ScientificAmerican: Inside the Solar-Hydrogen House: No More Power Bills--Ever [With Update]

[solarhydrocan]

Inside the Solar-Hydrogen House: No More Power Bills--Ever
A New Jersey resident generates and stores all the power he needs with solar panels and hydrogen
Jun 19, 2008 By David Biello ScientificAmerican.com
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hydrogen-house/

EAST AMWELL, N.J.—Mike Strizki has not paid an electric, oil or gas bill—nor has he spent a nickel to fill up his Mercury Sable—in nearly two years. Instead, the 51-year-old civil engineer makes all the fuel he needs using a system he built in the capacious garage of his home, which employs photovoltaic (PV) panels to turn sunlight into electricity that is harnessed in turn to extract hydrogen from tap water.

Although the device cost $500,000 to construct, and it is unlikely it will ever pay off financially (even with today's skyrocketing oil and gas prices), the civil engineer says it is priceless in terms of what it does buy: freedom from ever paying another heating or electric bill, not to mention keeping a lid on pollution, because water is its only by-product.

Slide Show: Photos show what makes this house work

"The ability to make your own fuel is priceless," says the man known as "Mr. Gadget" to his friends. He boasts a collection of hydrogen-powered and electric vehicles, including a hydrogen-run lawn mower and car (the Sable, which he redesigned and named the "Genesis&quot as well as an electric racing boat, and even an electric motorcycle. "All the technology is off-the-shelf. All I'm doing is putting them together."...

...The Strizki's personalized home-energy system consists of 56 solar panels on his garage roof, and housed inside is a small electrolyzer (a device, about the size of a washing machine, that uses electricity to break down water into its component hydrogen and oxygen). There are 100 batteries for nighttime power needs along the garage's inside wall; just outside are ten propane tanks (leftovers from the 1970s that are capable of storing 19,000 cubic feet, or 538 cubic meters, of hydrogen) as well as a Plug Power fuel cell stack (an electrochemical device that mixes hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and water) and a hydrogen refueling kit for the car...

MORE: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hydrogen-house/


Storing Hydrogen in propane tanks

UPDATE (2013):
Watch this and know more about Hydrogen than almost everyone else alive today

Hydrogen House Strizki & Kids 4 Hydrogen
Published on Apr 18, 2013

Hydrogen House project

http://hydrogenhouseproject.org/index.html

Mike Strizki hydrogen powered electric hybrid car with hydrogen oxygen fuelcell
Uploaded on Oct 14, 2010

"I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that." -Thomas Edison

[onethatcares]

1. imagine where we'd be

if solar and wind were as deeply subsidized as gas and oil.

I really like your Thomas Edison quote

[solarhydrocan]

2. You're absolutely right. Unfortunately...

an indication of what is important is on the front page now

2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Revealed.
595 Posts 11,725 views @7am 2/15/14

This post probably won't get even 25 comments let alone 10% of that 595

It's why nothing ever really changes.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Bread and circuses ...

... have been used to divert the attention of the masses since before even the Romans, who mastered it.

[fasttense]

3. The device cost $500,000 to construct

And that was just one of the devices he engineered and used.

I try to use all solar for my electric fences but the panels and equipment are not cheap.

[eridani]

4. The first of anything is always pretty expensive

Glad someone was able to afford to do it.

[cantbeserious]

6. Kick And Recommend

eom

[DeSwiss]

7. Thank you!

- K&R

[Martin Eden]

8. I have long thought hydrogen fuel cells are the key to our energy future

Our nation's electrical grid is a high voltage high-wire act that is super expensive and prone to failure and market manipulation. There was the failure of the Great Lakes region electrical grid several years ago, and don't forget how California was swindled.

We should switch all energy subsidies from fossil fuels to solar, wind, and hydrogen production. Re-write municipal codes to encourage homeowners & businesses to install solar and feed the grid. Any shortfalls from wind & solar (and the vicissitudes of sun & wind) would be augmented by power plants (using natural gas or whatever makes the most sense) that would be designed and operated to always run at peak efficiency. The excess power would produce hydrogen fuel cells for automobiles and other uses.

[solarhydrocan]

15. Toyota agrees. Next year they are introducing a Hydrogen Car

Introducing the Toyota Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV). The same hybrid technology at the heart of the Prius but with hydrogen and fuel cell stack. Oh, and it only emits WATER VAPOR.

With a driving experience that’s on par with a gasoline engine. It’s not just the next movement in automotive technology; it’s the next big movement towards a better future.

http://www.toyota.com/fuelcell/



Honda has them now

http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

[neverforget]

9. That is pretty damn cool.

I'd love to be energy independent someday.

[hunter]

10. If this is the answer, then there is something seriously wrong with the question.

The question shouldn't be "How do we replace fossil (or nuclear) fuels with solar?"

The question should be "How do we improve the standard of living for all people (not just the wealthy) and reduce the impact of humans on earth's environment?)

The answer to that question does not involve a very expensive mish-mash of Rube Goldberg technologies.

The most effective answer is to limit human populations. Generally, people will have fewer children if they have easy access to birth control, medical care is good, people are educated (especially women!), standards of living are comfortable, and elderly people are financially independent of their own children or grandchildren.

The next most effective answer is to build an attractive, much less energy intensive society than we have now.

One of the first things that struck me in this article was the $3000 average annual gasoline cost quoted. I drive a recycled "salvage title" car and maybe use about $400 gasoline annually, and the numbers are similar for my wife. (These are current, high, California gasoline prices.) My wife and I used to be Los Angeles commuters, back in the mid 'eighties, but by planning and some good fortune we've managed to avoid that lifestyle since. Ideally, I'd like to live in a fully walkable community where we didn't need cars.

I confess I am a very simple person who could live in a tiny house in a garden with a solar powered laptop and reading light. After I went off to college, and before I met my wife, it was a common living situation for me. I know I can live without a refrigerator, or even a washing machine. (I know I can live in my car too, but that's another story...) One of my great grandma's lived in more primitive conditions than that, with no running water, well into her eighties.

But that's not the sort of life I'm talking about. I imagine dense semi-urban cosmopolitan walkable communities with private home ownership, gardens, good public transportation; places with good plentiful jobs; places where owning a car is something few people desire.

I'm not the sort of architectural fascist who would force people into such communities, not at all so much as I feel forced to live as I do now in a suburban house within a smaller city, with a car in the driveway. But I am the sort who is pushing for low energy, low resource-intensive lifestyles that are more attractive than those generally offered by today's U.S.A. society.

[MH1]

13. I like your post a lot; it contains a lot of common sense.

Unfortunately there's large political and societal pressure in this country to do the exact OPPOSITE of common sense. Like limiting access to birth control and abortion so people end up birthing more children than they want to. Just maximizing access to reproductive choice would be a great start on your vision. But there are powerful people who seem to feel they need to control women in order to retain their power, so reproductive freedom is definitely out, as far as they're concerned.

There's also a lot of ways that well-designed technology could actually allow us to live simpler lives, but then who would feed the capitalist beast?

[solarhydrocan]

14. If you watch the first video (or even the first 20 min or so)

he makes it clear how what he is doing is a game changer.

Energy for everyone, at a cost that will be affordable. His setup is of course expensive- very few of the parts he is using are mass produced. The cost of the panels have dropped tremendously. What did a calculator cost in 1970? A 486 computer in the late 80's?

"How do we improve the standard of living for all people (not just the wealthy) and reduce the impact of humans on earth's environment?)

[hunter]

16. I'm skeptical of any "hydrogen economy" and...

... I look forward to the end of the automobile age.

The most awesome forms of transportation ever devised by humans are comfortable shoes, bicycles, and sailing ships.

Hydrogen powered spacecraft are pretty cool too, but most of the heavy lifting is still done by much dirtier fuels.

[solarhydrocan]

17. Everyone should be skeptical

but please watch the first 15 or 20 minutes of the first video.

Solar Hydrogen is a Game Changer.

And the auto isn't going anywhere except more green.

These hydrogen cars are going to put Elon Musk's 1/2 ton battery packs (that need replacement if totally discharged) into the dustbin of history.

[El_Johns]

11. Is the first picture the house? If so, the hydrogen tanks seem to occupy as much space as the house

itself.

[Bluenorthwest]

12. That's a garage.

nt

[greytdemocrat]

18. Cool.

But only an expensive hobby. For now anyways...

[solarhydrocan]

19. weekday kick for important info

[1000words]

20. Yah ... this dude rocks.

Rec

[Yo_Mama]

21. And it cost half a million bucks?

Plus the cost of replacing those batteries every 5-7 years? It's a great idea, but hardly practical.

[solarhydrocan]

22. And what did calculators cost in 1972?

Or a 486 computer in 1988?

If you watched even 15 minutes of the first video you would have seen him explain that solar panel cost has dropped significantly even in the time since the article was written.

Oh, and his batteries don't have to be replaced every 5-7 years.

This is very practical and suppressed for the reasons he details.

And maybe if the US wasn't spending trillions on invading and conquering lands 8000 miles away there could be some R&D thrown at actually becoming energy independent.

Solar Hydrogen IS the GAME CHANGER and you won't hear about it on CBS or CNN. Guess why.