Quote Originally Posted by badflash
I want to use the least power possible. If 80 watts will do it, I can go solar.
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Storage in the cold spell sucks though. 80 watts is doable with solar, especially if you build it yourself. It would need to be a 250 watt collector with battery capacity of about 200 amp-hours. A couple of golf cart batteries would do it. Collectors are easy to make and cells are cheap on eBay. Basic soldering skills and electronic hookup savvy is all that is needed.
DIY Links? Instructable? Diagramatics? plans?

Quote Originally Posted by badflash
My new friend Chris from one of the veggie oil forums did me a huge favor and lent me some scaffold to finish up the perlins. He also gave me 250 gallon of waste veggie oil and sold me the parts to clean the oil, namely a gear pump, heater, drum and cetrifuge. Once I get that together I'll have a veggie oil furnace to heat the greenhouse.
I'd like to see some plans/drawings/diagramatics (linky?) w/explanation of the workings of that solar array and the veggie furnace in a new thread when you have some time! I may have need for those in my mobile home this winter, since the power bill keeps going up and wood has been getting scarce lately I'm also trying to put together the hardware to build a wind generator, because the wind blows almost constantly here in GR!