Green Trust
Isn't water vapor a greenhouse gas? And wouldnt hydrogen cars release vapor? I dono much about it, but i would be concerned nonetheless. I think public transportaion ought to be seriously re-evaluated in America.
We aren't thinking of propelling a vehicle with it, just replacing our propane use, which also releases water vapor. Hydrogen isn't a very economical vehicle "fuel". Mass transit isn't a very practical solution in 90% of this continent. The 10% of the land where people congregate in large numbers already has it, but you really don't want to live there. Most forms of mass transit also release water vapor, and other even nastier components somewhere in their energy path.
Steve,
I think you are right about the very low efficiency of conversion (solar > electric for hydrogen > hydrogen produced > hydrogen consumed for end means). What about a WVO turk burner for heat and electric taken off your RV battery bank (net source: WVO / SVO) as required?
Rory
The turk burner is a cool concept, but no one has perfected one for reliability and safety.
http://www.cybernet1.com/mcquaid...l%
20Burners.htm
http://www.eqg.biz/wob/
I don't get it...you can store the energy for the PV electrochemically in a battery, or chemically as hydrogen. In the first case you have 5% or less losses. In the second case you're talking at least 50% depending on how you are going to make, store, and, react the hydrogen back into electricity. It seems like you'd be better off storing the electricty from PV / alternator in batteries.
If you're talking an electric hot plate and a small fridge, it seems like batteries are probably the way to go.
I'd be interested if you think the numbers work out differently...
A stove or oven uses about 50 amps at 220vac. Not going to happen with batteries. Heating is not a good use for batteries. Propane is the common fuel, but we want something renewable and clean. Yes, there are huge losses, and we aren't claiming it's efficient. We are just trying to find clean, renewable alternatives.
Yeah, I hear you. However, it sounds like you are basing your calcs on a full size range. 11 kW is pretty hefty. I'd figure a hot plate (120V) to be about 3 kW or so - a mid-size stove burner is typically 10,000 Btu/hr which falls in the same range of energy consumption. You could pick up a 5kW modified sine wave inverter (12V input) that would easily handle that load for under $600. I guess it depends on whether you can get away with that small a stove, and how long you're planning to have that burner on every day!
But on the subject of alternatives - what about alcohol? You could distill it from food waste and alcohol burning stoves are off the shelf. There are also off-the-shelf diesel stoves (for marine use) that I bet could use biodiesel - perhaps also kerosene stoves as well.
Good luck - it sounds like a great project!
-Carl
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