Me's who, that's who! [RE-wrenches]

[Sharkey]

	Who's who? Well, here is a rather long-winded episode that I wrote to
introduce myself to the readers of a New Zealand magazine for which I write
a monthly article regarding renewable enrgy as it pertains to mobile (RV)
installations.
	For more information stop by my web site at <www.mrsharkey.com>


	The fascination of the workings of electricity haven't worn off after
forty years, since that day when my Grandfather gave me a couple of
telephone dry-cells and a low voltage tail lamp bulb to play with. I burnt
my finger that day, shorting out the cells with a piece of wire, but the
power lurking in the tall, cylindrical battery was enough to captivate my
interest in spite of that small setback.
	My home for the last 24 years has been a Housetruck built in the body of a
converted 1962 Chevrolet C-40 moving van. Shortly after setting up
habitation in the truck, I moved to a remote 40 acre property that was ½
mile beyond the electrical grid. As candles and kerosene lamps were not
sufficient for close work or reading, I invested in a pair of deep-cycle
traction batteries to provide electric illumination and to power a small
radio receiver. In order to charge the batteries, I installed a 100 watt
Winco windcharger, which I rebuilt from scrap. Due to the nearby trees, and
the shortness of the wind plant's tower, I mostly ended up hauling the 130
pound bulk of the batteries using a barrow to the nearest electrical
outlet, sometimes in axle-deep mud! In those days, photovoltaic modules
were quite expensive and hard to find.
	In 1982, I worked in Portland, OR, for a company which installed and
serviced high-powered Jacobs wind machines. These 10Kw grid-inertied wind
plants were mostly located in the Columbia River Gorge, which has some of
the most constant high-velocity wind to be found in the Pacific-Northwest.
Nearly every week, we went to repair a machine that had blown apart in a
high wind, replacing the sitka spruce blades, each 12 feet long. I kept
warn that winter by burning the old blades in the wood stove. I figured my
fire wood that winter was worth about $30,000! It didn't burn very well,
and barely put out any heat at all! I also became involved in the erection
and testing of an experimental high efficiency down-wind plant that was
underwritten by a grant from the U.S. Dept of Energy.
	My first electric vehicle was purchased in 1984, a used General Electric
Electrak electric garden and lawn tractor. This 36 volt battery-powered
tractor has a 15 horsepower motor, and is equipped with a three-blade,
front mounted mower and a 48 inch wide rear mounted tiller. It made the
task of mowing almost pleasurable, and is very handy for hauling, yarding,
grading and a variety of other tasks.
	A well known renewable energy supply company organized a national "Off the
Grid Day" in 1991, a day during which citizens concerned about this
country's energy policies would consume no electricity as a political
statement. At the end of the day, I decided that this was too easy and
vowed to go a whole week with my main circuit breakers turned off. A week
stretched into a month, during which time I constructed a flat-plate solar
collector for heating bath water. Due to my access to a large set of
storage batteries, and with the help of a very small photovoltaic panel and
my antique wind machine, I was able to live comfortably for the entire
period. When the electric company read my watt-hour meter, they sent out a
technician to check it to see why it had malfunctioned and read no
consumption since the last reading!
	Since that time, I have made a commitment to consume all energy more
wisely, and invest whenever possible in renewable energy equipment that
will allow me to produce at least a portion of my own electric power.
	Most recently, I purchased an electric-powered automobile, and installed a
sizable photovoltaic module array to charge it from.
	On a more mundane note, my occupation is that of a Broadcast Engineer,
responsible for the construction, maintenance and repair of radio broadcast
facilities. I am a volunteer at the Oregon Country Fair, where I serve as a
radio dispatch operator, telephone installer, and supply a sizable
renewable energy system to power the staff kitchen and quartermaster offices.
	There is nothing I like better than lying asleep on a warm summer night in
my solar-heated hot tub.



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