A differant way to store wind energy.

[armymars]

  I was thinking just now of one of our Mars Operators. During the Carter administration installed a bunch of solar cells and a wind generator. He told me that because of the varable wind speeds he got all the time, he just ran the wind turbine to the heating elements in his hot water system. Look Ma no voltage regulator. He claimed it worked fine.

[LdMorgan]

Entirely reasonable.

Every Watt he ran into the water tank saved him exactly one Watt through his power meter.

Hot water is expensive. You can save a nice chunk of change with off-grid pre-heating.

Dollar for dollar, though, unless you live in the Arctic or own a wind turbine factory, solar heat is the best route for preheating water.

I have a passive solar heater that preheats my electric water heater. It cost me about $100.00 to build, and it's been saving me between a $100 & $150 a month  for years.

And that's with zero maintenance, too.

[fritz_monroe]

I have a passive solar heater that preheats my electric water heater. It cost me about $100.00 to build, and it's been saving me between a $100 & $150 a month  for years.

And that's with zero maintenance, too.

Care to share some details? 

[armymars]

   Michigan has more cloudy days then clear ones. In the UP it's worst during the winter, but where he lives there's lots of wind.

[Freebirde]

Could you hook a windmill/wind turbine to an air compressor, like is done for a water pump, to store energy.   A lot of tools can be run by air.

[LdMorgan]

Care to share some details?

http://thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum/index.php?topic=1658.msg53157#msg53157

Old posts, but there are a few pics.

Really, all I did was box up an old water tank on the S. side of my house. Used an old shower door for glass, insulated it all with scrap fiberglass. Plumbed it so cold water goes thru it to get to the water heater.

Our electric bill dropped like a rock.

[njoycreation]

The challenges I found with running a dump load to a water heater is that you really need a quality controller in order to switch from the batteries and then to the heater element.  The other issue is that these elements are 12 volt or whatever voltage your system is. This would require you to run heavy gauge wiring all the way from the controller over to your water heater.  This in itself may not be worth the cost.  The best bang for your buck may just be a water heater timer. 

I still believe there should be some sort of dump load location.  Has anyone done a battery charge system, with a dump load transferred into a grid tie?  That way your batteries remained charge and any excess goes to offset your electric bill.

[armymars]

LdMorgan, 
  In Michigan we have a second type of solar collector. Think A-frame filed with rocks (1x3) and insulated on three sides. Paint the forth side black. Push air from the house into the rocks and and back out. Use a thermostat to control the air.You might need a baffle to circulate the air all through the rocks for best heat transfer. At night flip a insulated board over the non-insulated side to hold heat in. It works even on over cast days. If not enough build two. The whole thing was built with three sheets of 4x8 plywood some 2x4's and crushed lime stone. The insulation was 2" 4x8 foam boards.   

[fred.greek]

An  approach I heard decades ago from a brief contact was to store, at least small scale, wind power in a buried tank by compressing air. Insulate the tank, since as the air cools it loses some pressure, pressure in the tank / outlet lines can be increased by application of external solar heat.  There should also be some water condensation in the tank, siphon off from the bottom for use other than power.

Just passing what I was told, supposedly the design won some power storage prize.