(2011-06-02) Indirect Electrical Vs Distributed Direct Power

We treat Electric Energy as the Medium Of Exchange for power transmission/conversion (Currency hah!). But, as John Michael Greer points out, there are significant inefficiencies in

• turning Energy sources into electricity
• storing Electric Energy (Battery)
• transmitting it (World Energy Grid)
• and then converting electricity back into the actual work you want done.

This is relevant in making your own energy Off The Grid.

Example: Bicycle generator: How serious are the losses? Enough that you’ll be pedaling two to three times as long to do the same task with electricity as you would if the bicycle’s mechanical power did it directly.

Example: Solar Energy: Sunlight can be turned into electricity on a small scale in several different ways; none of them are very efficient, and they’re all intermitted and difficult to scale up, but several are quite good enough to drive the sort of small-scale 12 volt system discussed here if you’ve got a good southern exposure. What sunlight does with great efficiency, on the other hand, is convert itself to diffuse heat – the sort of heat that will warm a room (Passive Solar), heat a bath, or bake a loaf of bread in a solar oven (Solar Cooking). When planning for solar energy, in other words, it’s best to do as much as possible with the diffuse heat sunlight provides so readily, and convert sunlight to electricity only for the handful of uses where electricity is the only thing, or the best thing, for the job.