Build your own Backyard Fuel Cell

[Ian David]

Stephen Friend has the first hand-built fuel cell-powered house in the US.

No, not another hopeful boil-your-own-yogurt demo for an impractical technology, but a real, sustainable achievement that makes its own hydrogen in a cedar shed out back.

And it has a huge advantage over electric systems favored by his neighbors on Stuart Island, an off-the-grid Pacific Northwest paradise in Washington’s Puget Sound. Most residents there use solar power but must rely on noisy backup generators as well, since their batteries don’t hold enough energy to get them through the winter. So with the help of two buddies,

Friend, a Merck vice president and pioneer in digital gene arrays, drew a back-of-the-envelope plan for an energy storage system that extends the life of battery banks. In 2004, they started rigging up a Rube Goldberg contraption that uses solar panels and electrolyzers to generate hydrogen and allows Web-based monitoring of its proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell. In late 2006, a bemused but impressed inspector granted state approval.

Now the system, which they built for around $50,000, taps any surplus solar electricity to fill a 500-gallon hydrogen fuel tank, enough reserve for about 14 days’ worth of power (a second tank can be added to double that capacity). Friend thinks of the setup as sort of a TiVo for energy — bank hydrogen during the summer, then consume as it’s needed.

More:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.03/play.html?pg=9

[PLF]

1. That's really cool.

[hobbit709]

2. Now who has 50K to spend?

On a good day I have $5 extra. And as long as the government wastes $2 bill plus a week in Iraq, we the people will never get any help.

[unpossibles]

3. I sure don't but it's still neat to see people doing this

the more wide-spread and accepted these technologies become, they will not only advance more quickly technologically, but become cheaper.

[kestrel91316]

5. Those who have the money to do this, should. Eventually the cost

will come down.

I remember how my BIL had to replace his BETA VCR with a VHS 20 years ago or so, and had to pay $800 or so, IIRC. I can get a DVD player for less than $75 today - better technology, way cheaper.

[jpak]

4. but..but...but...hydrogen don't work

and it's impossible to store H2 in low pressure tanks

impossible!!!!1111

[redqueen]

6. Neat.

Wish it was more immediately affordable.