Alternative energy from the Aquarium

[acrylic51]

I'm following you SCSInet. I was looking at grid ties and such on the auction site and haven't priced out other components, but with wanting to use solar to power these low voltage items doesn't seem to be a big power draw. I guess I'm more curious than "green" to see if I could run these few items on solar?? The exhaust fan wouldn't run constant since ro temp barely goes over 70, so the only 24/7 draw would be the 4 Tunzes. I enjoy bouncing my irrational thinking off of you.... I'll need your expertise for another crazy idea of mine shortly in my build.

 

[scsinet]

Well the real problem in your case is "solar" and "24x7"
A grid tie or something custom would have to be done about that, or use deep cycle batteries and enough solar capacity to charge them and run the pumps.

 

[srfisher17]

Regardless of the source, all of us better come up with a contingency plan. If the Green police have their way; do you think you'll be able to use chillers & MH lighting for a hobby, when you can't even use an incandescent light bulb in your bathroom? I wonder how anemones do with corkscrew bulbs?

 

[jstdv8]

LED's for the win

 

[chevyrulzs2010]

Originally Posted by locoyo386
http:///forum/post/3074565
Is wind power more efficient than solar? How do figure wind is more cost effictive than solar? I would imagine that different parts of the state would benifit from different types of energy sources. In california, at lest were I live, I think that solar would be a better bet than wind. On the other hand, people in Chicago might benifit from wind more than solar. Not sure where you are, but here solar is not bad since we get alot of sun during the year.
I am not too familiar with wind towers but at what speeds do they start to generate electricity (at least enough to make them useful)? It would be cool to compare the two, as far as efficiency, reliability and cost.
Now im not a professional in this area by any means, but here in iowa we have wind farms and i know even with just a five mile per hour wind, the turbines are still spinning, when the turbines are spinning they are creating power, they actually have a system in place so that if winds hit 70 mph or more they apply breaks to the turbines to slow them down 1. for safety concerns, and 2. the wiring they use can not handel that large of a load and would over heat causing fires. Now obviouly how much power they generate will depend on the speed they spin. The problem with wind power, or solar power for that matter, is we have no reasonable way to store this power. Yea you can charge huge battery banks in your basement, but do you really want to take up half of your basement to run power to your house ... no. Now if you had a personal wind generator you would need a large amout of wind to actually power your whole house, i mean the wind towers here are 300 foot high with 100 foot long blades, but im sure that a small wind generator that you put on the roof of your house AND are lucky like me and live in an area that winds under 20 mph then you could power 1/4 to 1/2 or at a bare minimum your whole aquarium.

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by bs21
http:///forum/post/3023783
Just kickin around some things i have been thinking about lately as with further devlopment could be alternative energy sources to power the home aquarium. This is a post to get some discussion going about possibilities and possibly existing products allready available etc... so the idea:
quick background: i was watching something on TV about alternative energy sources and they talked about solar, wind, hydro etc.... and also have a friend with a boat that has a small wind generater and some small solar panels to help power boat electronics and helps charge the batteries.
So what i was thinking about is with all the constant water movement through the aquarium would it be possible to replicate what a wind generator or hydroelectric plant acomplishes in the home aquarium by creating some small generator in line after a pump or overflow where there is constant water motion? not sure the ammounts of electricity that would be able to be produced....maybe it would be minimal nad not worth it but it seems like an interesting possibility.
Also thinking of the small solar pannels....I'm not completely familiar with the way the solar pannel interacts with light (as in what type of light, is there a certain spectrum etc....) and the way it uses it. But would it be possible to utilize lightfrom the aquarium to generate power this way? Also maybe a minimal ammount that would not be worth it but with further development could be interesting to see a completely self sustaining aquarium. Would never have to worry about power outages again plus the extra that would be produced at night when lights or off and potentially put energy back into the grid.
Again just some thoughts. feel free to comment if you think its a possibility or not or thoughts etc.....maybe some of you have thought about this also
well I was going to say something about, no trying to harness the water moving in your tank is going to be counter productive but that is already covered.
In my digging around, I still think it is a lost cause. Mainly because we can't generate electricity for anywhere near the cost of what we are buying it for... Turbines even on a large scale aren't profitable much less on a small scale. The promises of solar are still not panning out. The only think I think is an interesting idea are the light tubes. If you want to do some hole cutting in your roof. I like the look it gives, and that isn't too expensive if you do it yourself. But don't fool yourself, "alternative" energy sources aren't anywhere near as cheap as just buying your energy at 11 cents a Kwhr... (unless of course you have a natural gas well on your property and made a deal with the gas company to run generators for your house off the gas from under your home) but I don't have one of those...

 

[DewayneKluck]

Just kickin around some things i have been thinking about lately as with further devlopment could be alternative energy sources to power the home aquarium. This is a post to get some discussion going about possibilities and possibly existing products allready available etc... so the idea:
quick background: i was watching something on TV about alternative energy sources and they talked about solar, wind, hydro etc.... and also have a friend with a boat that has a small wind generater and some small solar panels a part of solar power systems to help power boat electronics and helps charge the batteries.
So what i was thinking about is with all the constant water movement through the aquarium would it be possible to replicate what a wind generator or hydroelectric plant acomplishes in the home aquarium by creating some small generator in line after a pump or overflow where there is constant water motion? not sure the ammounts of electricity that would be able to be produced....maybe it would be minimal nad not worth it but it seems like an interesting possibility.
Also thinking of the small solar pannels....I'm not completely familiar with the way the solar pannel interacts with light (as in what type of light, is there a certain spectrum etc....) and the way it uses it. But would it be possible to utilize lightfrom the aquarium to generate power this way? Also maybe a minimal ammount that would not be worth it but with further development could be interesting to see a completely self sustaining aquarium. Would never have to worry about power outages again plus the extra that would be produced at night when lights or off and potentially put energy back into the grid.
Again just some thoughts. feel free to comment if you think its a possibility or not or thoughts etc.....maybe some of you have thought about this also

Well these panels are surely very effective but still I have not huge fan of these panels..Plenty of sunshine must be available for good output and I still believe these panels are expensive..

 

[reefkeeperZ]

the problem with putting a generator after a pump is multiple, you lose flow rate and generate less energy than you get put into it. all you would do is reduce the flow and cost of running it so in that case just put on a smaller pump to get the same result.

as for photopanels, the cost of purchasing the panels would be prohibitave, after going through the water and the glass your light has lost a lot of power for generating electricity. so it would take a ridiculous amount of time to get back what you put into the panels and other equipment needed.

 

[bang guy]

Wow, this is an old thread

 

[reefkeeperZ]

hah I didn't even notice. lol