User Tools

Site Tools


groups:maem

MAEM

MAEM is the Milwaukee Alternative Energy Meetup, or if you'd prefer a recursive acronym, the MAEM Alternative Energy Meetup. The purpose of the group is to explore different ways of generating, storing, and using energy in an efficient, reliable, and conservational manner in order to improve our lives and foster a respectful attitude toward the forces of nature from which this energy is provided. What does this mean? We get together and find ways to gather and store energy and put it toward meaningful uses. We look at what we're using energy for and why. We look beyond our current energy paradigm and find ways to make improvements. We have fun and build community through the creative process (i.e. making things) because if someone should do something about it, it may as well be us doing it.

Jack: I'm basically hoping to get people together to build things. Awesome things. Energy is the foundation of existence and I think it's one of the most interesting and important aspects of human life to consider. Energy is also at the foundation of our society, and our relationship with energy is changing in some fundamental ways. We'll have to keep up with these changes, and I hope this group will enable us to do that more effectively while having a lot of fun in the process. Here's a graph from the excellent Do the Math blog that illustrates the important question that needs to be addressed:

See also: Galactic-Scale Energy

What's New/Happening?

This is the place to list any projects underway, news, etc.

Meetings: First meeting is planned for Saturday, June 2nd at 1pm. Subsequent meetings will be the first Saturday of the month at 1pm unless otherwise noted.

June 2nd, 2012

  • Arrive
  • [This is where you add things you want to happen at the meeting]
  • Making small solar panels (Jack, Andor)
  • Small rocket stoves and gasifiers (Andor)
  • High Efficiency Sound Reproduction (Jack)
  • Building and testing a semi-automated, portable, vegetable oil filtering and processing system (Jack)
  • [This is where the meeting happens]
  • Leave

Projects

WVO

DIY Solar PV

DIY Solar PV starting from cells can potentially save some money. I'd propose that we start with small panels because we already have a small vacuum table, it's easier, and small panels are the least economical in the marketplace. The best guide I've seen is the "Making decent solar panels" series on the otherpower forum. The cells are soldered up, placed between glass and a backing and encapsulated in EVA film before being mounted in a frame. We need:

  • Cells
  • EVA
  • Backing material
  • Frames
  • Working vacuum former (anyone know the status of the one at the space)
  • ?

Gasification

"Green" Sound Reinforcement

When faced with the prospect of limiting energy consumption, I was disheartened to think of all the loud, outdoor music I'd miss out on. Enter: the horn-loaded speaker. What do you do when your most advanced amplifiers provide less than 100 watts and you have a 100-seat theater? You get these. For every 3db increase in loudspeaker sensitivity, you can achieve a similar sound level with only half the power. I'm hoping to put together a capable PA using some of the designs from Bill Fitz-Maurice. I'm finishing up a set of Jack 10s at home right now, but I'll be working on the subs down at the MakerSpace. Since increased efficiency decreases energy use, I'm going to call these “green” and consider this a “green energy” project, and there's nothing you can do to stop me, MWAHAHAHA.

Resources

Solar

Wind

Biomass & Gasification

Miscellany

Group/Contact Information

Contact me, Jack Driscoll, by addressing an electronic mail to my name with @gmail.com appended to it. NO SPACES.

groups/maem.txt · Last modified: 2012/06/01 19:34 by jackd