permaculture

[jknapp@pacific.net (John Knapp)]

We are in the process of designing and building our house here in northern
California.  We have decided to stay off grid and use solar as our primary
source of electrical energy.  The backup system, which we hope to use as
little as possible, is a propane generator.  At some point we might try to
develop microhydro for the rainy winters, but that is not in the immediate
offing.

The solar panels will be placed in the upper part of our garden area and
the power house(inverters, batteries, generator, etc.) by necessity, will
be placed near by.  In the course of our planning and discussions, a
neighbor told us that the garden will not do well near the propane
generator.  The reason why is not clear - but that was her experience.  No
one else that I've talked to has had a similar experience(or perhaps don't
realize it's happening).

It would seem to me that, barring any leaking of propane, a properly vented
generator would not have a very wide impact.  While we are trying to avoid
using fossil fuels as much as possible, propane is one of the cleanest
burning fossil fuels and the exhaust contains mostly water and carbon
dioxide along with a small amount of uncombusted gasses such as ethane and
methane(there may be others).  If the venting is upward, it would seem that
the exhaust gasses would become diluted quickly and have relatively little
impact on the surrounding garden.

Anyone out there have any information or thoughts on this issue?

Thanks,


John