After making the mistake of deciding that I could watch "just one or two episodes" of the second season of the Walking Dead on Netflix, I am now totally caught up on the plight of post outbreak humanity and have spent a little too much time trying to design a flexible energy supply for my dream hold out facility, although the concept could work equally well for making a home that is energy resilient and self sufficient. In the sketch below I have sketched out what would be a pretty ideal situation to be in.
In the sketch to the side you will see a large black bar, this indicates the height difference between the bottom of the reservoir and the primary hydro electric generators outlet. A facility like this should be optimized to provide as much head (height of the water column) as possible. In addition to the hydro electric generator you see some rather crudely drawn wind turbines and solar panels, the black and white boxy things with the red lines drawn towards them. These generators, in my opinion, should not be directly connected to the facilities energy grid, instead their power is used to pump water up hill to keep the reservoir as full as possible, creating a pumped storage Hydroelectricity facility. The overall logic behind this approach deals with the indeterminacy of wind and solar production and human energy demand. While many homes that use renewable energy utilize battery technologies to allow for load leveling, there is a finite lifetime that traditional battery technologies provide additionally if civilization collapses, it will be easier to scrounge parts to make a new turbine than it will be to make an efficient battery. Additionally the pumps that are connected to the wind turbines and solar panels can be optimized to utilize the voltages and current characteristics of their respective sources. The electricity produced by the hydroelectric generators can be optimized to produce true 120 Volt 60 Hz electricity, allowing for any traditional electrically powered appliance to be used.
In the sketch to the side you will see a large black bar, this indicates the height difference between the bottom of the reservoir and the primary hydro electric generators outlet. A facility like this should be optimized to provide as much head (height of the water column) as possible. In addition to the hydro electric generator you see some rather crudely drawn wind turbines and solar panels, the black and white boxy things with the red lines drawn towards them. These generators, in my opinion, should not be directly connected to the facilities energy grid, instead their power is used to pump water up hill to keep the reservoir as full as possible, creating a pumped storage Hydroelectricity facility. The overall logic behind this approach deals with the indeterminacy of wind and solar production and human energy demand. While many homes that use renewable energy utilize battery technologies to allow for load leveling, there is a finite lifetime that traditional battery technologies provide additionally if civilization collapses, it will be easier to scrounge parts to make a new turbine than it will be to make an efficient battery. Additionally the pumps that are connected to the wind turbines and solar panels can be optimized to utilize the voltages and current characteristics of their respective sources. The electricity produced by the hydroelectric generators can be optimized to produce true 120 Volt 60 Hz electricity, allowing for any traditional electrically powered appliance to be used.
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