[NCLUG] Re: "Green" power -- off grid

[DJ Eshelman]

Along these lines- I recently have been approached by two of my clients 
wondering how they can 'green up' their datacenters.

I'd love to recommend wind turbines, but does anyone know if that can be 
done in the City limits? 

Solar is of course an option but I've never felt the output is enough to 
justify the cost.

I personally get 100% of my power from the city's Wind program- as far 
as I know that power is coming mostly from Wyoming.  I'm sure Xcel has 
the same kind of thing going on.  It adds a bit to the bill, but I feel 
it's exercising my consumer advocacy by doing it- the more people demand 
wind power, the more turbines will be built and maintained.  The more 
turbines are built, the easier it will be to lower the cost (supply and 
demand).
However, one of these days I'll actually settle down enough to buy a 
home- perhaps by then Solar will be worth it.  As you're probably 
gathering, I like the idea of personal energy independence- where you 
can use the grid when you need to, but for the most part you take care 
of your own.  Economically it really makes a lot of sense- but that's a 
whole different conversation.

For now my answer to those wanting to 'green up' their datacenters is to 
utilize Xen and VMWare, Citrix and technologies like that; but 
ultimately I think (as someone else mentioned before) - cooling said 
servers is actually the majority of the expense.  Unfortunately, servers 
are more efficient at creating heat than air conditioners are at 
removing it.  It's why I'm really looking forward to IBM's research in 
this field http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/23826.wss

fun times, eh!

-DJ

danbob wrote:
> Hi Paul -- I had no choice about off-grid, of course, I live 12 miles
> from the nearest power pole.  I built my house from scratch to be as
> energy efficient as possible. Passive solar heating from big, slanted
> south facing windows (the entire south wall), and thermal mass to store
> it. My heating bill is zero, except chainsaw gas and sweat for firewood
> when its cold out. I have the most efficient lighting (CF) and
> appliances available--on-demand hot water, efficient and SMALL fridge,
> efficient dishwasher modded to cut out the heating coils, and so on. LCD
> television, no plasma. It's also a SMALL house.
>
> Because of very heavy processor demands, (desktop publishing books with
> Scribus) my only concession to 'regular' appliances is desktop computers
> and network, laptops just don't cut it and I need a BIG screen (LCD of
> course) to lay out books. My computer/network draws 250 watts in
> operation.
>
> I have 500 watts of PV, and a tiny 7 ft diameter 500w wind turbine. I
> use about 100 kwh per month which this system easily provides; the
> average US home uses 750 kwh/month (source -- US Energy Information
> Administration, since citations seem to be called for on this thread
> recently).
>
> If you can build your home from scratch to be energy-efficient, you are
> in front of the 8 ball on going off grid. If you are trying to retro-fit
> an existing home, best spend your money on super-efficient appliances,
> insulation, solar hot water, and such....and THEN do the math for PV,
> wind, etc.
>
> DAN FINK
>
>
>
> On Wed, 2008-09-17 at 10:58 -0600, Paul Hummer wrote:
>   
>>> And the new Li batteries are great, but expensive....just for
>>> fun, I priced them to run my house (I'm off grid). Including all the
>>> special charging equipment, it was just under $100k for 20 kwh capacity,
>>> for which my current lead-acid batteries cost $2k
>>>       
>> I would be VERY interested in knowing the process you took to get off
>> the grid.  That's a life-goal of mine.  While I don't think that my
>> entire house will be off the grid anytime soon, if I could offload
>> devices that need to be "always on" onto something that I'm not paying
>> the monthly for (servers, etc.), then it'd be a good start.
>>
>> Last item I looked, solar power was getting cheaper, and I thought
>> (theoretically) that I might just be able to run off solar power during
>> the day (when I obviously don't need lights, etc), and then switch to
>> the grid at night.  That way, I'm technically only paying far
>> electricity that ~10 hours out of the day.  There were some issues with
>> that, but I don't remember the big ones.
>>
>>
>>     
>
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