Easy Guide To Clean Energy At Home
December 17, 2009 by Go Green Tips · Leave a Comment
If you wanted to introduce clean energy at home, which type of energy would you go for?
Would you know which would be the most efficient for your location and lifestyle, or how to apply it to your home?
In this simple guide to clean energy I will show you where to start, and how to discover what’s best for you!
Of course you can start little then build up your scope, or with confidence, you could just blast into a large project straight away. If you know nothing about clean energy at home then you could simply start by powering your garden shed or garage, but if you are confident enough, you can go completely off-grid!
But which type of energy should you use?
The clean energy choices for you would would be from…
* Solar
* Wind
* Geothermal
* Biodiesel
…which can be applied to your electricity supply, water heating, or space heating.
Solar energy can be applied to supply electricity, or domestic hot water.
Wind energy would be applied to supplying electricity.
Geothermal energy would be applied to supplying space heating.
Biodiesel is an alternate fuel that can be used in any oil-fired heating boiler (with modifications), or the family diesel powered car.
Solar Energy
To produce electricity, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels can be constructed by any DIYer for as little as $100, where the proprietry equivalent could be $300+. These are wired together with a charge controller, storage batteries and a power inverter to produce mains electricity.
The power provided in kilo-watts, depends directly on the quantity of PV panels utilized in the system. You can easily power the garden shed with a couple of panels, where an array of say 10 - 20 panels would be required to supply a small house.
Solar can be used at any latitude, but is obviously effective for a greater period of the year in a desert location than in say Illinois or Montana.
Wind Energy
Wind turbines work well in low to medium strength winds. In gales they furl out to reduce the stresses on their component parts.
The main advantage over solar is that turbines produce electricity night and day. If your location has winds for much of the year then wind would be a suitable solution.
Wind and solar in a combined system have the ability to supply electricity for all but the unusual period when there is neither wind or sun.
Geothermal Energy
A few feet below surface level the ground is a constant temperature of between 10-12 °C (50-54°F), and this can be extracted and amplified using a heat pump to circulate fluid through underground pipes. Used in conjunction with an existing space heating system it will reduce heating bills considerably.
In addition, you can reverse the heat pump process in summer to circulate cooled water around the heating system to reduce the reliance on air conditioning.
Biodiesel
You take the waste product from restaurants or other biological oil using industry, then using a home processor, you convert it into biodiesel. It’s a double edged green winner, because you put to useful purpose an otherwise waste product, cut out buying the equivalent fossil derived product, and save a ton of money!
The biodiesel will run any car, tractor, truck or boat built after 1993 without modification. Alternatively it can run your oil-fired heating boiler with only a small modification to the burner.
Going Off-Grid
I have been living off-grid now for 5-years using an integrated solar and wind system to charge up a bank of storage batteries. This 24-volt supply is then inverted into mains electricity to supply the house.
In truth, there are occasions when I have to run a back-up generator, but it is a small expense compared with buying from the utility company. The generator would be perfect for using your home produced biodiesel!
If you don’t want the complication of a back-up generator, why not remain connected to the grid, but utilize an import/export meter. This way you can export the excess power you produce to the utility company, then when you have a shortfall of power, you simply import from the grid as usual.
This will save you a ton of money and may even put you in credit!
Fetch practical things to know about the topic of how to make money online - please make sure to read this page. The time has come when concise information is truly only one click of your mouse, use this chance.
Darkness Ahead-The Quest For Sustainable Power
November 4, 2009 by Go Green Tips · Leave a Comment
A looming danger is ahead, darkness everywhere, no electricity, no oil. What happens to us when oil runs out? Can you imagine nothing to fuel our cars, airplanes, tractors, a decline in farming, a decline in food production? The future seems gloom, everybody’s predicting that humanity itself will fall into decline. The richer countries siphoning of crops from third world countries to create bio-fuel; the third world countries slowly fading in hunger. We need to find sustainable power and we need it fast; our very existence depends upon it.
Solar Power
When we think of alternative energy resources, solar power immediately comes to mind. Evidently when we talk of solar power, we speak of harnessing the suns god given energy. This solar energy is transformed into electric current with the use of photovoltaics, concentrating solar power and other various technologies which are currently in the developmental and experimental stage. Solar energy works well for domestic electricity supply.
Wind Power
Employed for ages with remnants of its bygone past still evident in Northwestern Europe, the Wind Mill is making a come back. The best thing about the power of the wind is that it can never be depleted. It is natural, all around us and all we have to do is construct wind farms and then everything’s done. Economically utilizing the power of the wind makes sense. It literally has no maintenance and overhead costs.
Tropical countries use hydroelectricity as their source of power, using the waters gravitational force which comes from a high source. This is a great alternative for energy, it is a whole lot cheaper and it is environmentally safe because hydroelectric plants do not emit dangerous substances in the air nor the waters. It is pure nature. Fossil fuel driven power plants emit dangerous gases into the air while plants that are hydroelectrically driven are proven to emit a much lesser degree of greenhouse grass.
Nuclear Energy
Another source of alternative energy is nuclear energy. Nuclear energy together with other kinds of nuclear technology can harness energy. Nuclear reactors can generate steam energy by heating the water thus converting water into steam and then converting the steam into electricity. Nuclear energy are widely used in vessels and ships from all over the world.
Geothermal Power
Geothermal power is the heat that is being amassed down below from the earth’s surface. This is another way of making conventional power than that of fossil driven plants which is very much costly. This power is much feasible and also another environmental friendly alternative source of power driven by nature itself.
One big geothermal plant can power up to one whole urban community, supplying all the power it needs while a small geothermal plant can power up a small village and small buildings. One good thing about natural sources such as this one is that a geothermal power plant does not harm the air or the ozone layer because they do not emit poisonous gasses while in operation.
Using any of these alternative power sources can help us and the earth as well. It is cost effective and they are much less harmful to the earth. Using bio-fuel and using alternative power sources can be a way to save the earth and this is the future of our world.
To learn how to reduce your electricity bills by 70-80%, visit: home made solar power. With the help of home made solar power you can not only fulfill your energy requirement but also make some money from it. Read more at home made solar power.
Life Without Sustainable Power
November 4, 2009 by Go Green Tips · Leave a Comment
What happens when the oil prices and production costs get too high? What if our fossil fuel supply runs out? What will happen then? Actually, to fully appreciate sustainable power, these aren’t the only questions we should ask. Perhaps we should inquire: Where does 20% of our electricity supply come from? How are far off towns furnished with power? You see sustainable energy is not just for the future, it is here, it is now.
The Real Deal
The thing about sustainable energy is that it arouses debates from politicians, NGO’s, advocates and opponents all have certain grounds for saying that sustainable works or is a bad thing after all. Perhaps we should begin by defining what sustainable power is. When we say sustain it means to support, uphold, to keep from falling. So when we say sustainable power it means energy with unending resources. In the case of today sustainable energy means endless resources fro power supply without the harmful effects on the environment.
Its Not Sustainable It’s the Alternate
In all reality it is not sustainable energy that precipitates the conflict. It is the “alternate source” of energy that is the root of all things that create conflict. A lot of people argue that alternate energy resources are simply too new a resource fuelled by technology for it to be really said that it is indeed safe.
What is more, some authorized people on the matter of energy say that alternate energy resources are simply not powerful enough to cope with the demands of the world. No matter which way we argue alternate energy resources are part of sustainable power and sustainable power means we live the humans live on as a species; were not supposed to die or else it is useless for use to look for ways to improve ourselves. After all isn’t future the reason for our continued quest to be better and more environmentally aware?
Its Here, There, Everywhere
Alternate energy resources derived naturally have been employed as early as the time of the pharaohs. Today alternate energy resources are scattered all around the world. From the richest countries to the third world nations. In northwester Europe wind farms are abundant. The Philippines, New Zealand, Kenya, Iceland, Germany, Canada, Turkey, Mexico, and even the states make use of geothermal plants to supply a portion of their electricity. Hydropower so popular in the US and in china are used to generate enough electricity to power small towns and help power the enormous electrical consumption of a city like Las Vegas.
Its Now and It Can’t Be Denied
If you think that earth is already polluted and in peril, then imagine what if thousands of years ago our ancestors all used fossil fuels and burned coals for every energy need they have? History says that with every development and discovery man makes, the earth gets polluted every day. So there must have been that one thing that slowed it down a bit.
Remember the great smog of London where over 8,000 people died? Well that happened because they were experiencing unusually cold weather so they in turn consumed and lit up more coals, thereby fogging the air with smog. If alternate energy resources were never used we wouldn’t even be here today. So be thankful and be a supporter not only in words but in action as well.
To learn how to reduce your electricity bills by 70-80%, visit: home made solar power. With the help of home made solar power you can not only fulfill your energy requirement but also make some money from it. Read more at home made solar power.
