a few crazy thoughts that just arrived...
 

Is there any way to generate hydro-electric power using the force of the water that is falling down from the display tank into the sump?

Is there anyway to use the pressure of tap water to generate hydro-electric power? I believe that the water still flows from the taps during a powerfailure...

How many solar panels would it take to generate just enough electricity to run your sump pump in the event of a power failure?

I don't think the sump will generate enough force. JMO

Here is an interesting site for alternative energy

http://www.energyalternatives.ca/default.asp

Unless you have a lot of money I don't think these will help you get totally off the grid.

For example...... a 1.5 KW system will cost $10K and will generate peak power in the summer of 7kw's. With all the lights & pumps reefers use........ that would just be a drop in the bucket.

These systems can help offset power use ...... but the pay back would be a very long time.

Cheers,
Vic

IR (infra red) censored faucets have a little turbine under the sink to charge a battery pack using its own tap water flow , but this is only enough to operate the faucet.
One of my dreams is to get completely power independent.

Ineresting idea. The force of the water falling into the sump could turn a small turbine, which could be used to charge a battery which could in turn be used to power something in the event of a power failure. You wouldn't really recover energy in the form of lowering your ongoing costs - but you would be charging that battery without plugging in a new item into the wall.

Don't know how it is out your way but Calgary requires a building permit if you want to install panels on your roof. There is talk about loosening this requirement some in the near future to encourage more green thinking. Sadly the cost of good solar panels is huge and indeed you'll see a payback eventually, but it's in the 10 to 20 year mark. Wish they weren't quite that expensive.

I noticed a HUGE percentage of houses in Hawaii (well, at least Maui, when I was there a few years ago) had solar panels on the roof. So in some places this idea is catching on for sure.

If water still flows during a power failure, there could be two possibilities. One, your utility has its own power supply, or two, they use elevated water tanks to generate the hydrostatic pressure. Not really sure what Lower Mainland uses but a lot of west coast municipalities in the U.S. use the water tanks idea. Calgary does not - we pump direct into distribution. If there was zero power then there would be no water coming out of taps as well, given enough time to bleed the pressure down in the lines. I would think, anyhow.

Our reservoirs are located in the local mountains, so I think its mostly gravity feed. They may have pumps as well, but I've never really looked into it.

Anthony

The large problem with solar power now-a-days is that panels are highly inefficient, and the batteries you have to use to store solar power are also highly inefficient. Sure, you could have a 10w panel on the roof to trickle charge a battery in the event of power failure, but it would be more practical to use a UPS.

MIT has been making huge leaps and bounds in the past months with recent discoveries on how to improve the efficiency of solar panels, and storage devices. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/solarcells-0710.html .. There was also another article after this one, that detailed some type of organic battery... Similar to how plants store and process energy

Solar pannels are not environmentaly friendly either, the power to create one, make the glass and silicon wafers and all the other parts and assemble them is higher than the average lifetime power generated by the unit, they are good for remote stations and such but not for real genertion of power
a better method of solar generation is to focus light with mirrors onto a pipe of water and then use the heating of the water to make steam and turn a turbine, but even this is inefficient compared to geothermal, wind, and hydro power.

Costco had a couple of wind based generators on their website not too long ago. If I recall correctly, they were designed for boats, but I'm sure you could use them at home, just need to tinker a bit.

Speaking of crazy thoughts, would solar panels work with light spilled from reef lighting? Visions of panels lining a light hood. :lol: