Wow, my new position makes it very difficult to make time for this blog. It's nice to see that people are still visiting it. :)

The SMART-Turbine - a home or commercial use electricity generating wind turbine - rated to a peak of 1750 watts has entered pre-production. This machine uses Vertical Axis Wind Turbine properties and combines modern materials and proprietary circuitry to maximize production of electricity in any environment. The machine can be wheeled into place by one person with a dolly, positioned, guy wired, (staked like a tent to the ground) and plugged in to any available outlet using a weather resistant extension cord. This is a "Plug and Play" power generating device designed for real people as well as commercial use. Commercial applications would simply daisy chain the machines since they can stand right next to each other and weigh less than 100 pounds.

The chart above has over 65 million data points recorded every three seconds for 16 days. Green represents the SMART-Turbine and Blue is the nearest cost relevant competitor. During this low wind time period, the SMART-Turbine still produced useful energy most of the time, while the competitor never reached its minimum threshold to start producing. The SMART-Turbine power output increases at a steeper rate than the competitor, meaning - not only does it start sooner but it produces more power than the competition in every wind speed. You can click the image to open it full size in a new window.

The bottom line, SMART-Turbine is designed to make electricity all the time at a meaningful level in order to have a real impact on your electric bill rather than waiting for perfect conditions to happen for a few moments every month as is currently typical.

To learn even more, feel free to visit the website by following the related link below:

I've mentioned before that I hoped some day to announce the success of my personal project here on this blog. This is not the day. However, there has been a major step forward in my progress.

The original patent application naming me as the inventor and my business partner as the co-inventor has been approved. Hopefully very soon, the world will truly have a cost effective and reliable renewable energy source easily available for their homes.

The SMART Turbine is designed to use wind for producing electricity at a cost per kWh that is lower than any other technology available today and boasts an installed return on investment of no more than 7 years in locations with an average of 12mph or higher annual winds. Making this even better is the 20 year life expectancy before needing to replace the only wear parts at a current cost less than $50, making long term annual ownership and maintenance about $0.40/yr. Yes, that is 40 cents per year after reaching the initial return on investment. Different environments can influence this cost and therefore there may be some variation.

If you want to learn more about the SMART Turbine, you can visit the site directly at www.smart-turbine.com AKA www.spinpower.org.

I just read a lengthy but well written article on earthquake preparedmess. As the focus of the article changed and stretched into related subject matter from current events in Japan, I found the following very interesting:

From the article...

Nuclear power is essentially an elaborate and unlikely way to boil water to turn turbines to create electricity. Its makers must mine, refine, and consolidate huge amounts of one of the deadliest materials on earth, uranium-235 (the less than 1 percent of naturally occurring uranium with 235 electrons; the leftover 99 percent, the less radioactive but nevertheless deadly U-238, becomes nuclear waste in the process). U-235 and the plutonium created from it are dangerous at every stage of the process. In addition, constructing a power plant requires a huge amount of carbon-spewing conventional energy, so there’s never been a lot of logic to building them to bridge our move to renewable energy.

The delusional premise behind nuclear energy is that we can create this material and then contain it for the duration of its dangerous phase. For plutonium, that’s 24,000 years, or about 15 times as long as something called civilization has existed. For uranium-235, that’s 700 million years, a time so vast it’s basically forever.

Fifty years into the nuclear age, we’ve had four major reactor accidents, along with a host of minor ones and leaks and ventings, and we still don’t know what to do with the nuclear waste that plants like the ones at Fukushima produce even when no accidents occur. This is the “spent fuel” that the U-235 quickly becomes. It’s still intensely radioactive and toxic; it’s only “spent” in the sense that it’s no longer useful for boiling water in reactors. It’s still useful for bombs, dirty or otherwise.

There are better ways to boil water.

Follow the related link below to read the entire article.

There are times when quality information is the best tool we have for fighting climate change. Today I received a referral to a website titled "The Homeowners Guide". Bethany, a middle school student discovered the site while doing some research.

The site is filled with information on saving energy, keeping your home safe, how to paint, home maintenance, etc... Keep in mind that proper maintenance means keeping your home efficiency as close to its optimum as possible. A more efficient home will have less environmental impact and in the long run usually saves money on utility bills.

The address for the website is:
http://www.homeloans.org

Thanks Bethany for pointing out a great resource!

- Brad

Here is the short version:

Tap with a filter that is changed regularly is the healthiest and almost as cheap as straight tap water. Straight tap water is next healthiest in most cases and definitely the cheapest. Last, costing 1,900 times as much for the same quantity and containing some of the same toxic chemicals with potential for a few more when not handled properly, is bottled water. Yes, bottled water is very hard on the environment and potentially contains the same toxins as tap water as well as a few that leach from the bottle itself.

Avoid bottled water. Invest in a re-usable container instead.

Follow the related link below to find out more.