PV Gap

Armando Said:

What do you know about Aeronautics in ancient India?

We Answered:

A few years ago I came across a show on the learning channel that said there is an ancient Indian text in sandscript that describes an invasion from space. Apparantly this script is quite extensive and covers the story of our planet before, during, and after the invasion after the human race rallied to kick the aliens' butts.

So my theory is that the Indian people kept meticulous records, and that's where the ancient aeronautics came from.

Amber Said:

Battery question for solar power - Does (2) 6V batteries hooked up in series make it a 12V source?

We Answered:

yes. A 12 volt lead acid battery is made up of 6 cells in series, each generating 2 volts. A 6 volt lead acid battery is made up of 3 cells.

But the two batteries should be identical batteries, same brand, model and approximate age.

100 watts is a very small panel. Make sure the charge controller can be configured for that size panel, and more important, for the battery size and capacity.

The batteries are rated at 225 amp hours. That comes to 2.7 kW hours of storage energy. The 100 watt panel, at full efficiency, will take 2700/100 = 27 hours to charge those batteries. At 6 hours of sun a day, that is 5 days. Throw in a few overcast days, and you are up to a week. Get a bigger panel.

The above arithmetic in detail:
power = volts x amps
2700 watt-hours = 225 amp-hours x 12 volts
2700 watt-hours / 100 watts = 27 hours


edit: "was designed to give me 3 days of use straingt from the batteries just in case it is cloudy for 3 days in row"
OK, given that info, the huge batteries starts to make sense. But it still seems overpowered. You must have paid a fortune for those batteries. The laptop is by far the largest load, And that is perhaps 20-30 watts. Say 40 watts total.

How long will the batteries work at that load?
2700 watt-hours / 40 watts = 67 hours or 2.8 days, close to your 3 days. Just remember, you will need a week to charge the batteries back up.


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Julie Said:

can I produce clean water, electricity and cooling at the same time from bio-diesel or solar?

We Answered:

Excellent sustainable strategy, and yeah, it's REALLY hard to wallow through all the BS out there if you aren't sure what to look for.

I wish I had your budget for upgrades, lol. I don't even know what country you are in so I don't know if there is any govt assistance to offset the costs. And I know NOTHING of "resort finance", so I don't know what the acceptable ROI of green technology is for you.

There must be environmental engineering companies out there that specialize in what you want, but it would take a lot of "eclectic(?)" skills collected under one roof. It is difficult to give you definitive answers without knowing where your resort is located, i.e. a ski resort is going to have different energy needs than a beach resort. If you are looking for fresh water and AC I assume it is a beach resort.

Speaking of co-gen ... great way to increase the efficiency of fossil fuel based technology, but doesn't really replace it, it just uses the energy that would have been wasted. A good example on a large scale is the relationship between Bruce Nuclear and Bruce Energy Center. Some of the waste heat from electrical generation is used to heat acres of greenhouses. Have you considered a greenhouse as a source of AC? Or incorporating as much green as possible into interior spaces? It may not completely replace your AC compressors, but it will lighten the load. If you encorporate a water misting system into your greenery, the tiny water droplets will absorb a lot of heat as well. It takes much more energy for water to change state than to change temperature, so it is a good source of cooling. You can look up the terms "Latent heat of fusion" and "Latent heat of ... vaporization(?)" to learn more about the effect. That is a natural form of AC that could reduce your power consumption.

When you say water treatment plant I'm not sure if you mean incoming potable water, or outgoing waste water. If I recall correctly there is a company in Australia (Rowater) that makes portable desalination and purification plants. Offhand, I do not know how their product compares to those of other companies. A "solar still" might be a method of water purification to be considered in your case. SolAqua in Texas makes a product, but I think it can be done better. Nature has many elegant engineering solutions to common problems which have been replaced by machines that run on oil.

Lots of ideas, but no way to know if they are applicable to YOUR situation. Basically, I am thinking that a miniature indoor rain forest would offset the energy needs of your resort. I don't believe you need to burn bio-diesel to do it either. I have other ideas, but it comes down to if you got the money, I got the time; if you got the retainer, I got the proposal.

I can be reached through my profile.

Seth Said:

Why is it that Christians will point to the wondrous universe and our solar-system .....?

We Answered:

Most (not all) of the evangelical types know absolutely no physics, hence their obsession with spouting scripture.

If they knew any physics they would be asking atheists about the Carbon-12 resonance, which is essential for nucleosynthesis in stars and the abundance of carbon for life.

It is a little odd, because it is too "convenient". Hoyle predicted this resonance based on The Anthropic Principle (we wouldn't be here to ask why the universe works the way it does if it worked a different way and we never existed). The religious have claimed "God" tinkered with the laws to get things just right.

Jill Said:

Eco Friendly India- The hottest idea for cooling: How can Solar Refrigerators minimise green house effect ?

We Answered:

Longtime passed since I read about 'refrigirators' Yet with the poor memory let me try to answer u, who knows the answer.
Compounds that have boiling point less than -10*F can be used as refrigant if they have suitable other features to use in day to day life.Of them so long we are using Freon 12 in most of the cooling units.I think this spoils the environment and hence when it is replaced by ammonium/lithium bromide, the problem is getting solved, in Solar Refrigirators.