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    PowerStruggle: Bad moves

    What did you try that didn't work at all? Talk about the worst strategies you've adopted to get through the Power Struggle.

    Started by: DarkOptimism Raves:3

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    Lots of things, because there are a lot of scams out there. People selling fake solar panels and non-functional \\\"generators\\\" of all types. People selling gasoline that has been mixed with solvents and who knows what else. Unfortunately the energy crisis makes consumers desperate, and desperation attracts the scam artists like sharks in a feeding frenzy.

    I thought that large scale centralized power systems would through economies of scale help to reduce costs and provide reliable power. I now think this is dangerous and counter-productive. It is dangerous as there is a weak grid to distribute this kind of power necessitating a call for a \\\"smart grid\\\" and the economies of scale leading to lower costs is just not happening. It is counter-productive in that it doesn\\\'t serve the broader global developing world nor does it produce reliable power when an archaic transmission and distribution system based on weak link 40 year old components are accidents waiting to happen. A solution is within reach to help solve our needs and allow us to take a local leading to global role in supplying energy. This would be effected by generating our own power and selling it back to the \\\"global community\\\" or in the case of improving reliability to use the energy for oneself when the grid can not supply the energy needed.

    In trying to upgrade our solar panels, we\\\'ve run across all maner of scam. Some are as bad as the cells painted on wood with a piece of glass over them. We can\\\'t afford the price or the wait for the real thing, so we continue to search the internet and black market hoping we don\\\'t get caught in a scam. We also tried to build our own windmill to pump water, but that was trashed during the first small hurricane that came throught the area. Steal and titanium is the only way to go in hurricane prone areas. The worst thing had to be the hair brained idea we got to harrness the heat generated by our bee hives like geothermal energy. That only resulted in lots of bee stings and actually destroyed one of the hives when the water pipe burst. Very bad ides.

    Hey lectricman, you should come join our discussions on the Australian Powerdome Superstruct (http://superstructgame.net/SuperstructView/39) - I\\\'ve been making much the same points you are and would welcome the back-up! Sorry to hear about the scamming problems you\\\'ve all been having. Perhaps we need to invent a Superstructure to somehow authorise reputable dealers?

    ignoring it entirely almost works...but isn\\\'t a solution i had been doing that for 20 years, when suddenly we realized we had no controls.

    I tried a window mounted solar fan/heater that proved to be nothing more than an expensive toy. But by far the biggest scams in the world are: biofuels and CFC lights. They both use more resources than they save, and the bulbs are full of mercury (poison). It's a lot easier to just turn off the lights when you do not use them!

    As I'm trying to set up shop, I'd really like to read more responses to this question. Anyone else have a "don't bother with this" experience?

    Know your area and get something appropriate to it. I'm on the west coast of Scotland, and the percentage of sunny days has dropped ever further in the last ten years - despite this, I've seen people spending fortunes on solar panelling. They get sod-all rate of return. If you live in a windy place, use that to your advantage, almost any form of small turbine *should* be quite cheap (ha). If you've got a large outdoor area, you can use geothermal to heat your place, but it's expensive. If you're in a flat or an apartment... make friends.

    Also - know your needs. When we first decided we needed power self-sufficiency (and we were lucky to have the space and cash to make it realistic) we wrote a big list of everything we needed to run, and promptly bricked it. But it turns out we don't actually NEED half of that, we just need to be more careful or ingenuous. You may not need an eighty-foot turbine in your back garden so you can leave your nets on all the time, for instance, and since cost is usually an issue this is important. Storage capacity can also be more of an issue than power production, so don't forget that - if you're producing a trickle of power but can store it for when you need it - battery charging, for instance, then that's a huge plus. Because it's not always sunny during the day, the wind stops blowing when it's most inconvenient, etc!




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