Self-Sufficiency in a GreenFire™ Home
In many parts of the country, electric blackouts, brownouts, and power surges can be almost daily occurrences. GreenFire™ offers complete freedom from all such disasters with 100% solar power free for life. GreenFire™ is the first mainstream American home to make full time, off grid, 100% electric power generation a standard feature. In fact, a GreenFire™ home cannot be purchased without this system. We at GreenFire™ feel strongly that the future of America is tied directly to our freedom from foreign oil and that home source electric generation is the right thing to do.
GreenFire’s Hybrid Solar Electric Generation System Defined.
There are 4 major components to our System: the PV or Photovoltaic Arrays on the SolarPowerCanopy™, the Batteries, Inverter, and Backup Generator.
Photovoltaic Arrays. The blue panels shown in the picture above are the PV or Photovoltaic solar electric generation array on the SolarPowerCanopy™. This is the largest PV array on any production home in the U.S. But the physical size of the array is not the most important aspect of providing 100% of the electric power to or GreenFire Homes. The most important aspect in creating a 100% energy free home is the reduction of the power requirements of a GreenFire Home through ultra-energy conservation in air conditioning, heating, hot water, and lighting (see ‘Ultra-Energy Efficiency’). With this kind of energy efficiency, more of the electricity can be stored in batteries or used to charge an electric hybrid car. Photovoltaics are our choice for home electric generation over all other kinds of power generation.
Batteries. Back in the 1970’s, when our Founder began experimenting with PV’s, arrays of car batteries were used for storage. These used batteries would allow the home owners to run low powered lights, radios, and TV’s for a couple of days. They could not power electric AC or electric furnaces without rapidly depleting the batteries. Today, batteries have advanced enormously and continue to advance as a result of the demand by portable computers, cell phones, and a host of other electronics. Our battery arrays in our GreenFire Homes can power the home for as long as a week (24/7) mainly because we do not need a lot of power to begin with.
Inverter. The inverter is a electronic device that converts DC - Direct Current produced by PV’s, batteries and electric generators - to AC or Alternating Current used by household appliances. Years ago, inverters were a real problem. They sometimes produced out of phase current that could destroy TV’s and electronics. Today, they are both reliable and powerful - able to produce stable current as well as to power 220 V appliances - and the price has dropped enormously.
Backup Generator.
While the Photovoltaic arrays on the SolarPowerCanopy™ are large enough to power 100% of the home and have enough electricity to power a electric hybrid car, occasionally long periods of cloudy days or extra high energy usage can deplete the batteries. On those occasions, we need an alternate source of power to charge the batteries. Biodiesel powered rooftop generators to supply that power.
We store our biodiesel in a 500 gallon tank under the garage floor. Regular diesel is highly corrosive and extremely destructive to the environment. As a result, it is illegal in most places to store it at home. Biodiesel is vegetable oil. It is easily stored, non-corrosive, and, if spilled, is no more polluting than spilled sugar.
A 500 gallon tank is enough to power a GreenFire Home indefinitely. Why 500 gallons? There are 2 purposes for this large tank. First, it is designed to serve as a fuel source for both the rooftop backup generator and an electric hybrid car. Second, alternate sources of fuel such as ethanol or biodiesel may not be readily available locally. The large storage tank can be filled once every 6 months or every 2 -3 years as needed and is always available. Third, 500 gallons is a large enough order to be profitable for a regional distributer to truck to the home. Fourth, large orders like this will get great discounts and even government rebates, saving the home owner further on fuel.
Alternate Sources of Electric Generation and their Flaws.
Windmills, water turbine power, and geothermal are non-polluting sources of energy, but they all have a fatal flaw - transmission lines. The transmission lines are owned and controlled by the power companies! However non-polluting they are, they will never be free and we can be sure that the power companies will continue to raise their electricity rates along with the rates from coal and natural gas fired plants. Rooftop solar requires no transmission lines - hence can never come under the control of the power companies. Rooftop solar is free for life - and further - is not subject to brown outs or regional power failures that plague transmission lines - especially in the event of hurricanes of other natural disasters.
Hydrogen Fuel Cells
Fuel Cells have received a great deal of publicity lately. We at GreenFire™ believe that hydrogen fuel cells or powered hydrogen engines have great potential, but we have concluded that they both have a fatal flaw. The flaw is not in the technology, but in the creation, delivery, and storage of the hydrogen gas. Currently hydrogen is created – not from water (H2O) - but from fossil fuels such as crude oil or natural gas. As a result, a hydrogen fuel cell, while clean burning in itself, ultimately causes the same kind of pollution as other fossil fuel based sources of electricity. Also, hydrogen is very difficult to transport, as it requires either extremely high pressures or extremely low temperatures. A storage tank at a home site (such as a GreenFire Home) must then be capable of containing hydrogen at very high pressures without leaking. An addition serous problem is the very real fire and/or explosive danger to both the transportation and storage of hydrogen.
Home Windmills
Our Founder, Larry West, experimented with windmills as early as 1979 in one of the windiest parts of the Country - Wyoming. Over a 2 year period, the windmills had less than ideal performance. They do generate power - when the wind blows - but the wind, even in the windiest areas, is sporadic, subject to micro-climates, and highly subject to ground clutter. This means that windmills have to be carefully positioned geographically and they must have very high towers. They also have numerous moving parts (blades, transmission, generator, copper wiring, and breaker panels) that must be serviced regularly - and lowering a 100’ tower for service once every 6 months is (as our Founder found) a real pain.
