November 17th, 2009
admin
If you live in an area prone to earthquakes, hurricanes or tornadoes, it’s a good idea to buy a backup power generator. Sometimes it doesn’t even take a disaster to knock out your power. In Los Angeles a 2006 heat wave caused power failures across the region. One hundred and forty deaths were blamed on the heat.
To choose a backup power generator, take these steps.
First assess how much energy you use. This will range from your simple compact fluorescent reading lamps to your refrigerator and other appliances. It’s possible to run a single room air conditioner from a portable generator, but central air is problematic. It uses too much power. If you live in a hot dry climate, you might want to consider keeping your fans going or switching to evaporative coolers which drain a lot less power. In an emergency, a 2,000-square-foot home should get buy with a 5,000 to 7,000 watt generator.
Decide how you’ll power your home. The simplest way is to use extension cords and plug your appliances directly into the generator. Make sure that the cords are grounded with three prongs with enough heavy duty capacity. Don’t overload the circuits.Another option is to plug the generator directly into your home electrical system. If you do so it is vital that you have a qualified electrician install a manual transfer switch that will power your electrical devices with either the generator or from your utility. If you were to plug in without the protection of this switch you could electrocute the utility linemen who come to your neighborhood to fix the power outage.
Determine how much you want to spend. Power generators vary enormously in cost and features. You can get a 2,500 watt generator for as little as $500. At the high end for 10 to 20 times that you can get a full standby generator that will turn on automatically at the first sign of a power outage, running on natural gas that will handle all the electrical demands of your home.
Make sure you have enough fuel. Generators are available that run on natural gas, propane and diesel, although the most popular models are fueled by gasoline. If there’s a local major power outage, it’s quite feasible that you won’t be able to pump gasoline for either your car or a generator. If you are going to use a backup power generator, you should have enough gas to last at least for your expected outage. As an example, Homelite makes a 2,500 watt model that holds five gallons of gas that will last five and a half hours. The last major local earthquake knocked out my power for close to 24 hours. Be sure to plan accordingly.
November 16th, 2009
admin
Current Applications
Many hydrogen generators that use water electrolysis technology are sold to the public as part of fuel efficiency systems to be installed in private vehicles. An ultra-high purity hydrogen generator that works on the water electrolysis system is used in medical and research fields to produce high purity hydrogen for gas chromatography and other uses. Extraction and reformation generators tend to be used in fueling stations for hydrogen cars (they extract the hydrogen from natural gas stored at the stations) and in hydrogen fuel cells that are installed in hybrid vehicles that combine the cell with a conventional combustion engine.
Potential Applications
Many countries are aggressively pursuing the development of hydrogen generator technology as they recognize that hydrogen generators could radically reduce the amount of toxic emissions released into the atmosphere if systems were placed in all vehicles, whether as hydrogen fuel cells in a hybrid car or as additional supports to fuel efficiency in a standard car, and hydrogen generators were added to their country’s power grids. The use of hydrogen generators in vehicles could drastically reduce dependence on fossil fuels. That a hydrogen generator can be easily built out of everyday items and produce enough electricity and H2 gas to power houses, vehicles and other applications could change the nature of the global economy by making electricity and power affordable and available to everyone, on or off established power grids. Both the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Government and the National Research Council of Canada maintain websites to promote and document their efforts into seeing their technology brought into its full use within the next 20 years. Both countries support research to release the potential ability of a hydrogen generator to “recycle” chemicals and use plain water as a source for energy and make it a source for endless, renewable electricity.
November 16th, 2009
admin
Hydrogen generators may either be generators that are powered by hydrogen or ones that make hydrogen. A generator that is powered by hydrogen will use the gas or a hydrogen fuel cell to generate electricity for use by the generator. A generator that produces hydrogen will do so through either by using electrolysis processing or water, or the extraction and reformation of pure hydrogen from a hydrogen rich chemical such as sodium borohydride, ammonia, methanol or gasoline. The water electrolysis method produces little waste to be disposed o,f while the extraction and reformation process creates numerous byproducts that must be disposed of or recycled through some other process.
Whether the hydrogen generator is using water or extracting and reforming hydrogen from other chemicals, the basic principal of the generator remains the same. The source liquid or chemical is placed in a container with two metal plates. The plates are then “charged” (either through the introduction of electricity or through a chemical reaction) causing the elements of the source to separate into H2 and a byproduct that is not used by the generator. The H2 is then removed from the container.