Posts Tagged ‘power’

The Cost Of Solar Energy

Solar energy is a natural source of energy that comes directly from the sun. When solar energy hits the earth it spreads over the earth’s surface and provides warmth evenly. If you could capture the sun’s rays into a particular area for a long period of time it would provide enough warmth for nighttime or on cloudy days. Learning where to find solar energy can help you to get started today. Solar energy does not cost anything because it comes from the sun. The source that you choose may cost some but in the long run it should be your only expense, unlike gas or oil heaters that you continue to pay for monthly in order to have power or gas heat in your home. Solar power can provide heating, cooling and ventilation.
If you want to make your own solar power to capture the energy for heating its easy to do if you can find a solar collector, which is anything that attracts the heat from the sun in a concentrated amount, such as glass or clear plastic. Getting into your car that has sat out in the hot sun all day long can be extremely hot and you have to roll down your windows to cool it off inside. That is because the glass has attracted the sun and the objects in your car, including your seats, have trapped the heat not allowing it to escape. When you roll your windows down you are allowing the heat to escape causing your car to cool down. The same thing is true about greenhouses. The glass or clear plastic can attract the sun and not allow it to escape causing the greenhouse to maintain the heat for the plants to grow effectively.
In order to heat your home using solar energy, you need to know the information on a passive and an active home. These two types of solar homes offer the homeowner options to choose from and your cost of heating may be down. Solar energy does not only heat your home but it also heats your water and if you use solar energy lights it can light your home at night.
Passive homes do not use any equipment to heat the home. Passive homes use windows that are made to allow the maximum amount of sunlight into your home. The sunlight is controlled by keeping the doors closed in the hottest part of the day not allowing any heat to escape. At night thick curtains may be used on these windows so that the warmth stays inside during the night. This allows the sun to naturally heat your home without any help.
Active homes do use equipment to help circulate the heat in the home. Some of the equipment that may be used includes pumps, blowers and an alternative heating source in case the sunlight was not enough during the daytime. In order to heat the home with sunlight these homes use special boxes on the outside that attract the sunrays to it. They are made from a dark colored metal to help attract the sun more. The water or air that is carried in the pipes and ductwork is heated by this glass box that has captured the sunlight. Then the heated water or air is then carried to the rest of the home.
In the long run, solar energy helps to heat the home naturally and without depending on a company to supply it for you. Solar energy can be found anywhere the sun is.  Mail this post

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Wind and Solar Power Systems: Design, Analysis, and Operation, Second Edition (Hardcover)

Review
– K.G. Craig, Journal of Environmental Quality, 2006Throughout the text, it is abundantly clear the author is a knowledgeable engineer with considerable experience in the diverse sciences and technologies that provide the foundations of wind and photovoltaic power generation. It is also obvious that he is an experienced teacher, because the presentations are technically accurate, well organized, effectively paced, and appropriately targeted for the mid- to upper-level undergraduate student with reasonable technical exposure and interest. I wish I could have had this book when I taught my own alternative energy classes to Mechanical Engineering undergraduates.

The search for clean, renewable energy sources has yield (more…)

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Solar Power Your Home For Dummies (For Dummies (Home & Garden)) (Paperback)

Want to take advantage of solar power in your home? Whether you’re looking to save on your energy costs by adding a few solar components or you want to build a solar-powered house from the ground up, Solar Power Your Home For Dummies takes the mystery out of this energy source and shows you how to put it to work for you! This friendly, hands-on guide is packed with tips for making your home more energy-efficient though solar power—and helping the planet at the same time. (more…)

Technorati Tags: Advantage, Build House, Dummies, Energy Costs, Energy Efficient, Energy Solar, Energy Source, Garden, home, Home Garden, Mystery, Paperback, power, solar, Solar Components, Solar House, Solar Power, Solar Powered, Your

Home Made Solar Energy

More and more people are turning to the home made energy kit way of life. Using the sun will become the norm, FREE electric! With rising fuel bills, the only answer is home made energy.

Use Solar Power to Save on Electricity Bills

How does solar power work and how can it save money plus why is everyone using solar.

Once a distant technology that just sat on roofs that a few green minded people used, solar power has become a trendy tool we can hold in our hands. Sunlight – solar energy – can be used to generate electricity, provide hot water, and to heat, cool, and light buildings.

A typical solar system will reduce the need for conventional water heating by about two-thirds. Often the plumbing from a solar heater connects to a houses existing water heater, which stays inactive as long as the water coming in is hot or hotter than the temperature setting on the indoor water heater. When it falls below this temperature, the homes water heater can kick in to make up the difference. Incorporating passive solar designs can reduce heating bills by as much as 50 percent. High-temperature solar water heaters can provide energy-efficient hot water and hot water heat for large commercial and industrial facilities.

Many large commercial buildings can use solar collectors to provide more than just hot water. Solar process heating systems can be used to heat these buildings. A solar ventilation system can be used in cold climates to preheat air as it enters a building. And the heat from a solar collector can even be used to provide energy for cooling a building. The Co-operative Insurance Building in Manchester has the largest commercial solar system in the UK. I think it looks very futuristic and cool!

You can generate electricity for a single building like the co-op but there is the potential in the future to generate enough power for a power plant. The author of a recent Christian Aid report, John McGhie, said that for $50bn (26bn) the whole of sub-Saharan Africa could be turned into a solar-generated economy. And $50bn is exactly the same amount as the continent would have to pay on extra fuel bills from oil," he said.

Electrical retailer Currys is about to add a new item to its usual array of washing machines and other white goods – solar panels. Currys is taking a risk as the solar panels will cost far more than anything else the store sells. They say it will cost the average three bedroom household about 9,000 to buy and install solar panels – compared to 16,000 in specialist stores. There are also grants available through the Low Carbon Buildings Programme.

What other solar gadgets can you buy?

Well, Sharp, the world’s number one solar cell producer, has just turned its hand to glass studded with LED lights and cells. Instead of generating enough electricity to run a home, it creates a psychedelic light show at night, powered entirely by the day’s sun.

You can also buy solar chargers for iPods and phones. Other recent outlandish additions include a solar-powered tent, scooter and LED house numbers, while mundane ones like bike lights, torches and radios have been around for years.

People can also use captured passive solar heat to cook food. A basic cooker consists of an insulated box with a glass top. Heat from concentrated sunlight gets trapped in the box and can be used to heat food enclosed in the box. These have not been very popular to date.

By Mark Marris Published: 10/27/2006

Home Made Power Plant Discussion 

DIY Solar Power Kits – Resisdential Solar Power Homemade Energy is quickly turning into the buzz word in energy conservation circles. Home owners are becoming fed up with the problems associated with using… Home Solar Power & Wind power

What Is The Home Made Power Plant | Solar Power

In this article I am going to be going over a great product that I had the pleasure of purchasing not long ago that shows you how to create your own energy source called the home made power plant.

My Cheapest Solar Panels and Energy Bill Savings | Solar Power

Discover how thousands of families are using homemade solar power systems to power their homes advantages alternative benefits bill build cell cells cheap conservation cost costs.

Eco DIYs: Flexible Solar Panels For Homemade Solar Batteries …

Eco DIYs: Flexible solar panels for homemade solar batteries. Anupam | Feb 18 2009. solar-batteries1_pqewU_69. Eco Factor: Solar-powered portable batteries.

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How do Solar Panels Residential Work?

If you are looking for information on solar panels, then this article explains in detail how they work. If you are wanting information on how to make solar panels and have your own free power in your home, CLICK HERE For free energy.

How do Solar Panels Work

Solar panel is a device used to convert solar energy into other forms , such as light energy and heat energy. In this article, we will try to find out the answer of the question…"How do Solar panels work?"

Solar panel is a term used to describe the devices used for the conversion of solar energy in to other forms of energy like electrical or heat or light. This can be broadly studied under three categories.

1. Panels used to generate electricity
2. Panels used to generate heat
3. Panels used to heat water in homes.
How do solar panels work is nothing but knowing how the above panels work.

Panels used to generate electricity
Solar cells are common examples in this category of electricity generation. They are also known as photovoltaic cells. A combination of individual PV cells forms the Photovoltaic module. A collection of photovoltaic modules, which are tied together with a wire and are so designed to install it in a field readily, is known as photovoltaic panels or simply solar panels. The installation includes the photovoltaic modules, an inverter, a battery all linked to each other with a wire. Depending upon the no of cells and their arrangement there are three types of modules in this viz., crystalline silicon modules, rigid thin-film modules and Flexible thin-film modules.

Panels used to generate heat
The heat in the sun light is collected in this type of panels. They are called Solar thermal collectors. They are specially made to absorb the sunlight to provide the heat. It may appear that they are simple solar hot water panels but in reality they are more complex installations.

Though heat is generated out of sun light in these models, the heat energy is ultimately converted into other type of energy mostly electrical energy as in the case of solar power plants. The heat produced in the solar power plants is used to heat water, which in turn produce stream. A turbine connected to an electrical generator is made to drive for producing electricity.

There are three types of thermal collectors namely; solar parabolic, solar trough and solar towers which are mainly used in solar power plants. In domestic and light industry applications, flat plate and box type panels are used. Apart from that, some more types like evacuated tube, pool or unglazed, air and parabolic dish are some of the other types of panels used. Some advantages of this type of solar panels are getting high temperature enough to generate electricity, higher efficiency of these panels and wide area coverage with the use of inexpensive mirrors

Panels used to heat water in homes
In solar hot water panels, sunlight is used to heat a fluid, which is then transferred to a heat storage vessel. Heating of potable water in the sun light and storing is in hot water tank is a common example of this. How solar panel works is explained below:

Flat absorber plates are placed on the top roofs of the buildings usually residential buildings. These absorbers are coated with darks selective surface which converts the sun’s radiation into heat. The heat so produced is carried by the fluid in the tubes attached to the absorbers. The heat is taken away and stored or used. In the process the fluid gets heated up. To take away its heat and for reuse, the fluid is directed to a heat exchanger, where it gives off its heat and the cooled fluid is reused.

A mechanical pump can be used for circulating the fluid by means of a solar cell. Alternatively the principle of thermo siphon which works on convection can be used to circulate the fluid by mounting the storage vessel higher in the circuit.

How solar panel works lies in the effective use of active solar or passive solar technologies or solar combisystem. While in active solar technology electrical or mechanical devices such as pumps are used, passive solar technology does not employ any other source of energy. Solar combisystem uses the auxiliary non-solar heat source.

Solar panels are mainly used to exploit the potential of solar energy, which is rampant is availability and is cheap to use as no money need to be paid by anybody for the use of sunlight.

In the depleting conventional energy source day by day, solar energy is the right substitute for that. But, for that, we need to be cautious in keeping our environment and thereby the atmosphere clean and un-spoilt. Because, the role of atmosphere in the use of solar energy is that of a filter.

It eliminates certain harmful gases and materials from the sunlight before it reaches the earth’s surface. It acts as a checkpoint. If that is damaged the entire earth will be damaged. Global dimming, global warming etc., are some of the phrases coined by the environmental conscious people to warn the adverse effects of our atmosphere getting into nowadays. Let us be more conscious in not polluting our atmosphere so that not only we, the future generation is also able to derive the advantages of solar energy.
By Jayashree Pakhare
Published: 7/31/2007

What You Must Know About Home Solar Power Systems

These grids are called photovoltaic cells or photovoltaic modules. They are set on the solar panel in a way that they could make the most of the harnessing of sunlight and then use the obtained energy efficiently. Home solar panels are getting more and more popular.

Bill Barrett green lifestyle 

Dr Bill Barritt, aged 81, had solar panels at home and photovoltaic cells installed on the roof of his home at Rayens Croft Road last April to heat his water and produce electricity. 

Catalyzing mass production of solar …

Originality/value – Despite significant commercial progress in the conversion efficiency of sunlight into electricity with solar photovoltaic cells, their widespread adoption is still limited by high costs relative to conventional .

New Jersey Solar Initiative Illuminates PV Costs

Public Service Electric and Gas announced a five-year plan this week to outfit utility poles, subsidized housing, schools, and sundry other public buildings with solar cells. The total amount of photovoltaic cells will come to 120.

Lower-priced photovoltaic cells will help utilities meet new standards

SINCE THE US PHOTOVOLTAIC (PV) market is expected to be the industry growth driver over the next several years, we encourage investors to track the renewable-energy dynamics of US. 

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