SOLAREX FULL PAGE FULL COLOUR 2 Home Power #29 • June / July 1992 HOME POWER THE HANDS-ON JOURNAL OF HOME-MADE POWER Contents From us to YOU– 4 Things that Work!– 46 Kid's Corner– 74 Shake, Rattle, and Roll Bergey's 1.5 kw. Wind Generator Solar, Wind, and Solid Waste Systems– 6 Energy Fair!– 50 Home & Heart– 76 120 VDC Wind & PV Hybrid SEER '92, Willits, California Rockin' and Rollin' Systems– 14 Subscription Form– 51 Book Reviews– 78 Cartable Power Subscribe to Home Power! Buying Country Land Systems– 18 Things that Work!– 53 Happenings– 79 Utility Disconnect Bobier's LCB40 Renewable Energy Events Architecture– 22 Things that Work!– 56 The Wizard Speaks– 82 The Earth as a Perfect Blanket Ananda's Power Panel Where Everything Grows Energy Fair!– 26 Things that Work!– 58 Letters to Home Power– 83 Midwest RE Fair, Amherst, WI 12 Volt Products' Heating Pad Feedback from HP Readers Editorial– 28 Things that Work!–60 Q&A– 92 A Look Ahead SBCI's Solar Cooker Kit All manner of techie gore Editorial– 31 Heat– 62 Home Power's Business– 94 A Call to Action Solar Food Drying Advertising and Sub data Controls– 34 Things that Work!– 68 Home Power MicroAds– 95 Maximum Power Point Tracking PC Solar Program Unclassified Ads Safety– 38 Homebrew– 69 Index to HP Advertisers– 98 Understanding System Protection A Beginner's DC Power Supply For All Display Advertisers Batteries– 44 Back to the Basics– 72 Home Power Mercantile– 98 Healing Troubled Cells Terms of Enpowerment RE Businesses Access Think About It Cover Home Power Magazine "You don't need a weatherman to A Northern Power Systems HR3 POB 130 know which way the wind blows." wind generator powers the Cook's Hornbrook, CA 96044-0130 Farm in Pennsylvania. Story on Robert Zimmerman page 6. 916–475–3179 Photo by Arthur K. Cook. Home Power #29 • June / July 1992 3 From us to YOU People Barry Brown Joel Chinkes Arthur K. Cook Maxine Cook Sam Coleman Christopher Freitas Chris Greacen Lucien Holy Loren C. Impson Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze Kid's Corner Kids Stan Krute Don Loweburg Bradley E. O'Mara Bart Orlando Therese Peffer Karen Perez Richard Perez Jack Pouchet William Raynes Mick Sagrillo Bob–O Schultze Larisa Welk Above: the REEF '92 Fair Crew at Arcata, CA. Photo by Bart Orlando Printing RAM Offset, White City, Oregon Earth Speaks During Earth Day Energy Fair Cover 50% recycled (40% pre- The 1992 Renewable Energy & Efficiency Fair, April 25th, in Arcata, California consumer, 10% post-consumer), low chlorine paper. Interior is recyclable was the first fair this year. Saturday morning we went to Redwood Park and set paper. Soybean ink used throughout. up our booths. The park is a large meadow perched on a hillside above Arcata and is ringed with tall redwood trees. The sun blessed the fair by shining for the first time in days. Fairgoers arrived by shuttle bus and began cruising the booths, Legal asking questions and gathering information. Workshops began on renewable Home Power Magazine subjects. The Earth Games for the kids started. The solar powered stage hosted (ISSN1050-2416) is published music, skits, and speakers. At 11:06, an unsheduled event happened. bi-monthly for $10 per year at POB 130, Hornbrook, CA 96044-0130. Application A 6.9 earthquake, centered 40 miles south of Arcata, hit the fair. The ground to mail at second class postage rates is jerked and rolled like a small boat in large ocean swells. The tall redwood trees Pending at Hornbrook CA. Postmaster now looked threatening as they swayed and lurched. In a few moments it was send address corrections to POB 130, over. No trees fell, no one was hurt, and the band played on, powered by the sun. Hornbrook, CA 96044-0130. Throughout the day we had quake damage reports from Arcata and beyond. Grid Copyright ©1992 Home Power, Inc. power was temporarily out for 23,000 homes. Witnesses closer to the epicenter All rights reserved. Contents may not reported power lines colliding and sparking. Gas lines sprung leaks from Petrolia be reprinted or otherwise reproduced to Eureka and caused fires. Luckily, no damage was reported at Humboldt Bay without written permission. Nuclear Power Plant in Eureka. This plant was shut down in 1988 because it sits While Home Power Magazine strives for on a major earthquake fault. There is still radioactive waste stored there. clarity and accuracy, we assume no responsibility or liability for the usage of We got Nature's message. So did the 2,000 people who attended REEF '92. this information. Decentralized renewable energy allowed us to rock and roll while those around us Canada post international publications were powerless. When it comes to power, Mother Nature wins. mail (Canadian distribution) Sales Kathleen and the whole HP Crew agreement #546259. 4 Home Power #29 • June / July 1992 Electron Connection full page ad Home Power #29 • June / July 1992 5 Above: Arthur and Maxine Cook's wind and photovoltaic-powered farm. 120 VDC Wind and PV Hybrid Arthur K. and Maxine Cook ©1992 Arthur K. and Maxine Cook e have been experimenting Awakenings On December 29, 1974 an electrical snow storm hit with with wind and solar power devastating effects. Over forty inches of wet snow fell W since 1978 when we installed overnight. The storm was windless, so the snow lay our first RE systems. We became "Earth where it fell. Our utility lines were stretched to the ground. Most of the large transmission towers feeding our county Conscious" in the 1960's and early were crushed. No more electricity. We slept in a 29° F 1970's as did many people worldwide. house with no heat or light. We had no water for our cattle which were trapped in the barn. There were no backup We realized that Mother Earth and her generators to be had – they had all been bought. Five resources were being rapidly depleted. days later we got our power restored and I pledged that We felt powerless to do anything about this would never happen to us again. the world's environmental problems, but Beginnings Maxine and I, our two Tennessee Walking horses decided we could and would take our (Go-Boy and Prince), two German Shepherd dogs (Tuffy own measures to live environmentally and Velvet), and three macaw parrots (Ruby, Scarlet, and friendly lives in harmony with the Earth Sparky) live on a 70 acre solar-powered farm in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Somerset, Pennsylvania is located and our fellow man. about 60 miles southwest of Pittsburgh in the beautiful 6 Home Power #29 • June / July 1992 Systems Laurel Highland Mountains. After 14 years we are now comfortable with a fine working system that uses the utility grid as a backup if we don't use our backup generator. Maxine and I were married in 1969; she was 22 and I was 25. Like most young couples we were anxious to start our life together. I was working in a family business which I was to take over. While it was quite lucrative, it was simply not for me. We were both drawn to the land, country living, and a simpler lifestyle. On May 5, 1973 we made the move to our cattle farm in the country. In 1987 we sold our cattle and became vegetarians. Raising beef cattle will do that to you! We have been building our system since 1978. In those years we were all pioneers. Nobody was an expert. Electronic controls, inverters, and so on were "iffie" and some were outright junk. People have always thrived on challenges. My wife, Maxine and I were no exception. We have learned through failures, ours as well as others. Wind System Our first wind generator was a 115 VDC rebuilt Jacobs. It Above: The Northern Power Systems HR3 wind generator was destroyed in a terrible blizzard in January 1980. The atop her sixty foot tower. wind that day gusted to 82 mph and the temperature was -27° F. The Jacob's governor failed due to the cold; the foot) diameter three-bladed rotor. We mounted her atop a springs lost their tensile strength, the rotor overspun, and 60 foot Rohn self supporting tower. This magnificent the machine flew apart. We replaced our "Jake" with our machine will produce 3,500 watts at 25 mph and requires present Northern Power Systems' HR3, an 825 pound, only one hour of maintenance per year. It hasn't missed a direct drive 120 VDC alternator with a five meter (16.4 beat in 11 years. Below: Forty Kyocera K63 photovoltaic modules make 2,348 kWh. of electric power annually. Home Power #29 • June / July 1992 7 Systems 4 Solar Thermal Panels – 55 sq. ft. 40 Kyocera K63 PV Modules 1.5 kW., 120 VDC 16 Amperes Onan Generator Northern Power at 160 VDC Utility HR3 Wind Generator Power 3.5 kW. at 120 VDC pump 140 gallon 30A. Fused 30A. Fused Domestic 30A. Fused Automatic Disconnect Disconnect Hot Water Disconnect Switch Tank Two 4 kW Heating Regulator Regulator Elements 1.3 kW. Battery kWh Meter A-h. Meter Charger Automatic Switch 120 VDC BUSS Amperes Voltage 60A. Fused Disconnect 120 VDC Michigan Energy Works Fuse & 3 kW Inverter DPDT Switch Distribution 120 VDC to 120 vac Box Forty Surrette lead-acid Batteries 400 Ampere-hours at 120 VDC 120 vac Fuse & All Distribution 120 VDC Loads Box All 120 vac The Cook's Power Systems Loads 8 Home Power #29 • June / July 1992 Systems The HR3 is 270 feet from our house and is fed with two Power Production runs of #00 gauge copper cable and one run of #6 copper During the year from March 1991 to February 1992, the cable.