I think you meant "projected", which is true. As of now, they are not proven, and being manufactured. I have often thought that slick sand wasn't the only path!
I use whale oil, seal oil, and devastate forests for my energy needs!
Posted on 06/21/2008 3:28:11 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
EAST AMWELL, N.J.—Mike Strizki has not paid an electric, oil or gas bill—nor has he spent a nickel to fill up his Mercury Sable—in nearly two years. Instead, the 51-year-old civil engineer makes all the fuel he needs using a system he built in the capacious garage of his home, which employs photovoltaic (PV) panels to turn sunlight into electricity that is harnessed in turn to extract hydrogen from tap water.
Although the device cost $500,000 to construct, and it is unlikely it will ever pay off financially (even with today's skyrocketing oil and gas prices), the civil engineer says it is priceless in terms of what it does buy: freedom from ever paying another heating or electric bill, not to mention keeping a lid on pollution, because water is its only by-product.
Slide Show: Photos show what makes this house work
"The ability to make your own fuel is priceless," says the man known as "Mr. Gadget" to his friends. He boasts a collection of hydrogen-powered and electric vehicles, including a hydrogen-run lawn mower and car (the Sable, which he redesigned and named the "Genesis") as well as an electric racing boat, and even an electric motorcycle. "All the technology is off-the-shelf. All I'm doing is putting them together."
"I'm a self-sufficiency guy," he adds. Strizki, a civil engineer, has been interested in alternative energy sources since 1997 when he began working on vehicles fueled by alternative means during his tenure with the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Strizki's two-story colonial on an 11-acre (4.5 hectare) plot 12 miles (19 kilometers) north of Trenton is the nation's first private hydrogen-powered house, which he now shares with his wife, two dogs and a cat. (His two daughters and son, all in their 20s, have left the nest.) It has been running entirely on electricity generated from the sun and stored hydrogen since October 2006, when Strizki—in a project that his wife Ann fully supports—built an off-grid energy system with $100,000 of his own cash and $400,000 in grants from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, along with technology from companies such as Sharp, Swagelok and Proton Energy Systems.
The Strizki's personalized home-energy system consists of 56 solar panels on his garage roof, and housed inside is a small electrolyzer (a device, about the size of a washing machine, that uses electricity to break down water into its component hydrogen and oxygen). There are 100 batteries for nighttime power needs along the garage's inside wall; just outside are ten propane tanks (leftovers from the 1970s that are capable of storing 19,000 cubic feet, or 538 cubic meters, of hydrogen) as well as a Plug Power fuel cell stack (an electrochemical device that mixes hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and water) and a hydrogen refueling kit for the car.
On a typical summer day, the solar panels drink in and convert sunlight to about 90 kilowatt-hours of electricity, according to Strizki. He consumes about 10 kilowatt-hours daily to run the family's appliances, including a 50-inch plasma television, along with his three computers and stereo equipment, among other modern conveniences.
The remaining 80 kilowatt-hours recharge the batteries—which provide electricity for the house at night—and power the electrolyzer, which splits the molecules of purified tap water into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is vented and the hydrogen goes into the tanks where it is stored for use in the cold, dark winter months. From November to March or so Strizki runs the stored hydrogen through the fuel cell stacks outside his garage or in his car to power his entire house—and the only waste product is water, which can be pumped right back into the system.
"I can make fuel out of sunlight and water—and I don't even use the water," he notes. "If it's raining, it's fuel. If it's sunny, it's fuel. It's all fuel."
The modular home—built in 1991—looks like a typical suburban house; its top-of-the-line insulation and energy-efficient windows look no different, and the facade hides the hydrogen-powered clothes dryer and geothermal system for heating and cooling, which pumps Freon gas underground to harvest heat in winter and cool in summer.
"Geothermal is another piece of free energy," Strizki says, noting that he dug eight feet (2.4 meters) down into the granite under his home to take advantage of the constant 56-degree Fahrenheit (13-degree Celsius) temperature underground. In summer he can use the lower temperatures underground to cool his entire house, and in winter he can capture those warmer temperatures, supplementing them with a heat pump powered by electricity from hydrogen. "Nothing goes to waste."
This year, Strizki is hardly running his $78,000 Hogen electrolyzer (manufactured by Proton Energy Systems in Connecticut, a company that makes hydrogen-generation equipment) because last year's mild winter left him with full tanks. When he does turn it on, the excess hydrogen vents from a small pipe on the roof with the sound of an impolite burp.
That vented hydrogen speeds at 45 miles (72 kilometers) per hour through the atmosphere on its way off the planet—one of only two gases, the other being helium, that escapes into space entirely because it is lighter than air. In fact, Strizki's quarter-inch thick propane tanks weigh less when filled with hydrogen than when depleted.
Of course, hydrogen is a highly flammable gas, but its quick escape eases Strizki's fears that it might ignite or explode. It "disperses faster than any other gas," he notes. "Hydrogen won't sit around waiting for a flame."
The final piece of Strizki's energy solution is dubbed "Genesis," his $3-million aluminum Mercury Sable, one of 10 that carmaker Ford produced in the 1990s to test how well the lighter metal would fare in crash tests. Ford gave Strizki the special model to drive in the Tour de Sol solar car race in New Jersey in 2000. Strizki installed a 104-horsepower electric engine (compared with a Toyota Prius's 44-horsepower motor) that can reach speeds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour. Pop the hood and next to the electric engine sit two fuel cell stacks that convert hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity, propelling the electric engine forward smoothly and quickly.
The car never competed because it was not ready in time, but the unique vehicle does hold the world record for farthest travel on a single charge: 401.5 miles (646.2 kilometers), a distance which Strizki drove in December 2001. Today, Genesis shares the road with a variety of less costly fuel cell cars: Honda's new hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity, which hit the market this week leasing for $600 a month, as well as the hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox test-vehicle fleet from General Motors—part of a pilot program that aims to determine how hydrogen cars might function in everyday life. Both the Japanese and U.S. automakers are betting that these nonpolluting cars will one day replace the internal combustion engine.
GM is committed to building a "mass volume" of its hydrogen fuel cell powered Equinoxes in coming years, according to Larry Burns, GM's vice president of research and development, but only if a way to refuel them exists. As it stands, the entire nation has just 122 hydrogen stations—compared with 170,000 gasoline and diesel stations.
This is part of the reason that not everyone is a fan of hydrogen. Former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph Romm, a physicist, notes that it's a waste of time and electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen instead of just using the electricity directly in an all-electric, plug-in hybrid car. The debate boils down to whether batteries or hydrogen are a better way to store and deliver electrical energy.
But Strizki argues that hydrogen offers benefits that batteries do not. For example, GE Global Research found that hydrogen might prove a better way to store electricity generated by renewable resources in remote areas—such as wind farms in North Dakota or solar arrays in New Mexico—than building expensive and costly electric transmission lines. Instead, the hydrogen generated in such locations could be pumped nationwide through existing natural gas pipelines, providing fuel for a fleet of hydrogen-powered vehicles.
Regardless of whether those future vehicles are powered by hydrogen or rechargeable batteries, both would move using an electric motor that does not require polluting (and newly expensive) fossil fuels. And they would come with another important extra benefit: the batteries or hydrogen fuel cells that run the car could also serve as a backup energy source for the home. "I can plug this car into my home and run it," Strizki notes.
Strizki is now working to bring the price down enough to make homes powered by the sun and hydrogen affordable for average consumers. He says that he can build a solar-hydrogen system for as little as $90,000, thanks to dipping costs for solar panels and lessons learned in building his home. Even at that price, however, the off-grid system would be expensive compared with annual electric bills in New Jersey that average $1,500, although that number has been increasing every year, including a jump of as much as 17 percent this year.
But add gasoline costs to that—which average more than $3,000 annually, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration—and the price becomes more reasonable, particularly because the EIA figures were calculated back when gasoline was $2 per gallon rather than the present $4. "It didn't make sense when gas was $1 but now at $4? A lot of things that didn't make sense, now make a lot of sense," Strizki says.
He is already overseeing construction of the second such home-energy system—estimated to cost $150,000—for a wealthy client in the Caribbean.
The backyard tinkerer is also working with several potential clients to construct off-grid homes in New Jersey, New York State and even Colorado, and has quit his most recent job as an installer of solar energy systems to concentrate full-time on the company he co-founded to promote the homes: Renewable Energy International. The key to bringing the price down will be newer, better generations of the component technology, particularly the electrolyzer. Fuel cell manufacturers such as ReliOn in Spokane, Wash., are already taking a page from the computer industry—employing removable individual fuel cells, known as "blades," similar to the computer blades in data centers, that can be changed individually if problems occur.
Ultimately, this suburban home may become the first of a coming hydrogen-electric economy—one that eliminates or sharply reduces the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change—or merely another technological dead end, like Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome or dymaxion car.
"The only way to get a zero-carbon footprint is to grab the big power plant in the sky," Strizki says. "Maybe [the solar-hydrogen house] is too expensive, maybe not as efficient as they like, but no one is saying it doesn't work."
So what makes photovoltaic cells so expensive, and is it feasible to drop the price by 90-95%
Precisely. And what will be burned to generate the electrical power needed to make the solar components and ship them cross country.
Oh, that’s right. It will take more than two hours to develop those resources, so just forget it. No, we can’t./s/
How nice for him. I guess he's no John Galt.
-—the idiot sounds like a potential Democrat congressman—gets $400 grand fro the gov’t, it still will never pay for itself-—and he’s proud of it?
The article quoted him saying he was a "self sufficiency guy"...I guess as long as one considers 80% of his support is from other tax payers as self sufficient.
I didn't know the escape velocity for hydrogen was 45 mph! How does it get through the atmosphere without bumping into any other atoms like oxygen? How is it possible that there is any hydrogen left on earth?
I like the logic. Pay $500,000 now to avoid paying around $150,000 in utility bills later.
Will this elixir also cure warts, rheumatoid arthritis, genital herpes, improve memory and make a good car polish?
The new efficiencies they are discovering and manufacturing are doing just that, compared to earlier pricing. Consider the cost PER WATT, not per panel!
PV still has a way to go, but water heating is quite viable TODAY...
< /2 cents >
Here you go, ping.
In the commercials for the Honda FCX this statement is made at the end, “...[it] emits no greenhouse gases...only water vapor.”
Think about that for a minute.
i guess fect checking is optional for ‘global warming’ stories
check this one:
“In fact, Strizki’s quarter-inch thick propane tanks weigh less when filled with hydrogen than when depleted”
um.... yeah...
you weren’t supposed to notice!
/s
Anti-gravity too? This guy is a genius!
I suppose those worn out batteries self destruct into hydrogen? I have lost all remaining respect for Scientific American for printing this drivel. The tanks get lighter as they fill with hydrogen? I can see a reporter falling for this, but the editor must have flunked eight grade science.
Talk about a match in a chinese fireworks factory.......
It only cost taxpayers $400,000 so he could be “self sufficient”... Brilliant!
Scientific American or FreeRepublic? Propaganda vs. Debate?
GRRRREAT thread! Thanks to all commentators.
This is priceless.
This guy needs to contact Al Gore and sell him his system since Gore seems incapable of conserving anything - he is just capable of selling his phony philosophy to the gullible..
I suspect that the solar cells this guy used are relatively old technology. And yes, it is feasible to drop the price drastically---Nanosolar has already developed the necessary technology.
it is either contained in a vessel or it is combined with other atoms into compounds...like dihydrogen monoxide, for example...
Yep. I have a solar water heater. The only problem I see is that the pump takes a lot of energy and produces a lot of heat, yet they did not design it to capture that heat. The pump should be inside the insulation jacket and designed to run at up to 200 degrees.
dihydrogen monoxide gas is the number one greenhouse gas. Much worse than CO2. Here in Pittsburgh, we have clouds of the stuff.
Obviously, you fail to understand the benefits of mass production. This guy built a "first prototype" system. Note that the second system he is being asked to build will only cost $140,000. And I'd wager that the third will be even less.
Now, imagine what the cost of the engine in your car would be if it was a one-off, first prototype. I'd bet it would be in the same cost region as his first system.
Yeah, the reporter (and his editor) need to work harder.
Ye gods--what a ridiculous argument. Protection against lightening strikes is well developed---starting with Ben Franklin and on to today's surge protection solid-state devices.
I think you meant "projected", which is true. As of now, they are not proven, and being manufactured. I have often thought that slick sand wasn't the only path!
I use whale oil, seal oil, and devastate forests for my energy needs!
I didn’t see two items addressed in the article (maybe I missed them). How does he store H2. Hydrogen gas will leak out through any valve that I know about. As I recall, about 15%/day finds its way out. That is why they are looking for other methods of storing hydrogen, such as hydrides.
The other point is how does he compress the hydrogen before putting it into tanks? (I presume it is compressed.)
Articles like this are “interesting” in that one can develop many novel widgets if one has the money and the time.
May the Force be with him (and continue to provide gobs of dinero!)
“I suspect that the solar cells this guy used are relatively old technology. And yes, it is feasible to drop the price drastically-—Nanosolar has already developed the necessary technology.”
I wonder how those panels will fare after a good hailstorm.
If we could put a man on the moon in less than 10 years, we could also become energy independent...just need the vision and the will.
“its quick escape eases Strizki’s fears that it might ignite or explode”
That won’t always prevent him from becoming a Hindenburger.
FINALLY! The magic solution to perpetual motion and energy!
Every home in America, sitting on a Hydrogen reactor, a highly volatile gas that does not need a flame or spark to ignite. Oh yes, the American public is highly capable of handling this dangerous kind of strict technology.
Like Kermit the Frog said, “Someday I’ll find it; The Rainbow connection. The Lovers, the dreamers and me.”
check this one:
“In fact, Strizki’s quarter-inch thick propane tanks weigh less when filled with hydrogen than when depleted”
um.... yeah...
I have a question; Did the Hindenberg weigh less before or after it went down in flames?
“If we could put a man on the moon in less than 10 years, we could also become energy independent...just need the vision and the will.”
The political will is not likely as I see it. It will hurt Wall Steet (the oil commodity traders) and the oil companies (making your own fuel) and loss of tax revenue from heating oil and gas. Now if a true conservative was to explain that to the public...not likely they’re all politicians first it seems.
Homeowners' insurance covers solar panels. You can also build parabolic solar collectors with reflective lexan and copper tubing, way cheaper than flat panels, thus not a big problem to replace.
Less
Was just reading baout this. Right now the tech for mass viability is being mass produced.
Nanosolar is using a new production method called CIGS that can produce 33-100 times more panel at 14% solar efficiency in the same timeframe and cost as traditional panels. The old standard used to be you’d figure 4$ per watt of electricity produce but the new method could possibly drop it down to 1$ because the ability to make them faster and more efficiently. To give it some perspective, my house consumes an estimated 5-15kW of power depending on what’s running. For me to panel to provide the peak I’d need (keeping in mind this is a rough sketch of demand)$60k just for panels. Which would only save me around 150$ a month.
This new method would cut my panel cost to $15k and the rest of the system would probably ding me 4-5k. So at $150 per month that means it’d pay for itself in just over a decade. All clear after that with a lifespan of about 15-20 years. That makes it actually feasible for me and a lot of other Americans if they want total energy independence.
The interesting thing about weight is it’s dependent upon gravity and displacement. We’re literally in an ocean of air. the Hindenburg when fully fueled had more mass but because it’s area was so large the air rushed under it to displace it. Now if only vacuum buoyancy was possible...
Precisely. After the OPEC oil embargo in 1973, it would have been a great time to begin such a project. So would have been right after 9/11.
I don't see any political or collective will for this, but I do think we need the leadership toward such a will.
Chevy is producing a hybrid car that runs exclusively on electricity for the first 40 miles than uses gas after that. Tesla Motors is coming out soon with their all electric...then there’s the ZAP-X.
Really if we can just hold the line now on fuel prices, we’d be in excellent shape when these cars hit the market in a year or 2.
Without more power plants, particularly nuclear ones, you still need a source of electricity. If the power plants are running on gas or oil, that's a problem. Coal or hydroelectric, not as much.
We need a planner with a vision and a desire to do the will of the people, not just the connected. I see little chance at present.
Whats a little rain among friends, especially when we put up with the water logged brains in congress.
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