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Archive for August, 2009

Wind Energy: Affordable Solutions for Homeowners

Monday, August 31st, 2009

From sailing the seven seas to gathering water for the mill, wind has always been an important energy source. It has helped with food production, water irrigation, trade and commerce and morphed into aiding mankind in producing electricity for their residences and workplaces.

Wind turbines first showed up in the 19th century, and in the 20th century America’s first wind farm was built in Vermont and powered many areas during World War II. With the advancement of technology, it is possible for wind energy to be an affordable solution for homeowners to power their own homes.

You can both save money and reduce your carbon footprint by using wind energy. It is cost effective to put together for your home, and a humungous wind turbine like you see on a wind farm is not necessary for residential use.

You can purchase and install goods for a grid-connected or stand-alone system for your home. When you are still connected to the grid, wind energy can produce extra power, saving your need to use the utility company’s electricity with the company picking up any slack in your total production. When you go off-grid, you actually have the ability to sell money back to the power company.

Stand alone systems make trasnferring energy to locations far from the grid system more affordable. With either system, the average air speed should work out to around 10 mph. It’s important to have a measure of the wind speed where you live, and the National Climatic Data Center can provide this information.

The types of equipment you sill need to provide your home with affordable wind energy include a wind turbine, a tower, wiring, controllers, and inverters or batteries. The rotor and generator will be mounted on the tail of the frame of the turbine.

A general rule of thumb when figuring on what type of wattage you will be needing to produce is: 1.5 kW turbines fit the requirements of a 300 kWh monthly usage wherein the average wind speed is 14 mph. Off-grid systems would need to be three times as powerful. When the wind blows high the turbine usually has an automatic speed governing system to keep it in check so it doesn’t spin too hard or too fast.

When you purchase your system there is a self-supporting, free standing tower and the more popular guyed lattice tower. The latter is cheaper and is supported by cables and earth anchors. Stand alones take batteries to store the extra power generated so that you can still have electricity when the winds are calm.

You’ll need an inverter to convert energy from the battery to AC current. You can even buy a stand-alone system that piggy-backs with a solar cell. Local governmental agencies actually offer incentives such as rebates and discounts when you install and use these systems.

Many manufacturers produce wind turbines for the home. You’ll need to evaluate three and five blade turbines and the KwH produced to be sure you have enough energy for what you need to power, plus materials such as plastic or nylong synthetic materials. Some are more aerodynamic than others and the way in which your turbine is mounted to the tower.

Each manufacturer will have listed the specs for their equipment, so don’t be intimidated into thinking you need a physics degree to understand wind energy. It is affordable for homeowners now, so there’s no need to wait. Help save the planet and save your wallet with affordable wind energy for the home. You’ll be delighted at what you can do!

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Residential Wind Turbines are Available and Affordable

Monday, August 31st, 2009

From sailing the seven seas to gathering water for the mill, wind has always been an important energy source. It has helped with food production, water irrigation, trade and commerce and morphed into aiding mankind in producing electricity for their residences and workplaces.

Wind turbines first showed up in the 19th century, and in the 20th century America’s first wind farm was built in Vermont and powered many areas during World War II. Technology advancements mean wind energy is now affordable for homeowners to power their own homes.

You can save money and help the environment by relying on wind energy to power your home. It is cost effective to put together for your home, and a humungous wind turbine like you see on a wind farm is not necessary for residential use.

You can opt for a grid-connected of a stand alone wind turbine system for your home. When you are still connected to the grid, wind energy can produce extra power, saving your need to use the utility company’s electricity with the company picking up any slack in your total production. When you go off-grid, you actually have the ability to sell money back to the power company.

Stand alone systems make trasnferring energy to locations far from the grid system more affordable. The average air movement speed should be about 10 mph for either system. The National Climatic Data Center can provide the information you’ll need to determine the wind speed where you live.

The types of equipment you sill need to provide your home with affordable wind energy include a wind turbine, a tower, wiring, controllers, and inverters or batteries. The rotor and generator will be mounted on the tail of the frame of the turbine.

A general rule of thumb when figuring on what type of wattage you will be needing to produce is: 1.5 kW turbines fit the requirements of a 300 kWh monthly usage wherein the average wind speed is 14 mph. Off-grid systems would need to be three times as powerful. When the wind blows high the turbine usually has an automatic speed governing system to keep it in check so it doesn’t spin too hard or too fast.

When you purchase your system there is a self-supporting, free standing tower and the more popular guyed lattice tower. The latter is cheaper and is supported by cables and earth anchors. Stand alones take batteries to store the extra power generated so that you can still have electricity when the winds are calm.

An inverter converts energy from battery to household or AC current. You even have the opportunity to purchase a stand-alone system that is piggy-backed with a solar cell. Local governmental agencies actually offer incentives such as rebates and discounts when you install and use these systems.

Many manufacturers produce wind turbines for the home. Keep an eye out for three and five blade turbines, the kwH produced make sure you have enough for what you need to power, materials such as plastic or nylon synthetic materials. Some are more aerodynamic than others and the way in which your turbine is mounted to the tower.

Each manufacturer will have listed the specs for their equipment, so don’t be intimidated into thinking you need a physics degree to understand wind energy. It is affordable for homeowners now, so there’s no need to wait. Help save the planet and save your wallet with affordable wind energy for the home. You’ll be amazed at what you can do!

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Unique way to save energy

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

In this bad economic times, a lot of people are still in searchh of saving money. One of the ways that is overlooked a lot is conserving energy.Not only will this save you some money, but it also will help in saving the environment.In this article we are going to learn of a great way to save a lot of money in energy bills.

The most effective way to more savings in your energy bill is to have a complete solar energy installed onto your home. It isn’t as hard to do as it sounds.All that it will take is for you to go and have solar panels installed onto your house.When people start to investigate this a little further they soon realize how expensive solar panels can be. So they go looking for cheap solar panels.

Now they might be able to find some but if they really want to save they should look into building a solar energy system themselves. There are plenty of manuals that can teach them how to do a diy solar panels.In general all of them are written so well that you will be able to easily follow along step by step.If you have it done in this way, your savings will be in the thousands of dollars.Now if you find yourself not wanting to do it, you need to go out and hire somebody.it the cost will be less than if they went with a solar contractor or an electrician.

It doesn’t matter if you have someone install it yourself or if you learn how to build a solar panel.As long as you make the effort to change your energy into solar, you will be saving money.

But you will not only be able to save some money yourself you are also helping out with the environment.Making use of solar energy gets rid of a lot of more toxic type of energy.Your use of energy will be much cleaner and more natural.And you might be surprised to find that lot of people will follow because of the good example you set for everyone.

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Residential Solar Panels

Saturday, August 29th, 2009

The solar panels are the most important part of any home solar power system. They are at the heart of any solar power system and actually convert the sunlight to electricity. There are quite a few differences between solar panels, even though many panels look alike, and the homeowner must consider several things before choosing which panels to use for his or her home. The best guide to building a diy solar panel isGreenDIYEnergy Reviews.

The construction and efiiciency of modern solar panels is much better than what was available in the past. Because of these advances, any homeowner will be better off with newer panels than they would have been even a few years ago. While it is true that all of the newer panels are much better than in the past, there are quite a few differences between different models of solar panels so choosing a panel should be done based on both your budget and how much electricity you want to produce.

The voltage requirement of the system you are building is the first thing to consider. You need to choose the voltage level among several standard voltages available for residential solar panels. Your choice of solar panels and power inverter will be dictated by this voltage level decision There are advantages to using higher voltage panels like less power loss in the long runs of wire, however higher voltage panels are also more expensive. Though there are some home solar panels with even higher voltages, most output at 12, 24 or 48 volts. Selecting panels with the highest voltage level your budget will allow will usually be the best option.

Number of volts in your solar system will also influence whichsolar charge controller you use.

Efficiency is yet another difference between different solar panels. Even panels that look the same can have almost 10% higher or lower efficiency than similar models. This is a big difference in the power that will be produced from a given amount of sunlight. The higher efficiency panels will produce a great deal more energy over the life of the panel. Because of the better efficiency, you will need to spend less because you will require fewer panels and youll also need less space as well. You should check the efficiency rating of any panels you are considering and generally go with the highest efficiency rating that you can afford. Getting a better quality panel now, even if you have to spend more money, will pay you back many times over during the lifespan of the panel.

Some of the newer specialty solar panels should also be considered. One type of newer panel combines both electric and thermal solar into a single panel. These can be used for both electricity and hot water. Using these panels, you can make the most efficient use of your roof space and double the benefit from the solar panels.

Solar panels that include a micro inverter are another newer development. A micro inverter is a power inverter that is built into the solar panel itself rather than being separate. Converting the DC electricity from the panels or batteries into the AC electricity that comes out of the sockets in your home is the job of the power inverter. The typical configuration is to the have all of the panels and batteries feed a single, larger power inverter than does the conversion for the whole system. A micro inverter in individual solar panels means that you can build your system incrementally instead of having to buy a big power inverter right away. With a micro inverter you can get the benefits of AC power at each step as you build up the system. One final benefit of micro inverters is the electricity coming from the panels will be at a higher voltage and will be AC which will reduce power loss in the longer runs of wire. If youre interested in micro inverters, there is an in-depth article atSolar Panel Micro Inverter.

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Earth4energy – Learn How to Build Solar Panels

Friday, August 28th, 2009

The Earth4Energy manual is a great step-by-step guide for anyone wanting to build their own solar or wind power generator. The decision to use solar or wind power for an alternative energy source is not only great for the environment, it’s also very good for your wallet. Let me explain.

The first homemade solar panel I built was a portable solar power system for just under $200. You know, when I started building renewable energy sources I did it because of curiosity. I had heard that many people managed to create energy-generating devices, so I thought I will manage to do them to. When I found information about earth4energy and its videos I had no doubts that this is what I need.

The guide contains so many different solar panels blueprint, personally I used only portable solar panel, however if you want for example a grid-intertied panel you will find how to build it there. You know, the most powerful setup is undoubtedly an off-grid setup, it can generate electricity fo your entire house and sometimes even give electricity to your neighbours. But what about the price of the materials?

Believe it or not, but if you have enough materials in your household, you will spend $0 to build a solar panel. Some of the required materials are very easy-to-find, moreover, we use some of them every week.

The whole guide is not only about building solar panels, it will also show you how to build wind turbines. Believe it or not, but a small turbine could cost less than one hundred dollars, you know, they are ten times as expensive in shops. However, the problem is that it is impossible to generate electricity if you do not have enough wind in your country. A basic rule is that you want the average wind speed in the area to be around 10mph for the unit to be cost effective.

If you really want to build a wind turbine or a solar panel to generate electricity, earth4energy is undoubtedly what you need. How do windmills work

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