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reddly
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# Posted: 18 Apr 2013 08:53pm
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So I've been struggling for sometime on the power solution. everything I've thought of has in one way or another had a fairly major difficulty involved. Some of the difficulties are in logistics and pricing (not feasible to pack batteries, or fuel 100 miles by boat to a full time off grid cabin.) solar is cost prohibitive, DIY solar is a solution but in my part of the world with long nights, and poor weather conditions most of the year is a part time bandaid. Wind is feasible for small applications but won't generate the power I want reliably. Micro hydro is the best choice but the environmental laws are ridiculous. how a floating water wheel on a stream that has no wild life in it is absurd. Tidal has much of the same issues as a stream with respect to environmental "impact" (again I fail to see how a few bouys bouncing up and down on waves would hurt marine life.) Even if i could drag fuel, that didn't cost an arm and a leg, to and from the cabin there is still the issue of noise, and exhaust. I'm not against using any of these but I don't believe any would work for any length of time without running into some serious problem.
then i found
http://www.efoy.com/
anyone have experience? any ideas? words or wisdom? advice?
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ICC
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# Posted: 18 Apr 2013 09:14pm - Edited by: ICC
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sounds wonderful on first look. how come I can't find any info on how much one of their special fuel cartridges cost? that annoys me, like they are hiding that because it ain't cheap.  there are tax credits though (usa)
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reddly
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# Posted: 19 Apr 2013 12:05am
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having a hard time finding pricing, i did find that the fuel (methanol) is cheaper than gasoline, actually if what I'm looking at was correct its about 25% of the cost by volume. It also appears that methanol provides 1kw of energy per .9 l of fuel. I don't know how this compares to gas in terms of efficiency. But I'm sure a quick comparison of a honda gen and its fuel consumption at load would do the trick.
The down side. fuel is harder to come by. Obviously the company sells fuel "cans" (sealed and non-refillable, at least for self refill). But companies like praxair sell methanol as well. usually in oil drum size and probably pretty cheap. not sure if that would work as a long term fuel bank (is all methanol equal?)
aside from that I haven't found a unit price for the actual fuel cell. but no oil changes, sound, moving parts, spark plugs, exhaust problems, air filters and such... sounds like a real solution to some of my issues. if the cost of the methanol is as low as I've found (ie i can buy the fuel from the company for .40 per L) and its efficient, I think the cost savings might off set the cost of the unit (whatever that cost might be??????)
aside from that I'm fairly excited that this may be a realistic solution to some of the problems I've been having, at least until I can get enough DIY solar, wind, tidal, and micro hydro set up. Though that might take forever waiting on environmental impact reports.
anyways, still looking for experience, advice, etc?
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30063030223357
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# Posted: 19 Apr 2013 12:23am
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price seems to be in the $4000-$5000 range. most likely a lot less in a year or two if they start to sell.
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reddly
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# Posted: 19 Apr 2013 04:45am
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wow that is pricey. I've also read that this is starting to be used in europe by RV owners (or soon will be) as an alternative to generators.
I'm excited. even with that price tag. I think more info and investigation is needed.
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groingo
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# Posted: 19 Apr 2013 11:08pm
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Based on the white paper info I got from their 900w unit at 0.91 KWH a day it would use 0.24 gallons of fuel with a fuel capacity of 2.45 gallons at $65.00 per 2.45 gallon of fuel.
Thing is, the converter thingy they have that comes with the fuel tank must be why it is so pricey because Methanol is only $1.55 a gallon.
Serious math is not needed to see that this could be an expensive generator to operate unless you could find a workaround for the fuel thingy.
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