Home Generation 1 - Is It Worth It?

[Music] hi so i've begun a series of videos to talk about how to install your own generation system and use it at home and there's going to be a series of videos where it breaks it up and that's mostly because i've done a lot of stuff on various kinds of generation how to explore generation and generation possibilities various kind of storage systems and how to build those storage systems but next to nothing on those two bits that is how to link them together and then how to actually use them so i've begun a series of videos now i made an assumption on there i assumed that people were already doing that and of course there's always a dangerous thing about assumption it just makes an ass out of you basically so i was made aware of this by a number of comments from people who basically boiled it down to is it worth it they were looking at things like cost and things like the cost of energy generated how it compared to men line energy that sort of stuff so i've took me a couple of steps back really because because the initial question you need to ask yourself is is it worth it the next question you need to ask yourself are what are the options and then we need to look at the options and how to install those options so i realized that i was in fact skipping ahead of the story and what i ought to do really was start at the beginning and begin with the is it worth it so that's the question that we're going to try to answer or at least tackle in this video now i warn you the video is a bit soap boxy because i have a whole set of beliefs that go behind is it worth it so it may not be your thing if it's not your thing then just leave a thumbs down if it really irritates you and move on if you're ambivalent about it then don't bother watching the video but if it is your thing then that's what we're going to approach here now a lot of people may not know that um i do more than what's on this channel this is not my main focus in life the channel is just done really because i'm keen to promote these ideas i'm very keen on science and i'm very keen on education but i do a lot of other things including consultancy work and i was a member of the british government team that went to japan post fukushima to look at their energy generation system and we were looking at what we could do about that now the big move to any generation is not in centralization it's in micro generation and distributed grids so the idea of distributing energy generation across a whole country as opposed to putting it in points and distributing the power is that you get a robust system it's like any network if you have a multiple nodes of power generation spread out in a web and one part goes down it means that the rest of it can actually feed the part that's gone down if you have the other way around and you have centralized generation and your generator blows up like it did in fukushima then you lose power to a massive amount of part of the country so centralized generation is cheaper but inherently less robust but a decentralized generation is more expensive overall but tremendously more robust and you're spreading the cost across your whole population so that each individual bears a lower cost but the overall total cost is higher so that begins if you think about it to start to approach this idea of is it worth it will it cost more well aggregate yes it's gonna it's gonna cost more but in terms of the individual it's going to feel like it costs less you have to spend on the initial installation there's a period of time that installation will run and there's a period of saving that can possibly be made over that installation lifetime now that may be more expensive than you're currently paying if you go out there and buy everything brand new top of the line stuff install your system and get it up and running the chances are you're going to be paying more for your electricity and if that's the decision that you want to make then that's likely to be more expensive for you but that doesn't really answer the question of is it worth it it only answers the question of does it cost more is it worth it has a much broader scope than just the financial cost at the end of the day there are a lot more things to consider on a question of is it worth it it's universally understood although of course we live in a world of seven billion people so there are always going to be people who have one view and people who have another but generally it's universally understood that we're in a global economic crisis we're in a crisis of power and we're in a crisis of the environment our main source of energy at the moment consists primarily of burning things that's really what we do and there's been a huge transition to stop doing that nuclear was one of those things it's essentially a burning reaction incidentally but it is one of those things that we're attempting not to burn stuff but it has a huge amount of associated problems as various accidents beginning early i suppose at three mile island and including chernobyl and fukushima has brought to light now japan has abandoned um the nuclear industry totally even though it's responsible for something like 75 80 percent of his generation capability it's closed them all and gone another way everybody in the world is watching japan particularly with this decentralization idea to see if is actually a success if that's a success it chances out that is going to be the model adopted worldwide there are a number of reports available and one of the reports actually covers what's called the defection rate in north america the defection rate in north america is the rate at which people leave the grid and then go to their own generation where they're using something called combined heat and power combined heat and power actually is more efficient than just straightforward any electrical generation let's have a think about how you generate your electrical energy you essentially burn something and you create heat and electrical energy if you just gather the electrical energy and use that it's going to be more expensive if you use the heat that you're also generating from things like um gasifiers or even just ordinary gasoline engines where you're turning a generator and use that extra heat and use that to do things like warm your house and heat your water actually that becomes cheaper so when you're looking at combined systems that's a much better answer than just electrical energy generation because you can use two sources and that gives you the idea that home power generation actually isn't just a one thing that's going to answer your problem it's actually a combined problem where you're looking at multiple systems and if you look at multiple systems then you're going to have a much more efficient and a much cheaper system than just looking at one so home generation really requires you to have a bit more of a broader view there isn't really a magic bullet one solution that will answer all of these problems i know it would be lovely it would be lovely if we had a pill that you could take and all of your problems went away and you were perfectly healthy for the next 200 years that would be just awesome unfortunately of course it doesn't exist i mean that doesn't stop people hoping for it it doesn't stop people looking for it but it doesn't exist and it's the same thing with energy your generation it would be lovely if there was one solution that would answer all of these problems but i hate to tell you this there just isn't you're going to have to look at putting together a system that has a combined solution if you want to do that now another aspect of this of course is to do with that environmental aspect i mean currently we're engaged in activity of burning our future right now i mean to hell with the kids let's be let's fly our drone for an extra 15 minutes that's the kind of mentality that i think is going on in some people's heads i don't understand it but i do think it's what's happening with some people and we have to think about our kids and our future otherwise humanity is done for it's no good burning all that fuel until it's all gone and going boohoo we have to look now at what those solutions might be now there's an awful lot of readily available solutions that will make a difference you don't make a difference by doing something suddenly all at once on a massive scale you actually make a difference by doing something small and the small thing that we can do is make small changes to our lives that will reduce the amount of energy that we actually consume looking at what it is that you actually do having a strategy really and working out a combined approach to this problem that we most definitely have is what i believe to be the solution to our energy and environmental needs i think that that approach is really going to be what we need to do now when we ask the question is it worth it does having that combined approach mean that we're going to have a less detrimental impact on the environment well i would say most definitely yes so that is it worth it with the environmental issue would also bring in the yes answer is it worth it in terms of strict money if you go for a top-end system and only look at your electricity generation it's highly likely to be no if you look at all of the other issues that are concerned around this well you're looking at things like combined systems environmental impact the possibility of the future then i would say it was a resounding yes is it worth it now because it brings into mind that money is an important issue we don't have a bottomless pockets well i don't most people don't some people do and that's awesome good luck to them but i don't so we have to make choices about what it is that we're going to do if you have a lot of money you have the dedication and you really this is an important issue that you want to make a difference to go right ahead work out a strategy combined system and do something about it if you're a bit more like me and you don't have that you've got a few pennies and you still want to do something you've got a couple of options really one of the options is to buy a smaller system that does part of the jobs at least you're making a difference another option of course is to build your own now i'm very keen on building your own as you know and i'm keen on that because i think it adopts other environmental issues like waste i mean we live in a consumer society we are driven to consume by everything around us advertising tells us to buy an apple take one bite and throw it away and buy the next apple that's what we're encouraged to do by the consumer society because our economy our jobs our growth it's all about consume consume consume and of course that's in direct conflict with looking after the environment and the issue isn't really one or the other it's balancing the two because we do need jobs we do need money we do need a healthy economy and we do need to look after our environment and so we have to balance the two now i'm very keen on reuse reuse recycle change update don't throw away all that sort of stuff that's what i'm very keen on and so i look at different methods that we could possibly build ourselves so i'm a great diyer i love to do these things and i think we should have more responsibility for what we're doing and try to build things ourselves rather than buy things but equally that's a moderated approach there are some things i wouldn't attempt to build because it just takes too long and i want to have a system now i don't want to have a system in 15 years time when i've learned to program i want to do it now so what i tend to do is recycle what reuse repurpose what i can but then if i don't have the equipment these technical skill and know-how or the time to buy a version in that will do the job that i just can't do and of course there are lots of things that you can do there are lots of generators you can make there are lots of solar applications you can do where you can actually go out and do this stuff it's one of the reasons there are so many videos because there are so many things that we can do because when you're in a situation where there's so many things you can do it's a bit like being in a candy store with lots of jars filled with very nice shiny sweets and you've got your pocket money in your hand you don't end up actually buying anything you end up standing in the middle of the room turning round and round and round wondering which to buy the truth is it doesn't really matter that much it only really matters that you do something so something strikes you as interesting that's the thing that you should follow now i do an awful lot of videos on lots of different things because we're all different people and different things as strikers as interesting and it doesn't really matter what it is it's to your individual bent what you find interesting is what you're going to follow so we do a lot of things where we're doing models of stuff to introduce ideas and possible ways of improving them to make our own home generation but an awful lot of this stuff is actually readily available as well and can be put together from parts just on the shelf that would be brand new and that's the kind of thing that i'm hoping to encourage is that you look at something you think it's interesting you develop an idea or you go out and find a version that's already for sale or bits that you can put together to make that version that's already for sale there's a really interesting idea and there's a couple of videos coming up on it called the liquid air battery now there's a pilot plant running at the moment in the uk where what they do is they compress air to cryogenic temperatures and store it in a tank now this compressor and storage are already built components they stop dropping gas in it for instance and the pressures aren't that high that you need specialized containers they just pin off the shelf containers what they then do is release that gas heat it up a little bit and blow it over a turbine and they are generating electricity which is net positive from compressed air which is really very cool it's a bit like pumped hydro if you think about it and they're calling it the liquid air battery because of course it's rechargeable it's a cylinder full of air when it's exhausted they pump more compressed air into it and so it's called the liquid air battery which i just thought was absolutely fascinating there's a very simple idea and it's currently being pilot tested in i think it was about a 50 million plant and they're running this at the moment to see how that will do for energy generation i think that's awesome it's also something you could do quite easily at home get yourself an empty propane tank a compressor compress some air to liquid either buy a um turbine or build yourself a tesla turbine and bingo you've got yourself a system where you can generate some air either you could completely diy build that or you could buy the components for that or you could just have the thing ready made for you and that's the kind of thing that i'm actually on about and talking about when it comes to this stuff now there of course we have a conception of is it worth it when you consider that you've decided you're going to do it and then you look at the cost involved in it there's also a cost in your time there if you have the time and you want to do that then that's a brilliant thing is it worth spending your time i would say yes if you don't think it's worth spending your time you're going to spend your money and if you spend the money and not the time then it's just a balance between those two really to get yourself a system that's up and running so what i'm trying to say here in this video is that the question is it worth it is a broader concept than just the cost involved are there other things to consider when it comes to an individual system when you're considering whether that system is worth it or not then it's really actually just to do with your own personal bent about what you feel is a good system and would fit in your circumstances for where you live i mean clearly if you live in um the arctic and you put up a solar installation you've probably made a mistake if you live somewhere where there's never any wind and you put up a generator you've probably made a mistake it just won't turn and so you'll never get any energy so the question is it worth it in a geographical location just is talking about environmental factors people live in different places people have different ideas and so there are lots and lots of options and a particular option is going to be worth it because of your bent and your locality not just because of the money you're going to spend on it so is it worth it is um a huge question actually and you can only really answer it for yourself a lot of it is going to be dependent on how you see the world a lot of it can depend on what you want from things and also where you are how much money you've got what kind of time you can dedicate to it whether it's one system or a combined system that you're looking at are all going to be issues that you're going to have to balance up when you answer that question is it worth it now a lot of people of course have already answered that question me included i think it's worth it i think it's worth expending all of this effort to really if you like save our future so anyway i thought i would share those ideas with you because it's the basis of where you start really because you have to make that decision first you have to decide that it is worth doing in a general sense before you start to look at the specific implications of it that general sense that you're looking at has got much more to do with how you see the world than it has got to do with how much money you've got to spend on it but i hope you enjoyed the video i hope it did spark some ideas and let you start thinking about some of these issues that you may not have thought about i do understand an awful lot of people will already have thought about them but thank you very much for watching

Channel: Robert Murray-Smith

Views: 19,394

Rating: 4.9241333 out of 5

Keywords: home, generation, free, power, robert, fwg, energy, renewable, murray-smith, off grid, wind, solar, hydroelectric, diy, d-i-y, electricity, engineering, technology, tech, inspirational, motivational

Id: o9Ax--W3PHw

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 02 2020