I was riding my bike through Harpers Ferry, West Virginia today with a friend and stopped at the site of an old textile plant.

Everyone is familiar with 19th century water wheels powering small grain mills, but what was interesting about this pre-1850 installation was that they used four efficient turbines (see picture below) to drive an entire factory through mechanical transfer.

Water was gradually constricted by narrowing water tunnels, condensing the volume of water creating more power. Think of your finger squeezing over an open garden hose.

It was said that the factory could make fabric cheaper than mills in Baltimore.

Free power harnessed by American innovation 150 years ago ran an entire factory.

No worries about a 30% increase in the cost of natural gas. No hostile foreign governments to feed with our dollars. No commodity speculators to profit by escalation of price brought on by an energy monopoly strangling the economy. No competing for oil with India and China.

Free domestic power by harnessing the flow of nature.

Tunnels that brought water to the mill.

Posted in All posts from the start Innovation Motorcycles Water Power

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My 55 gallon plastic barrels are recycled from Anderson's Car Wash. They cost $8 a piece and originally held bio-degradable detergent. The rain collection unit is placed under my deck with a spigot coming out of the lattice, so it is not visible from the yard.

Rain comes off the roof from a 3" ABS plastic pipe (1) and drops into the diverter 'T' (2). Air purges from vents (5) at the top of the barrels and allows the tanks to take on water until diverter is full. Water then passes beyond the diverter and out an overflow. The plenum (3) is pressurized by the tank volume and comes out a spigot (4) A pipe extending the plentum (6) allows debris to fall past the spigot outlet during filling. A plug is for seasonal clean out and tank expansion.

The diverter serves a couple functions...

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One of my hobbies is building hot water heating systems. I love to tune up an old steam radiator system. I am at home with pipes so my only reference for this project is my brain and maybe some inherited subconscious from my grandfather's HVAC business, Kuehnel Sheet Metal.

My friends at P.H. Plumbing Distributors, in York, once told me the qualifications for being a plumber are to know what time it is for dinner and than sh__ flows downhill. Well, it's not quite that simple in an age of building codes, but common sense and plumbing goes a long way.

Rain falls from the sky and runs to the lowest point on your property. Your house and gutter are a rainwater collector. If your house sits on the high part of your property, as it does in my case, then your system can use gravity to guide the natural flow of water.

My installation is on a row house, so I can "steal" part of my neighbor's water too. Chuck doesn't care because he is too busy riding his new scooter.

I didn't want to use electricity. There is a surprising amount of pressure from the bottom of a tank holding 100 gallons of water. My gravity fed spigot can fed from a 1/2 inch pipe and water 90% of my property with a hose. The outlet fill a container as quickly as my home's 55 psi city water spigot. I wanted to leave enough room beneath the spigot to fill a 5 gallon container.

NEXT: Parts and free pieces, we get dirty under the deck.

Posted in All posts from the start Innovation Tax incentives Water Power

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A couple weeks ago I sat in my yard pondering the sky during a storm. Freedom comes from the sky (6/30)

The idea is that the sun and rain that falls above my yard cannot be taxed, resold to me or monopolized upon.

I have designed and built a rain collection system out of inexpensive parts that has been working quite well for the past few weeks. The engineering of each system will depend on the slope of your property and the roof area available for rain collection.

Some considerations when designing a rain collection system

• mosquitoes


• self pressurization based on location on property


• tank storage vs. rainfall


• clean out and winter tear down

A tank under your deck is like a natural pond in that it slows the rapid run-off from storms and returns it slowly to the eco-system, slowing down erosion and preventing runoff into streams.

NEXT: Considerations and building your rain collection system.

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I was stretched out on my deck tonight gazing at the sky while a storm rolled in.
I came to the conclusion that only the sun and the rain, as long as they fall above my property, are free. What comes from the sky above my head cannot be taxed nor can it be repackaged, marketed and sold back to me at compounded profit and then taxed.

Harnessing these things in my backyard, I could take control of my increasingly squeezed and controlled by corporate entity - life.

The secret is in the invention, not buying the product.

I am going to build a rain collection system to water my garden. I can tell you right now that it will probably take 40 years to pay for the parts since water is pretty cheap, but it will be an exercise in securing freedom and independence. A working sculpture of hope for my future.

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The internal combustion engine driving your car is a pretty inefficient method of converting energy into motion. Friction from air resistance and motion along with heat dissipated from burning fuel all take your money in exchange for nothing. That car heater sure feels great in January, but most of the time that engine heat is lost to the atmosphere while we all do our part heating the outdoors.

Loughborough University and the University of Sussex, both in the UK, has concluded that using waste heat from light-duty vehicle engines in a steam power cycle could deliver fuel economy advantages of between 6.3% and 31.7% greencarcongress.com

The idea of pushing energy into water and creating steam is nothing new. Railroads built this nation with the steam engine, however paying a premium for energy has reawakened this old trick.

Clean Power Technologies claims to have successfully achieved a 40% reduction in vehicle fuel consumption.

Other uses for exhaust energy recovery is truck refrigeration. Traditionally, a small combustion engine uses fuel to cool the trailer during transport. A steam hybrid system would take wasted heat from exhaust gas and created steam that would power refrigeration.

Abdul Mitha, CEO, and Mike Burns, CTO, of CPT demonstrated a steam engine running on the free energy recovered from the exhaust of a Caterpillar truck engine and explained the 80% fuel savings achievable in refrigerated trailer applications. tradingmarkets.com

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Irving Oil Ltd., the energy arm of the Irving family's East Coast conglomerate, is looking at producing electricity from the powerful tides in the Bay of Fundy as a way to diversify into renewable energy. Company spokeswoman Jennifer Parker said the studies could cost a total of $600,000.

Experts say tidal power offers huge potential because it is more predictable than solar or wind power, and because the density of water spins turbines with greater force than wind. And the Bay of Fundy is especially attractive because it has the highest tides in the world, and is close to an electricity transmission grid, meaning the power should be able to be brought economically to market.

A 2007 report by the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., identified seven sites in North America that might be suitable for tidal power, estimating that in total they could probably support 551 turbines, each producing one megawatt of power. Of that total, 250 would be in the Minas Pass in Nova Scotia and 66 at Head Harbour in New Brunswick (one of the sites the Irving team will now assess). globeandmail.com

I don't think the general public would be as pissed off at oil companies if they thought that their financial sacrifices at the pump were a means to an end. It's rare to find a story where an oil company is trying to diversify itself in a non-petroleum way to meet the new energy challenge.

When oil giants met with Senate last week, (Senators vs. Oil Executives vs. OPEC vs.... greenmesh 5/21) they talked of wanting to drill more in protected areas and the need to hoard their profit for a rainy day. I don't recall anyone at the table saying that they wanted to use the huge profits to diversify into renewable resources.

Using windfall oil profit to diversify, build a future business model for themselves and harmony with their customers and government is preferably (at least to me) to hoarding, calling themselves victims and trying to grab new land for drilling.

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BUSKIRK, N.Y. (AP) — A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.

That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.

Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.

These energy survivalists are not leading some sort of green revolution meant to save the planet. Many of them believe it is too late for that, seeing signs in soaring fuel and food prices and a faltering U.S. economy, and are largely focused on saving themselves. (AP)

I can't say that I would choose to live on the edge of peril. I find too much hope and enjoyment in life to risk that for even one day by adopting a doomsday view of the future.

However, how cool would it be if everyone cut their driving in half, came up with a random alternative to heat their home that the commodities market wouldn't harness for profit. Gather the tax free, corporate free, sun, wind and water on their own properties and use their own soil to provide themselves food and fuel. The price oil, natural gas and electricity would plunge from the lack of demand and the individual would gain a degree of independence.

Doomsday averted.

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Martin Library will host an environmental panel discussion on February 21 featuring:

I was interviewed, via keybord of course, since I will be one of the moderators. Below is the text of the interview:

5. In your opinion, how does the level of environmental awareness in York County compare to that of other similar-sized communities?

York is a land of plenty. We have enjoyed low population congestion and are blessed with resources. California is tuned into air pollution because congestion and climate patterns demanded action. The desert southwest is tuned into water supply because of the lack of it. Other than the Codorus Creek, a stray landfill and an occasional bad ozone day, York County generally has not been confronted in the face with major environmental issues. High oil prices, wars and global cries that we need to act have brought these concerns home to York.

6. What do you believe the typical Yorker can do to improve the environment?

Use less to do more. Nothing will lower pollution, lower oil prices, and stretch resources more than choosing to use less through product choice and lifestyle. This concept runs contrary to our financial model that, up until now, has promoted and thrived on people using more energy.

7. As editor of Greenmesh.com, what do you see as the most promising alternative to oil-based energy?

Experimenting with many alternatives is the best was to transition away from an oil based economy. It takes time to understand the repercussions of any form of energy production. Solar collection is the lowest impacting source of alternative energy, but in places like Pennsylvania, solar isn’t practical most of the time. We have already experienced the implications of diving head first into corn-based ethanol by higher food and feed prices.

All methods of energy production have environmental implications and placing all our eggs in one basket gives power to a new monopoly and will accentuate any negative effects of pushing a single solution of energy production....

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The energy bill fell flat in the Senate Friday after the house passed it. The White House issued a statement saying,

"“Their proposal would raise taxes and increase energy prices for Americans. That is a misguided approach and if it made it to the president’s desk, he would veto it.” nyt.com

The bill is more of a panic reaction by a few well intentioned to a dire situation than a solution.

Well true, the bill would have increased the price of energy for Americans because a majority of the taxes were on oil companies that would have passed the cost along to consumers; before the money taken away from consumers could catch up by creating competition with alternative energy. Also people affected by feed prices like cattleman lined up not liking it because the huge ethanol mandate would push the price of feed up squeezing them against consumers.

The love for corn based ethanol is mind boggling requiring production of ethanol and other bio fuels, from about 5 billion gallons a year of bad science and impact of the food supply today to 36 billion gallons of the same and yet to be discovered methods of production by 2022.

Old school oil wants to clutch it's money as long as possible and government is here to empower status quo economic highways. Meanwhile, no one with power is enough of a hero to see the big picture and force change. The planet continues to die.

Nothing is going to get done here until consumers start using some things, stop using others and conserving what we must use but don't want. The great part about capitalism is that there has to be a market for something to gain power. Ultimately, an educated consumer holds all the power.

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