SOLAREX FULL PAGE FULL COLOUR 2 Home Power #30 • August / September 1992 HOME POWER THE HANDS-ON JOURNAL OF HOME-MADE POWER Contents From us to YOU– 4 Things that Work!– 50 Energy Fair!– 81 Small Bear Speaks ES&D’s Stream Engine Great Lakes RE Fair Systems– 6 Homebrew– 54 Energy Fair!– 81 2 + 2 = More than Enough Build a Nicad Recharger Iowa RE Fair Energy Fair!– 10 Subscription Form– 59 The Wizard Speaks– 82 1992 Midwest RE Fair Subscribe to Home Power! Ecology and Green-Washing Energy Fair!– 14 Things that Work!– 62 Letters to Home Power– 84 SEER '92, Willits, California MigMaster DC Welder Feedback from HP Readers Electric Vehicles– 16 Code Corner– 64 Q&A– 94 Solar & Electric 500 Grounding Inverters All manner of techie gore Electric Vehicles– 22 HP Survey Results– 66 Home Power's Business– 97 An End of Innocence HP Book Survey Advertising and Sub data Architecture– 26 Homebrew–68 Home Power MicroAds– 98 Passive Solar: Glass & Glazing Build a Digital Amp-Hr Meter Unclassified Ads Lighting– 32 Back to the Basics– 72 Systems– 101 Environmental Effects of Lighting The Next Generation Home Power’s System Power Politics– 38 Kids’ Corner– 74 Index for HP#1 to HP#30– 109 The lights are on… My Solar Oven A Complete Index to All Issues Alternative Fuels– 42 Home & Heart– 75 Index to HP Advertisers– 114 Even More on Methane Solar Food Drying For All Display Advertisers Homebrew– 45 Happenings– 78 Home Power Mercantile– 114 Build a Wattmeter Renewable Energy Events RE Businesses Access Think About It Cover Home Power Magazine "To him whose elastic and vigorous A close up photo of some POB 130 thought keeps pace with the sun, Kyocera photovoltaic modules Hornbrook, CA 96044-0130 the day is a perpetual morning." smiling at the sun. 916–475–3179 Henry David Thoreau 1817 – 1862 Photo by Richard Perez. Home Power #30 • August / September 1992 3 From us to YOU People Home Power Magazine’s Fifth Anniversary: growing, graying, Stan Barr helping, and paying Barry Brown Stuart Caruk Growing Sam Coleman As you may have noticed, Home Power Magazine has been growing. Growing is a natural process that is energy, ecstasy, and exasperation combined. Bart Diaz Scott Ely Graying Chris Greacen Home Power is now five years old and still growing. While growing is fun, it is also Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze scary. Over the last five years, the amount of grey on our heads has definitely Kid's Corner Kids grown. We all pay a price. For Richard and I, the price was becoming too high. We needed HELP! So that’s just what we did, we hired more help. BUT—and there’s Chrissy Leonard always a but—more help meant more mouths to feed. Dan Lepinski Bradley E. O'Mara In the beginning of Home Power, everyone’s labor was donated. No one received a John Mills paycheck. Five years down the road, Home Power has taken over the lives of all Therese Peffer those involved with it. Home Power must support the people who produce it. Mark Peterson Helping Karen Perez We welcome Therese Peffer and Chris Greacen to the Home Power Crew. They Richard Perez work, with Richard, Kathleen, and I, on Home Power—writing, editing, illustrating, Shari Prange processing the mail, and other chores on an endless list. Richard Rahders Paying Al Rutan We have decided to raise Home Power’s subscription rate from $10 to $15 per Mick Sagrillo year. This increase allows Home Power to grow without Richard and I burning out Bob-O Schultze or having nervous breakdowns. This increase allows us to support full time help in John Takes producing this magazine. Everyone who works here could easily be making twice Michael Welch the bucks, in half the time, anywhere else. John Wiles More Growing So what will you get for your extra five bucks? More pages which cover more solar Printing architecture, more domestic hot water, more solar heating, more do-it-yourself Southwest Offset, Gardena, CA projects, and more electric vehicle articles. In this issue, Home Power has more Cover 50% recycled (40% pre- recycled paper and soy-based color inks inside a 116 page magazine! consumer, 10% post-consumer), low chlorine paper. Interior is 50% All of these changes means that it costs us more to publish and distribute Home recycled paper. Soybean inks Power. We are asking you, our readers, to help out by paying more for a used throughout. subscription. We feel that fifteen bucks a year is a fair price. We hope you feel we’re worth it, and stay with us. Thanks for listening, Legal Home Power (ISSN1050-2416) is Karen Perez for the whole Home Power Crew. published bi-monthly for $15 per year at P.O. Box 130, Hornbrook, CA 96044-0130. Application to mail at second class postage rates is Pending at Hornbrook, CA. POSTMASTER send address corrections to P.O. Box 130, Hornbrook, CA 96044-0130. Copyright ©1992 Home Power, Inc. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission. While Home Power Magazine strives for clarity and accuracy, we assume no responsibility or liability Above: Chris and Therese working on Home Power. for the usage of this information. 4 Home Power #30 • August / September 1992 SHURFLO PUMPS Full page Full four color Home Power #30 • August / September 1992 5 Above: Stu Ward’s solar-powered and owner-built home in northern California. Two solar electric panels provide the power, a solar oven does the cooking, and passive solar architecture keeps the home warm. Photo by Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze Homebase 2 + 2 = More Stuart Ward built his cabin over four years, from 1979-1982. The cabin is 16 feet by 28 feet with a main floor of 448 square feet and a loft area of another 200 square feet. His cost for building materials at that time Than Enough was $13,500. The cabin has 15 windows on the southeast side and no windows on the north side, making the most Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze of passive solar space heating. He used R-30 insulation in the ceiling and R-19 in the walls and floor. ou first see the large yellow water He hosted the 1981 California National Rainbow Gathering at his homestead, then known as Earthbase tank, turn right and follow the and now called Homebase. The yard is lighted by a abalone shell lined driveway to a stand-alone solar path light system with its own built-in Y panel and batteries. place full of character and inhabited by Stu purposefully chose his site, within a land subdivision, one. Stuart Ward’s small, owner-built in an area that did not have grid power and the cabin sits on the juniper flats below the accompanying power lines through it. The closest grid north face of California’s Mt. Shasta. His power is a third of a mile away. For the first ten years, Stu used kerosene lamps for the most part and rotated two photovoltaic panels and two lead batteries in his car. acid batteries supply more than enough He purchased his first photovoltaic panel in the summer power for his lifestyle. of 1989. It was an ARCO M-75. The second panel, a 6 Home Power #30 • August / September 1992 Systems Stu Ward's Energy Consumption about 15 minutes. The main plexiglas panel Hours Watt-hrs faces south; the roof is made of greenhouse 12 Volt Appliances Watts per day per day % glazing. A cloth curtain allows entry and exit. After reading an article on solar chimneys he 5" color TV 12.6 4.5 57 21.5% built one from recycled materials. 3 LED strips of light 2.3 24.0 54 20.6% When there is no sun, propane fuels his Main reading/working light 10.1 5.0 50 19.1% cooking. When the sun shines, he regularly 9" color TV 44.1 0.8 33 12.5% uses a SunStar solar oven, which was a gift Main overhead fluorescent 37.8 0.8 28 10.7% from Heaven’s Flame author, Joseph Radabaugh. Kitchen fluorescent 18.9 0.8 14 5.4% LED clock, battery chargers, fan 12.6 1.0 13 4.8% Energy Audit Several years ago Stu was randomly picked VHS video player 12.6 0.8 9 3.6% from 14,000 American households for a free Porch light 6.3 0.8 5 1.8% energy audit by the Dept. of Energy. Stu called Stu's Average Daily Energy Consumption 264 Watt-hrs. to make sure the Auditor could find his remote home. When the auditor arrived she said not only was he the only renewable energy home Kyocera K-51, was added late in the winter of 1990. The she had audited, but he was the only person to call to panels are fixed at 30° east of south with seasonal tilt. He make sure she was coming. She was amazed at how little uses a Trace C-30A charge controller, two Trojan L-16 energy Stu used in his home. batteries with six Hydrocaps and various meters to Water Saving Sanitation monitor his power. After reading a Home Power article, he Stu uses a Sealand toilet. He collects and saves added safety disconnects to the system. Stu did all the rainwater for flushing. As the Sealand only uses 1 pint per wiring and installation himself. He made the panel flush, it works well for Stu. This type of toilet works in mounting racks from recycled materials.