Homestead mailing list

[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Wendy wrote:

> Yep!  That's him, Tom Gray.  
I haven't seen Tom's stuff but I did go to the Piggott website.  It 
seems all these folks are blinded by the light, so to speak.  Nothing 
offensive intended; it would just be nice to see a plurality of ideas 
instead of an electric monopoly.  It's frustrating to see compressed air 
pumps being sold in black boxes, indicating that they obviously work (as 
if there were any doubt; you can just blow in it and see), but no 
hobbyists talking about it anywhere.

There was a show on one of the university channels that was purported to 
be about refrigeration technology.  We tuned in to see a couple of 
episodes, and the guy never stopped talking about electric motors.  I 
guess that's because if you, the would-be technician, were called out to 
fix a fridge, it would be most likely the motor that's gone (which 
precisely proves my point).  What's the necessary connection between 
electricity and refrigeration?  A refrigerator just has a compressor 
that need to turn.  Any mechanical power source will do it.

The main reason there will never be a generator atop a windmill mast at 
my place is that there just isn't enough power there to justify planning 
an entire modern electric lifestyle around it.  I could get maybe 0.2 
KWh per day from a reasonably-priced windmill with generator.  Wow!  
That's a penny's worth!  And wind blows most dependably here during the 
season when there's no need for electric lights, at our latitude.  
Refrigeration that works directly off of solar heat is far more 
efficient than any electric "Rube Goldberg machine" ever could be.  
Modern lighting is so efficient that even a tiny solar panel would cover 
it.  So it's hard to justify falling too much in love with everything 
electric, on our homestead.

Bill
S. Oregon coast