What do the new CAFE standards mean for the Z?

Lug · 05-21-2009, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisSlicks

Yes, going off grid with solar just isn't feasible unless you live like you're in the 19th century. There are some feasible solar concepts using solar collectors to generate steam (which can be stored). Photovoltaic cells have a long way to go.

The whole house generators I've looked into are natural gas or propane. We loose power several times a year, this winter we lost power for a week during a ice storm with temperatures near 0F. At first I tried to keep the house warm using the fireplace but that was a losing battle. Eventually I got smart and hooked an inverter up to my truck and wired it up to my gas boiler so that the ignition system and circulater pumps would work. Idling my truck the gas tank lasted about 2 days. Obviously a full on generator would be more efficient than a 300W inverter.

I was getting 10 to 12 hours of 5kw off of 5 gallons of gas on my very very old gas generator. After about a week of this, I bought a new 6KW Diesel Generator (diesel was much easier to find than reg gas after the hurricane), gassed it up, hooked it up and ran.........for about 30 min and the power came back up. I was almost mad.