Saturday, November 19, 9:00 PM. Brewer.

Subject: Electricity.

I’ve always been interested in electronics but never took the time to understand it. I never needed to. Now I do.

We took another trip to the library this morning and brought back another haul. We’ve got tons of books now. Once Garrett is feeling a little better I’ll get all three kids to help me build a few more sets of bookshelves. We’re going to need all the shelf space we can get, and they need to learn some carpentry.

At the library I found a wealth of books and magazines on electronics. I’ve been cozied up with them much of the day, giving myself a crash course.

As I understand it, the house electrical system needs three things.

A way to generate electricity

A way to store it

A way to convert it into alternating current

The third part is easy. I just need to find an inverter.

For the second part, storage, the obvious answer is batteries. But batteries will wear out eventually. I’ll either need to learn how to make them or I’ll have to find another way to store power.

For generating electricity I can think of three options: sun, wind, and water.

Quite a few houses around here have solar panels. Probably batteries too. I need to find out how many watts they put out and how much the batteries can hold. If I can get enough panels out in the sunniest part of the pasture we might be able to power the farm with solar alone. But the long, dark weeks of winter are liable to be a problem.

Wind power might work to handle cloudy days. The Almanac talks a lot about wind, and apparently some folks swear by it. There are houses around here with small windmills installed. What troubles me is that I rarely see them actually turning: the normal wind doesn’t seem strong enough. Still, it is possible that with enough windmills, we could charge up the batteries on windy nights and in stormy weather when the solar panels don’t work.

I’m also considering a water wheel stuck out into the creek somehow. I never hear of water wheels used for electricity. Maybe there’s a problem with the idea. But since we’re on a creek that has water flowing most of the time, it seems like something worth trying.