Energy

Batteries

23 June 2011

It is surprising how often people have to run to the store for batteries in an emergency. It is understandable, they are consumable like food so they don’t last. They store electrical energy in a chemical format.
There are two basic kinds of batteries: Primary and rechargeable.
A Primary battery is a single use battery. Everyone is [...]

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A Radiation Dose Chart and more on Japan

25 March 2011

Just a little chart to put the radiation risk in perspective.
from xkcd additional sources
For more radiation news MIT NSE Nuclear Information Hub
So we are 2 weeks from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incident. Things are stabilizing but are still far from normal in the affected areas, but outside things are almost back to normal. There [...]

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A Triumph of Engineering

17 March 2011

With all the hand wringing over the Japanese nuclear power plants, they are missing just what an astounding triumph of engineering this is.
Is it a failure? Yes, yes it is, but it is a graceful failure not a catastrophic failure. The people had ample time to get away, just like the World Trade Towers another [...]

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Walk Your Property: Which Way Does the Wind Blow?

9 March 2011

The wind is another major energy input into your home and property. Now you may go thinking that wind power is too big and expensive and noisy and not allowed by the HOA and all that. This is not about that, directly.
We have some friends whose house whistles when the wind blows, a lot, it’s [...]

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The R2B2 pedal-powered kitchen appliance concept

7 December 2010

Christoph Thetard has developed a mechanical flywheel drive to power a set of kitchen appliances for his Diploma in Product Design at Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany. The kitchen machine, coffee grinder and hand blender chosen for this device would under normal circumstances need to be plugged into an electrical wall socket, but there’s no [...]

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Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanos, and Cold. Oh, My!

26 October 2010

Natural Disasters
Indonesia is getting hit hard again. Yesterday an earthquake triggered a tsunami and a volcano. There are many dead.
In the American Midwest it is cold and I will agree with them, it is cold. Cold enough for freeze warnings which are worse then frost warnings. A frost warning deals with tender plants and exposed plumbing [...]

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Essex project builds backyard passive freezer | The Burlington Free Press | Burlington, Vermont

20 September 2010

Tailer and his team of 10 interns are building a passive freezer that will keep food frozen year round using no purchased energy. It’s constructed out of mostly local, recycled or reused products
via Essex project builds backyard passive freezer | The Burlington Free Press | Burlington, Vermont.
This is pretty cool. The idea seems like a [...]

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Why Is It So Hard To Buy a Solar Power System?

16 September 2010

A whole house solar power system is pretty expensive, it takes about 20 panels to provide the 3-4 kWatts a typical home requires everyday, that’s about $30,000-$40,000.
But that is the same cost as an SUV and people used to have no problem buying those. Actually they are still easy to buy, but fewer people want [...]

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For Lean Budgets, a Plug-and-Play Solar Array – Green Blog – NYTimes.com

18 August 2010

Still, with a starting price of $799, Mr. Maglaque hopes to hit a sweet spot where a homeowner’s desire to reduce home energy bills will match his or her budget. “This is about slowing the meter down and having an impact,” he said, “not getting the meter to run backwards, because if that’s your goal [...]

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When Technology Gets In Its Own Way

11 August 2010

The pump is placed near the patient’s own heart. A power line emerges about waist level and connects to a controller, a mini-computer which plugs into a pair of one-and-a-half-pound, 12-volt batteries. Patients wear a black mesh vest over their clothing that holds the controller and batteries. The pump Mr. Volpe had, a HeartMate XVE, [...]

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