Solar Car Education Outreach HREG members have taught thousands of local children about renewable energy over the past 10 years through model solar car education outreach projects. For more information, download our Teacher/Mentor Guide and visit these websites: http://www.txses.org/tjss/Index.htm?sessionid= and http://www.nrel.gov/education/jss_hfc.html Saving Lives with Solar Picture by: Walt Ratterman / KI 2006 Responding to an invitation from Knightsbridge International, Houston Renewable Energy Group (HREG) members recently donated a total of $1100 to help fund a solar clinic for the Karen people of Myanmar (Burma) who live in the Myanmar/Thailand border region. The Karen are victims of landmines and targets of military genocide. Knightsbridge has developed a string of mobile clinics that can be taken down and moved on short notice to provide medical help to Karen people living under threat of military attack. These clinics are powered and lit by a system comprised of a 130W photovoltaic array, deep cycle batteries, charge controller and lights. The cost of providing one of these systems to the jungle region, with training, is $3000. The HREG sponsored clinic will be joining 28 clinics already in place by the end of 2006. For more information about this project, please visit http://www.2000wave.com/pdf/knightsbridge_letter.pdf. Adrian Belic's "Beyond the call..." describes the heroic work of Knightsbridge volunteers. You can view the theatrical trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HOUB4i0zk or get the DVD at http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/beyondthecall/. Many thanks to those HREG members who donated to this project. While our fundraising drive is now over, it isn’t too late to contact Knightsbridge at the first link above and add your contribution to the “HREG Burma Solar Clinic Project”. Saving Energy with Roof Sprinklers The idea of running a sprinkler on the roof was tested by an HREG member named James and starts at message number 261, July 2000, in the HREG YahooGroup archives. Anyway, James used a sprinkler for one summer and discovered a 30% decrease in his electric bill after taking into account the rise in his water bill. However, having a shingle roof, there was some concern about damage that type of roof. I had to put in a new building in a hurry since a tornado touched down on my property and severely damage my home structurally. I put in a metal building and specified that it must be able to handle a sprinkler system on the roof for cooling. My roof is a 1 in 12 pitch made of galvalume. The sprinkler system itself is 1/2" PVC run up the outside of the building and weighted down with sand bags at the ground. I am using 3, sprinklers, all full circle to cover a 40' x 70' building. I have drains to the system at both ends of the building. My husband built the control unit. We took the solenoid from an old washing machine, so it operates on 120V, bought a relay timer from Mid-state Electronics, in Bryan and wired it in. We have now run the system for 6 years [2007]. We did flush the system with the sprinklers removed in the spring as it did build up algae, but we are on a well, so our water is not chlorinated. Our water has a high salt content that has gotten much worse since the Tenasca power plant went into operation in Shiro. In 2005 we had to replace the sprinkler heads. An interesting discovery, the cheaper sprinklers work better. The metal ones don’t stand up to the heat and clog super easy. The timer is still working perfectly and the PVC pipe on the roof is still in good condition. The cycle timer I used is an IDEC electronic timer model GT3W - A11AF20. It uses a standard octal pin arrangement that relays use, therefore a standard relay socket. The coil is rated for 100 - 240 VAC, the contacts at 5 Amps @ 120VAC or 30VDC, or 3 Amps @ 240 VAC. We are using a set of solenoids from an old washing machine, which are 120VAC, and since there are 2 contacts on the timer, I ran them in parallel, which gives me a max. of 10 Amps out. This timer can be programmed for any configuration of outputs you want, using T1 and T2 any way you want. Submitted by HREG member Kim