a few crazy thoughts that just arrived...
 

Is there any way to generate hydro-electric power using the force of the water that is falling down from the display tank into the sump?

Is there anyway to use the pressure of tap water to generate hydro-electric power? I believe that the water still flows from the taps during a powerfailure...

How many solar panels would it take to generate just enough electricity to run your sump pump in the event of a power failure?

I don't think the sump will generate enough force. JMO

Here is an interesting site for alternative energy

http://www.energyalternatives.ca/default.asp

Unless you have a lot of money I don't think these will help you get totally off the grid.

For example...... a 1.5 KW system will cost $10K and will generate peak power in the summer of 7kw's. With all the lights & pumps reefers use........ that would just be a drop in the bucket.

These systems can help offset power use ...... but the pay back would be a very long time.

Cheers,
Vic

IR (infra red) censored faucets have a little turbine under the sink to charge a battery pack using its own tap water flow , but this is only enough to operate the faucet.
One of my dreams is to get completely power independent.

Ineresting idea. The force of the water falling into the sump could turn a small turbine, which could be used to charge a battery which could in turn be used to power something in the event of a power failure. You wouldn't really recover energy in the form of lowering your ongoing costs - but you would be charging that battery without plugging in a new item into the wall.

Don't know how it is out your way but Calgary requires a building permit if you want to install panels on your roof. There is talk about loosening this requirement some in the near future to encourage more green thinking. Sadly the cost of good solar panels is huge and indeed you'll see a payback eventually, but it's in the 10 to 20 year mark. Wish they weren't quite that expensive.

I noticed a HUGE percentage of houses in Hawaii (well, at least Maui, when I was there a few years ago) had solar panels on the roof. So in some places this idea is catching on for sure.

If water still flows during a power failure, there could be two possibilities. One, your utility has its own power supply, or two, they use elevated water tanks to generate the hydrostatic pressure. Not really sure what Lower Mainland uses but a lot of west coast municipalities in the U.S. use the water tanks idea. Calgary does not - we pump direct into distribution. If there was zero power then there would be no water coming out of taps as well, given enough time to bleed the pressure down in the lines. I would think, anyhow.

Our reservoirs are located in the local mountains, so I think its mostly gravity feed. They may have pumps as well, but I've never really looked into it.

Anthony

The large problem with solar power now-a-days is that panels are highly inefficient, and the batteries you have to use to store solar power are also highly inefficient. Sure, you could have a 10w panel on the roof to trickle charge a battery in the event of power failure, but it would be more practical to use a UPS.

MIT has been making huge leaps and bounds in the past months with recent discoveries on how to improve the efficiency of solar panels, and storage devices. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/solarcells-0710.html .. There was also another article after this one, that detailed some type of organic battery... Similar to how plants store and process energy

Solar pannels are not environmentaly friendly either, the power to create one, make the glass and silicon wafers and all the other parts and assemble them is higher than the average lifetime power generated by the unit, they are good for remote stations and such but not for real genertion of power
a better method of solar generation is to focus light with mirrors onto a pipe of water and then use the heating of the water to make steam and turn a turbine, but even this is inefficient compared to geothermal, wind, and hydro power.

Costco had a couple of wind based generators on their website not too long ago. If I recall correctly, they were designed for boats, but I'm sure you could use them at home, just need to tinker a bit.

Speaking of crazy thoughts, would solar panels work with light spilled from reef lighting? Visions of panels lining a light hood. :lol:

it would generate some dc power but you could only use it to charge a battery or something similar then use an inverter to power a device, not very efficient but possible
the initial cost would probably not be worth the possible savings.

I like the idea of trying to run a small generator using the flow to the sump, especially if the sump is in the basement... Could certainly trickle charge a deep cycle battery or two as a backup. Can Tire seems to be hot on the solar/wind bandwagon and from some of the news bites I've seen, there are a number of companies working on more efficient solar panel production.

The government needs to get with the program and offer more incentives for the average schmoe to acquire this technology without breaking the bank. But all they can come up with is another tax...carbon, he he. Just got my Terasen Gas bill and I'm now privileged to pay not only a "Clean Energy Levy", but also the new Carbon Tax. Did I mention the GST?? On the bright side, there's no PST there, I guess the CEL & CT are the provinces way of chipping away at my income. Ok, got that out of my system...

Using solar panels to work of he spilled lighting would save us all tonnes of money.
Brian you may have just stumbled onto the next million dollar idea.

This is an awesome thread, and the ideas that are popping up here have lots of potential benefits.

Did this kick off because I posted that solar tube thread?

Sorry...no, for some reason I was thinking about hydro electric power generation and my mind wandered....so I wrote it down and this thread was born. Yes, it is interesting.

We are thinking of setting something like this at our cabin.

http://energy.saving.nu/hydroenergy/small.shtml

It may be possible on your system but I'm guessing you would need to find a generator that wouldn't leach any toxins into your tank. It would also not be a permanent solution. The energy required to pump the water up to your tank would be greater than the power generated by the turbine (at least I think it would be). But it would be a great way to keep a battery charged longer during power outages.