brsingr Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 not just cars, for everything. what do you think? because I'm going to be investing in some generators, enough to power an apartment with nearly twice the normal electricity pull as an average apartment. I'll probably have around 5. However, gas generators are obviously a bad choice, so i'm waiting for a good thing to buy. Yes, I know they're expensive as hell. what do you think? (solar and nuclear are not options, obviously) fuel cell, synthetic fuels, what? EDIT: TO POWER COMPUTERS AND APPLIANCES AND STUFF! NOT MAKING DRUGS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a-guitarist Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Solar is out? Is there some kind of Religious reason as to why it's not feasible in your situation? Solar and Wind. Best bets. <$1 per Kw by the wind. 1kw (easily expandable to 1.7) for less than 7 grand. Making Solar Panels in the Oven? Not quite, but good to read and laugh that someone didn't figure this out sooner. I eagerly await the specifics. How many SynFuel shops do you see on the street? (BioFuels are a clusterf**k currently, so don't go praising them as the be-all-end-all until you've done the research. They're making more problems than they're fixing.) As for Fuel cells? They're great in Sci-Fi novels... but they're not even in mass production right now (at least that I remember hearing about) because they can't be made affordable. a-g Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brsingr Posted October 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 i know about the biofuel thing, using more energy than it makes. I can't use solar very efficiently, i'll be in an apartment in tokyo, not too much outside space for panels. idk about wind, but I obviously won't have any land for windmills, so... yeah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inscribed Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 wind is your best bet. you don't need land to have one. jay leno powers his entire garage from a wind generator mounted on the roof. any talk about buying biofuel or what not at this point is pretty ridiculous. edit: well it might not power his entire garage, but here is a link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/4216780.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celerity Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Tokyo already has electricity... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudder Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Tokyo already has electricity... In the Desert!? Not uh Celerity. The US troops have dropped so many bombs on that country in the recent war I doubt they can power the country. Generators are the way to go. ...Yes. I am kidding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brsingr Posted October 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Look... My electricity bill is high as hell. I have 3 computers that suck power like you wouldn't believe, and I have a linux cluster which draws ridiculous amounts of electricity, I've got various appliances and equipment neccessary for my lines of work (i have several), including several more outdated computers and lab equipment etc. I will use the power that's already there, but I really need supplemental assistance. EDIT: yes I'm a minor, but i have to pay my share of the electricity bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mya Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Best bet is always Wind and Solar. "biofuel thing, using more energy than it makes" - Every thing consumes more energize than produces. It's a thermodynamic law. The point behind using biofuels is making your own fuel. Either from recycled stuff (french fries oil, fish dust), or by biomass conversion (growing sunflowers for oil) like brasil does for ages with "sugar cane to alcohol". In a place like Tokyo you could probably make BioFuel from oil recovered from Dinners, if they already do not recicle it. This is great for car gas. In such a place like Tokyo you have little chance to implant a energetic home plant. Fuel cells are nice, but they require hydrogen, that you need to produce or buy. Bad for a global economy, due to energy spending to break water into H2. But if you find cheep H2 and a Fuel cell with power... this could be interesting. And probably takes low space. I personaly would go with converting motion to electricity, with a donkey, if i wanted to create energy, or biogas extraction from feces. Hardly a city thing. Now realy, your best bet is to reduce your energy consumptions. Or tap into the public ilumination network and get free electricity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mya Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Which reminds, me. My car consumes 13.6 Liters of gas per 100 Km. I should be researching into biogasoline conversion... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindflayer Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Which reminds me, the combustion engine achieves one of the most wasteful chemical processes, 80% of it's energy is lost as heat. Let's work on re-thinking that, shall we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mya Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Doing some research... it appears to me that perhaps "biodisel" from vegetal oil from dinners working on a disel electric generator might work for you. Depending on the availability of waste vegetal oil. The idea is to get it for free. With a used disel fueled electrical generator (if such a thing exists) and a friendly mechanic you can probably make it work pretty cheep. http://www.ehow.com/how_2004136_vegetable-oil-fuel.html And you can probaly buy a cheep diesel generator. http://cgi.ebay.com/DIESEL-GENERATOR-36-KW_W0QQitemZ250304475166QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item250304475166&_trkparms=72%3A1208%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 But i think i would prefer to get a wrecked one from a Junkyard. And test on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emp_newb Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Everyone look up HHO generators. Running electric currents through fabricated cells while in water, generating liquid hydrogen. ALOT of people already run them in cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celerity Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Is your electricity bill -really- going to be more than the huge cost of generating your own power? Probably the space the generator takes in your apartment will be worth more than the electricity fee it saves... What are you going to do with all this equipment when you leave Tokyo or when your landlord kicks you out? Carry it with you? If you are really serious about the electricity thing, I'd just talk to Tokyo city's public electric department...they have all the information you will need. edit: and they are likely qualified, unlike the rest of us... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killalou Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Im with celerity on this one. I work on a bunch of next-gen R&D alternative energy solutions and most at this point are inefficient for a apartment. Unless you have a house alternative energy is not worth the investment at its current stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyzarius Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Last year spetember university of colorado developed a method of producing solar panels that reduces the cost drasticlly. When it finally hits production (near 2009-2010) you will be able to buy panels with an output of about $2 a watt. This will eliminate the cost issues. For roughly $2000 - $3000 you could go completly off the grid in an average household. So if you pay a $150 power bill (my average) you could see return on investment as early as 20 months in. Neccesity breeds invention, just be patient, it is our nature to adapt and create that which allows us to do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brsingr Posted October 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 lol My share of the electricity bill rarely dips below $600. Also, I'd rather not have people searching my home because of my power consumption. though i won't be making drugs, i almost always have something i'd rather law enforcement officials didn't see in my house. If i can find a house somewhere in japan, i'd go for it too, but apartment is the most probable thing. I may have both and switch between. EDIT: and what i meant by 'using more energy than it makes' was that It takes petroleum products to grow the crops, petroleum products to harvest it, petroleum products to process it into ethanol, and it takes petroleum products to transport it. Which basically makes the whole effort redundant. not to mention it caused a worldwide food shortage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a-guitarist Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 lol My share of the electricity bill scarcely dips below $600. Also' date=' I'd rather not have people searching my home because of my power consumption. though i won't be making drugs, i almost always have something i'd rather law enforcement officials didn't see in my house. If i can find a house somewhere in japan, i'd go for it too, but apartment is the most probable thing. I may have both and switch between.[/quote'] Then quit using so damned much. It's that easy. You don't need all those computers, you don't need all that energy use. If your computers are juicing that much from the grid, get some freaking energy star ****, or at least turn them off. I run two desktops and a laptop, also, my father has a desktop and a laptop. My main desktop runs, usually, 24/7 and has two monitors going (LCD and a CRT), neither or which are small. Drop on top of that the two TVs we have (both smaller), the fans we use most of the year, all the Amps for mine and my father's music, the Toaster, Microwave, Blender, Fridges (I have a mini in my room), two Air Conditioners we have (both decent sized), our machines for the silver business, and whatever crap we will use on top of those, and we barely beat up 150-200 dollars a month. Either you don't know your math, or you're doing something grossly wrong. Also, if you think for ONE second you'll have enough space for all that electrical garbage (because, that's what it is if you've got a ~$600 dollar elect biill) in Tokyo, think again. Have you seen the size of the average apartment in a city? How about a major city? How about a major city that is also a port city? Then, think about the average size of an apartment in an Asian city. Why much smaller? Because they have more people in a small place. Further, if you are planning on having a house and an apartment... keep dreaming kid. I'm sitting here at 26 with a skill that not many people have (I'm a silversmith) and I can't even live on my own due to recent economic shifts. Also, we can't even afford to have a Shop that is not within our house. Further, with your computer modding skills, you'll make no more than I make and even LESS in Japan, because they may have all those neat PlayStations and 340's or whatever, but they've got so much more than that. Their systems are different (I'm pretty sure) both hardware and software wise. Add in the fact that no one is going to trust someone with their 500 dollar electronics if they can't even understand them. So, take on top of the fact that you have no "proven" skills, such as, no degree, and you have no reputation in any market (you're a minor, and not a savant) you're gonna need to suck it up and realize if you want to make this work you're gonna have to rough it for a good long time. Take manual labor... probably on a fishing boat or something equally crappy. You may have several lines of work, but so does anyone. Anyone can work eight jobs... and it's getting to where most people need more than one job. My father worked 3 jobs while WC, my Sister and I were growing up. Only way to keep us afloat. Ontop of that, my Mother worked a job. I'm not trying to rain on your parade, man. I'm just trying to tell you, the world is a nasty, nasty place and no one cares about you past your parents and siblings. It's that simple. No one, even less than that, will help you out in Japan if you don't speak the language, have no skills, will build explosive machines in your bathroom, have no concept of their history. Do you think the US is the only place in the world where people go, "God damn those Mexicans, coming up and not even speaking our language?! And now they're working at this store?! What the hell... it should be a law that to live here you should speak our language!"? We aren't the only ones like that. Ask the English about the Polish or the Germans about the Turks. Get the skills you need to survive before moving out there. Get a skill that will bring in money. Get a firm grasp of the language. Get a firm grasp of paying real bills. Get a firm grasp at working a regular job. Then go to a city on your own. Then, after you've survived there for awhile... head to Japanland. a-g Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inscribed Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 i love seeing a person's dreams get crushed. good job, a-g. i also lol'ed at him having a house and an apartment. in tokyo. p.s. you should give up silver and work with gold instead. move to the inner city. profit. only people who think silver is bling bling are old ladies, and old ladies are always stingy with money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brsingr Posted October 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Look. I just don't want gov't officials kicking down my door. If i get a house, it'll be in suburbs (or japan's equivalent thereof) and the apartment would have rent split in inner city. Anyways, money's not a concern. i got it. I am aware of space constraints, again, i got it. i'm learning japanese. And I don't work a lot of jobs per se. I said i have a lot of professions, not a lot of jobs. I rarely work in the white area of the law. Usually grey, occasionally black. Not drugs anymore, but various things. I can get the money, and i know city life. I lived in DC, then new york, then fort hood, then atl, and all actually inner city. For the record, i am self sufficient at the moment. I pay rent and buy my own food. (my parents are pretty much landlords) Also, a good portion of the bill comes from the 2 refrigerators and freezer that I have in the garage to hold food for when i cater parties and to hold my concoctions, The rationale self cooking center (look it up, it's amazing), and from the air conditioning unit in my room. The over all bill is 800, but i have to pay the majority because i use the most electricity. The consoles are not different, they're the same, with slightly different makeup and with different region codes. The same exploits and such work on them, because they're the same consoles. But that's immaterial, i am not really planning on opening the shop anymore. but it's pretty much a closed market in terms of consoles. Nintendo, M$ and sony have got it. Which reminds me - Did you guys hear that the ps3 was cracked to run custom eeproms? Nobody's managed to load one on there yet, but the EEE protection got cracked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a-guitarist Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 i love seeing a person's dreams get crushed. good job, a-g. i also lol'ed at him having a house and an apartment. in tokyo. p.s. you should give up silver and work with gold instead. move to the inner city. profit. only people who think silver is bling bling are old ladies, and old ladies are always stingy with money. Gold would be amazing... if I could afford it. At, currently, $909.72 an ounce, I'd break my *** just buying it (for reference, we were paying ~11.65 an ounce for sterling on our last order). Plus, we don't do that magic bling designs. I just don't have the ability to do that, and neither does my father (physical restrictions, not skill-wise - in other news, keep your hands out of table saws, kids), so, any high detail items are out. And silver, you're right. Our business is either 60+ year old ladies, or <25 girls. So, hopefully we can swing them into our market and works before they're tainted by gold We used to work with gold very often, but then the damn price exploded and we're sitting here going, "None of our customers would be willing to pay what we'd have to charge for a piece of gold jewelery... crud." But as for them being stingy... not from what I've seen. They must realize they're on the outskirts of time and want to go out with a flash of pretty- and I'm happy to help them feel pretty for a respectable fee. It's odd how many people think we're trying to screw them when they ask for a quote on one of our designs in gold. They never realized that it is a rare, precious metal and it will fluctuate in price. In eight years the price of gold has tripled. In related news, not that it matters, it feels great when someone buys something you've designed and created. A man came in for his 5th Anniversary and asked to see what we had. He wanted something that, "Matched [his] wife. Something beautiful, classy, respectable, subtle, and at times able to stop a room in awe." after about 30 seconds of looking he picked up my new design and said, "I'll take it!" I felt pretty damned good. Also, he didn't bat an eye at the price so I was even happier. (well under 50 bucks) So, any FLers looking to make your ladies even happier on that special day ('cause, comeon, we're on the internet playing a text based game talking in this thread... why not assume that we've gotta be sex gods, too?) send me a PM and I'll hit you with a quasi online catalog. IMMs get a discount (I'll even trade for quest classes, just check with Zroth for the going rate and I'll match it in silver) a-g ps: Just checked. Platinum was at 1k an ounce recently, which is a shy shout from gold. That's just not right. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EyeSeeU Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 What is right anymore? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emp_newb Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Senator John McCain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killalou Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 Senator John McCain. pffff, hardly. Man cant even get his facts straight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emp_newb Posted October 10, 2008 Report Share Posted October 10, 2008 I told someone on aim what I thought of McCain. Its like Bush and Catholosism had a dumb bald baby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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