New here

My main interest is energy independence for individuals, but I'm looking forward to reading through all of this site. I just feel people need energy options other than paying corporations to supply dirty fuels that pollute our world. I also feel we can solve our own problems if We The People work together and help one another.

I enjoy coming up with different ways to meet our energy needs. I'll be bringing different ideas up for discussion. Some of them may turn out to be unworkable. If just one of them helps folks power their lives, then we'll call it a win.
I also will not patent an alternative energy device or machine. I may go into business producing alternative energy items, but I will not patent anything. It will be open source all the way. I'll build them for those who want to pay me to do that, but I will also advise/assist anyone who wants to build their own, no charge. If you want to go into business building the same machine/device, then go for it. That will mean twice as many people who are helped toward energy independence.

Hopefully, something good will come of all this.

When it comes to energy usage, I think that transportation, food production/distribution, heating, cooling, electricity, cooking are the main things to tackle.

Transportation: walk, bike, motorcycle, biogas from a gasifier.
Food production: food forest.
Heating: 18inch insulation, solar gain/window, rooftop solar heating (heat pump), RMH
Cooling: insulation/thermal mass, natural ventilation/windows, solar chimney.
Electric: Solar, wind, microhydro.
Cooking: Solar dehydrator, solar cooker, insulated/R50 solar oven, rocket stove, fermentation, eat fresh/raw/sprouted.

Hello S Bengi. Great forum, here. Very interesting topics and what a great group of people.

I'm concerned with energy production at the individual level and not the industrial level because industry already could provide the majority of our energy needs from clean, renewable sources if they chose. They choose not to do that, so it's up to us to meet our own energy challenges at the individual level.
Heck, 3/4 of the earth is covered in water; oceans of constant movement. Most of our energy needs could be met with power plants generating energy from the waves and currents in the ocean. Deserts are another place a signifigant amount of power could be generated. Imagine the power from a solar gasifier (concentrated sunlight) that turns municipal garbage into producer gas. Less in the landfills and serious energy to boot. But, they simply don't do this on a large enough scale to matter. Heck with them.

Fuel alcohol could have a place in our transportation energy needs, if the feed stock is a non-food crop and if renewable energy is used for distillation, I think.

Methane is another homemade fuel that can meet cooking needs and possibly refrigeration/ AC requirements. Absorpsion refrigerators/chillers might be powered with homemade methane. It might also be used as the energy source for fuel alcohol distillation.

Gasification has huge potential for active home power. It needs to be easier to operate and capable of gasification of feedstocks other than wood before its adopted on a wider basis. But, it's possible to meet those challenges, so it is definitely something to work on. I'll share and explain my attempts.

Wind is another to work on. There is a way to generate electricity from lower speed breezes, or more specifically, changes in wind speed. I'll be bringing this up in time

Bio-briquettes have a lot of potential, especially in areas without abundant supplies of wood. Heating & gasification are two promising applications.

There are just so many exciting opportunities. Better still, folks here are actively implementing these technologies in their daily lives. I couldn't have asked for a better place to learn and share.

I should mention that I found a fantastic partner to help build these alternative energy devices. This guy just gets it done, and quickly once we agree on how something should work. We are repurposing items constantly to keep costs down. His skills are invaluable for these projects.

Hey Bill you mentioned using sun concentrators . Have you seen these guys?

http://www.sundropfuels.com/

I worked with some of the folks who are working on this. It sounds pretty promising so far.

Sundrop looks great. I hope they're successful.

I'm a fan of using desert sun to make power. Concentrated solar has a lot of potential, I think. If we're successful with our multi-fuel gasifier, we'll eventually use concentrated sunlight as the heat source for the gasification of waste, just because it makes sense.
We have to succeed with a rocket stove first, though. After that, why not use solar troughs to accomplish the same thing.