HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-10-18, Page 16PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2012.Couple to use horses for generator in green home
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bills, it’s about a six-year return on
investment,” he said.
Currently, the home is hooked up
to several solar panels, and while
wind generation was considered for
the farm by the couple on a smaller
scale than the industrial models seen
popping up throughout Huron
County, Blair felt he wanted to go a
different way.
“I researched turbines, I just didn’t
feel like they fit,” he said.
To back up their solar system for
those periods in the winter
when there is little sunlight, he is
building his own horse-powered
generator.
“I bought 48 magnets and have
them being pushed around the
stator,” he said, adding that he hadthe rig built locally. “It’s the same
principle as a turbine generator; it
works at lower [revolutions per
minute] (RPM) and can still generate
power.”
The generator will be powered by
four draft horses, which the couple
uses for farming during the warmer
months, runs at approximately 250
rotations per metre when the horses
are pushing at walking speed and is
based off a basic carousel design.
The system is approximately nine
metres wide (30 feet) and will serve
double duty according to Jessica.
“It will help keep the horses active
all winter and help them not put on
weight due to not moving as much,”
she said.
Blair said the system will produce,
once it’s tested and ready to run,
over three kilowatts with the horses
pushing an hour or two per day.
While the unique build has been
fairly smooth sailing, the couple said
there have been some challenges to
overcome, the biggest of which is
lighting.
When the house was first being
designed, they were basically
working with a shell and hadn’t
decided where which rooms were
going to be and where walls would
be. Because of that, they didn’t know
where to put lights.
“We didn’t want to lock anything
in until we were sure of it,” Jessica
said.
To that end, they found a wireless,
powerless switch system which,
through communicating with a main
power centre, can have light
switches placed anywhere in a
house.
The switches are capable of
controlling single circuits or entire
rooms and, through dimming, will
help Blair and Jessica control their
energy consumption year-round.
They will also be using LED
lighting, which means they can
literally set the dimming to any level
they want since LEDs can work on
any percentage of power provided.
One other complication that the
two faced was meeting currentelectrical standards.
Despite the fact that the house
isn’t on the grid, they needed to meet
wiring standards for the home in
case they sold the house or in case
they decided to go on the grid
eventually.
They said that the house has far
more outlets than they will ever use
since a big part of their project is
limiting their electrical consumption
to limit the amount of generation
they need.
Timing their activities is also a
change that Blair and Jessica will
face. They said that, with the current
time of use billing used by most
electrical companies, people are
forced to wait until night time or
early morning to do things like
laundry, dishes or other high-
consumption activities. They will
have to inverse that thinking.
“Solar power works best during
the day, so we’re going to have to do
as much of that as we can during
daylight,” Jessica said.
Another unique part of the
household is the hot water heating
system which, through a special hot
water heater that contains two
heating coils in it, will heat water
through both solar heating and with
the assistance of the wood stove
which will be central in the home.Through a heating of specialized
pipes in a solar set-up, which is
hooked to a medium that will be
pumped into the water heater and a
similar pumping system hooked into
a jacket on their wood stove, the hot
water heater will run without
drawing any energy to heat it from
electrical or gas systems.
From the location of their
windows to the open concept of the
building, every decision about the
home was made with the idea that
they wanted to limit their
consumption and use as much
natural, passive energy as they
could.
The attic, once insulated, will be
completely sealed off, the roof of the
house is perfectly angled for the
addition of solar panels and the
windows, which are casement style,
were chosen because they better
insulate the home.
“Casement windows seal when
you close them completely,” Blair
said. “Double-hung windows don’t
seal as effectively and have more
moving parts.”
Moving parts was also something
the couple tried to limit; from their
static solar panels to the windows to
everything in between, they looked
Nothing can replace the warm
embrace of a real wood fire
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Keeping warm
Lucknow-area residents Blair and Jessica Morrison have
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building process. (Denny Scott photo)
Continued on page 21