Solar power by day, hydrogen by night

[GreenPartyVoter]

Saw a cool piece on the DIY channel's "This Old House" of a place that had solar panels and also a hydrogen generator that were tied into each other and to the house.

Pretty cool, but the idea of not seeing this out in the everyday world for another 15 or 20 years is disappointing.

[sce56]

1. Have you seen Future car on Discovery? A car powered by Compressed Air!

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/future-car/future-car.html

[IDemo]

2. They made a pretty silly statement near the end of the air car segment

That a system composed of an on board air-powered compressor might be used to power the vehicle's air engine, which would in turn be used to power the compressor, resulting in .... perpetual motion!

Is that kind of like putting a fan on the hood and running a generator for a battery powered car?? :eyes:

[NNadir]

3. I plan to put a windmill on the hood of my electric car to power my...

electric car.

If I put a computer battery in the cigarette lighter, I can power my computer and the car on the windmill.

I recall hearing about the compressed air car about 5 years ago, which was twenty years after I first heard all about the wonders of hydrogen and solar cells.

[IDemo]

5. They also called air the 'power source'

I find myself squinting one eye tightly when watching Discover lately.

[NNadir]

6. One often hears hydrogen being called "alternative energy."

This means, of course, that one can mine large deposits of double A batteries and so power the world.

[IDemo]

7. I guess this means no Lithium Economy?

[NNadir]

8. Stop it you maniac, you're depressing me.

[Warpy]

4. Right, a closed system

Solar panels powering the house and performing electrolysis during the day, hydrogen fuel cell providing juice at night.

This was on sometime last fall. It was a tiny house, but a really neat system.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Yes, very viable for single family homes