How do you get your hydrogen? Do you buy it or produce it yourself? I know if your run a current through water, it'll dissociate the H20 into some H2 and O2, and since H2 has a positive charge it would be going towards the tube with the negative charge (Hoffman machine I think they call this?)

I'd love to see some pictures of this (if you produce it yourself)!!

[Aelric]

alright another H2 enthusiast :-) might check out an article at homepower about metal hydrid storage.  If i remember right they heated the metal hydride up in an old C02 inflatable raft cylinder to around 500 degrees to prep it the first time (evacuate the air and supply some initial H2 to help clean it out) and after that so long as there is no leaks you just fill it and then empty it.  Interesting notes about metal hydride it is great for increasing the volume of gas you can hold, the material acts as a sponge.  Another neat thing is that when it is being emptied metal hydrides get very cold, when filled they get hot.  This particular feature has been exploited by the japaneese already in a few all in one h2 backup gennies they have build.  They have one out right now that refrigerates, heats water, and produces electricity.  There are even a few commercial modifications for existing vehicles out.  

http://www.switch2hydrogen.com/

That is one website already selling a conversion kit for about 10,000 dollars.  A bit steep but I am glad that somebody has a commercial version out, hopefully if competition jumps in then prices will drop.

http://www.homepower.com/magazine/downloads_hydrogen.cfm

lots of neat articles there, they mention metal hydride and a bbq grill conversion and a natural gas heater conversion to h2 and some other stuff.  

All that being said I am looking into it as well, not sure what all applications I will go with in the end but their are soo many possibilites from heating to transportation to backup power and on.  

Please keep us informed of any experiments :-)

[jimovonz]

Snap! New baby boy on Dec 30. 6lb 4oz (a bit under done but everyone is healthy!) Congratulations. I look at it this way, it may mean a bit less (well a lot less...) time for RE now, but pretty soon I'll have a good keen helper!

[Chagrin]

Not as easy as you might think. Simple methods (current-through-water) create dangerous mixtures of H2/02 instead of keeping them perfectly seperated. Storing hydrogen mixed with oxygen is quite dangerous.

[para t8]

i wanted to be the first post,oh...well,happy new year.and don't forget wind them coils nice and tight.          para t8

[pyrocasto]

"Not as easy as you might think. Simple methods (current-through-water) create dangerous mixtures of H2/02 instead of keeping them perfectly seperated."

Simple methods as in blindly collecting all the bubbles you make? I've made Hydrogen before using what I thought were "simple" methods and I only collected the hydrogen. How is that? Negative electrode produces only hydrogen, while the gas coming off the Positive electrode is Oxygen. If you dont mix them it is no more dangerous than propane, which is hooked to lots of people's grills, houses, and machinery.

IMO, the dangers of Hydrogen are the same as everything else: The smaller the brain of the person making it, the more dangerous it is. ;-)

[pyrocasto]

Just reminded of one of my first Hydrogen "experiments". Collected all the hydrogen in a bottle full of water to keep all oxygen out. Found it will not burn until it mixes with air. This was at about age 15 so I thought as many still do that hydrogen alone is dangerously exlposive.

Remember, gotta have 3 parts to a fire. Fule(hydrogen), Oxygen, and Heat. ;-)