Energy Matters with Mat Redsell

While am indeed proud of the accomplishments at my sustainable center I have a very nagging notion that most everyone does not understand just how little energy I produce and the amount of maintenance required.

I have a windmill which on the best day with winds over 30 km per hour I can power half a hair dryer for about 3 to 5 hours. The solar cells can also produce enough juice to power half a hairdryer for 4 or 5 hours a day if the sun is shining brilliantly and there are no clouds. My new set of solar cells will do the same. So in total if the sun is shining and the wind blowing I will be able to power a hairdryer for about 5 hours a day in the winter. Since the middle of November to late in February you rarely get one day of sunshine a week, the wind on the other hand seems pretty constant and often goes into hurricane mode a few days every two weeks so for that period I might have enough electricity to power a hairdryer for two hours.

So even with the windmill and solar cells it might be quite a task to provide minimal electricity during November to late February. There is also my solar air heater and solar water heater which will certainly need some supplementing.

I also need alternative sources of heat for the home, hot water, and cooking.

My developing biodiesel stove/ heater fits in here reasonably well. It heats my water, allows slow cooking and provides ample heat for my living quarters. This sounds great but I have not told you that I also need to press the sunflower seeds to get the oil to make biodiesel. And then the biodiesel process relies on methanol, a fossil fuel derivative and potassium hydroxide. Not exactly readily available chemicals found in nature.

My biodiesel I consider much like a battery. In the fall when there is ample sunshine I process the sunflower oil which I turn into biodiesel. That is then stored to be used in the months of November through to the end of February. The biodiesel can also be used to run the generators if it is warmed before using. I am currently finding ways to heat with straight vegetable oil.

So while I can claim to be somewhat self sufficient it comes at quite a cost to my time. It is certainly a lot more difficult than using Ontario hydro and NRG natural gas and it may even cost more over the next few years.

But knowing that fossil fuels are depleting and supplies at some time in the near future will be very limited I decided to learn to live with a lot less while I still have the choice to find my own solutions. Imagine what it would be like if I did not prepare and there is no natural gas available and electricity is only on for a few hours a day?