Click To EnterBrilyn's Solutions For Sustainability
Residential Housing: Stages To A 12V Power Station
The first consideration in reducing home emissions is to consider how much electrical power is being consumed to operate daily use appliances, lighting, heating and hot water. Any alternative power supply must be able to maintain the convenient lifestyle we are used to and be reliable, safe and easy to install.
Brilyn has a kit available and comes together in a neat little box that
actually becomes the battery storage bank.
Steps To Build One
Step 1: Purchase Brilyn's 12 volt Starter Kit
Kit comes together in a box that will become the storage box for your battery bank.
Total cost estimated at $1000.00 and comes with:
- Battery Storage Box
- Bank of Batteries for Power Storage
- Battery Charger/Maintainer (with auto shut off)
- 12 volt Panel Box
- 12 volt Wiring: 10 gauge, 12 gauge and 14 gauge
- 12 volt Lighting Kit
Battery Bank in Storage Box and Battery
Charger/Maintainer
The battery bank in the storage box should be set up close to your
existing panel box.
The charger/maintainer is connected to the
grid source. The charger/ maintainer is sized according to what
you are going to be plugging in. Optimally you would choose a
3000 watt charger (batteries: 30 amp x 12 volts = 3600 watts).
12 volt Panel Box
The 12 volt Panel Box is installed beside your existing 120 volt panel
box. It will contain the connections for the solar and wind
sources to direct their energy to the batteries.
The
Panel Box will also include an outside "plug in" to give you the
ability to plug in your car or an outside generator, to recharge the
battery supplies if necessary.
12 volt Wiring
The wiring is installed along the same route as your existing wiring so
that there is no need to reorganize your furniture and
appliances.
The 10 gauge wiring is run for appliances such as
fridges, and dryers, the 12 gauge for electronics, LCD TV, stereo and
computer, and the 14 gauge for your new 12 volt lighting system.
12 volt Lighting Kit
Initially this kit is designed to provide one or two lights per
room. With the 12 volt wiring completed throughout the home, you
always have the option to add more over time, where you need them.
A Word About Safety....
Now that your outlets, light sockets and wiring are all only 12 volts,
you have effectively just made your home a whole lot safer. A
shock from 12 volts will not kill you but a shock from your old 120
volt certainly could.
Another great point of fact is that 12 volts would not produce
enough heat to start a fire, so now you have eliminated the possibility
of having a fire caused by a wiring problem if you choose to only use
your 12 volt system.
Step 2: Purchase 12 volt Appliances
Your home is now equipped to operate 12 volt appliances, giving you the
option to purchase them. You will be pleasantly surprised that
the pricing on these appliances are pretty much the same as the 120
volt versions.
If the industry moves towards the production of
more 12 volt appliances we can begin to see a reduction
of waste in the electronics industry, because there will no longer be a
need for every appliance to have it's own transformer to convert from
120 volt to 12 volt.
Your battery charger/maintainer in this system is a transformer and it
does the conversion of the 120 volt grid power to 12 volt wiring you
have just installed for all your plug ins.
Step 3: Purchase and Install Solar Panels
Your new 12 volt system is already equipped with connections to plug in solar panels. With the money
you are saving by using the grid to charge up the battery bank, and
running your appliances off the storage power, you can begin installing
solar panels. You can install one at a time or as many as you
like, the option is yours. You can install them anywhere on your
home, as you purchase them, keeping in mind that they can be
reinstalled on the structure you have built later on in Step 4.
Step 4: Start Building Insul Block Towers For Windmills
These towers are built similar to chimney like structures using
insulblock. The insides of this chimney structure are partially hollow
to allow for wires, and plumbing pipes to follow down thru and connect
inside your home. The pipes will be used for the hot water preheating
system that can be introduced to your system when you are ready to make
that step. Steel piping is built across the top of the roof at
chimney height to support solar and hot water panels. At
strategic points along the piping you can add potting planters with
flowers or short shrubs to create a aesthetically pleasing look to the
entire set up.
Step 5: Install Windmills
At the top of the structure a 15 foot mast is installed and a windmill
attached at the top of the mast. This will put your windmill up to a
height of about 35ft. The windmill masts are hinged. The
hinges will allow you to draw down the windmills in high wind storms
one on top of the other , where they can be lashed down till the storm
is over.
Step 6: Add A Generator To Supplement Other Power Sources
To add to the system of keeping your batteries charged, you can now
plug in a generator. Some choices you have would be our own 12
volt "Brown's Gas" type generator that uses the hydrogen on demand
process, or a regular diesel generator using diesel or biofuel, or even
a gas generator running off gas, ethanol or butanol. It is
important that your generator has an auto off/on system so that the
only time it needs to run is to supplement your other power generation
sources (ie. wind/solar)
This step by step process gives you the ability to become self
sufficient and reduce your carbon footprint by about 70% just using
standard components that all fit within the building code
guidelines.
Step 7: Time To Celebrate
Congratulations your home is now safer and stronger than it
used to
be and has increased substantially in value. If you decide to
sell it you can feel proud about selling it to a young person knowing
they will be able to maintain it and realistically be able to afford to
live in it. Meanwhile, you can take your proceeds from the sale
have a bit of fun and then build another one. Good Job!
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