YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE...MAYBE TWICE!
Power in the Z-Poc
We all know that the main power grid will most likely end up crashing after a few short months after the main onslaught. We all like to think about how we'll supply our group and family with power. The first thought is always a generator. But the gas supply will end sooner or later.
So then we'll have to turn to other forms of power to supply to our compounds or buildings. I would like to believe that the best way to supply the power we all need will be the use of three power sources. Using windmills, solar panels and generators we should be able to keep our safe havens supplied properly for long term. So I decided to supply or at least try and get people thinking about other forms of power in order to keep our lives somewhat on the normal side.
We'll start with windmills. Harnessing the mother nature for our survival, besides using the rain water for drinking and cooking, animals and plants for food.
Wind power
Large wind farms consist of hundreds of individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network. Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land, and offshore farms have less visual impact, but construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher. Small onshore wind farms provide electricity to isolated locations. Utility companies increasingly buy surplus electricity produced by small domestic wind turbines.[1]
Wind power, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation and uses little land.[2] The effects on the environment are generally less problematic than those from other power sources. As of 2011, Denmark is generating more than a quarter of its electricity from wind and 83 countries around the world are using wind power on a commercial basis.[3] In 2010 wind energy production was over 2.5% of total worldwide electricity usage, and growing rapidly at more than 25% per annum. The monetary cost per unit of energy produced is similar to the cost for new coal and natural gas installations.[4]
Wind power is very consistent from year to year but has significant variation over shorter time scales. The intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when used to supply up to 20% of total electricity demand,[5] but as the proportion increases, a need to upgrade the grid, and a lowered ability to supplant conventional production can occur.[6] Power management techniques such as having excess capacity storage, geographically distributed turbines, dispatchable backing sources, storage such as pumped-storage hydroelectricity, exporting and importing power to neighboring areas or reducing demand when wind production is low, can greatly mitigate these problems.[7] In addition, weather forecasting permits the electricity network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur.
Mechanical power
Sailboats and sailing ships have been using wind power for thousands of years, and architects have used wind-driven natural ventilation in buildings since similarly ancient times. The use of wind to provide mechanical power came somewhat later in antiquity. The windwheel of the Greek engineer Heron of Alexandria in the 1st century AD is the earliest known instance of using a wind-driven wheel to power a machine.[10][11]
The first windmills were in use in Persia at least by the 9th century and possibly as early as the 7th century.[12] The use of windmills became widespread across the Middle East and Central Asia, and later spread to China and India.[13] By 1000 AD, windmills were used to pump seawater for salt-making in China and Sicily.[14] Windmills were used extensively in Northwestern Europe to grind flour from the 1180s,[13] and windpumps were used to drain land for agriculture and for building.[15] Early immigrants to the New World brought the technology with them from Europe.[15]
In the US, the development of the water-pumping windmill was the major factor in allowing the farming and ranching of vast areas otherwise devoid of readily accessible water.[16] Windpumps contributed to the expansion of rail transport systems throughout the world, by pumping water from water wells for steam locomotives. The multi-bladed wind turbine atop a lattice tower made of wood or steel was a century a fixture of the landscape throughout rural America.[17]
In 1881, Lord Kelvin proposed using wind power when coal ran out, as "so little of it is left".[18] Solar power was also proposed, at about the same time.[19]
Wind energy
Wind energy is the kinetic energy of air in motion, also called wind. Total wind energy flowing through an imaginary area A during the time t is:
where ρ is the density of air; v is the wind speed; Avt is the volume of air passing through A (which is considered perpendicular to the direction of the wind); Avtρ is therefore the mass m passing per unit time. Note that ½ ρv2 is the kinetic energy of the moving air per unit volume.
Power is energy per unit time, so the wind power incident on A (e.g. equal to the rotor area of a wind turbine) is:
Wind power in an open air stream is thus proportional to the third power of the wind speed; the available power increases eightfold when the wind speed doubles. Wind turbines for grid electricity therefore need to be especially efficient at greater wind speeds.
Wind is the movement of air across the surface of the Earth, affected by areas of high pressure and of low pressure.[27] The surface of the Earth is heated unevenly by the Sun, depending on factors such as the angle of incidence of the sun's rays at the surface (which differs with latitude and time of day) and whether the land is open or covered with vegetation. Also, large bodies of water, such as the oceans, heat up and cool down slower than the land. The heat energy absorbed at the Earth's surface is transferred to the air directly above it and, as warmer air is less dense than cooler air, it rises above the cool air to form areas of high pressure and thus pressure differentials. The rotation of the Earth drags the atmosphere around with it causing turbulence. These effects combine to cause a constantly varying pattern of winds across the surface of the Earth.[27]
The total amount of economically extractable power available from the wind is considerably more than present human power use from all sources.[28] Axel Kleidon of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, carried out a "top down" calculation on how much wind energy there is, starting with the incoming solar radiation that drives the winds by creating temperature differences in the atmosphere. He concluded that somewhere between 18 TW and 68 TW could be extracted.[29] Cristina Archer and Mark Z. Jacobson presented a "bottom-up" estimate, which unlike Kleidon's are based on actual measurements of wind speeds, and found that there is 1700 TW of wind power at an altitude of 100 metres over land and sea. Of this, "between 72 and 170 TW could be extracted in a practical and cost-competitive manner".[29] They later estimated 80 TW.[30] However research at Harvard University estimates 1 Watt/m2 on average and 2-10 MW/km2 capacity for large scale wind farms, suggesting that these estimates of total global wind resources are too high by a factor of about 4.[31]
Distribution of wind speed
The strength of wind varies, and an average value for a given location does not alone indicate the amount of energy a wind turbine could produce there. To assess the frequency of wind speeds at a particular location, a probability distribution function is often fit to the observed data. Different locations will have different wind speed distributions. The Weibull model closely mirrors the actual distribution of hourly/ten-minute wind speeds at many locations. The Weibull factor is often close to 2 and therefore a Rayleigh distribution can be used as a less accurate, but simpler model.[32]
High altitude winds
Power generation from winds usually comes from winds very close to the surface of the earth. Winds at higher altitudes are stronger and more consistent, and may have a global capacity of 380 TW.[30] Recent years have seen significant advances in technologies meant to generate electricity from high altitude winds.[33]
Wind power capacity and production
Worldwide there are now over two hundred thousand wind turbines operating, with a totalnameplate capacity of 282,482 MW as of end 2012.[44] The European Union alone passed some 100,000 MW nameplate capacity in September 2012,[45] while the United States surpassed 50,000 MW in August 2012 and China passed 50,000 MW the same month.[46][47]
World wind generation capacity more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006, doubling about every three years. The United States pioneered wind farms and led the world in installed capacity in the 1980s and into the 1990s. In 1997 German installed capacity surpassed the U.S. and led until once again overtaken by the U.S. in 2008. China has been rapidly expanding its wind installations in the late 2000s and passed the U.S. in 2010 to become the world leader.
At the end of 2012, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 282gigawatts (GW), growing by 44 GW over the preceding year.[44] According to the World Wind Energy Association, an industry organization, in 2010 wind power generated 430 TWh or about 2.5% of worldwide electricity usage,[48] up from 1.5% in 2008 and 0.1% in 1997.[49]Between 2005 and 2010 the average annual growth in new installations was 27.6 percent.[50]Wind power market penetration is expected to reach 3.35 percent by 2013 and 8 percent by 2018.[50][51]
Several countries have already achieved relatively high levels of penetration, such as 28% of stationary (grid) electricity production in Denmark (2011),[52] 19% in Portugal (2011),[53] 16% in Spain (2011),[54] 14% in Ireland(2010)[55] and 8% in Germany (2011).[56] As of 2011, 83 countries around the world were using wind power on a commercial basis.[3]
Europe accounted for 48% of the world total wind power generation capacity in 2009. In 2010, Spain became Europe's leading producer of wind energy, achieving 42,976 GWh. Germany held the top spot in Europe in terms of installed capacity, with a total of 27,215 MW as of 31 December 2010.[57]
|
|
WindMills
By Steve Graham for Networx
A strong wind gust and attractive rebates may not add up to a good deal on residential wind power. Several factors affect the amount of power generated by a home wind turbine. Homeowners should avoid general ratings and carefully study the potential power-generating capacity of a wind turbine on a specific site.
Power Ratings
Most turbines have a power rating in kilowatts (kW). The rating is somewhat like a car’s horsepower figure. It shows which engine or turbine is bigger, but isn’t a direct measure of the machine’s full energy output. The number of “horses under the hood” doesn’t indicate the fuel efficiency or top speed without vehicle weight, driving conditions and other stats. At least most car buyers have already owned a car, so they have a rough idea how to translate horsepower figures. However, homeowners are typically buying their first turbine, so they have nothing for comparison.
Utility bills are measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh) — power usage multiplied by time. For example, a 100-watt light bulb left on for 10 hours uses one kWh. Many companies and industry groups say a 10 kW system will generate about 10,000 kWh per year (equaling the average power usage in a U.S. home), but the real output will be higher or significantly lower. The turbine puts out a maximum of 10 kW under perfect conditions, so it could theoretically generate 10 kW for 24 hours a day 365 days a year, or 87,600 kW per year. With soft breezes, it will generate just a handful of watts.
Calculating the real power output of a wind turbine in watts involves multiplying the mechanical efficiency by the wind speed, air density, and rotor blade length.
Wind Speed
Wind speeds and other weather factors make a bigger difference to power output than a turbine’s parts. This U.S. Department of Energy map shows annual average wind speeds at 50 meters above the ground. Residential wind turbines have been installed in most U.S. states, but many areas do not have enough wind to spin turbines. No matter what the installer or manufacturer says, you won’t generate significant power at speeds below 10 miles per hour.
Above that threshold, energy increases exponentially with speed. A site with 12 mph winds can generate 70 percent more energy than a site with 10 mph winds.
Wind speeds also increase quickly with altitude. A 10 kW turbine generates 30 percent more power on a 100-foot tower than a 60-foot tower. The difference is greater if tall trees or structures block the wind or create turbulence.
Most wind turbines automatically shut down when wind speeds rise above 25 mph to avoid mechanical damage or bodily injuries. A relatively calm area with seasonal windstorms may never generate much wind capacity.
Turbine Size
The other major consideration is the size of the turbine’s rotor blade. Like wind speed, a larger blade will generate exponentially more energy. A 10-foot blade may not look much larger than an 8-foot blade, but the “swept area” is 58 percent larger. That corresponds with a 58-percent increase in energy production per blade rotation.
The other parts of the turbine differ in quality more than output. Look for a reputable company with quality parts and avoid claims of extreme power production.
You might get a good offer on a wind turbine rated at 10 kW, but without considering several mechanical and natural factors, it is hard to determine the actual electric production capacity.
So where do you start? Who do you talk to?
- First establish whether you have sufficient wind in your area to make an installation viable. You will need specialist tools to gauge this accurately and you may choose to hire someone to do this for you.
- Look on local wind websites for information on wind patterns
- Speak to your local authority to check if there are any special planning permits required
- Find out how much energy you currently use so you know what size turbine to consider. Your current energy provider can help you interpret your energy bill.
- Do a basic energy audit and see if you can insulate your home better to reduce energy consumption.
- Decide whether you want to use a commercial supplier or build your own windmill or home wind turbine
- Check out ready made kits and find out about separate installation costs
- It will certainly be cheaper to build your own turbine but it will require effort and some skill. Larger turbines are not usually suitable for an inexperienced handyman
- It is still worthwhile doing some research into home wind turbines even if you employ a commercial supplier to educate yourself as to the suitability of the products that may be recommended.
- Wind turbines only produce energy when the wind blows, and are often used in conjunction with solar panels to give continual energy supply
- Home wind turbines also require a specialized battery to store energy
- Do not shop on price alone. Be aware of noise requirements for your area – certain models are much quieter than others
Reliability
Wind power hardly ever suffers major technical failures, since failures of individual wind turbines have hardly any effect on overall power, so that the distributed wind power is highly reliable and predictable, whereas conventional generators, while far less variable, can suffer major unpredictable outages.
Views: 158
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by KOMRAD RHINO☭ on
-
i was thinking in terms of the solar method because sun never runs out and you can always store the excess power in batteries. this can either be done on a house by house basis or on a community scale.
-
Permalink Reply by saint.357 on
-
i wouldn't be so sure about the grid going down, any place getting power from the hover damn which is like half the country or something will most likely still have it. the damn is designed o be pretty much self running, once turned on it will run by it's self wit no human interaction for like a hundred years until barnacle or something like them in the water build enough in the inlet pipes to block them. ever seen that show life after people. it was on it, also why the damn was such a big deal in new Vegas. so as long as some joker doesn't shoot the controls or a idiot runs into your power line. you'll still have juice.
that being said back ups are always a good idea.
-
-
the prison i want to take has is own power generators. but it never hurts to have a secondary source of power. as a result i wanna get it set up for solar backups. naturally that means foraging outside the walls. but there are several places near by the old prison that specializes in solar power installation that we can raid later. the main solar cells can be put in the prison recreation yard with lines leading to batteries to store it all. that way if for some reason the prison generator fails after the city grid goes. we still have power. to take and keep a place so big. power and self sustainability will be a major key.
-
Permalink Reply by Jessie W. Garrett III on
-
I can't share your view on the power grid. The military and the government at the time during the Z-poc are going to use every thing in their power to contain and stop the spread of the infection. This even means dropping a Nuke on the most infected area trying to eradicate the problem. Which if my research is true and the science websites are correct, when a nuke goes off there is also an EMP effect that fries everything.
And for relying on a machine to be maintenance free is a little being on the lunatic side. Every machine man has made has to be maintained in some way or form. Whether it be needing greased or oil or filters changed or whatever, the human factor is built into all machines.
The Hoover Dam, the Parker Dam and the Davis Dam only generate one half of one percent of the total electrical power produced in the United States. The Hoover dam produces roughly 2,000 megawatts of power. Davis and Parker dams produce less, but together they might all produce 3,000 megawatts.
Plus the Hoover Dam only generates power for Nevada, Arizona, and California, so unless you live in these states, you ass better have and use Wind, Solar and gas generator to power whatever facility you are using.
I'll be posting the rest of my Power Solutions in the next couple of days.
(resource guides used http://www.usbr.gov and http://science.howstuffworks.com)
-
-
well i never said it was perfect and I'm sure it won't work at peak efficiency for all of it's days but unless some sort of unexpected occurrence comes up it should still work long past our life expectancy. i did say it would only last about a hundred years or so. and yes the places it powers are small i was just trying to get the point out that the grid may last longer then we think.
if the government isn't completely incompetent one of their first acts should be securing key locations like power plants. if anything i think these place will still be operational long after the rest of us lose power. the distribution network is what's most fragile it was haphazardly thrown together as it was needed instead of being set up in an organized and structured way that would prevent wide spread outages. places like nuclear power plants and such would be pretty good places to set up camp. besides the radiation their built like footraces and are for the most part self contained.
it's not the nukes on the ground you have to worry about as far as emp's are concerned. on the ground the range of the emp doesn't travel much farther then the nuclear blast itself. its only when their detonated in the air that they come in contact with charge particles and their range because drastically increased. and theirs no reason to do a high altitude nuclear detonation unless your creating an emp and hopefully the government wouldn't be stupid enough to cripple themselves like that. it's possible but I'm hoping for better. so the only emp threat we should face is from other countries. but they should be to busy dealing with their own problems to worry about us.
i have my generator waiting and rearing to go. it's not much but i don't need that much power. a few lights and maybe recharge some the battery on some essentials. though I'm working on a small solar set up fro that since generators are hard on electronics.
-
-
You know I re-read my reply and hell, i took it as i was being an ass...That's not how i was trying to come across...
But if our government is as dumb as to tax their own people to death or try and take away their rights at every turn, I suspect them to do something as stupid as a high Altitude Nuke...
Come on, they keep saying the recession is over and that the job market has grown, but according to their own stats, (if I remember right), the national job market has only grown like 15% in the last 5 to 6 years. Some economic growth...(LOL)
-
-
their just trying to reassure the Masses its the governments job to try and keep people happy and content so we don't rise up against them. they all use fear it's the whole carrot and stick thing. neither one alone is enough to rule. read Machiavelli. and yeah I'm not saying rely the grid but hope for the best and make as much use of it as you can.
-
-
(LOL) I wasn't actually finished with this when I posted it. I didn't want to lose any of the research I was doing while I was at work, so I just went on ahead and posted the first part of the Power solution. The next part was going to be on solar power and then a gas generator as an emergency back-up. (LOL)
-
Permalink Reply by Komrad Scarlet Zombie☭ on
-
Things that suck because you have no electricity:
Wearing long johns. When your house is hovering around 42 degrees, you do things like wear long johns underneath your pants. They definitely made me warmer, but any pants I wore over them got caught on the long johns fabric. So my walking was stiff and awkward. Basically wearing long johns makes you a snuggly robot.
Other people. By day two of no power, I was considering inflicting serious physical harm upon at least 37 people simply because I thought they had power. I didn’t know if they had power or not, but no matter, they looked like they’d bathed in the past 24 hours, and that was reason enough to consider pushing them down a flight of stairs.
Cable companies. A cable company parked an obscenely loud generator right outside my house to power its service box—so that people on other streets with electricity could also have Internet and cable. No one on my entire block had power, but this generator was giving life’s luxuries to someone. I don’t want to talk about what I did to it.
Eating. Since my food was slowly rotting inside the fridge, I tried to eat as much of it as I could. At one point I attempted to eat some crackers and my hands were shaking so much that I accidentally dropped them all over the kitchen floor. That marked the first (and hopefully last) time I stood over a pile of cracked pepper wafers, gave them the double finger, and yelled “F*ck yoooooou!”
-
-
i dont know. i did pretty good when i had my last outage. i had solar chargers for my electronics and cell phone. so i had a means of communicating and internet. and the house has really heavy insulation. so cold was no biggie. had a Coleman Stove to cook on. so none of the perishables went to waste. it was for an entire week in December that happened and we had 2 foot of snow on the ground then. the following Tuesday they got power up and going. kinda disappointing really. because i wanted to see how long i could do without power like in a z-poc. kinda sounds like a fun experiment to do really. lol
-
-
sounds like you had it good rhino i was more like scarlet during my lat power outage which was sandy by the way. my house suck so it was cold as hell so cold i had to wear piece of clothing i had to stay warm. my generator exploded only a few day in to what was a three week outage. lucky my stove and hat water tank are gas and i had plenty of canned food. light was a big problem all we had were flash lights. I've taken care of that now with led lanterns and real oil lamps. and once we lost the generator and didn't have TV it was rough on my mom. so we had to go by a portable DVD player. luckily my dads a mechanic so we could charge are cell phones and the DVD player of this battery jumper back he had for cars. and i recharged it at the hospital next door. one of the worst things was getting gas back when we had the generator. their were huge line for blocks to get to gas stations that were closed cause their was no power. he had to drive all the way to the middle of fucking nowhere to fuel up. lets just say I'm not making the same mistake of not having enough gas ever again.
-
-
i want to recreate the situation come December. i just hope we have the same amount of snowfall when i do this. a guy i know has a rental property that will be empty around then. what i aim to do is set it up with a months worth of goodies and once the tub and sinks are full. have the water, power nd gas shut off totally. that way i can see if i can survive the month on the bare essentials and nothing more. so the only things i will have is my tablet computer, my iPhone, my solar chargers, one months food and tub and sinks full of water, the Colman Stove and lantern i had during the first power outage and my thoughts. should prove a rather interesting experiment at best. the only real difference in this experiment versus the conditions i faced at home is the lack of heat. my home has a real heavy insulation rating. so even though the power and electric baseboard heat went out. this rental property has just a basic insulation rating. which if i am not mistaken is like an R-3 or R-4 rating. but when i had insulation put into the house i had it blown in first. then let it settle and had the rolled stuff put in after that making my house like a R-5 or 6. so when my power went out. it stayed warm for the whole time it went out. so this stay/experiment i am planning will be a lot colder in comparison. so it will be more of like how a winter will be during a z-poc minus the undead. so like i said before. should be an interesting experiment. lol.
Wicked Books
Our Sponsors
View more gifts at Zazzle.
WICKED ZOMBIES members appreciation.
The WICKED member who has unyielding Dedication and Loyalty to the KOMRADZ:
The WICKED member who has Outstanding Constancy:
The WICKED member who Contributed the most Original Zombie Discussions and Replies:
They will receive a WICKED ZOMBIES Goody Box with Wicked Treats.
Blog Posts
Been Awhile, BUt I'm still Alive
Greetings Everyone, Well it's been awhile. As things go, life carries us all in different directions from time to time but you always find your way home sooner or later. Well, life ain't all fun and games, but right now, things are going good. I have restarted my writing on my book again, and as I learn more about about some of the ROle-playing games I have gotten into, I am seriously thinking about rying to create an actual Zombie Survival Role-playing game. But have not set any time…
ContinuePosted by Jessie W. Garrett III on May 22, 2024 at 12:32am — 1 Comment
© 2024 Created by Komrad Venessa Wicked☭.
Powered by
