Does Solar Renewable Energy Work?

You've probably heard a lot from the "go green" movement which has swept the country into an environmental craze. While some people who are eager to see green renewable energy sources implemented on a wider scale would stretch the truth as to just how much you can benefit from it, it's important to be able to separate the myths from the truth.

The answer is yes, you can use solar renewable energy to power your home. Using solar cells which you can easily create in your own backyard over a weekend using a do it yourself guide which work just as well as solar cells which you could have professionally installed for a much greater price, you can convert sunlight into natural electricity. The process is simple enough to grasp. As photons on the rays of sunlight come down and are absorbed by the silicon in the cell. The electrons are shaken free from their atoms and are then dispersed through the cell to form usable natural electricity. The addition of a generator allows you to store this natural electricity so that you can keep power supplied to your home, even during lulls in service such as the middle of the night.

Many people not only run their homes on this natural electricity, but they also create surplus amounts of it to sell back to the power company for a profit. If they've got some free land to devote towards it, they make a nice second income this way. You can do this, as well, just on a smaller scale. It's really up to you as to how many solar cells you create and how much space you have on your home or in your yard to implement it. Using a do it yourself guide you can make as many as you want, you can even build some for your friends or family, or even sell them to other people.

The average family spends roughly $2500 on electricity each year. If you'd like to save that much by easily tapping solar renewable energy and creating your own natural electricity, visit http://www.renewableenergyreviewed.com to learn more about the leading do it yourself guides on the market and start saving today.

All About Renewable Energy Sources & Their Effectiveness

Renewable energy is an energy generated from the natural sources. It includes wind, solar, tides and geothermal energy. This kind of energy is pollutant free and environmental friendly. The rapid decline of non renewable energies like petroleum, coal and natural gas have made us look for better energy sources. The renewable energy is fast growing industry with an investment capital of over $100 billion in 2006. There are different kinds of renewable energies. This article gives a brief idea of each of the resources.

Wind energy

Wind energy can be used to run the turbines to produce electricity. Their lots of wind farms located over the world to generate electricity up to 5MW. The output of the turbine depends on the speed of the wind, the higher the speed the more the electricity that is produced. So these windmills are set up in those places with high wind speed like mountain tops or sea coasts.

Water power

Energy from the water can be derived in many ways. They are through salinity gradient, kinetic energy of water, temperature difference. The moving water in the river is used to rotate turbines to produce electricity. These can be done by constructing hydro electric dams. Water is made to fall from a height at a high pressure to give a high kinetic energy.

Solar energy

Solar energy is the energy produced from the sun. The rays of the sun are made to fall on solar panel to generate electricity. The output of the power depends on the amount of sunlight concentration and the composition of the solar panel. This energy is growing at high pace becoming popular with lot of households. The energy of the sun can be used to heat water in the homes using solar water heater or even cook food with solar cooker.

Did you know that you can easily start using renewable energy sources yourself? Simply build your own windmill or solar panels, and you are done! Click here for step-by-step instructions and more info.

How to Start Using the Earth For Energy

Using the earth for energy is probably the best way of saving money on energy. Why? Because it eliminates the need to rely on your utility company for energy and allows you to produce your own source of natural energy. By utilizing the earth for energy you can start saving 80% or more on your energy bill every single month which means hundreds of dollars in savings. What would you do with all of that extra cash? Using the earth as an energy source is also easier than ever because of new technological advancements in the field of green energy. How can you get started? Let's find out...

There is no denying that using the earth as an energy source is the best way to save on energy. Unfortunately, many people are unaware of the potential that our earth holds. This is truly sad because it is now incredibly easy to take advantage of the earth for power. How? Just by using a DIY green energy guide.

A DIY green energy guide provides every step of the process of making your own natural power source and it puts it into one place. This means that the process of using the earth for power will be both quick and easy. In just two days time you can create your own source of wind or solar power and start saving a ton of cash on your electricity for the rest of your life. The possibilities are endless when it comes to the earth as your own energy source.

Would you be interested if I told you that for less than $50 you could build your own wind turbine or solar panel system in just two days? If so, then just click the link below. You do want to save hundreds of dollars every month by using the earth for energy, right?

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Build Green For the Environment

Sustainable, or green building, is a structure that is designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in an ecological and resource-efficient manner. Green building plans are designed to meet certain objectives and use key resources such as using materials, energy, water, and other resources more efficiently while reducing the overall impact to the environment. By utilizing more natural light, better air quality, wind turbines, solar panels, insulation alternatives, and water storage tanks, a well designed home will contribute to improved efficiency, health, and comfort in your home.

Green Building Financial Benefits

Typically, a green building will cost more up front, but saves through lower energy costs over the life of the building. The up-front expenditure will be absorbed over time by the project life cycle cost analysis. The benefits include energy and water savings, reduced waste, and lower operation and maintenance costs.

These and other cost savings can only be fully realized when they are incorporated at the project's conceptual design phase with the assistance of an integrated team of professionals. The integrated systems approach ensures that the building is designed as one system rather than a collection of stand-alone systems.

Even with a tight budget you can incorporate many green building measures which can be incorporated with minimal or zero increased up-front costs and they can yield enormous savings over the project life.

Site Selection

Start by selecting a site well suited to take advantage of solar exposure, and suitable area for the size of building proposed to minimize disturbance of the environment to protect and retain existing landscaping and natural features. A custom home plan can be set partially into the ground which helps to cool the building in the summer, and in the winter once you get below the frost line the temperature is constant year-round and tends to be warmer than the air outside. Protect and retain existing landscaping and natural features. Select plants that have low water and pesticide needs, and generate minimum plant trimmings. Use compost and mulches. This will save water and time. Water can be collected from the roof in cisterns for landscape irrigation.

Reducing Energy Consumption

Buildings have the potential to reach energy efficiency levels exceeding far beyond California Title 24 standards, yet most only strive to meet the standard due to upfront costs.

Passive design strategies can dramatically affect building energy performance. These measures include window placement, building placement and orientation, passive solar design, and the use of natural lighting. By orienting a building toward the south(running it east-west), and creating significant southern exposure , you can take advantage of the sun's energy to heat a building in the winter. When sunlight hits a buildings mass or enters through the windows it passively heats the building and the air inside by not using mechanical means such as solar panels.

Install high-efficiency lighting systems with advanced lighting controls. Include motion sensors tied to dimmable lighting controls. Task lighting reduces general overhead light levels.

Use a properly sized and energy-efficient heat/cooling system in conjunction with a thermally efficient building shell. Maximize light colors for roofing and wall finish materials; install high R-value wall and ceiling insulation such as spray-in foam; and use minimal glass on east and west exposures.

Consider alternative energy sources such as photovoltaics and fuel cells that are now available in new products and applications. Geothermal heating and cooling is the most energy efficient and cost effective way to heat and cool your building, and it can take care of all your domestic hot water needs at the same time. Geothermal systems use the heat of the earth underground to heat water that is in turn used to heat the building, or in the summer to dump the heat from a building underground to cool it.

Material effectiveness

Select sustainable construction materials and products by evaluating several characteristics such as reused and recycled content, zero or low off gassing of harmful air emissions, zero or low toxicity, sustainably harvested materials, high recyclability, durability, longevity, and local production.

Water Efficiency

It is fairly easy to implement simple systems for recycling and reusing water on your own property, drastically decreasing the demands on shared supplies, and in turn, reducing your water bill.

Design for dual plumbing to use recycled water for toilet flushing or a gray water system that recovers rainwater or other nonpotable water for site irrigation.

Minimize wastewater by using ultra low-flush toilets, low-flow shower heads, and other water conserving fixtures. Use re-circulating systems for centralized hot water distribution and install point-of-use hot water heating systems for more distant locations.

Kenneth Wittels is a successful Engineer and Building Designer, primarily focused on structural design of homes in mountainous areas with heavy snow loading and seismic concerns. To view more projects related to this subject visit:

http://homecustomplans.com

Using Wind Energy to Protect the Earth & Save Money

Wind power can be used for many purposes, but more commonly it is used for electricity generation. In the ancient times, wind power was used to propel sail boats and ships, was used to pump water and grind grains using the windmill. It's the easiest form renewable energy available today. It's also pollutant free.

There are many different ways for wind energy to be used, but today it's mainly used for electricity generation. The reason why it is so common is because it's both good for the environment and helps to save money. These devices are used to convert the kinetic energy of the wind into mechanical energy. The turbines are rotated using the wind energy, which is connected to a dynamo which produces electricity. This is the basic working of the windmill for producing electricity.

The main factor for producing electricity from windmills is the speed of the wind. This determines the rotation speed of the turbine, which in turn gives the amount of electricity produced. The windmill power station does not have consistent output power due to the fact the wind speed is not constant all the time. Due to this latest technologies have to be used to setup wind farms in those areas that have the highest constant wind speed. The Rayleigh model can be used to determine the hourly wind speeds at a location.

Electricity produced is normally feed into national electric power transmission grid. The individual turbines are interconnected with each other through medium voltage power collection system and communication network. This voltage is stepped up to higher voltage using a transformer at a substation and transferred.

Individuals can reduce their dependence on either diesel power sources or power grid for electricity for the domestic purpose by using small scale wind power. It's a set of system which generates up to 50 kW of power. This can be purchased by individuals to reduce their carbon footprint.

Wind power is definitely a great renewable energy source, and if you are still not making your own electricity using this technology, then you are wasting time and money. It's easy to make a windmill, and with relevant instructions you don't even need any experience. Click here to find out more about how to get started.

To Reuse Or to Recycle?

Recycling comes with hidden costs. Sometimes those costs are higher than you think. On nearly every level of government from the federal all the way down to local, there is usually some form of recycling law or mandate. Several states, in fact, have gone as far as to require home recycling. But, as people become more educated with our collective impact on the environment, are we continuing to put an undue emphasis on recycling at the detriment of the other two modern recycling rudiments? Are we recycling when we should instead be reducing or simply reusing?

It would be foolish to claim that recycling is not an important part of the collective good that is conservation. Without the established recycling infrastructure, millions of tons of otherwise reusable materials would end up being buried in landfills or incinerated away to ash. If that number, millions of tons, sounds a little large, here's a smaller sample for you. In the 2005-2006 school year (the most recent available) Tufts University recycled 737 tons of cardboard and paper and 132 tons of bottles and cans. The reduction from one university is a good means to show how recycling collectively can have a dramatic reduction in the total amount of waste. Not too shabby.

Or is it? Yes, millions of tons of what would otherwise be refuse have been diverted from landfills around the nation. And judging from a quick walk down the paper isle of your local office supply store, a fair share of materials are making their way back to the market. And the use of recycled materials helps qualify somewhat for that second environmental pillar, "reuse." Somewhat, but perhaps not enough.

Let's take a look at the recycling process for your average aluminum can. After your can is picked up from either your curbside bin or the local disposal center, that can is handed off down a supply chain that varies in length based on bidders and geographical conditions. At some point, last night's can is ground up or shredded into chips. Those chips and grinds are then smelted down into molten metal and then formed into either bars or ingots that can be resold. Frequently these materials come back to us in the form of new parts of larger devices or new soda cans.

As you can see, the process from old aluminum can to new aluminum can involves a great deal of transportation and processing. While the volume of materials being transported at once can reduce the overall carbon burden of the process, the sheer act of recycling can have an unforeseen negative impact on the environment like increasing the dependence on ethanol has on the price of food. This causes one to think of the environmental savings of using an item constructed with post-production content not only in the initial resources it saved, but also in the energy and carbon that were otherwise expended to save the resources.

When small, easy to break down items like cans and newspapers are recycled and the materials are reused, the energy and carbon expenditures are relatively small due to the sheer volume of the materials. But what about larger items like computers, refrigerators, or cars? The resources required in collecting, moving, and breaking these devices down into raw materials that can be smelted and then reused is both intensive and costly, so much so that it's rarely done.

Thankfully, this is one instance where probability wins out. When an aluminum can is empty, the point of failure is obvious. When a fridge or car is considered junk, failure isn't always so certain. Large, complex devices have a multitude of parts, any number of which could have been the reason for failure. What didn't cause the failure, however, is likely to still be usable. As these large devices are built on the Ford concept of interchangeable parts, there is likely a built-in market for that part. What's more, these parts are premade, so once they are cleaned up and quality inspected, they are essentially ready to be resold, all without the resource and energy expenditures required to return these items to refined materials and then remanufacture them.

The lesson seems to be that going green is not as simple as the phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" makes it out to be. Recycling has its own inherent costs, and what makes sense for cans does not necessarily make sense for cars. Sometimes, it's reuse before recycle.

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Build Solar Panels on Your Home - Solar Panels, Savings You Can Count

There has been a lot of people wanting to know how to build solar panels recently. As we've all seen in the past couple of years, the price of energy is skyrocketing, especially with oil prices reaching record levels almost every week. This economic pressure has begun to show itself as interest in building solar panels has also increased. To tell you the truth, learning how to build solar panels is not difficult at all.

There are two types of solar panels that are commonly used in residential areas, the solar hot water heating panel and the photovoltaic, electricity producing panel.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the photovoltaic type of panel. Solar hot water panels can greatly reduce the amount of energy your household needs by taking care of your water heating needs. Although they are outside the scope of this piece, it goes without saying that if your household uses less electricity, the smaller (and cheaper) your photovoltaic array will need to be.

The easiest way to experience how to build solar panels is to buy a kit which will have all of the materials you need and tools to assemble the panel(s). The usual set-up for photovoltaic includes solar cells, tabs to connect them, solder and flux to adhere the tabs and a soldering iron to melt the solder and hold it all together.

First, choose a site for the panel with a good exposure to as much of the sun's arc in the sky as you can without any interference from branches or wires and away from or above trees and buildings in your yard. If you can't use your rooftop, consider placing the panels on a mount, either a pole or a frame that will lift the panels about six feet or so off the ground. At this height, they will be less likely to be damaged by children, pets or other accidents like a small rock thrown from a lawn mower.

Build the solar panel by connecting a number of solar cells to one another (the amount varies by the size of your panel) in series by using the solder, flux and tabs. The amount of electricity you wish to generate will dictate the size and number of panels you need to put together.

There are many reasons to consider building solar panels and not just because its cheaper than buying them pre-made. There are loads of 'feel-good reasons' as well:

• You can involve the whole family.
• Take pride of knowing you are part of the solution to global warming.
• Know that you can build solar panels for others.
• Reduce your electricity bill every month.
• Reduce your carbon footprint.
• You reduce the need for building new fossil fuel burning power plants.
• And, because you can build a larger array by doing the panel building yourself, you can create more energy than you use and get paid by your utility company (in some states).

Place the panel(s) in position and hook the whole thing up to your battery system, if your using one. Your batteries will collect any excess energy that you are not using for future, whether it is later in the day or even weeks from now.

Why is a battery system optional? There are many programs available where you tie directly into the grid and sell any excess power back to the utility as it is generated. This varies by locality. The positive aspect to this type of system is eliminating the need, expense and hassle of a bank of batteries but the negative is that you have no store of energy should the power go out.

Check with your local energy provider and state energy department because you should be able to sell all your excess energy back to the utility company. Some states have excellent rebates and programs set up just for this. This varies by locality.

With a large enough array (which you don't have to do all at once) and smart, energy efficient choices around the house, you could be running your solar panels at a profit every day.

A friend of mine on Long Island, NY, discovered that the new solar panels on his roof will recoup their costs in less than 18 months, not the three to seven years it was projected. When you think how cloudy the northeast U.S. is, that's a great deal.

Get the information you need to do solar right. Avoid costly mistakes with your solar energy system. Visit SolarPanelsForHomeUse.com for all the information you need in setting up your solar panel array.