Just an overview of RE then and now

[zeusmorg]

 I just felt like ranting,so I have no idea where this will go.

back in the 70's I was still a teenager and I had a lot of ideas of what the future would bring. Cars got 6-30 MPG. Depending on whether you drove a VW, or other "econobox" or a Lamborghini. Gas was cheap(Yes virginia I did actually pay .25C for a gallon of gasoline) Electricity was cheap, and so was natural gas. Even then I saw the benefits of conserving and producing your own energy in some form or another. There were a lot of ideas floating around, some even used, maybe not efficiently, but used.

 Methane was a hot idea then,(YES! you too can get away from the pumps, PIG POWER!) Of course, most people didn't realize to go anywhere you've have to haul a container the size of a tanker truck behind you. ELECTRIC CARS! oh yes some were built, using very heavy Lead Acid batteries, and yes they would go 25 miles,, at 25 miles an hour. Solar Power your home! a $1.00 a watt coming to a neighborhood near you soon!  Oh yes solar panels were available and well made ones too, but when you could buy electricity dirt cheap and i mean CHEAP! Why would you invest 3 year's salary in something that would take 40 years to pay off? Financially you would've been better off taking 1/4 of that figure investing it, and letting that pay for your electricity for the next 40 years.

 Oh yes there was D.I.Y. back then too, build a savonus rotor out of a 55 gallon drum and a discarded alternator! Of course noone told you that unmodified that alternator had little chance of ever producing anything..and if you did, it still produced little. Build your own windmill! Oh yeah with the magnets available then? laughs.. until SmCo became somewhat affordable, the only way to do it was to regulate a field coil to the best of your ability, of course you lost lots of watts.. It was doable though, IF you had a good, steady wind.. Hydropower? ok that was practical. and relatively affordable too.

 Fast forward from 1975 to 2009.....ZOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so we've had plenty of time to develop test and implement all this RE stuff, the gas embargo DID kick people in the butt to thinking about how to save, and produce your own..

 Cars got 30+ mpg with a decent design and the technology used then.. So WHY can't we get 70 now? hmm... We've had decades to test and refine windmills, and blades. The NACA profiles date back to the 60's. Sandia labs has been testing since the early 70's.. Private companies can't build a decent windmill at an affordable cost by now? We haven't figured out that there is a VAST amount of untapped hydro power in this country? We can't generate our own solar on our own roofs that can compete with a decent payback time? We have to rely on T pickin' his boots to provide tons of FREE (wonders why it always says free when it comes to the wind) windpower?

 Consider the design, engineering and expertise it took to develop computer HD's yet you can buy one for 60 that has more capacity than the U.S. gov't BIGGEST computer did in 75... (and i ain't gonna tell you how much that setup cost then)..

 Makes you go HMMM.. Where are our priorities really?

[RogerAS]

Hmm indeed. I had a 1978 Toyota Corolla (bought new) that had an 1166 CC carbed/pushrod/I4 engine with a tall 5 speed that returned 54 MPG on a trip from Little Rock to OK city and back. I did the speed limit (70) except when traffic dictated otherwise, sometimes faster. I traded it in after 180K miles, and it still ran good. Today the Prius, at more than 5 times the cost, would do good to get 40 MPG when feathering the throttle. What's up with that?

[scottsAI]

zeusmorg,

Yes fun to Rant now and again about something, cleans the sole if done cleanly!-)

Our ancestors were just as bright as we are, they build the foundation of knowledge allowing us to build the great things we have today. Our children if given a chance will build even greater things in their time.

Little know is steam engines of the 1850s were as efficient as many engines today! Yep, ocean going ships wanted to use as little cargo space for the fuel, more cargo! The thermal realities were understood and utilized early on. Internal Combustion Engines (ICE), started out at 25% efficiency, smaller lighter cheaper, over took steam engines in number. NOT efficiency. Yet, basted on power, steam may be on par today (Most electric power generation is from steam power). With new materials steam is getting another look.

70's computers had a long ways to go, maybe even a longer road ahead. Much more opportunity for improvement than the RE systems of the day. With a market value exceeding engines. Therefore a good place to spend resources.

Priorities: Most people spend their free time/money on entertainment. To work on RE for the money is a loosing position. RE systems today have paybacks in decades, inspectors, neighbors hostile to anything non standard... no wonder RE has been a slow road to no where. Heck, my wife is hostile to solar panels on the roof. What will the neighbor think?

Have fun,

Scott.

[Madscientist267]

All the more reason to do it. Who is laughing when this goes where we all know it's going, and you're the one that has the provisions to keep going when the neighbor is pondering food vs light?

This IS entertainment, right?

Ahh, and last but not least:

Personally, I view RE as the next dot com. Those who understand it early and realize the benefits will be able to go the furthest. Look at Google. Simple and elegant on the surface, cumbersome and overwhelming under the hood, zero to zillions in 15 years, and no sign of even coming close to letting up. All from a couple junkers stuffed precariously into a closet and coaxed by a dream. Necessity/Invention thing.

RE is bound to be the same way, given enough time. People said we'd never need computers in our homes either. Now look at us...

Steve