Solar and Wind Home Power

Wow, what a market it is in terms of solar and wind power! I always have been watching this market, but it amazes me to see how much its grown in the past couple of years and the technological advances. While there haven't been a ton of advances that have filtered down to the consumer, one day the technologies will be leveraged to our benefit.

A new type of Lithium battery, that is like 5 to 10x faster to charge and also safer then standard Lithium batteries. Check it out, MIT is doing research on Lithium Nickel Manganese Oxide battery . I did a ton of searching, and no luck finding RECHARGABLE ones, just one time use ones.

However, while searching I found a great diagram to help people understand the configurations and schematics of converting power and solar for home storage and AC power uses.

ONce you install the solar panels and windmills, looks like there is another $2 to $3K in batteries, inverters, and charge controllers and grid-tie in inverters. However, for the small time alternative energy enthusiast check this 250W Grid Tied Inverter, which is a wall-plug in system. Could be a sweet deal, but get a bigger one, this one still will take years to pay for itself, don't fall for their, "watch the meter spin backwards" !!! YEAH Right if your whole house consists of a laptop, microwave and a clock radio!!! Geez.

Before you go buying a bunch of equipment do a lot of reading. This is a great tutorial on Lead Acid batteries. They are cheapest per watt-hour. One guy to watch is the author of Urban Survival, one of his articles at Peoplenomics talks about how to set up a home back-up power to grid tie in alternative energy system.

Good luck. I learned a lot today, cant' wait to build a system. Need a lot to be totally self sufficient, but you have to start somewhere.

Mega Watt it! Write when you got a system going!