Steven Imlay's posts

I do not have a mensa project. the reference to mensa was about the previous owner. He was a member. When I bought the property I didn't know about the generator. There was an extra breaker panel in the basement that all the wiring to had been cut. The neighbors told me about his generator set up. That extra breaker panel was powered by the generator and all the electrical for the house was run to it. After he died the house was bought by a flipper who remodeled the house and took out the generator. In the 1950s the basic monthly connection charge was not $15.  As far as wind and solar, I'm talking about shoestring financing so almost everything is homemade. So for the house it would not be good enough but for my camper it has possibilities.  For the house a commercial produced set up would be a better choice.

I bought my house in 2002. It was built in 1886 as a one room school house and served that purpose till about 1953 when it became a "junk yard" ala "Sanford and Son". the owner was a genius and super frugal. he dug a basement under it and in this basement installed a generator and ran all the power on the property from that generator.  The power to turn the generator was supplied by a 120v motor and a series of belts and pulleys.  His monthly electric bill was $15. Without this system installed my monthly bill ranges from $100 - $190 depending on the time of year. The generator was gone before I bought the house, but I would like to recreate what he did. I have toyed with the idea of setting up a portable generator and running it with an electric motor and after an initial start up from a battery the motor would run off its own generator power.

I've experimented with solar and wind and am not satisfied with what I get out of them. Any thoughts on the electric motor powered generator?