But not DIYer Pat Wade and his Wife. They’ve found a slice of paradize, and having built their dream home with solar panels, MPPTs and Inverters, they live in comfort and with internet and voice communications!
Pat-Wade-House-Water-View
Pat-Wade-House-Water-View
Good surfing on the other side of the reef that protects their beach, their Casita is for rent! Who knows maybe you can write off part of the trip as a study to build jungle retreats?
An email from Diyer Phil P.
reliance-trans_switch
This item addressed to me was delivered to a home MORE than a mile away from here. The lady that received it knows me and called to say it was at her house.
Amazon uses a free shipping service for some items valued at $25 or more and now I know why its free shipping. Not Fedx, UPS or USPS but some outfit called Ensenda. I googled them up under Ensenda complaints and the reviews ain’t to good.
Some searches using my address are correct while some show me more than a mile away from where I’m actually located. I believe they used the incorrect search to locate me – BUT the house numbers are way different a mile away but they still left my parcel there.
Sure, we know they won’t be working for Amazon long if they keep doing this..
As one of my Favorite electrical Engineers points out, “We need to see the Chevy Volt as a multifunctional platform.”
Here’s what you may have overlooked! The Volt is also a rolling energy storage unit, there’s no reason you couldn’t power your house, barn, or shop with a charged up Chevy Volt. Let’s say you are a Dairyman and the power is out and you have cows to milk, how many cows can you milk off a charged up Obama Volt?
Some are saying the Volt will do well now that the price of gasoline is going through the roof, and if we see the new Volt as an energy storage unit, consider what the new power grid of the future might look like. If your chevy Volt is plugged in, you might be the source of energy to cover peak loads on the grid and be paid good money per KWH for those peaks.
We know that most environmentalists are waiting for the government to give them a volt, but now that you know how practical they are, you might order yours now?
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/03/01/gm-sells-281-chevy-volts-february-nissan-67-leafs/
If you know a Person who believes strongly in green investments, this may be the time to shame him into buying the Chevy volt, what are greenies waiting for?
If you have been following utterpower for any period of time, you know who Matt Basinger is, we’ve followed him up to receiving his PhD at Columbia University, and beyond!…. to Mali, to Uganda, and now Indonesia!
We have a pretty good idea what Jacinda will be doing, and I’m sure it will be exciting for all of us to learn what Matt will start up there. How long will it take him to find a Lister 6/1 or clone? What will he do with it?
Check out their website:
Here’s wishing the whole Basinger family the best!
George
Western Media certainly doesn’t have credibility, so who you going to believe?
If your read the earlier post on Rare Earth you may have followed the link to the article about China and Japan Sparing over rare Earth materials, and it appears that the Chinese made the material less than available to the Japanese for the many applications they use the stuff for.. one being the hybrid autos like the Toyota Prius.
It doesn’t really matter how serious this little spat was, it was proof enough that China could cause a serious shortage of the material and really mess up the works for one or more countries. It seems there are now at least several countries who won’t allow this to happen again. Since this is now considered a strategic material, it will be stock piled high in three or more places outside of China.
It’ll be interesting to see exactly what the rising prices for RE was all about inside China, were the Chinese just getting greedy, or were they seeing increasing costs to mine and process this stuff? I doubt we’ll see a shortage of the material over the next 15 years, but will other countries produce the materials at the same costs? I can imagine the California mine could have 2 EPA marshals, and two CARB marshals following each and every union worker around, and for all we know, the EPA might require each worker to wear a space suit while mining the stuff?
One thing we know, China is a little like the wild west, and you never really know what kind of games they may play to strap a competitor. A Chinese Magnet Company may even send out poor quality components to one company in order to favor another, how would you know for sure? The way they do bussiness is way different than what Western people expect, fact is, too many Westerners think the rest of the world is just like Kansas, many in the West are easy marks.
Whatever reality is, it’s nice to know that Maylasia, Canada, Australia and the USA are expected to be on line soon. But it’s not enough to mine it, we need a number of suppliers of custom magnets built to order to assure the Chinese don’t screw with the supply. No trust here.
Now, if our leaders would just pull their heads out of the sand, and realize how many risks they are taking on other fronts, the lack of reasonably priced Energy could kill off at least a thrid of the people in third world, we feed them with cheap energy and if it doubles or triples like Obama said he’d like to see, it would take us back to the dark ages. There are crops left in the field today because the farmer can’t pay for the diesel to harvest the crop at present pricing. Double fuel costs, and we’ll lose a market for export… because they’ll not be able to afford to buy it..
The biggest mistake we can all make is thinking our elected officals have a plan, they’re all busy figuring out who to bribe to stay in power and where they’ll get the money to do it.. Get your garden planted.
Ohhh to be six years old again, to have a dog and experience one long summer, remember? It felt liek half a lifetime.
George B.
Some of us were under the impression that rare earth was rare, and that China had it all. That may not be the real story. This eve, I got a warning from a friend in China, prices of rare earth are on the move!
One word in this email “ouch” followed by a cut and paste of rare earth price increases as seen below.
It sure looks like the stuff is on the rise but why?
Here’s two articles one of our fellow DIYers found and sent along, you might enjoy the read..
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/26980/?nlid=3951
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/27112/?mod=related
there’s more links off this main page..
G
http://detnews.com/article/20110228/AUTO01/102280401
But, there are people who will buy it thinking others will be green with envy! No doubt there will be one in Airhead Huffington’s Drive way soon.
Who Killed the Electric Car? Answer: A lack of buyers, and that’s been the case since the Bell Electric. $50,000 is a bit much for a car that doesn’t make sense. But I need remember… the car was basically designed for people that don’t make a lot of sense.
DIYers to the rescue?? I’m sure most readers are familiar with Cogen powerplants, and we know that it’s mighty handy to use things like waste heat when it’s available and needed. There’s a good percentage of Greenies that will attempt to lecture us about why we should all be driving ‘plug in’ cars that have no idea just how many BTUs we need to keep the windows from fogging outside of Southern California. When it’s -10F, most of us are thankful for that COGEN power plant we have under the hood, it keeps us from having to chip ice off the inside windows as we drive to work. If we attempt to pull energy off the Volt battery for cabin heat and defrosting, we certainly limit our range. Really bad weather and traffic backups seem to happen at the same time, so as you sit in traffic breathing, you will most likely watch your windows grow ice crystals, and you’ll watch the outside view disappear.
For the DIyer, there’s a solution, and I can see the bolt on kits flying off the shelf! Just tell your greenie friends to order their Volt with the ‘tow package’, this will give them a sturdy receiver for a ball hitch, and it can be used to mount desirable accessories!
Our Gasifier Friends in Michigan have the right skill set to produce Mini Gasifiers AND they happen to live in an area where global warming just hasn’t done enough to shelter them from the bitter cold. Before you attempt to lecture me, sure I know bitter cold and record snow is caused by global warming sure thing, and the Huffington Post is a science Journal too right?
Mike A., Andy S. you listening? Here’s my reccomendation for an EPA approved appliance for the Volt! The Mini Gasifier! Many of us know the EPA has halted their attack on biofuels (for the moment), so this is a go!
Here how it works.. Normally a guy might take the trash out on his way to work, you normally drop it in the garbage can. Well, just one simple change, you lift the lid on the min gasifier mounted on the back of your Volt, and pour in the same garbage. Newspaper, egg cartons, all that fast food packaging, and more. there’s an auto igniter on the dash, and you’ll have near instant cabin heat. These gasifiers have come a long ways, and of course they burn clean. If you get in a stand still traffic pile up, there’s generally all kinds of garbage along side the road, some of the gasifier people tell me plastic bottles burn clean with no visible emissions. A side benefit of gasifiers might be the removal of all the liter alongside roadways where it gets cold?
Next step is to drive the Volt Air Conditioning with the gasifier, people down south are going to need that!
G
I’m fascinated by some of the posts I see in forums regarding magnet motors. Today I saw one about a motor that ‘powered’ a motorcycle. Language like this is at the heart of misunderstanding by those who care too little about learning the very basics which would immunize them from being played for suckers. Motors by definition require an external power source. When you see a person use the term ‘motor’ in place of engine, it’s an indicator you might pay attention to. Sure, there’s a lot of slang out there, but when a person is attempting to communicate in technical terms, they are normally careful to use the correct term. If they fail to do so, it’s often the sign that they are far more a salesmen than a Technician. DIYers sort it out, but it’s not so easy for those who slept through eight grade science class.
The following video is another Gem, there’s all kinds of them of course. The question I have for you.. After watching this, do you think this guy knows Ohm’s law?
A Course in Critical Thinking?
It’s important that you read this page before clicking on the link below. The last question I ask on this page.. “Why would you buy this product when you can easily add yourself as an afilliate and make 75% comission on a sale?
All around us we see insanity, and many of us note that there’s too few doing anything about it. Here’s the perfect oppurtunity for you to make a 75% comission off a green product, all you need do is learn how easy it is to set your ethics aside. Maybe it is a world of animals out there, and it’s the strongest that win?
Of course, the product doesn’t work, but many of them don’t, and you don’t see your elected leaders feeling any guilt over accepting bribes (contributions) in exchange for their endorsement of stuff equally worthless do you?
I think it’s very important that you click on those little links on the bottom, (disclaimer and afilliates). In my opinion, people who beleive in a free ride in finance are generally the same as those who believe in free energy. They arrive at this website as pre-qualified prey.
Many don’t know the difference between an IOU and a BTU, so it’s much easier for them to believe in magic.
We are witness to watching countries like Greece fail, and others taking the same test as you will take on this page, you ask yourself, is this too good to be true? Others might say.. “either way, I’m making money today.” Even though it’s obvious that Social Security is broken badly, we have people like Harry Reid telling us Social Security is fine.. who you gonna believe, him or your own eyes?
As Harry Reid once told us….. “I made my money through prudent investing”, Harry would call this a prudent investment I’m sure.
“Why would you buy this product when you can easily add yourself as an afilliate and make 75% comission ?”
Email of the day follows..
George, Check this out . http://www.magniwork.com/?hop=mbog13
Is this possible?
Regards,
N
My answer…..”not a chance in hell” it works….
AS for Greece…they may not all be stupid, many just didn’t realize how quickly the debt came due. Will WI be any smarter? We’ll watch together. It’s all a lesson in critical thinking. Some one has to pay the bill..
G
