Energy

Energy can be saved through sharing appliances (for instance by using a beamer to watch film and television). Energy plays an important part in automation.

Energy generation

Centralized

Solar updraft tower

+ Low maintenance cost.

+Uses greenhouses that can be used for agriculture.

-Takes in a relatively large amount of space.

-Solar has a variable output.

Solar power tower

+Desalinizes water.

+Contains a furnace (that can be used for melting iron for instance).

-Solar has a variable output.

Energy use

• Beamer

100-300 Watts. Can provide for +- 100 people. Per person: 2 Watt.

• Small led television

57 Watt. Per person: 14-57 Watt.

• Xbox

185 Watts

• Wii

18 Watts

• Desktop (with peripherals):

60-250 Watts

• Laptop:

40 Watts

• Netbook:

16 Watts

• Tablet (Ipad2)

1-3 Watts

• Iphone

Less than tablet

• Amplifier

40 Watts and up

• DVD player

10 Watts and up

• Nanolight (100W equivalent, 30,000 hours)

12 Watts

• Led lamp (50-60W equivalent, 50,000 hours)

6 Watts

• Washing machine

0,81kwh/wash average 9 year average 500 EUR (If 10 people share one machine: 36 years = 200 EUR per person)

• Dishwasher

175 Kwh

• Refrigerator

16 Watt

Monetary cost

Solar updraft tower

A 1 MW tower costs +- 10 million USD.

Collector diameter +- 750 meter = 400,000 m2 = 100 acre

Land price US +- 1,000 - 10,000 USD per acre

Argentina < 8,000 USD per acre

100,000 - 1,000,000 for land

Cost of maintenance 40 years: +- 1,000,000

Estimates of total costs range from 7 (for a 200 MW plant) and 21 (for a 5 MW plant) euro cents per kWh to 25-35 cents per kWh.

Estimate using own numbers (no heating, no lab, no machinery):

kw per day per person 0,6 x 365 x 40 x 0,25 = 2190 EUR out of total budget 7,000 EUR (0,6 x 3650).

General numbers:

Western European household = 9,5 = per person: 2,5 Off grid households = 0,2 - 6 = per person: 0,2 - 1,5

2,5 x ... = 9100 EUR

Average electricity use:

It's hard to predict how much energy consumption we could save, but it's clear this is an important topic. If we use anywhere near as much as normal household, the project is not feasible.

Beamers require extra (darkened) space, but they make up for it over forty years because their replacement cost is a factor 100 lower (3 small television per person = 1500 EUR, Beamer = 15 EUR, space for beamer = approx 1000 EUR but possibly much cheaper because of earthship use).

Ipads use incredibly little energy, but they are expensive to purchase. Also they are not going to last 40 years, replacing them at least four times = 4 x 400 EUR. Compared to laptops they save about 40 EUR in energy over that period so that's negligible. We should discern between access to regular internet and computers that can do other tasks. Money should be set aside to provide technical people with up to date computers. Most people already own either an ipad or a laptop, so a rule could be made that people use only those, and bring their own. Then it should be calculated what it costs to provide internet over 40 years. Computers should be as sturdy as possible, with good and sturdy software (Linux). Possibly lower capacity desktops could be under 40 Watts as well. Asus EEE netbook pc's will fail extremely quickly. Apple computers are known to be durable.

Ideally internet would be provided by having computers that only do internet, and that use a central computer. They would consist of a screen, mouse/trackpad, keyboard, wifi antenna.

Recommendations

• It seems to be important to get accurate cost predictions when talking to a contractor.
• Replace computers by ipads and televisions by beamers.