Rob Steves
2008-02-26 by RobIf you’d like to contact me privately, you may do so by email at rob (at) iwilltry.org. Otherwise you may simply leave a comment below.
Who am I?
I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I’m an electrical and mechanical engineer by trade. I’ve been pondering the issue of global climate change for a long time. It’s easy to feel like the situation is hopeless. After all, what can any one individual do? If I reduce my impact to zero, it will still not have any significant effect on a global scale. Clearly many people must act together to make a difference. But perhaps many people are already acting together and don’t even know it. I created this website to help unite those who are already taking action on climate change and to help inform and inspire those who aren’t.
There are so many simple things people can do to reduce their impact and save money if only they know what to do. The hardest part is getting the word out. If you influence just one other person to reduce their impact then you have doubled any effect that you might have alone. If they in turn influence someone else… you get the idea.
2008-06-14 at 5:29 pm
Hi Rob,
I am interested in the stepper motors.
I put something on instructables called a clock based dripper tracker. It uses a clock to provide regular slow movement.
I have to do up a nicer prototype so I am looking into alternatives now.
Perhaps a stepper motor could do the same thing?
It will be for a heliostat or parabolic dish and only has to move 7 inches in 12 hours. The load on it is very small, (less than 100 grams) 4 oz
I want the cheapest thing to do the job so it can be used in poor countrys for tracking.
How cheap do the stepper motors go?
I have adapted a clock to do it (and it worked) but I recently dropped it and broke something.
I will try a clock again but perhaps something more robust should be looked at.
Thank you
Brian White
Victoria
2008-06-18 at 11:45 am
The cheapest source of stepper motors I have seen is http://www.jameco.com. They have stepper motors for as little as $4-$5 that would probably do the trick. But you will also need a power source and a controller to send the correct pulses with the correct timing to the motor. The controller will likely be the expensive part. If you did your own custom electronics design you might be able to get the controller cost down to around $25 in quantities of 100s, but anything off the shelf will likely be over $100. Weatherproofing the electronics to make a robust system that will run for years without trouble is also more difficult than it sounds. I think you are onto something with the clock and I would stick with that if there is some way you can make it more robust.
2008-06-19 at 9:00 am
Hi,
Great site! Nice to see someone local getting into conservation, I like your projects – have a look at my site for some of the things I’ve done, mostly the electric velomobile for commuting – also I have put a solar panel on the roof and all the standard conservation stuff (CFLs, windows, etc).
Cheers,
Bernhard
2009-09-01 at 3:27 pm
Hi Rob,
I would like to congratulate you on your excellent article on building solar hot water heaters.We are attempting
to build solar water pasteurizers for the third world. we have completed a number successfully but now have run into a strange problem using the 6 mil Coroplast material where their seems to be some sort of outgasing of a vapor that coats the inside of our solar film causing a loss in efficiency. has this ever happened to your unit? We are operating at 160 F in order to obtain the proper pasteurization temp. We have great difficulty ordering from other companies because are orders are rather small at this time. We wouldn’t think polypropylene would outgas
We would really appreciate your comments.
Thanks for your help.
Bill Stevenson
2009-09-02 at 11:07 am
Hi, Rob,
I read with interest your article on Gas vs. Electrical Heating efficiency. I am interested to know if you did any research on the relative efficiency and efficacy of various type of electric heaters. With the economy the way it is, I recently cast about for new business opportunities and my thinking tracks exactly the thinking that you have published on your web-site. For me, right now I am interested to know what kind of electrical heating will be the best–I am tending toward Carbon-Resistive heating (deep-(far) Infra-red radiation) used either as panel/wall-mounted, free-standing or radiating floor configurations. Have you thought of this at all–I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Another thing that interests me is to know if you had to put a price on CO2 emissions, what would it be? Thanks for sharing your research and your thoughts. I friend of mine once said, “There are two kinds of people; radiators or drains.” You are obviously a radiator. Thanks again. Paul
2009-09-02 at 12:25 pm
Hi Paul,
In theory, all electric heaters are 100% efficient. That is 100% of the electricity you put in is converted to heat released inside the home. Any perceived difference in output between two electric heaters consuming the same power, is not a result of different efficiency, but of other factors that affect how the heat is distributed. I have not experimented with different systems myself, but my understanding is that radiant (rather than convection) heating offers the greatest perceived comfort for the least power input. I’ve often though that the “best” system would be one in which heat radiated from all large surfaces people are likely to come into contact with. The most common example of this is radiant floor heating, but why not radiant sofa heating, or radiant tabletop heating, or radiant countertop heating. One can comfortably tolerate a much lower ambient air temperature if every surface radiates heat.
It’s easy to put a price on CO2 emissions. That’s effectively what carbon offsets are (ie the cost of any damage done is effectively equivalent to the cost of undoing the damage). There are reliable and proven carbon offset strategies (the cheapest being methane capture from landfills or animal manures) from around $10 per ton of CO2 equivalent. A carbon tax of only 1-2% on all fossil fuels is all that would be needed to pay for strategies that would offset all CO2 emissions from the combustion of those fuels (if the money were directed to an appropriate strategy). I was very disappointed when, in British Columbia, we came very close to implementing such a tax, but the government instead implemented a “revenue neutral” carbon tax with the intent of discouraging people from buying fossil fuels by increasing the price (by only 6% over 5 years). The tax would have been enough to more than offset ALL CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion in BC, but instead of spending it on offset strategies, the government just gave it back to us. What a wasted opportunity.
2009-09-02 at 12:32 pm
Hi Bill, I haven’t experience that, but I only experimented with this panel design for a few days. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.