Hydroelectric or Solar power for a cabin

[saltman]

Everyone has their opinions and every area has it's benefits whic help us form those opinions. I live in Southern CA and my property gets about 350 days of sun light and I have no stream or reliable wind so I used my 5500 kw generator for about 6 months and when I got tired of putting 3.00 dollar a gallon gas in it and listening to the noise I bought a solar panel, invertor, controller, and wham enough power to run ligths, VCR and TV for about 6 hours a day which is plenty for me.

If I had a stream????????????

 

[Knotbored]

Many years ago-I think in the 70's I read an article about using a very high speed flywheel for storing energy. It was twice as efficient as a battery per pound. Initially it was for use in cars but didn't work because the tendency for a rotating object to go in a straight line like a gyroscope. I recall they used a fabric and around 30K RPM.
(note the danger if such a rotating object was in an accident.)
I wonder if a fast flywheel stored underground would be useful at a cabin site.

 

[Rob-D]

Many years ago-I think in the 70's I read an article about using a very high speed flywheel for storing energy. It was twice as efficient as a battery per pound. Initially it was for use in cars but didn't work because the tendency for a rotating object to go in a straight line like a gyroscope. I recall they used a fabric and around 30K RPM.
(note the danger if such a rotating object was in an accident.)
I wonder if a fast flywheel stored underground would be useful at a cabin site.

I've thought about the idea and there's a lot more to storing the energy then appears on the surface. Bearing problems for one. Don't get me wrong, I hate batteries, most everybody does but the door won't shut on them until capacitors take over.

 

[Buckeye_Jim]

Here is a link to a company (I think they are in Austin, TX) which makes flywheel backup power systems: Active Power - Battery-Free Solutions.

Jim

 

[midlf]

Here is a link to a company (I think they are in Austin, TX) which makes flywheel backup power systems: Active Power - Battery-Free Solutions.

Jim

If you read their specs they can provide power for approximately 13 seconds.

 

[Buckeye_Jim]

That's enough time to get the backup generator on line. These systems are used for big data centers.

Jim