Customizing UPSs

[Duane Attaway]

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004, Leo Mauler wrote:

> Has anyone looked into the price of one of the smaller
> fuel-cells?  I've heard prices are down around $8,000
> for a fuel cell which can provide the electrical needs
> of a small house.
>
> Keep a small solar array to produce the hydrogen for
> the fuel cells, and you've got your own electricity
> generator which is essentially powered off the sun and
> water, without having to worry too much about long
> cloudy periods, especially in the winter months.  Hook
> that bicycle generator up to the hydrogen-producing
> unit to make exercise do more than burn off the
> calories.
>
> With solar arrays to charge batteries coming in at
> around half the cost of a fuel cell, but only
> producing one tenth the energy produced by the fuel
> cell, it seems worth it to look into the fuel cell
> technology if the end goal is to have a reliable
> source of energy if the main AC power lines go down.
> If the end result is a much lower power bill as well,
> this is a major bonus.

The stuff to play with is getting cheaper and more available every year.

I can produce about 200 watts on the exercise bike, compared to running.
The sun puts out 1,000 watts per square meter on a good day.
Our solar cells can make 130 watts out of that square meter.
Storing hydrogen gas in bottles is fun.

Its going to be a while before it becomes popular (20 years and then 
some.)  Once the prices of well designed inverters and switchgear saturate 
the market (competition and lack of patents) it will become viable. 
Placing anything on the market these days for the small guy seems to be 
legal suicide.  There's always someone who pops up and claims rights for 
every idea possible.

-=Duane
http://dattaway.org