CarbonFeet

I am sure that you would like to come off the electricity grid. Who would not like to put a stop to those growing monthly bills? The trouble is that no one is stepping up to the plate to tell us how to do it. Politicians are just starting to ring the alarm bells even though they have known about the predicted oil shortage for decades – just as we all have.

The difference is that we are not being paid to make the right decisions for the country like they are. We look to our elected representatives for leadership, but there is not much forthcoming. Yes, there are a few subsidies available for the installation of alternative energy sources, but they will only benefit the middle and upper classes who can afford them anyway. They will also benefit the firms that sell these goods, because they will get their asking price from the state, which will pay with poor people’s taxes. Great!

Where are the government hand-outs (not money) informing people how they can assemble and install their own solar panels and wind turbines without having to make somebody else rich by doing it? Surely, if the government were serious about sustainable energy, it would have worked out a way to allow average people to help themselves?

You can actually build a very effective wind turbine from scrapyard parts and components from a DIY store like Radio Shack. But no politician is telling you that. They want you to spend $45,000 on a green system and even better if you put it on your credit card or overdraft.

The reason why you should consider completing your own wind turbine is that you can probably get the parts for less than $500. It sounds like a massive saving and believe me, it is, but you will have to do a lot of work to carry out yourself, instead of lying back and watching a contractor do it for you. But I should imagine that you realized that already, eh?

I know that ‘building your own wind turbine’ sounds fantastic, out of the normal person’s capabilities, but in a way that is because we have become too focused. When asked your job, you might say that you are a data enterer of a maths teacher, a miner or a writer, but that is NOT all that you are and certainly not all that you could be.

Take a deep breath and buy some plans to build a wind turbine or, if that is too daunting a solar panel. Believe me, once you have built one, the next one is far simpler and the icing on the cake, is when your energy device is standing there, hooked up to your home power supply and giving you a bit of independence from the grid.

It will inspire you to make another one and become even more independent and, who knows, you may even stop what you are doing now and build units for your neighbours. you may become an eco-warrior!

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite topic – alternative power sources. If you are interested in Sustainable Energy At Home, please click through to our site.

categories: energy,global warming,climate change,alternative,sustainable,solar power,wind power,home,health,technology,science,other,uncategorised,fuel

Free energy … What a dream, eh? One of the biggest household burdens is the cost of energy. The cost of energy is often 40% of total domestic bills. So, free energy would assist every family that is not rich a great deal. However, free energy is a pipe dream, is it not? There is alternative energy, that is non fossil fuel based energy, like nuclear energy, but that is not low-cost either.

Other alternative sources of energy are wind-driven turbines and solar power. In this piece, I want to talk about harnessing the power of the sun to make solar electricity. Creating solar power is nothing new and most people are acquainted with the general theory of how the system works. In deed, most of us have owned a solar powered pocket calculator or solar powered clock at one time or another.

Solar electricity is just as good and just as strong as traditionally generated electricity and they can be used for precisely the same reasons. However, solar energy has one huge benefit, it is not ‘dirty’.

Electricity produced from the sun’s energy has not been produced creating any greenhouse gases whatsoever. Furthermore, because there are no moving parts in a solar panel, there is no wear and tear and so less repairs.

Solar panel systems are more flexible too. For instance, if you have a small home with couple of appliances, you still have to have the same system of delivering grid electricity as a huge house and you still need a metering system and a means of paying for the electricity used.

However, if you take the same small house as an example, you might find that ten solar panels will run it. Therefore, for a one-off expense, you are free of electricity pylons and their cables, the meter box and the monthly bills. A huge house would just have to fit more panels, say one hundred, to achieve the same freedom.

This freedom from the instruments of delivering electricity is a very real benefit if you live in a far-flung place, where you are expected to pay for the electricity pylons and their cables all on your own. The down side of using solar power is the cost of setting it up. A professionally fitted solar energy system can cost about $30,000.

If you save $200 per month on electricity, then you will recoup your expenditure in about 300 months, which is 12.5 years. However, if you could get the system installed more economically, you would recoup your costs more quickly.

This is possible, by assembling the solar panels yourself and installing them yourself. No matter what sort of a klutz you think you are, you can assemble and install the average solar panel kit. In fact, most teenagers can do the job. If you decide to buy solar panel kits to assemble yourself, you can save about half of the above costs, but if you were to make the panels from parts that are easily available in DIY shops, you could be harnessing the power of the sun to make solar energy for up to 75% of the cost of a professional installation.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, types of renewable energy. If you are interested in Sustainable Energy At Home, please click through to our site.

It is almost high noon on the energy front. Oil, the substance that is used to produce most of the world’s electricity is becoming too dear to use to produce electricity for home consumption. Even if you think that there are lakes of oil left, which might be true, the main reason they have not been exploited yet is because it is too costly to get out. The only thing that makes it a viable concern is the high price of oil on the market.

Therefore, it stands to reason that oil prices cannot go down in the long term, which means that our electricity and petrol prices will stay high and will probably keep rising. Add to that the fact that manufacturing is moving to the Far East and the fact that immigration is increasing and the result is lower wages in the West. The probability is that the average national wage will not rise as rapidly as the cost of energy.

So what can you do about it? Well, while commodity prices are bound to keep increasing, one thing has always kept falling and that is the cost of new technology. Or to be more precise, slightly old technology. Cutting edge technology is always dear, but after a few years the price falls, as we saw with desktop computers and as we are seeing with laptop computers now.

The same trend is at work with solar panels. They are far cheaper now than they were a few years ago and they are far more responsive too. And did you know that the components that are used to make solar panels can be purchased from plastic bins at most DIY and hobbyist stores like Radio Shack? If you knew what to buy you could literally go out and bring back enough bits and pieces to make a few solar panels the next time you go out for a loaf of bread.

So why are we not doing it? We did not know that was feasible? Nobody told us? We are not technically minded? We do not have the expertise?

OK, all those reasons sound valid. Nobody has been telling us, but the fact is that it is easy to construct solar panels and not that dear any more. Professional installations are still dreadfully expensive – about $45,000 -, but you can do it yourself. There are two approaches you can take.

You can either get a schematic drawing, a plan, from a hobbyist shop or the Internet, buy the components and make your panel or you can buy a self-assembly kit. Really, there are kits about that teenagers can assemble as easily as they do a plastic model airplane. ‘Locate and insert part number 44 into the main board number 3′ – that sort of simple.

If you are new to the world of solar energy, then you may be wondering how solar energy panels work? Solar energy panels are also known as photovoltaic panels; photovoltaic meaning electricity from light. Solar energy panels work by collecting protons from the sun, which displace neutrons, and thereby generate a flow of electrons or electricity. This electricity can either be stored in batteries for later use or used directly.

You can use solar panels to heat your pool, run your workshop tools, power the greenhouse lights and fans or if your system is big enough, supplant grid electricity in your whole home or business. Most solar energy panels are intended to last upwards of 20 years but involve little to no looking after.

There is a drop-off of the power supply after about 10 years of about 10%, but over the life-time of the solar panels, the energy savings made are enough to recoup the original cost of the system and more. Furthermore, prices are tumbling while energy prices are increasing. It already makes economic sense to change to solar energy power.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, types of renewable energy. If you are interested in Sustainable Energy At Home, please click through to our site.

categories: energy,global warming,climate change,alternative,sustainable,solar power,wind power,home and family,health,technology,science,other,uncategorised,fuel