Plasma Ignition | Plasma Jet Ignition

[Gary Hammond]

Hi Aaron,

Glad you can adjust the fuel ratio too - what is the basic setup that you have to tune the injectors?

I have the "generation 1" fuel injection kit from CB Performance. They are now up to generation 4.

The one I have runs in open loop and the dash mounted module controls the MAP signal to the ECU. The other ECU inputs are engine temp, throttle position, and RPM. There is no oxygen sensor feedback to the ECU. The fuel pressure is regulated mechanically by the manifold pressure. The dash control module has two adjusting knobs, one for low rpm (idle) and one for high rpm (full power). Here's a picture of the 4 generations. The dash module of the one I have is shown on the left as First Gen. I purchased it back in 2001.



Here's a picture of the engine it's installed on.

[Aaron Murakami]

If I understand the question correctly, It's using a stock stator style ignition, without any type of CDI.

I think I may have figured out the problem, I used used caps off of a couple of hot tub circuit boards and believe I may have burnt them up removing them from the board. I need to check the resistance of the caps to see if there is any. The soldering iron I used wasn't very good and had to heat the caps up quite a bit to get them to release from the board. That's what I get for trying to use used parts.

The ignition on the small block chevy is a typical MSD 6AL. I have one diode that you recommend. so, I was thinking about trying that one like a video I saw by attaching it directly from the charging side of the coil, to the distributor spark side. I suspect with a V8, that may be too fast a cycle time, and that's probably why you have one diode for each spark plug, but I'll give it a shot anyway, what do I have to lose?

You must use a cdi/msd before you can add the diodes - the diodes are simply directing the low voltage cap over the gap when it is ionized by the hv spark. There are msd/cdi units for v8's so they are not too fast. One diode per plug is to distribute the cap impulses through multiple diodes to extend their life - it isn't about timing. You can do all cylinders on a single diode, but the diode will get a serious workout. With the speed, the deal is that at low speeds, the ignition will trigger 6-7 times per cycle but at high RPM's it will gradually reduce until you only get one discharge per cycle. Or course this is with MSD (multiple spark discharge) - with a regular CDI, it will always be one single discharge per cycle.

[Aaron Murakami]

Hi Aaron,

Could you please tell me if you have a generator to be used in the video that is in this posting video?

I have been working on fully vaporizing my gas and water with the hot manifold because of the high feat coming out of the cylinders which would make a dry steam and feed it into the engine with a plasma spark and the set up in this video looks like it could do the trick.

Hi Ron,

The video did not show up.

[Aaron Murakami]

Hi Aaron,



I have the "generation 1" fuel injection kit from CB Performance. They are now up to generation 4.

The one I have runs in open loop and the dash mounted module controls the MAP signal to the ECU. The other ECU inputs are engine temp, throttle position, and RPM. There is no oxygen sensor feedback to the ECU. The fuel pressure is regulated mechanically by the manifold pressure. The dash control module has two adjusting knobs, one for low rpm (idle) and one for high rpm (full power). Here's a picture of the 4 generations. The dash module of the one I have is shown on the left as First Gen. I purchased it back in 2001.



Here's a picture of the engine it's installed on.

Thanks Gary,

I'm getting a jet kit for my Weber on the Datsun to see how far I can lean and still get a temp drop. If it is too much of a pain, I might get a fuel injected throttle body and control it with the type of system you're using.

[Hellenic Vanagon]

My, (inductively trigered), mkII Plasma: (Are you ready?)

[theplummer]

You must use a cdi/msd before you can add the diodes - the diodes are simply directing the low voltage cap over the gap when it is ionized by the hv spark. There are msd/cdi units for v8's so they are not too fast. One diode per plug is to distribute the cap impulses through multiple diodes to extend their life - it isn't about timing. You can do all cylinders on a single diode, but the diode will get a serious workout. With the speed, the deal is that at low speeds, the ignition will trigger 6-7 times per cycle but at high RPM's it will gradually reduce until you only get one discharge per cycle. Or course this is with MSD (multiple spark discharge) - with a regular CDI, it will always be one single discharge per cycle.

I suppose we must not be in sync with the two different situations. Allow me to clarify, just so we are both on the same page.

Yesterdays dyno test was on a small garden tractor motor, without any type of capacitive discharge ignition. It had a simple stock style magnet on flywheel, to pickup coil. On that particular motor, I tried to take three small capacitors in series and connect them to the spark plug. The engine would not fire. The capacitors acted like a kill switch by grounding the top of the plug to the engine. I was told by another former member of this forum, that it's possible that the caps were bad, and that I should check to see if there is any resistance from one end of the cap string to the other. There was no resistance, by meter, I just got the OL on the meter. So that should have worked, but it didn't.

Now, today's dyno test was on a small block Chevy, using a MSD 6AL, with a super blaster 2 coil. On this setup, I placed the recommended diode from the positive side of the input on the coil, to the coil to distributor wire. There was a timing light connected to spark plug #1. When I had the diode connected to to the coil as seen in multiple videos and from your information, I got no spark to plug #1, and the engine would not fire.

I then checked for continuity and voltage between the input side of the coil, to ground, with ignition on and have no voltage or continuity. But the engine would start and run without the diode in place. I checked for continuity across the diode to see if it was bad and got no continuity in either direction when connecting a test light and a 12 volt battery.

I then decided that maybe the engine needed to already be running before making the diode connection to the coil. So I placed the wire on the distributor side, but left the input side loose, I had ahold of the wire with a pair of rubber handled pliers, and when the engine fired, I got a shock from the coil, through the insulation and the rubber handles on the pliers. The shock was not devestating, I could hold it, but I was afraid of trying to make the connection to the coil and opted to have the engine shut off instead.

What am I doing wrong with both of those scenerios?

Now, the results of the dyno with the EnergyXciter. The small block performed best without the energyXciter with 39 degrees of timing advance. We placed the exiter on the batteries powering the MSD and starter (as always), installed halves of the energyXciter on each of the plug wires at the distributor cap, and placed the exciters around the fuel lines.

The first pull with the timing at 39 degrees, lost 7hp. I then knew I needed to retard the timing as burning hydrogen in fuel makes the fuel ignite faster, so I retarded the timing 3 degrees. We immediately picked up what we had lost, and added another 2Hp to the pull. I then retarded the timing 2 more degrees and lost the 2hp that we had picked up.

Later evaluation as to why we didn't see as big a gain as we normally see. We noticed that the engine builder had zip tied all the plug wires together from the back of the engine, under the headers. We believe this may have caused a harmonic that interfered with the effectiveness of the exciters on the plug wires.

We also noticed that the fuel line was very short, so as to (possibly) not create enough friction (which is what powers the exiters) in the fuel due to a short fuel line. As well as the fuel line was a high pressure steel braided line that was very thick, and had steel braiding in between the layers of rubber hose.... No excuses, we aren't going to give up, we just believe this may have contributed to us not seeing the typical 5% power increase that we saw the previous day.

My hopes are to figure out how to make the plasma ignition with both the CDI as well as non CDI work in conjunction with the energyXciters, to try to maximize their potential. This could lead to even running a engine totally on water, but I've got to get the ignition working first.

[Aaron Murakami]

1. Were the caps going from the top of the plug to the engine ground? If so, then you are trying to simply add peaking caps to the plug. With 3 in series, probably too much capacitance and sucked up all the spark so there isn't anything to jump the gap.

2. On the MSD with diodes, the diode needs to go from positive of primary of coil directly to the top of the plug bypassing the entire distributor and cable or the resistances will eat it up. Also, you have to verify the polarity of the HV of your ignition coil. That will determine which direction the diodes need to be facing.

[theplummer]

1. Were the caps going from the top of the plug to the engine ground? If so, then you are trying to simply add peaking caps to the plug. With 3 in series, probably too much capacitance and sucked up all the spark so there isn't anything to jump the gap.

2. On the MSD with diodes, the diode needs to go from positive of primary of coil directly to the top of the plug bypassing the entire distributor and cable or the resistances will eat it up. Also, you have to verify the polarity of the HV of your ignition coil. That will determine which direction the diodes need to be facing.

I don't mean to argue with you, but your explanations aren't making any sense.

1. Yes I'm using peaking caps from the top of the plug to ground, and three in series is too much capacitance is sucking up all the spark. wouldn't the instant the points were broken, the stored electricity (however much it built up) be discharged back into the spark plug anyway? I'm only using 3 capacitors, just as every bit of information I've seen describes to do. So you are saying in a round about way, is for me to only use one cap instead of 3 in series?

2. This really makes zero sense here. It doesn't matter where I connect the diode at, whether or not I connect it to the coil wire right out of the top of the coil, or if I go all the way to the plug, as the spark plug wire would also be back feeding the high current lower voltage and would get sucked up also. Unless I put another diode between the spark plug and the plug wire to isolate the plug wire from receiving the high current electricity, the wire will always have the same amount in it no matter where I make the connection to the system.

I've studied the MSD installation manual, and determined that the orange wire to the coil will not be charged until the capacitor discharges at the moment of triggering by the distributor. This does make sense once I've thought about it, and it seems that a msd cannot be used in this manner, without another capacitor coming directly from the 12v source. It appears that when the msd signals the capacitor to discharge to the coil, the coil needs the 400 volts to charge and discharge the coil, and taking the energy away from the coil, is reducing what it needs to properly charge to make the spark jump at the plug.

If I connect from the ignition switch positive 12v to a cap, then to the diode, then to the high voltage side of the coil (be it at the coil/distributor wire, or to each individual spark plug wire, that should charge the spark plug with the high current electricity. Now I realize that the high resistance of the plug wires may still soak up the high current electricity, and that's probably why you recommend low resistance spark plug wires. This is confusing because MSD says specifically NOT to use solid core spark plug wires as they will cause the MSD to malfunction.

If you've actually used a MSD 6AL, do you have a video showing it actually working on a vehicle that I can watch?

[Aaron Murakami]

I don't mean to argue with you, but your explanations aren't making any sense.

1. Yes I'm using peaking caps from the top of the plug to ground, and three in series is too much capacitance is sucking up all the spark. wouldn't the instant the points were broken, the stored electricity (however much it built up) be discharged back into the spark plug anyway? I'm only using 3 capacitors, just as every bit of information I've seen describes to do. So you are saying in a round about way, is for me to only use one cap instead of 3 in series?

2. This really makes zero sense here. It doesn't matter where I connect the diode at, whether or not I connect it to the coil wire right out of the top of the coil, or if I go all the way to the plug, as the spark plug wire would also be back feeding the high current lower voltage and would get sucked up also. Unless I put another diode between the spark plug and the plug wire to isolate the plug wire from receiving the high current electricity, the wire will always have the same amount in it no matter where I make the connection to the system.

I've studied the MSD installation manual, and determined that the orange wire to the coil will not be charged until the capacitor discharges at the moment of triggering by the distributor. This does make sense once I've thought about it, and it seems that a msd cannot be used in this manner, without another capacitor coming directly from the 12v source. It appears that when the msd signals the capacitor to discharge to the coil, the coil needs the 400 volts to charge and discharge the coil, and taking the energy away from the coil, is reducing what it needs to properly charge to make the spark jump at the plug.

If I connect from the ignition switch positive 12v to a cap, then to the diode, then to the high voltage side of the coil (be it at the coil/distributor wire, or to each individual spark plug wire, that should charge the spark plug with the high current electricity. Now I realize that the high resistance of the plug wires may still soak up the high current electricity, and that's probably why you recommend low resistance spark plug wires. This is confusing because MSD says specifically NOT to use solid core spark plug wires as they will cause the MSD to malfunction.

If you've actually used a MSD 6AL, do you have a video showing it actually working on a vehicle that I can watch?

It does matter where you connect the diode. If you connect the diode from the coil to the top of a plug cable, any resistance in that line will eat up a lot of the potential from the capacitor. If you have too much resistance in the cable, you won't get any plasma at all. But if you connect it directly to the top of a plug, you eliminate all that resistance and wind up with as many joules as possible at the plug gap.

MSD's statement about solid core wires is because they are expecting the entire cap to be discharged into the primary because that is all they know. We're not doing that so it doesn't matter what they think.

Your belief that the whole cap has to discharge into the primary is not uncommon, but it is incorrect and this actually goes to the heart of my circuit, which is in the patent and is why my method of using the SAME CAPACITOR for BOTH the primary power source AND the low voltage high current source to jump the gap is the ONLY significant innovation in ignition history since the invention of the plasma jet ignition systems to begin with. It is also the most elegant in terms of being the simplest solution to create a plasma ignition since you do not need a separate cap charging circuit that charges a cap for the sole purpose of jumping the gap through a diode while still needing. You need a cap charging circuit for the plasma so the simplest solution is to purchase any off the shelf cdi or msd, add diodes and you're done. This obsoleted millions of dollars in patents filed by all the auto manufacturers, etc. over the last few decades who never understood that a single cap can be used for both.

If you connect the 400 volt cap to the primary and only let 1% of that capacitor discharge into the primary, you are STILL hitting the primary with 400 volts - just with less current. You do NOT need the entire capacitor to discharge in order for the primary to see 400 volts, it is automatically already there whether you use 1% of the cap or 100% of the cap - the extra capacitance will not add any more voltage than is already there, the extra capacitance will just add more current and more current is not necessary to make a spark - voltage is comes first and once it breaks down the gap resistance, then current will flow and it takes almost nothing to ionize that gap so that it is conductive enough to have a low voltage cap discharge over it.

As soon as the spark is made and the gap is ionized, 99% of whatever percentage of that cap will then discharge over the gap just fine. This is what makes my method unique - it flies in the face of what "everyone" thought was possible because countless people believe that the entire cap has to discharge to the primary including "experts" at NASA, JPL, Princeton, all the auto manufacturers and many plug manufacturers.

I did this on the bench with a MSD 6AL about 10 years ago just to test it then I gave it back to the person who loaned it to me. It doesn't matter the model because it works the same on every single one. The exception is if there is a wasted spark ignition that uses a coil pack where the primary and secondary are isolated from each other and half the pack has high voltage positive and the other side is high voltage negative. Everyone said I couldn't make my plasma method work on that too, but I did it and even did a whole presentation on this to prove it.

The only other consideration is the direction the diode is pointing and that is determined by the polarity of the HV output from the coil.

Here is a MSD Street Fire MSD on a Datsun - Street Fire is MSD's budget line but doesn't matter, I made it work on their higher end units as well.

I say 98 mj in the cap in that unit in the vid, but I believe it is 89.

You will see that I'm using the same capacitor in the MSD to charge the primary of the ignition coil and it is simultaneously being used as the low voltage source that goes through a diode to the top of a plug.

Did you purchase my Ignition Secrets package? I have a lot of videos in there showing a lot of bench tests where a single cap is used to charge the primary and is also used to jump the gap through the diode. Not sure why you would have any doubts - there is a ton of evidence in that package.

[Aaron Murakami]

Three capacitors in series will result in one third of the capacitance of one of the capacitors. Three 330pf capacitors in series will result in 110pf overall and theoretically three times the voltage rating of one capacitor but it is typically difficult to balance the applied voltage across the capacitors evenly.
So theoretically if each capacitor is rated 330pf at one thousand volts then the three in series would be rated 110pf at three thousand volts.
Therefore if one capacitor is too much of a capacitive load for a circuit, then two identical capacitors in series would be half the load.

LOL, you're right - I was in a rush. My mistake.

In any case, if there is too much capacitance, it will suck up all the discharge from the coil and there will be no spark. Peaking caps for ignition purposes need to have very small capacitance.

[theplummer]

It does matter where you connect the diode. If you connect the diode from the coil to the top of a plug cable, any resistance in that line will eat up a lot of the potential from the capacitor. If you have too much resistance in the cable, you won't get any plasma at all. But if you connect it directly to the top of a plug, you eliminate all that resistance and wind up with as many joules as possible at the plug gap.

MSD's statement about solid core wires is because they are expecting the entire cap to be discharged into the primary because that is all they know. We're not doing that so it doesn't matter what they think.

Your belief that the whole cap has to discharge into the primary is not uncommon, but it is incorrect and this actually goes to the heart of my circuit, which is in the patent and is why my method of using the SAME CAPACITOR for BOTH the primary power source AND the low voltage high current source to jump the gap is the ONLY significant innovation in ignition history since the invention of the plasma jet ignition systems to begin with. It is also the most elegant in terms of being the simplest solution to create a plasma ignition since you do not need a separate cap charging circuit that charges a cap for the sole purpose of jumping the gap through a diode while still needing. You need a cap charging circuit for the plasma so the simplest solution is to purchase any off the shelf cdi or msd, add diodes and you're done. This obsoleted millions of dollars in patents filed by all the auto manufacturers, etc. over the last few decades who never understood that a single cap can be used for both.

If you connect the 400 volt cap to the primary and only let 1% of that capacitor discharge into the primary, you are STILL hitting the primary with 400 volts - just with less current. You do NOT need the entire capacitor to discharge in order for the primary to see 400 volts, it is automatically already there whether you use 1% of the cap or 100% of the cap - the extra capacitance will not add any more voltage than is already there, the extra capacitance will just add more current and more current is not necessary to make a spark - voltage is comes first and once it breaks down the gap resistance, then current will flow and it takes almost nothing to ionize that gap so that it is conductive enough to have a low voltage cap discharge over it.

As soon as the spark is made and the gap is ionized, 99% of whatever percentage of that cap will then discharge over the gap just fine. This is what makes my method unique - it flies in the face of what "everyone" thought was possible because countless people believe that the entire cap has to discharge to the primary including "experts" at NASA, JPL, Princeton, all the auto manufacturers and many plug manufacturers.

I did this on the bench with a MSD 6AL about 10 years ago just to test it then I gave it back to the person who loaned it to me. It doesn't matter the model because it works the same on every single one. The exception is if there is a wasted spark ignition that uses a coil pack where the primary and secondary are isolated from each other and half the pack has high voltage positive and the other side is high voltage negative. Everyone said I couldn't make my plasma method work on that too, but I did it and even did a whole presentation on this to prove it.

The only other consideration is the direction the diode is pointing and that is determined by the polarity of the HV output from the coil.

Here is a MSD Street Fire MSD on a Datsun - Street Fire is MSD's budget line but doesn't matter, I made it work on their higher end units as well.

I say 98 mj in the cap in that unit in the vid, but I believe it is 89.

You will see that I'm using the same capacitor in the MSD to charge the primary of the ignition coil and it is simultaneously being used as the low voltage source that goes through a diode to the top of a plug.

Did you purchase my Ignition Secrets package? I have a lot of videos in there showing a lot of bench tests where a single cap is used to charge the primary and is also used to jump the gap through the diode. Not sure why you would have any doubts - there is a ton of evidence in that package.

Yes I've bought your ignition secrets package, as well as scoured all the other stuff available that isn't in the package. I see where there are experiments done with just attaching from the positive to the coil, through the diode, then to the coil wire and it worked there. That's what I've done, in the interest of expediency at the dyno, becuase I was only there as a courtesy guest for a friends valuable dyno time. I didn't want to eat up half his day trying to get my stuff working.

I'm still curious why when the ignition is on, the MSD is not charging the coil, but it starts and runs on the engine. If there is no power at the orange coil wire, how can there be any cap power to transmit to the plugs. Also, apparently I was scavenging too much power from the cap, to charge the coil when it did trigger to the coil, that the coil would not charge enough to get any spark to the plugs, as it would not start, nor would the timing light pick up any spark to #1 plug.

I see many tests that show the system running normally first, then adding the plasma ignition... Is it possible that the engine must also be operational, before adding the plasma... If that's the case, this is going to make my future experimentation much more difficult in changing fuel compositions and mixture ratios.

I'm sure the MSD 6AL and your street fighter are using the same schematics, the only difference is going to be in the quality of components used, therefore, I wonder why the orange positive wire to the coil isn't getting any signal. Have you experienced such a delimma? This is on a system using the violet/green trigger wire to a MSD distributor.

[Aaron Murakami]

Yes I've bought your ignition secrets package, as well as scoured all the other stuff available that isn't in the package. I see where there are experiments done with just attaching from the positive to the coil, through the diode, then to the coil wire and it worked there. That's what I've done, in the interest of expediency at the dyno, becuase I was only there as a courtesy guest for a friends valuable dyno time. I didn't want to eat up half his day trying to get my stuff working.

I'm still curious why when the ignition is on, the MSD is not charging the coil, but it starts and runs on the engine. If there is no power at the orange coil wire, how can there be any cap power to transmit to the plugs. Also, apparently I was scavenging too much power from the cap, to charge the coil when it did trigger to the coil, that the coil would not charge enough to get any spark to the plugs, as it would not start, nor would the timing light pick up any spark to #1 plug.

I see many tests that show the system running normally first, then adding the plasma ignition... Is it possible that the engine must also be operational, before adding the plasma... If that's the case, this is going to make my future experimentation much more difficult in changing fuel compositions and mixture ratios.

I'm sure the MSD 6AL and your street fighter are using the same schematics, the only difference is going to be in the quality of components used, therefore, I wonder why the orange positive wire to the coil isn't getting any signal. Have you experienced such a delimma? This is on a system using the violet/green trigger wire to a MSD distributor.

The Datsun video answers your speculation. It shows you that the engine does not have to be running first in order to then switch on the plasma. You can start the car with plasma - otherwise, it's not as practical. I connect the diodes and then start the car right up in the video. What people are doing is running the engine with normal cap discharge ignition then switching on plasma simply to show the difference - not because it needs to be running first.

Another engine starting right up with the diode connected:

I don't think the difference between the Street Fire and 6AL is quality of parts. The main difference is that it has a more robust charger to charge a cap that has about 35% more joules of potential energy than the one in the in the Street Fire. 6AL is 135mj and Street Fire is about 89mj. 6AL just a much stronger unit.

If you have the 6AL connected and the orange wire is connected to the + of the primary of the ignition coil, there obviously is power there because you say so yourself that it starts and runs the engine. If there was no cap charging and discharging (positive of cap connecting to + of primary with orange wire), it would not start and run the engine.

How are you scavenging too much power from the cap? There is a sequence to the events and it is impossible to take too much from the cap that would prevent it from starting or running the engine. Why? Because the cap discharges to the primary of the ignition coil FIRST. SECOND, the cap will only discharge through the diode and over the gap IF and ONLY IF it gets a spark. If there is no spark, the potential in the cap just sits there because there is no place for it to go. The gap is just an open circuit to the cap until there is a spark. The ignition coil will only take the bare minimum needed to make spark strong enough to conduct the cap over it so in that sense, it is self regulated so that you always get most of the cap to go over the gap automatically.

Please elaborate on this: "Also, apparently I was scavenging too much power from the cap, to charge the coil when it did trigger to the coil, that the coil would not charge enough to get any spark to the plugs, as it would not start, nor would the timing light pick up any spark to #1 plug." if that happened when you connected the diodes and it wouldn't start, etc. my guess is you have the diodes pointing in the wrong direction. Look at the picture below. The diode in that direction only works if the HV output from the ignition coil is POSITIVE. If it is negative, you have to reverse that diode.



The experiments showing a diode from primary + to the top of the HV output of the coil is just for a bench test demo or for a single spark plug engine such as my Champion Generator video above. I was the first ever to do that proving you can use the cap for both the primary power source and the LV source to jump the gap.

[Aaron Murakami]

I had posted this video much earlier on my original channel that YouTube banned without explanation. This is on my Energetic Forum channel that I haven't used in years. This was my indisputable proof that everyone claiming the plasma effect came from the inverter was false. I charge the cap with rectified ac output to 160 volts, remove it completely from the inverter output and then attach it to the primary of the ignition coil and we get plasma with the diodes connected from primary + directly to the top of the ignition coil hv output.

Then Peter came up with the 555 relay circuit to help me automate that connect to power > disconnect/isolate > connect to ignition coil > repeat. If you put a diode to the top of the ignition coil primary and you have a distributor cap, if the plasma even happens, you're going to get it not only at the plugs but between the rotor in the distributor cap and the terminals for each plug, which will wear then down quicker. That is another reason for just bypassing everything and putting the cap through diodes directly to the tops of the plugs.

[Gary Hammond]

Hi Aaron,

I remember when you first posted this video.

My question is a little off topic, but I'm curious. How far have you gotten now to being totally off grid?

Another engine starting right up with the diode connected:

[Aaron Murakami]

Hi Aaron,

I remember when you first posted this video.

My question is a little off topic, but I'm curious. How far have you gotten now to being totally off grid?

I haven't made much of an effort with the energy side of things.

I spent quite a bit on weatherization and insulation to hold on to the heat I make and keep out the heat I don't want. My home now has triple pane windows for the last couple years. This is an early 60's home with virtually no insulation. Last Sep or Oct, I had a company put expanding foam insulation into the entire envelope of my home. When they drilled holes into the outer walls after remove some siding, there was some 1 inch think fiberglass insulation that was sagging so it had zero function as insulation and in many places, there wasn't any at all! So the expanding foam did wonders - was very easy to feel a difference and the heating bill dropped. That was over $20k for windows and the insulation but those are the two most important updates before focusing on any energy related things. I already have LED lighting and other basic things to drop my energy consumption.

I also had a Clopay (I think) garage door in a few years back to replace the wood door with R1 insulation value. The Clopay polyurethane ones has R19 for the same thickness. That was one of the biggest differences. Before that, any water in the garage froze solid in the winter. Now, nothing freezes and even with sub freezing temps, the garage has never dropped below 45F, which is very warm compared to below freezing in the garage.

The ROI was not even a consideration for me on the windows, insulation, garage door, etc. because freedom is more important to me and I'm willing to pay for it.

The philosophy in the Home Energy Savings Guide we published (formerly known as Save on Home Energy) is to focus on that first before the energy technologies. If I just did solar, then I'd need twice as many panels just to compensate for wasting half of it by having a home that is not properly insulated and sealed. Of course that is all boring stuff, but doing it the other way around makes no sense to dump half in waste. But now that the insulation is complete, I will focus on the energy production.

My heating system is gas fired boiler for hot water baseboard radiators. Heating is the biggest energy user so I'm sourcing air source heat pumps and there aren't many options here in North America. Common in Europe and Asia, but of course we're always the last to get the real solutions. I'm on a mountain of basalt so geothermal isn't practical. I want air source heat pump augmented by solar water heaters out in my back yard down below the level of my tank so that the thermo-siphoning effect will always have the hot fluid rise for free so I won't even need a pump. The evacuated solar heat collector costs have really come down. Between an air source heat pump powered by electric and assisted with solar water heating, I won't need much electricity for hot water and heat. I found one company in Canada that makes them but they're really wimpy. I think more solutions will pop up soon.

My home is almost 3000 sq ft - split level home and I keep both floors heated to 70-71 degrees 24/7. That plus all my electric use with all the computers, etc. running 24/7, my biggest bill is around $250 per month - that includes gas and electric.

Only in the last couple years, as Peter and I predicted, almost every clothing dryer manufacturer now makes heat pump dryers that only use 1/3 of the electricity. That makes it more practical to power them with battery power and that was one of the concerns. I'm not interested in using clothes lines, etc... I want the convenience of a clothes dryer and now it won't be much of a burden.

By summer, my electrician friend will have a conduit setup between my garage and boiler room/breaker panel room with a transfer switch in there to go between grid power and battery backup. At the garage wall, I'll have a battery bank made of T105 Trojans - each is 6v 225ah and I'll run it at 12 volts maybe 24 at the most. I want batteries that I can actually handle if I have to remove one and these will do - same ones in my video of the Champion Generator. For the most part, I'm going to go solar since it is so inexpensive compared to the past. Once that is done, I'll look at isolating small systems dedicated to certain areas of the home like my shop, etc. to run on the Bedini 3 battery system with an efficient prime mover and low drag generator to power my loads and the battery bank will keep itself charged up. The solar will then only be needed to to up the batteries to make up any of the losses, which will be minimal.

That is where I'm at with all of this anyway. The insulation was the biggest deal I needed done and that is finally over as of 5+ months ago or so I'm still on track.