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!
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What Is Pellet Fuel, Wood Pellets And Pellet Mill
November 12, 2009 by Go Green Tips · Leave a Comment
Not that many people are aware of fuel pellets. The current most popular forms of energy, which are fossil fuel based, must be replaced with sustainable alternatives. A sustainable resource is one which can be used at the current levels of consumption and future consumption levels without depleting resources. This also therefore indicates resources which can either rapidly replace them selves or there is an abundant source of that energy. Solar, wind, wave and geothermal are types of energy where they almost always available and are abundant. The only issues with these forms of sustainable energy is are they enough to meet our total energy demands, the costs to collect the energy and times when the energy isn’t available. Due to these issues we have to construct an energy future which includes these forms of alternative energy, but also includes a resource which can cultivate and grow, which is biomass. Biomass is any living or recently dead organic mater which can be used for fuel, this obviously includes wood, however it also includes so much more. By upgrading biomass into pellets, pellet fuel is created. Pellet fuel is ideal for automatic hopper feed systems which are found in stoves and boilers. Pellet fuel is a highly compressed form of the original raw material and as such its increased density has several advantages.
Learn more about Fuel Pellets
Wood Pellets are a form of pellet fuel. The increased density of a wood pellet compared to say loose sawdust or even wood logs is the reason they burn so well and work well in feed hoppers. Wood pellets are all a similar length and diameter and also due to their density they flow like a liquid and are ideal for hopper systems unlike loose low-density sawdust, which will get blocked up in the hopper. The increased density of the wood pellets also means a much higher combustion efficiency is achieved compared to uncompressed wood. This means less smoke, less ash and more heat from less fuel.
Read more about Wood Pellet Mill
Wood pellets are processed via a pellet mill. First the wood is put through a chipper then a hammer mill to reduce its size. The wood dust is then dried and then pre-heated before it enters the pellet mill to aid lignin melting. Once the wood enters the pellet mill it is compressed between a set of rollers compressing the wood through a die.
More information on Pellets Mill
How Do You Find Renewable Energy?
November 6, 2009 by Go Green Tips · Leave a Comment
We already know that the use of electricity, gas and coal are all resources that we may eventually run out of. These are the non-renewable resources that we rely heavily on today. We use these non-renewable resources to do many things, including supplying us with power, heating our homes, businesses and schools and more. When we use all the non-renewable resources up and there are no more to gather, then what? How will we go without the convenience that we are so accustomed to? It’s nice to flip a switch to get power and it is even better when the latest technology allows us to press a button to do all the things that women and men had to work for hours to accomplish. We are fortunate to live in a world with so many modern gadgets. Unfortunately when we lose it we may be so accustomed to the modern perks that we will not know what to do when we don’t have them any longer.
What we have to rely on in the future is renewable resources. These resources are all resources that offer us an abundant supply and will never run out. They recharge and allow us to enjoy them again and again. The renewable resources consist of Solar, Wind, Biomass, Hydrogen, Geothermal, Ocean, and Hydropower We need all of these and right now we have access to each one of them. What do they do and how do they help us with solar power? Let’s find out.
Solar refers to the solar energy that we get everyday either directly or indirectly from the sun. Solar energy can be used for several things, such as heating, electricity to home, schools, businesses, or buildings, heating water, cooling and ventilation.
Wind helps the suns heat down to earth. When the wind combines with the heat of the sun, it causes evaporation. When the water turns into precipitation it produces energy that can then be captured by hydropower.
Hydropower takes energy from flowing water and captures it turning it into electricity. Hydropower is very complicated and requires a great deal of technology in order to successfully accumulate energy from water.
Biomass is an organic matter that can help to make up the plants. It can be used for the production of electricity, transport fuels or chemicals.
Hydrogen is the most abundant element found on earth, usually with other elements. If hydrogen is found alone it can be burned or converted into electricity.
Geothermal looks toward the inner parts of the earth for heat and can be used for power, heating, and cooling.
Ocean produces thermal energy using the heat from the sun. It can also use mechanical energy for the tides and waves.
As you can see the renewable resources are all around us. We know what they do and how we can use them. There are so many benefits to using renewable resources. If we don’t use them now we may not have a choice later. The knowledge we learn from today will help us use the energy more wisely.
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