Comments for The Ferris Files

Comment on What Wind Turbine 2.0 Will Look Like by davidferris

davidferris — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:10:30 +0000

Maggie – Great question, and I hope I can connect you with someone who can help. Have you spoken to the Midwestern Renewable Energy Association (http://www.the-mrea.org/) ? I’ve heard they are active and know a great deal, and they’re active in Wisconsin.

I’ll see what else I can find out. In the meantime, anyone have other resources or ideas to help Maggie?

Comment on What Wind Turbine 2.0 Will Look Like by Maggie

Maggie — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:12:50 +0000

David, I live in a small town in northern Wisconsin and serve on the City Council. We’ve just gotten notice that WPS will be raising our electricity rates, which will drive our budget deep into the red for next year. What I want, and have wanted since I was elected two years ago, is to get this town off the grid. We had a wind study done 18 months ago and we do have enough wind to drive the farmers and rest of us crazy, but apparently not enough wind to justify the cost of installing our own turbines with a reasonable payback time?? Our City Administrator believes, and I agree with him, that any plan that has a greater payback time than about 10 years will be a very hard sell, given the steep up front investment. I think we could sell 15 years. But anything longer than that is “uncertain”, “speculative”, etc.

However, I suspect that the belief that we don’t have enough wind for a reasonable payback time is based on older windmill technology. I’m wondering if you can help us sort this out, whether there are options that can make efficient use of the wind patterns we have. I ALSO suspect there are some significant limitations to the “study” that was done, but not being an expert in wind it would be hard for me to detect those limitations. If we don’t do something now, WPS (who has the power monopoly on northern Wisconsin) will continue to string us along from year to year, always raising the rates “just enough” so that it is still not “worthwhile” for our town to invest in some other type of energy production.

We need seriously better information and realistic ideas. I can be contacted at turnbull.maggie@gmail.com and would love to hear from you!

PS: I moved to Antigo from Washington, D.C. I am an astrobiologist and worked at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Though I love DC, I came here to get my career and everything else “off-grid”, and it’s been worth it.

Comment on The Weekly: Oil Rigs, Electric Cars, and Google’s Curious Investment by full file downloads

full file downloads — Sat, 22 May 2010 23:46:24 +0000

Hello, I just stopped by your blog and wanted to say hi. You have a lot of really great stuff on here, I really want to read more. thanks a lot for posting.

Comment on How India Puts Itself on a Power Diet by Mridul Chadha

Mridul Chadha — Sun, 16 May 2010 02:31:47 +0000

I wouldn’t say it is a power diet. We, Indians, and most of the Subcontinent never used the amount of energy people use in Europe, United States or other developed countries. Central air-conditioning or heating is absent here and we never felt the need of it either. Air-conditioners are becoming increasingly popular now but they are used just the way you used them, switch on when you need them. No offense but personally I do not understand the way Americans use energy; I just don’t understand why do they need so much energy since we are are doing perfectly fine using so less energy than them.

Hope you enjoyed your trip to India!!

Comment on The Treadle Pump: An Exercise in Productivity by davidferris

davidferris — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:16:34 +0000

Hi Arnold,

Glad you found the story, and that you enjoyed it! As for subscription, that’s no problem.

If you want to have my blog posts sent to your email, you can sign up through this link:

http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=theferrisfiles/JWHA&loc=en_US

If you’d like to join my newsletter, which I send out every couple months and that includes some tidbits not found on the blog, put your contact info in the box in the right column of the homepage:

http://theferrisfiles.com

If it’s Sierra magazine you’d like to subscribe to, go here:

https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Donation2?idb=0&df_id=7040&7040.donation=form1&autologin=true&s_src=N10ZSCZZ01&s_subsrc=JRG

Happy to be in touch.

Best regards,

David

Comment on The Treadle Pump: An Exercise in Productivity by Arnold Sarcone

Arnold Sarcone — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:05:24 +0000

I must say, I enjoy reading your article. Maybe you could let me know how I can subscribing with it ? I feel I should let you know I found your page through yahoo.

Comment on The Wind Turbine’s Tiny Cousin by Margarette Cima

Margarette Cima — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:30:47 +0000

I appreciate the do the job that you’ve put in, in this page. Really great,

Comment on This Issue’s “Innovate” Column: Energy for the Developing World by Krissy Lundeen

Krissy Lundeen — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:45:35 +0000

I’m genuinely glad I found this post. I’ve been scouring the web for information on solar energy for ages.Looking forward to reading more posts about energy.

Comment on The Weekly: News from Around the Matter Network by Lavenia Biles

Lavenia Biles — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:45:35 +0000

I recently begun setting up my own solar panels – I used some video guides I found and it’s working out good!

Comment on A Refrigerator Powered by the Sun by Anna Gebo

Anna Gebo — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:45:34 +0000

I’ve enjoyed reading through these types of blogs. Intriguing stuff! Solar energy has constantly been a fascination with me.

Comment on Energy Crowds the House by Kurtis Baresi

Kurtis Baresi — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:45:33 +0000

I recently started out setting up my own solar panels – I utilized some video guides I found and it’s working out fantastic!

Comment on This Issue’s “Innovate” Column: Energy for the Developing World by types of solar panels

types of solar panels — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:58:12 +0000

Exciting, I’ve certainly not heard about this…

Comment on The Thermoacoustic Engine, Explained by davidferris

davidferris — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 05:00:35 +0000

Which link are you referring to, Judson?

Comment on This Issue’s “Innovate” Column: Energy for the Developing World by davidferris

davidferris — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:59:50 +0000

Spot-on link, David — thanks for the heads up!

Comment on The Thermoacoustic Engine, Explained by magnetic energy generator

magnetic energy generator — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:17:00 +0000

Thank you ver much for that link – but it seems to be not working? Does anybody have a mirror or something?

Comment on This Issue’s “Innovate” Column: Energy for the Developing World by David Schwartz

David Schwartz — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:30:19 +0000

Hi David,

Nice post – it reminds me of a web site you might enjoy: http://www.afrigadget.com/

Cheers,

David (as in David & Jen in Baltimore)

Comment on Three Ideas in Wind Power That Might Actually Fly by Elanor Wentzel

Elanor Wentzel — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:15:22 +0000

cool thanks for posting this

Comment on …Turns Good by Richter

Richter — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:30:40 +0000

I, too, have a very pit-bull who is the most supportive animal I’ve ever owned. Soon, a fresh dog breed will arrive together for your media to blast, because they have done rotties and dobies in prior years. Unfortunate that media sensationalism breeds a lot inaccurate facts.

Comment on A Refrigerator Powered by the Sun by davidferris

davidferris — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:07:18 +0000

To Volker and others who would like to build your own solar refrigerator, I have a recommendation for you. Send your queries to Craig Somerton, a professor at Michigan State University who has led research in solar refrigerators. Craig furnished much of the information I’ve published about the solar refrigerator. You can reach him through his webpage, here:

http://www.egr.msu.edu/me/people/profile/somerton

Good luck!

Comment on A Refrigerator Powered by the Sun by unland

unland — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:47:27 +0000

do you have any design would like to build it.

did build a solar concentrator two years ago the kids loved it and I have hot water for free.

Volker