Click to download the ODSS Energy Trailer Fact Sheet. Below you will find a mostly factual account of the creation of the ODSS Energy Trailer as told by Jay 'the trailer kid' Knox

It was a cold day in March, and finally a years worth of thoughts and ideas would come into fruition. Randy Dryburgh, being the former English teacher, was the first to start conversation as they walked into the tech room of the school.

"So! Who's ready to have some fun?" Randy said excitedly. The high school students, not yet knowing that they were about to take part in one of the greatest projects in history, acted sluggishly at first. But after working on the project with the pair, soon took a liking to Randy's jokes and Steve's relaxed attitude. The funding and supplies were sponsored by Orangeville Hydro and a lot of support was given by many of the O.D.S.S teachers. The project was finally completed at the end of the semester; all who were involved looked up and saw what they had created, and each one shed a tear.

BEHOLD! THE REDUCE THE JUICE ENERGY TRAILER!

The Reduce the Juice Energy Trailer has been showing off its glory ever since. The trailer was an idea that the Reduce the Juice Organization had been tossing around after their success in Shelburne the year before. One of the two objectives of the Reduce the Juice Project is to develop educational programs in high schools that promote and teach students about renewable energy sources. The trailer was a good idea in Orangeville because the science classes could better understand circuits and energy conversion and the tech classes could maintain and add different things onto the trailer and the trailer is also being used by the Reduce the Juice student auditors at local events to help educate interested people and promote the Reduce the Juice Project.

The trailer consists of four 175 Watt solar panels and a 400 Watt wind turbine producing 1.1 kilowatts of power at peak performance (enough energy to run a middle sized home's appliances excluding the dishwasher, dryer and washing machine). The trailer also has four 6 volt deep discharge batteries which store unused energy for later use so that during the night when there is no sun, or when the wind isn't blowing, the energy can be used. The trailer's other parts are a DC to AC converter, an AC breaker panel, a DC breaker panel, a monitor that shows the amount of energy being produced and a system charge controller that ensures that the batteries do not overcharge. The total cost of the whole system is around $13,000 which is quite an undertaking for a person's home. The most conventional use for a system like this would be for people who have cottages and are looking to go completely off Ontario's energy grid. Of course anyone could buy any of these components from a local hardware store and put them on their home. In fact having a lot of people with renewable energy sources on their homes would certainly help the environment. The most important thing to remember about renewable energy is that conservation must come first.