admin answers:

The negatives include:

The worst thing about solar energy is that it is typically expensive to install. This means that the effective cost of the power is high compared with just buying it from your local utility company.
Solar panels can take up a lot of space.
You may find that your roof is not at a good orientation or angle to the sun, which would make the installation on your roof less effective or not possible.
You can’t make solar power at night, so you have to have a way to store it.
Your power output will also be affected by bad weather.

Positives include:
The greatest thing about solar energy is that it is virtually free to use.
Solar energy causes no pollution when you generate it.
You can get financial incentives from the government to help you pay for your system.
Companies are starting to produce rental plans that allow you to avoid the large capital costs.
There was a law passed a couple of years ago that allows you to “sell” your excess power back to the utility, reducing or eliminating your bills, and covering your need for power at night.
You don’t need to order any fuel to be delivered to your house, and you can’t run out.
Solar power does not suffer from inflation and increasing prices.
Typically there are no or few moving parts to a solar installation, cutting down on maintenance.
Solar power can be generated anywhere, even if there is no local electrical supplier, so you can have power in remote areas.
Using solar power reduces the amount of fossil fuel burnt, and decreases greenhouse gas creation.

admin answers:

1. Pros and cons – solar is a good choice. Make sure you realize though that if you go through a solar franchise / company you’ll pay waaay more than you need to. Source the parts yourself and get a local installer / electrician..

#2. Hail won’t be a problem.

#3. Wind won’t be a problem. They’ll only come off if your roof was going to come off anyway.

#4 & #5 – Battery storage technology has advanced a lot, you won’t have a problem unless you live in the polar winter.

admin answers:

Not at all. Many are for it, even if it might seem otherwise. Krugman is one. He notes that it is far from perfect, but is a step forward:

What everyone agrees is that it will cost some money. (After all, if it were free, we would have done it by now.)

One question is how much. The Congressional Budget Office, generally non-partisan, estimates about $175 per household by 2020:
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/environmentandenergy/archive/2009/06/22/is-the-cbo-giving-a-boost-to-climate-policy.aspx
This is much lower than the scary figures that the Republican opponents have been touting.

The next question is who pays. In the end, of course, it will be the ordinary consumer. But the costs will not be spread evenly. Places where most of the electricity is produced with coal will pay more than places where it comes from natural gas, which will pay more than places where it comes from hydro-electric dams. But the variation should not be too great.

The bill will create a number of new jobs but it will also, gradually, make old jobs obsolete. In the long run, we don’t want to burning coal because it produces too much pollution. But that means that coal miners, people who work in coal-fired power plants, people who ship the coal from the mines to the power plants, etc. Will be put out of work.

But the old jobs can’t be eliminated till the new energy sources are in place, which means the new jobs start appearing before the layoffs do – which is just what we want in this time of high unemployment.

In the longer term, we can hope that alternative energy will become cheaper, but there is no reason to assume that it will ever be cheaper than coal has been. Our economy has been built on cheap energy, so higher energy costs mean that we will have to have a reduced standard of living or learn to do more with much less energy.

(Note that this has nothing to do with this bill but with the fundamentals of energy economics. Any mechanism that reduces the use of coal and oil or increases their price will have this effect. And we’ve already seen the price of oil rise dramatically over the past decade. The price has slid back somewhat, but it is still more than twice what it was 10 years ago. And when the recession ends, oil prices will start climbing again, so we will be facing this problem with or without this bill.)

Clearly, the bill provides various incentives to learn how to produce cleaner energy cheaper and use energy more efficiently. That is technology that everyone is going to want. If we get good at it, that is something we can sell to the rest of the world. If we don’t get good at it, it is technology we may have to buy from the rest of the world.

(The Chinese have many terribly dirty coal powered plants, but the new coal plants they are building are much cleaner than most American coal plants.

Of course, it would be better if they weren’t burning coal at all, but if you are going to do it, better do it as efficiently as possible.

The Spanish seem to be doing well in the area of thermo-solar power:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Spain

The Germans seem to be doing well in area of energy efficiency:
http://www.research-in-germany.de/coremedia/generator/dachportal/en/07__News_20and_20Events/VDITZ_20-_20News_26Events/Archiv/2009-03-24_2C_20Energy_20efficiency_20expert_20Jochem_20wins_20_20Bayer_20Climate_20Award.html
http://www.german-renewable-energy.com/Renewables/Navigation/Englisch/energy-efficiency.html
http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Germany_Wants_To_Become_World_Leader_In_Energy_Efficiency_999.html
(They already make appliances that much more energy efficient than U.S. Appliances.)

admin answers:

You learn how not to be shocked when working with electrical tools and equipment.

The pay is good.

Seriously, every business uses electricity. The huge office buildings, the chemical refineries, automobile factories – all need electricity to power their motors and lights and computers. They also use electricity at much lower voltages for signals, control, and data transfer.

You could choose to be a high-voltage electrician, and work on the power transmission lines that march across the country and operate at voltages over 100,000 volts (100 kV), or on the power lines within neighborhoods that operate at 15,000 volts (15 kV). These require extra-special training and safety procedures, because at those voltages, the energy jumps out at you.

You could choose to work at the lower voltages – that’s what they call it in the power industry – of 120 to 480 volts AC, which powers homes and all small businesses.

There are lower voltages still, such as for electroplating, aluminum refining, solar power modules, but these are very high current levels, which again require special training.

The petrochemical refineries make extensive use of much lower voltage for their instrumentation and control signals. These are for computer-controlled processes and thus signal integrity depends on properly made cabling and protection of those cables.

Go to your library and find every book you can about “electricity” and read each one. While you might not understand a lot of terms and explanations at first, every time you read a new book you will see the same terms again and again, and they will make more sense. Learning this way helps you understand the language of the electrician.

Understanding what electricians do requires hands-on work, and most schools do not provide that. You should look for a local electrician union hall and ask what kind of training is available for people new to the electrician field. Being an electrician is difficult work. The books describe how to do various things, and working at a bench is easy, but when you are on a 20 foot ladder it’s not so easy ! And when you have to correct mistakes others have made, it’s not so easy explaining to a customer why the corrections have to be made.

You have to constantly train to learn new things. 30 years ago, there were very few wind generators and solar panel arrays; today there are many projects installing those things and they all have to be maintained and repaired after weather damage. The mechanical installation forces the electrical connections to made certain ways. There is an excellent magazine devoted to solar and wind power on residential and small businesses, called “Home Power”.

Wikipedia has an article about the magazine :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Power_Magazine

Their website :
http://www.homepower.com/

admin answers:

These questions require a lot of detail so the best I can do is direct you to where I got all my information. I recently installed some home made solar panels over my roof, I also installed a small windmill like generator. The solar panels work great! The windmill wasn’t the best choice I guess because I don’t get that much wind where I live so it usually just sits there. I also have a solar water heater which I built. All the additions I have made have cut my energy bill by around 75% on average. The webiste below is what I went off of, its not free, but it is much better than having to round up bits and peices all over the web. It gives you instructions on how to build all types of energy solutions and also tells you where you can purchase the parts required. Hope this helps!

admin answers:

I think you should redesign student chair: motorized recliners, with a drink dispenser, small refrigerator, a place to store books and supplies, ( no lockers needed) built in laptop, cell phone, etc. Everything could run on solar power or back up generator- no cords needed. Deluxe models could include vibrator and temperature controls. Students can research on line ( no libraries needed), write papers and print them out without leaving their chair. You could draw or photo shop this project.

admin answers:

If by wind farm, you refer to those gigantic wind generators found in some places around the country, our Electric co-op did an article on them last year. ONE of those gigantic windmills runs around a million dollars.

admin answers:

Solar power usually refers to making electricity from the sun. Solar energy may refer to this and also sometimes using the heat energy from the sun. Thermal solar collectors may use solar energy to make solar power.

Solar energy is only beginning to be explored in our society. In other societies (ancient Greece for example) there were laws to prevent one person from blocking the sun from the land of another as the sun was important for heating. The sun’s energy stored in chemical bonds has been very common in our society. Oil is king. This has marginalized direct solar energy use. The amount of Solar energy in our society depends upon what you are including. Direct Solar? Wind? Biomass? Hydro generation? Here is one site that adds it up to 13%: http://evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=21381″>

2 the economics of solar is also subject to definitions. Real cost or cost including politically gained subsidies. Gasoline may cost $3.00 at the pump but estimates of its real cost are from $10 to more than $20. Nuclear power is also heavily subsidized. Solar is just getting into the game and is taking time to get its political markers in place. When it comes to efficiency solar is far more direct and has some distinct advantages. Http://www.catalystmagazine.com/component/content/article/45/1128-pay-at-the-pump-uncovering-the-true-cost-of-gasoline http://evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1715&first=2490&end=2489 http://www.ringnebula.com/project-censored/1976-1992/1988/1988-story11.htm http://environment.about.com/od/renewableenergy/a/solar_power.htm

3. Direct Solar energy and renewable solar energy is substantially more eco friendly than using fossil solar energy. Shading environments with solar collectors changes environments this may have effects to be considered. Some large scale solar power installations need water in environments where this is scarce. Wind generators may have an adverse effect on flying wildlife. And hydroelectric dam may add unusual pressure on the Earth’s crust. Http://solareis.anl.gov/guide/environment/index.cfm http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/us/27solar.html

admin answers:

When batt not available the triac is used so the base power switches to solar cell and there if it gets energy it emmitts power to 7-segment and again ur calc is on solar batt. When u replace battreis again the triac actives through batt power.

admin answers:

A failure, the need for vast quantities of clean water. To flush and wash the commercial solar cells.

A success, the ability to bring portable power to remote and off grid areas. Where only a small gas generator was possible before. Simplifies and eases the load while going to such areas. No need for gasoline.

A success, the use of solar power, as a direct water heat source, has been proven to decrease the need for normal means of home water heating.

A failure, the stable ability to bring a home under total solar power. By available area of panels, storage ability and days when less sun available cuts power.

A failure, the high maintenance, low output, and short life of panels.

A success, the decreased use and waste of small batteries for small electric powered hand devices. Like radios, calculators, over the life and use of the device.etc….

admin answers:

A friend of mine did it with his. He put a small generator in the back of his pickup,(but you could easily put on in the trailer itself)
He has a 30 gallon water tank that he uses for the water heater and his horses. It already had windows.
He did all the work by himself, it was pretty reasonable. He uses it to go camping and to haul his horses. With a quick change. There were no permits required.
Hope this helps.

admin answers:

Yep
batteries, inverter, wiring, switches, photo cells, knowledge to hook it all up,
solar isn’t, what its all hoped up to be,
solar lights are a better deal, you can put them to work, but to power a home ? Forget it,
buy a 13 K generator for total home power, all that cost is fuel ,
use propane powered stove,s fridge,s freezers, [ the amish do ]
there still for sale, in cross ville, tn
there is a lot of other ways to be self sufficient, solar is a gimmick, for now

admin answers:

Been looking at this one for a while myself. Solar is just too expensive for me to get into right now. I’m keeping the potion open for a latter time when my finances are better. A basic package system that can SUPPORT about a third to half of the usage of the typical american home will start at around 7 to 8 grand not counting install cost. Wind is cheaper and readily available by hundreds of suppliers, but, the output can vary widely even in areas that have a constant wind. Wind in my opinion is better for a supplemental system. These are the two most common. Also seen a farming operation that powers its own generators from biomass off its cows waste. Use is kind of limited on this one. Bio diesel generators don’t have enough efficiency to relay consider unless you live way off the grid and only use electricity for short periods. Using small water wheel systems in some parts of the country but with the same problems as wind. Right now with solar its about how much you want to spend up front and what do you want out of it? I’ve so far just gone to all CFL bulbs and improved insulation which has chopped off almost half of my bill with that. Thinking about doing a roof overlay that will add 3 inches or more of insulation and a tin roof over my existing asphalt shingles. Probably cost me around 3500$ for this as it requires no additional support or rework of the roof other than extending the vents. Most available packages either come with vent extensions or they will send the ones you want when you order the kit. The one I’m considering includes installation.

admin answers:

You’re asking a difficult question only because the technology is improving each month. What is the best today probably won’t be the best next year. For wind power you will need a wind availibility survey describing the average wind conditions throughout the year for your locality. Every homesite is a bit different. To establish a cost/benefit analysis your first have to know how much wind energy is available.

admin answers:

Fossil fuels always release more pollutants, including CO2 if you consider that a pollutant. Hydroelectric electricity has limited availability, and it’s a resource that is pretty much tapped out – every river which can be dammed for electricity already is. Solar energy is expensive, far more expensive than anything else. There is a lot of variation is solar panels, but it often involves rare earth elements, which limits the total numbers of panels which could be produced (at a number too low to matter). Solar energy is also not very energy dense. The total land it would take to capture the same amount of energy using solar as can be generated using nuclear is tremendous. States worth of land. Unlike oil, we have a lot of uranium locally, and the other nation with big resources is Australia who we’re on pretty good terms with. And if we had some modern reactors, there would be much less nuclear waste produced. In fact, some of the new plants can eat material which was previously considered waste.

admin answers:

Since heat is what energy through inbody is released, about 25 – 30% of it comes for solar energy.

On more fact is that, beside energy consumption, it also tends us to feel tired and lazy ……. This is because … Sometimes the heat accumulated by the skin cells from the sun is complexed and as a result it dehydrates our body.

These are the following sources:

admin answers:

Hey David, kudos on the math work, although I can’t say for certain the calculations are correct, they look good to me. As far as thoughts on practicability, in the years we’ve been learning about and powering our home with renewable energy, one thing I’ve learned is this: The future of power today is a diverse source. People are constantly asking me what’s best, wind, solar, coal? We would be best off if we had a little of each of them. Any disruption in one source, either due to supply constraints, technological changes, or environmental issues, would not be hard to offset. When you rely on oil for 80% of your countries energy source, then a war erupts on the other side of the globe, you have an instant recession, we’ve proven this several times now.

The same can and should be said for energy storage. Many nuclear plants today have a reservoir like you outlined above connected to them. This way, the plant can operate at its design parameters all day and night, and the reservoir can make up for the dips and peaks in demand changes. The storage medium here is gravity, forcing the water up to the top when you have excess energy, and allowing it to fall when you have a shortcoming. But in many cases, thermal could work better. Suppose you build a large thermal solar plant in the desert, that boils water to run a steam turbine. But in the daytime, you have excess power. Instead of venting it off, we could heat oil to say 500 degrees ( it boils at a much higher temp than water, yet stays liquid well below 32 degrees ). Now once the sun goes down, we could simply reroute our water through a water to oil heat exchanger, and continue boiling water with the hot oil until dawn. Now we have access to solar power at night, petty slick. I submit that this type of energy storage would work great in the Southwest United States, Northern Africa, and some other places that both lack water and have excess sun and heat. Consider this in your discussion. This points a large finger at what I like to call, “appropriate placement.” Take a long skinny river with very little flow on a mountain side. Not a great place to make hydro power due to the low output. But as a reservoir to make a gravity battery like the one you outlined, it could be perfect, with a large, high altitude reservoir that powers a large generator intermittently, rather than a small one continuously. It would be a self trickle charging battery that could be recharged by pumping water back in when there was a surplus of energy too. You wouldn’t put one in Phoenix, where it’s flat and dry, but it would be great in Seattle or Hawaii. Lots to think about here, good luck David, Rudydoo

admin answers:

Yes. For example, it will help increase fuel efficiency by 25% by 2020.
Http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/paltman/americans_save_on_fuel_bills_u.html

It requires that utilities produce 20% of their energy from renewable sources and increased efficiency by 2020.

It invests $90 billion in energy efficiency and renewable energy by 2025.

It establishes new standards for building efficiency, requiring new buildings to be 30% more efficient in 2012 and 50% more efficient in 2016.

It directs EPA and the State Department to use 5% of the allowances to secure agreements from developing nations to prevent tropical deforestation.

It’s certainly not a perfect bill, but it’s pretty good, and it’s the best we’re going to get in the forseeable future. Plus it’s much better to have a framework in place which we can improve upon in the future than to have nothing at all.

See the link below for a useful summary.

admin answers:

I think one of the biggest challenges is just getting enough renewable energy to replace a good portion of energy generated by fossil fuels. Right now I think renewable energy accounts for only about 1-2% of the total energy produced. Sources like solar and wind power are good at adding capacity to the grid during peak usage, but they’re not good base load power generators.

Also another problem is that they are more expensive to produce. The cost gap is closing, however, because the new technology is getting better and better, and also it’s starting to cost a lot more to drill for oil and even mine coal. Of course, renewable would be a lot cheaper than fossil fuels if the true cost of obtaining coal and oil were calculated, like using our military to secure a steady supply of resources overseas.

admin answers:

There is a disadvantage to them. For one it is extremely expensive to use only solar to power your whole house because the solar systems are so expensive. I something falls on the panel it may break and at that point you will have to buy all new ones. Even a small broken area can make the panel so inefficient it is almost unusable.

The amount of solar panels to power a house can take up a lot of space and is not always great to look at. They are definately are great supplement to your electricity and can save you a lot of money over time. If you are only using solar you will have to get battery systems with inverters to power your home for the time when the sun is not out. Also no power when dark or very cloudy.

Some other sources of energy to look at are windpower, hydropower, and even wood gasifiers with generators.

admin answers:

Keep in mind I like solar energy, but I’ll give you some points.

1) It costs more
2) panels degrade faster than other energy sources equipment
3) They consume arable land
4) they consume natural habitat to set up
5) They can be unsightly (visual pollution)
6) Higher upkeep costs
7) Can be a hazard in high winds
8) transimssion issues getting energy from collection point to use point
9) energy only available in good weather
10) seasonality to its generation makes it an irregular energy source

There are good arguments in reply to all these points, but you wanted some negative debate points.

I came accross a new, proven and tested home made wind power system and solar power system which eliminates our electricity bills. It was written by a Renewable energy enthusiasts Michael Harvey the diy called Earth4energy. You can get your copy to save energy and help environment while eliminating your power bills. Get it from here:

http://how-to-build-cheap-solar-energy.blogspot.com/

admin answers:

Solar energy panels can capture the suns energy, to transfer to electricity hook the panel to a 12 volt voltage regulator and then to a automotive 12 volt battery.
To use the electricity hook up a voltage regulator to the battery then hook a toggle switch to the voltage regulator positive wire feed, on the other end of the regulator hook up a 12 volt appliance or light bulb, grounded of course.

I came accross a new, proven and tested home made wind power system and solar power system which eliminates our electricity bills. It was written by a Renewable energy enthusiasts Michael Harvey the diy called Earth4energy. You can get your copy to save energy and help environment while eliminating your power bills. Get it from here:

http://how-to-build-cheap-solar-energy.blogspot.com/

admin answers:

Corporate greed and the whoring of our government to them dictates everything.

admin answers:

For those not familiar with the concept:

“Intelligent Design” proponents see the universe as “fine tuned” for life in general and us in particular.
The universal constants of gravity and electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces are such that after the “big bang” event, stars could form, and they could “cook” complex elements which were then blown out into the void when these stars went nova…. To re-form as 2nd and 3rd generation Suns like our own with complex rocky planets capable of supporting life.

They point out that (according to their reckoning) the chances of the universe falling out with exactly these constants is very small, and that the fact that it is as it is indicates design…..

Cosmologists (and mere critical thinkers like myself) point out that there is no reason to think that this is the only universe. Cosmologists propose any number of scenarios where there might be essentially an infinite number of universes, and that new ones are being formed all the time.
If this is the case, it’s merely lucky for us that this particular one happens to be amenable to the formation of life; there might be any number of universes which would have characteristics so alien as to be incapable of supporting life.

Although there is no evidence of such other universes, there is no contraindication of any as well. We could never observe them, our ability to observe being confined to our own universe.

Besides, it’s a rather silly notion, IMO. Even if we locally have a solar system and a planet capable of supporting life, obviously these conditions are very rare in the universe… Billions of stars with no planets, billions of planets that are nothing but frozen balls of ice or masses of gas…. Or rocky chunks with no atmosphere or water.
Why would a “designer” put together such a vast and empty universe just to support…Us?

admin answers:

Unfortanty because it’s a new type of business, everything is expensive. Solar cells will take about 10 years to pay for it’self, wind I belive is 7, and hydrogen (the ones you put water in and it generates power and of course oxygen are the most expensive.

But for that hydrogen he’s a website below.

The small house windmill, according to where you live, = how much energy it will produce (it’s size) and your own uses, you can sale some to the grid, but this is so new (alt power) they can’t give you a diffanate – so don’t belive the salesman, no one really knows so what would make anybody think they actually know.

The 2nd lnk below is what I personaaly be the best method so far, in the fiels of Alt power. Thing is it’s new, and so you will have to follow his work, at Davis Univ, but the money they bring in goes to get the generators on the market – its cheaper than all of the other types I mentioned above = it mimics the way plants and water get its energy from the sun, to produce energy.

admin answers:

Hello,our company shenzhen bazhentu are selling that,you may contact our sales manager directly by msn ebwone@hotmail.com.
Her phone:0086-15574832263

1000w wind turbine

Application range:Small water pump system, power supply for home daily use on island, in rural area, remote area, wind-solar hybrid system on farmland, grassland; for navigation tower and frontier sentry..

Other opponents:tower, battery set, solar panel, controller for solar panel, cable wires, storage cabinet (optional), inverter (for AC load), ect…

Description:
Color: White
Net Weight: 45 KG
Gross Weight: 64 KG
Blades Material: Reinforced Nylon
Starting Wind Speed(m/s)：3.0m/s
Cut-in Wind Speed(m/s)：3.0m/s
Rated Wind Speed(m/s)：11.5m/s
Safe Wind Speed(m/s)：50m/s

Characteristics:
1. High efficiency which eauals the trditonal 800W wind generator.
2. Renewable energy could get government budget subsidies.
3. Energy Saving & Pollution Reduction
4. Cost cutting compared with traditional power generating set
5. Around 15 years of life span
6. Complementarily use with solar energy

admin answers:

Basically what goes on in a solar cell is the conversion of light energy (photons) to electrical current (the flow of electrons).

In physics this is called the photoelectric effect.

A solar cell will absorb light energy (the photons, which could be visible light, UV light or IR light generally), and this light energy will energize electrons in the atoms of the cell.

These electrons will cause a charge separation (positive and negative) in the material (a voltage) which will have a mechanism for trapping the electrons to maintain the voltage.

Current will then flow if you connect the separate charged ends of the cell with a conductive material.

I am not sure how to make it simpler…

admin answers:

The cell works the same as a silicon wafer or any other solar cell.

When photons strike the surface, an electron in the Cu(II) oxide plate is promoted to a higher electronic state in the conduction band,

Being attached to free Cu, electrons in thier conduction band allows the electrons mobility and flow as current when there is a circuit load. Drawing off this current leaves holes n the Cu conduction band.

See. Electrons in the atoms of each material reside in bands, much like the floors in a “two story” building with a flat roof. When light strikes the electrons, they gain energy and are promoted to the roof, where they can move around (conduction) . Siphoning off these electrons (electrical load) leaves more room on the roof, for more electrons to be promoted from below.

Wer

admin answers:

I would start by studying the elliptical. I would guess it uses an AC induction motor with a variable speed drive. If so, you would need to replace the AC motor with a DC generator using the same mount, and also get it to accept the gear or pulley that was used by the old motor. The battery might need a “charge controller” such as might be used on a PV solar system.

admin answers:

Kool seal’s a great idea. Go solar, two panels on the roof will power fans to blow the hot air out. Park so that you get the afternoon shade on the side of the rv that does not have the roll out canopy and of course roll out the canopy you have, if not get one. Avoid cooking with the stove inside get a portable to use outside with an extension to your outside propane tank. Add insulation, sometimes an older rig was remodeled and insulation was removed due to water damage. There’s also small portable swamp coolers that use way less electricity then an ac unit and could run on solar power get one of those. If your hooked up to water get the water misters that hook up to a hose and put those near windows that the breeze can blow through. Finally when you just get too hot role down the window and move on to a cooler place that’s why “that there is an RV Clark”, you can take your home and roam.

Http://www.rvsolarelectric.com/package.htm

http://www.nextag.com/portable-swamp-coolers/stores-html

http://www.shadeusa.com/misters.htm

http://www.koolseal.com/product_family.asp?family=elastomeric

admin answers:

Internet sales. Supplemental income or full time. Worldwide exposure of your product.

There’s also good money in saving people money. If you can offer a product or service that saves people money, you’re doing well right now.

This is however a double edge answer.

I think the thing to be thinking about is how fragile our livelihoods are. Think about it. If you lost your job today, how long could you live in your current home without any income?

We need to be smarter with our purchases, save our money, invest in items that can help us sustain in any crisis like solar heaters and electric panels, wind generators. Stop living outside our means.

The problem is everyone is flocking to “essential services”, but even the police have suffered budget cuts. We need to be able to maintain in times like this, be better prepared.

We all need to make our own individual financial foundation stronger. A tomato plant with a weak stem won’t be able to produce much fruit…especially in a drought.

admin answers:

Eath4Energy is a scam. Please see my review at http://www.nlcpr.com/Deceptions6.php

If your motivation is to reduce your energy bills, then you should first look at conservation projects. These are things like using low flow shower heads, replacing old appliances and adding more insulation.

If your motivation is to generate some energy for learning purposes or as a matter of principle, then consider the following:

Building a wind generator yourself is not a simple project. If you can build an utility trailer for your truck (welding, metal fabrication) then you could certainly tackle the job. There is a great book available from www.otherpower.com called Homebrew Wind Power plus you can order any parts and assemblies that are beyond your abilities to fabricate. Cost of turbine is about $2000 and you need a tower as well. There are cheap units at some hardware stores but they are garbage compared to to the unit designed by www.otherpower.com

A more realistic project would be to get a commercial solar panel (making your own from broken cells on eBay is not worth it), inverter, charge controller and battery and using it to power some things in your house. For about $1000 you could have something to power a small computer. A complete system to power your home is more in the $30,000 range.

There are, unfortunately, no cheap ways to make your own power as Earth4Energy is promoting other than perhaps getting lucky in an eBay auction or purchasing a solar system from a bankruptcy sale.

Do your conservation measures first. Then read Homebrew Wind Power, read the solar links at http://www.nlcpr.com/Links1.php and then decide what type of project you are up for. By then, you will know exactly what you want to do.

admin answers:

These are your best bet for solar energy batteries, most are just simple car batteries. If you think about it, all is required is that they store electricity. The battery doesn’t know where you generate it from so I have complied a list of batteries you could use for storing solar electricity (bear in mind you will need around 5 of these for it to it be worth your time)

Your choice of solar batteries breaks down into these six groups:

Golf cart batteries – These are relatively cheap but will only last 2-6 years

Regular deep cycle batteries – Reasonably priced and will last 4-8 years

Premium or “heavy-duty” deep cycle batteries – The extra pounds will get you a lifespan of 7-15 years

Sealed gel cell batteries – Cheaper than AGM batteries but will only last 2-5 years

Sealed AGM batteries -Will last 4-7 years with little maintenance

Industrial batteries (e.g. Forklift) – These workhorses can last 10-20 years

I know all of this because I work for a Solar Photovoltaic installer and I know just about everything there is to know about them as I have the responsibility of sourcing, ordering & installing the panels!

Hope this helps!

Chris

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Energy from the sun comes in the form of heat and light. Plants convert light into biological energy through photosynthesis.

Photovoltaic cells and panels convert light to electric current. Heat from the sun can also be converted into mechanical and electrical energy by focusing the heat on a steam generator to run a steam engine or hot air engine.

Mechanical energy can be further converted into electricity, and electricity can be converted into mechanical or chemical energy.

You can easily develop your own bibliography on this topic. The internet is slam full of information uses for solar energy.

Good luck!

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ALL the electric start generators I have seen have a BUILT IN charging circuit for the starting battery.

Note that the MAJORITY of smaller electric start generators NOT designated as “standby generators”or LESS than 10,000 watts capacity have batteries that can NOT start them reliably IF the weather is below freezing, so plan on using a “jump” from your vehicle battery in winter.

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First determine your demand: ____kwh per year (check your power bills for last year). Typically, a household uses about 14,000 kwh per year. My family uses about 8500 kwh per year.

Then, consider your solar-power and wind-power potential (see links) To supply 14,000 kwh you would need a 5 kw solar panel system (depending on your solar-day potential), or a couple of 3 kw wind turbines (again, depending on your wind-power potential), or a combination of the two. A house in windy desert southwest would have a good chance of getting enough power from the sky. However, a cabin in the pines of the Northwest or Northeast would not.

Next, you would need a storage system (batteries), and accompanying control and distribution equipment, unless you want (and your utility company agrees) to tie your system into the grid.

Finally, if you want to be independent, you would need a back-up system (gas-powered generator) in case of lack of sun or wind, or during times of repairs and maintenance on the solar and wind components. This would need to be about a 3 kw generator if it could be used with storage system batteries, or larger (depending on your demand) if it must be used solo.

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Solar generators produce electricity using so-called solar cells or photovoltaic cells, which convert the energy of sunlight to electric energy by the photovoltaic effect. Solar panel is used to save your money once your fixed it to your home you will access that power to all your home appliances.. You have to buy solar panel setup along with inverter which going to invert the AC into DC power. For more details search in google..

admin answers:

You are correct. Solar power works under sunlight.
Most solar systems have some sort of power backup.
In remote locations that are “Off Grid” or where maintaining constant power is critical, this is often done with a bank of battery and even a diesel generator as backups.
If traditional power is available, then most opt to use their solar to augment the power from the utility company. A common term is “Net Zero”. When you generate more electricity than you use the electric meter spins backwards. This happens during the day when the sun is out and no one is home. Then at night and cloudy days, the meter spins normally. So the readout spins back and forth. At the end of a period of time you get billed on the net difference. You want the net to be zero. The goal is to produce just what you use. Any less and you have to pay for electricity, any more and you are giving it away.

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It was 5% in 2007 so yes about 6%. Someone in the gov. Ought to have a word with the planners, they are stuck in the 19th century. Whilre they were at it they could find out why we are still paying 17 1/2 % vat (luxury level!) for solar panels, wind turbines, insulation even. Outrageous.

The big idea is offshore wind, but shell just pulled funding for the big one planned off east coast (dogger bank) and the gov. Dont seem keen to put anything up for it.

Microgeneration would be a big part of reaching the target, but that would makke us less dependant on the big comanies and the national grid….. Oh maybe the vat thing (and lack of grants) makes sense….

They want to kid us nuclear is renewable ha! If you greenwash and add in that 20 odd per cent plus the 4% we import from france, we dont seem to be doing too badly……
And as for carbon capture… Dont get me started

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Where did you get the idea that wind mills kill birds ? Not so, the trouble is that you youngsters are told stories like the killing of birds.Fact is they are not used enough, China has more wind farms and enough to power a very large industrial city out in the no mans land of China. This country tells you kids what they want you to buy into, called” wagging the dog ” dis-information, just look at the oil spill. We we’re told that the leak was pouring out at approx 5 thousand gallons- reality was that it was sending more then five times this amount.
So in the long run the only disadvantage is that they’re not enough wind farms in use, so you do some more in-depth searching on wind farms and this will get you a winning team to work.