What if Edison would have won?

[C Moore]

It is sad.
You have to admire that much intellectual horsepower.
We will never see his like again.

[JazzGuitarGimp]

If Edison had won, there'd be a lot more dead people walking around. Without AC, there would have been no way to isolate a product from the mains voltage. We'd still be playing amps with "death caps".

[Leo_Gnardo]

If Edison had won, there'd be a lot more dead people walking around.

What, a zombie invasion?

Local AC, just enough to run what's necessary, could be obtained via "motor-generator" run from the DC lines. I don't know if that was the plan with Edison's DC system but anyway, that's my solution.

And yes, more electrocutions because without the "jingle" from 50 or 60 Hz you can't tell so easily you're getting zapped.

[cbass]

Almost as Important as AC All wireless technology is based off his designs.It is ashamed that he died broke and alone but that just proves he was more concerned about science than fortune and fame.

[eddie25]

Almost as Important as AC All wireless technology is based off his designs.It is ashamed that he died broke and alone but that just proves he was more concerned about science than fortune and fame.

I'd rather die broke, no shame in that.

[ER]

I wouldn't mind having all solar charged DC in my house with dedicated battery packs to run all my heaters and B+ especially on the hi-fi. Dead quiet stable power. Doesn't the B in B+ stand for battery?

http://www.grid1.com/about/videos/Miles_Schon.html

[LeftyStrat]

You know, I just realized they had to have a way to step up DC in the old days for radios in automobiles. I learned something new today:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_audio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrator_(electronic)

[JazzGuitarGimp]

My family and I lived off-grid for the six years from 2005 to 2011. I designed and built a massive off-grid, battery & solar power system. The batteries could carry us for four days with no sun (not overcast; NO sun) before needing a recharge. We had a 3.6KW solar array, a 48VDC @ 1,700 Ah deep cycle battery bank, and two REALLY GOOD inverters (Xantrex SW-4048 Plus) stacked for standard 240V (120-0-120) service. Motors don't like approximated sine waves (the inverters had 52 steps per AC cycle, so they were pretty 'clean' as inverters go). Frankly, I am surprised I only replaced the well motor one time in the six years we lived there - I have to assume being submersed in water helped with that.

I wouldn't do it again.....

[LeftyStrat]

I wouldn't do it again.....

Tell me more Lou. I've always dreamed of living off the grid when I retire.

[C Moore]

Sorry if I missed the point.....Why would you not do that again.?
Thank You

[ER]

Yeah if I were to do off grid I'd probably go all DC low voltage, LED lighting etc. keep it small and have a gennie for when I want to weld or blow dry my hair (i'm bald anyways). The grundfos dc pumps are pretty good down to 200+ with enough panels, had the best luck with those on cattle troughs and a storage tank, only pump when the sun is shining (no battery or inverter) and then gravity feed from the tank only real problem is sand and bears on the floats.

Of course my dream property will have a spring on it anyways, gravity fed to my south facing class 1 soil , actually my grandpa's place was like that (Artesian well out of the hill and class 1 south facing) I wish I bought it when he died but I was only 18 at the time and didn't have any money to speak of but if I could have done it it would be paid off many times over by now...

[JazzGuitarGimp]

I wouldn't do it again for a number of reasons (very long story follows):

My statement about ac motors not liking approximated sine waves was actually based on one experience: We had several large breed dogs. Occasionally, one of them needed a hair cut, so I bought a very good, high quality set of animal hair clippers. The clippers would get HOT pretty fast, and when they got hot, they wouldn't cut well at all. I assumed the blades needed to be sharpened. It never occurred to me until after we moved back onto the grid, that the problem may have been the inverter power. Once we moved back onto the grid, the clippers (same blades, never sharpened) work beautifully. As far as other motors go, the garbage disposal, washer and dryer worked flawlessly for the six years we were there. So it may have been more a matter of the type of motor used in the hair clippers.

The maintenance really wore me down over the years. We were there two years before I got the solar array installed, so a generator was used every other day to recharge. It came with the property and by the original owner's own admission, was a surplus genny. A 20KW, 271 Detroit Diesel. It leaked oil badly, and was cantankerous to start in cold weather. It was BIG and LOUD, and frankly, a bit scary. There was also a secondary generator in the well shed - a 12KW, 4 cylinder which did not run when we bough the property. I spent $700 to get the fuel injector rebuilt, only to have the thing eventually seize up on me (because of my own neglect to monitor the oil level). It ran very well though, until it died. I do not miss the constant generator maintenance: the oil changes, keeping the radiator topped off, air filter changes, etc, etc.

Then there's battery maintenance. I took the easy way out: I built a 48V system out of twenty-four 2V @ 1,766 Ah Surrett deep cycle batteries. So it was a single, series string as opposed to the more common lower capacity 6V batteries in a series / parallel configuration. This meant I only had 24 filler caps to deal with, as opposed to 72. It also meant I spent a HUGE amount of money on batteries ($10.5K) but it was well worth it. I bought a battery watering system ($700, manual system) which made the monthly battery watering easier to live with. Batteries were arranged in two rows of twelve and each row had the watering caps interconnected and terminated to a pigtail with a quick-connect hose coupling. Each month, I would connect the hose from the reservoir to the pig tails coming off the two rows of batteries, one at a time, and wait until I no longer heard water flowing in the hose. Then there was the monthly EQ charge which has to be monitored, taking specific gravity measurements of the cells every hour, until they all reach a certain specific gravity (I forgot the number already!) I am legally blind, so I had to use a 5X jeweler's loop to read the scale on the hydrometer. I don't like working around battery acid in the first place, but that was just too close for comfort. And let's not forget batteries give off highly explosive hydrogen gas while charging (especially during the high voltage EQ charge).

The one nice thing about it though, While we were there, we never had to deal with a power outage. I used to feel sorry for our friends down in town (where we now live) because the power goes out here on a regular basis during the winter. My intent (which I achieved) was to have an electrical system so good, that you could not tell the difference of being on the grid.

We were eventually pushed out of our dream home (a 1,700 sq ft, two story geodesic doom on 4.5 acres in the woods) by these arrogant, self-entitled, little piss-ant pot growers. They bough up undeveloped parcels on the mountain we lived on, moved in and pitched a tent. Put their beloved plants in the ground, then, bored, spent all day and all NIGHT shooting off rapid-fire rounds from HUGE calibre guns - fucking assholes - can ya tell I'm just a bit bitter here? Anyway, my wife started to fear for our son's life, who had just gotten his first car and was now driving in and out of the area solo, as well as her own life, driving in and out of the area. Put the property on the market for a year but couldn't sell it for love nor money. So we finally just walked away from it and are now renting a toilet....er....house in town.

[ER]

Dang Lou, that's a bummer. I feel for you, we had to walk from our house up in Paynes Creek in Tehama County and rent in Dead Bluff last year because of my disability. Had to give up livin' the country dream of self-sufficiency.

Back in Sonoma County now so at least the weather's better but renting really grates me. Better schools, longer gardening season, coastal influence summers, more music going on, convienient shopping, better economy, and less fire wood to cut every year. Worth the higher cost of living till I'm feeling better.

I think the real trick is cutting way back, I.E. not trying to live like you're on the grid. I would only go full tilt if I had a good hydro power source. Batteries are everything as you know, that's why we aren't all driving electric cars yet.

I bet you I'd still be on the old family ranch today if it weren't for growers and tax assessors. I had a friend that was living in a yurt near hayfork and bailed for pretty much the same reasons, I hope all the future laws make weed next to worthless.

[LeftyStrat]

Man, I feel for you also. I had to walk away from a house in Plano, TX, when the market had bombed and I took a job in Seattle. The rent here is more than my house payment there, and I couldn't pay both.

Both of you guys are in Northern CA. I asked my wife this the other day and she didn't know. How far south of the CA-OR border do you have to go to get away from the constant winter rain?

Seattle is beautiful four months out of the year, but once my wife and I become empty nesters, I want to head towards more sunshine and mild winters.

[C Moore]

"empty nesters"

Pardon my ignorance, but does that mean Kids/Children living at "home".?
Thanks