Passive solar energy simply takes advantage of the sun’s energy as the name implies…passively. There are no moving parts, no fans, no pumps…no mechanical or electrical elements in the design, although fans are sometimes used to help move and distribute heated or cooled air throughout the space. If a fan is necessary, it is, or certainly can be, solar-powered as well.

No solar panels or other photovoltaics are required for passive solar energy. The design elements of a passive solar home generally include large south-facing windows to collect solar energy. As the sun’s energy is collected it passes through to some type of thermal mass, often concrete, tile brick, or stone, and sometimes even water. The thermal mass will hold and then dissipate the heat when the sun goes down for the day, or when it’s a cloudy, rainy day. During the summer roof overhangs and awnings work passively to reject the summer heat and maintain the building’s coolness.

Coming from Roman and Greek cultures, our passive solar home designs today very much mimic their work in calculating the best use of the sun’s energy.

Even though it made sense to take advantage of passive solar energy all those years ago, it makes even more sense now. The Greeks and Romans were then, as we are today, driven by diminishing resources for fuel and energy. Depending substantially on wood to heat their homes, the nearby forests began to disappear, and using the high intellect known then to exist, they discovered how to take full advantage of solar energy. As originally discovered by the Greeks and Romans, we, too, can eliminate or supplement our need for non-renewable energy sources by taking full advantage of passive solar design.

Passive solar energy is extremely clean. It’s also totally renewable and doesn’t emit greenhouse gases. By design, a passive solar energy home will maintain an even temperature throughout, and generally touted by homeowners as much cleaner and more comfortable than a comparable conventional system.

Passive solar hot water heaters are another way most passive solar home owners further decrease their energy bill, and their reliance on non-renewable resources. There are three basic types of passive solar water heaters: flat-plate, batch heaters, and evacuated tube heaters. Of these, batch heaters are the most prevalent and popular. Perhaps that is because batch heaters are fairly easy projects for the do-it-yourselfer. If you want to build your own, you’ll need to find an electric hot water tank…generally you can purchase either a salvaged one or find one that’s been disposed of in the dump. It will need to be thoroughly cleaned and sealed, and then painted black. Then, add new fittings and pipes to make sure you won’t have leaks later on. Construct a well-insulated plywood box, drill holes for the pipes to fit through, add aluminum foil or other metal for a reflectant, and place the tank inside, fitting the pipes through the holes. Cover the front of the box with glass or plexiglass, seal it, add water, and you’re ready go to. You may want a more detailed explanation, and there are a variety of plans available, but those are the basics.

Batch heaters, sometimes called breadbox heaters because of their design, can be used in stages as well. Utilizing more than one tank, and then taking advantage of the sun’s angle at various times of the day, the home owner can take advantage of the hottest water created by the sun’s rays. Flat plate and evacuated tube are also often found in solar passive homes, but their designs normally call for professional installation, and they can be less effective.

You probably already got it by now…there are lots of pros to going solar. And here are a few more to add to it. Solar energy isn’t going to cause headlines when it spills out into the ocean and creates miles and miles of oil slick, and changes the whole balance of nature for years. It isn’t going to create headlines when it collapses and buries dozens of miners far below the ground. Using sunshine for energy isn’t going to destroy businesses, or damage our fragile environmental ecosystem. Nor does solar energy create smog, or acid rain.

Solar energy, perhaps especially passive solar energy, offers so many “pros” it’s difficult sometimes to imagine that we have chosen not to take advantage, and to remain this long in the dark.

Looking to find out all you can about solar passive homes then visit www.HomeSolarPowerExplained.com to find the best advice on home solar power for you.

Described by former CIA Director James Woolsey: “A plug-in hybrid is an electric car with an insurance policy – a gas engine.” No better description can I find than that. A solar powered hybrid is a vehicle that relies primarily on solar powered electricity. However, to supplement and ensure operation, most also have a gas engine that kicks in under certain pre-specified conditions, or when the battery is depleted.

You’ll primarily find two different types of hybrid cars on the market today. One is a plug-in hybrid, or PHEV, and the other is simply a hybrid. The only difference between the two is the battery that’s used. The battery capacity of the PHEV, which is recharged by plugging into an electrical outlet, is about 10 times that of the battery used in the standard hybrid. The standard hybrid vehicle battery is smaller and recharges in runs in conjunction with an electrical motor and operation of the gas engine in the vehicle. The PHEV or plug-in hybrid can be charged by a connection to any electrical outlet…solar-powered or connected to a standard grid.

There are an increasing number of advances in batteries that are making full solar powered cars with zero emissions, more and more viable for individual, family and commercial endeavors. People with solar vehicles are increasingly seeing the value of adding solar panels to their roofs to provide the power to charge their cars…and then adding more panels to power their homes. Hybrids, however, with a combination electric and gas engine, are currently the best answer for vehicles that will need to go for long distances without recharging.

If each of us were to closely examine the environmental damage done by fossil fuel usage, and add it to how much it costs us to drive our vehicles every day, we would all have either solar powered, or solar powered hybrids parked in our garages and driveways when we arrived home every day.

Absent entrenched economic interests and politics, solar power would be in a far different place today than it is.

The best option at the moment for longer distance driving is either the PHEV or hybrid vehicle. Like having two vehicles in one, you have the electric car that runs clean and efficiently, without pollution, and the gas engine, which while it does produce greenhouse gases when operating, also provides a back-up and additional power to make sure you get where you’re going.

If you want to know what’s currently available, here’s what the Kelley Book (a widely used reference for establishing vehicle values) lists as hybrid models available in the United States for 2010 and 2011:

- Toyota Prius
- Honda Insight
- Toyota Camry
- Ford Fusion
- Honda Civic
- Toyota Highlander
- Ford Escape
- Lexus, various hybrid models: RX & GS 450h, HS 250h, LS 600h
- Nissan Altima
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class & ML-Class
- Cadillac Escalade
- Chevrolet Tahoe
- Mercury Mariner & Milan
- BMW X6
- Chevrolet Malibu
- GMC Yukon
- Saturn VUE and Aura
- Chevrolet Silverado (pick-up) 1500
- GMC Sierra (pick-up) 1500 Crew Cab

Their “top green cars for 2010″ list sites the following hybrids (in reverse order):

* 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
* 2010 Toyota Highlander Hybrid
* 2010 Ford Escape Hybrid
* 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
* 2010 Honda Insight (hybrid)
* 2010 Toyota Prius (hybrid)

Change comes slowly for all of us. With political pressure by industry lobbyists slowing progress in this arena, it’s going to be up to us to not only embrace the move to solar energy, particularly for our vehicles, but to pressure our political representatives to provide the right kinds of incentives that will quickly bring solar energy to parity… and then allow it to quickly eclipse and collapse our dependence…on fossil fuels.

Having the dual option of plugging into the grid (utility company electrical outlet in your garage) and the off-the-grid option (creating electricity generated by your own solar panels) makes both solar powered vehicles and hybrid vehicles a highly responsible, cost-effective way for each of us to make a difference in how large a carbon footprint we choose to make.

Want to find out more about solar power cars, then visit Timothy Peters’s site at: www.HomeSolarPowerExplained.com

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Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails…or sugar and spice and everything nice? Ask today’s younger generation and they may say it’s Beiber boys and grown-up toys…that’s what solar energy panels are made of…well, sort of.

Since Justin Beiber is the sunshine of a lot of young hearts, and there’s no question he shines on stage, he creates electrifying energy in the crowd. It’s really unfortunate we don’t know how to capture this kind of energy to power our homes and businesses. In the meantime, we’re fully exploring how to convert the sunlight’s energy into electricity to operate our homes and businesses.

OK, seriously, what are solar energy panels made of? For the most part, solar panels consist of solar cells that are built from captured impure silicon crystals. Impure silicon crystals are used because pure silicon isn’t electrically active. The impurities themselves create an ability to attract…or to lose…electrons. Sunlight, and all light, has energy. When the energy of sunlight hits the impure silicon crystals, it creates an electrical current from the moving electrons. As they absorb light, the electrons move, and then are forced to flow a certain way which creates an electrical current. Contacts, generally metal, are placed at the top and the bottom of the cell, called a photovoltaic, or PV cell, and power is pulled out. The term PV or photovoltaic, comes from combining the words photo…meaning light…and voltaic…meaning electricity. If you look around your house, and others, you’ll probably see a calculator that’s powered by a PV cell. Many small electronic devices, like calculators, along with landscaping lights and others, have PV cells that generate their power.

A series of photovoltaic or PV cells are connected together electrically. Then, they’re placed into a frame to make up a panel. A series of solar panels connected together is called an array.

Powering the average American home takes a lot of solar energy panels. To reduce the number of panels needed for enough energy to run a home, or a generator, or to charge a battery, materials other than silicon are being used with some success. With smaller, cheaper crystals, like copper-indium-gallium-selenide, which are shaped into flexible films, thin film solar technology is showing promise and success. So far, though, silicon is still the most effective in creating electricity.

And so…the search for newer and better methods of creating solar energy cells goes on.

Littered with fossil fuel competition, the path to the beginning of solar energy cells is long. Mankind has, however, for hundreds of years, wanted to take advantage of the sun’s energy. And, slowly but surely, we continue to make progress in our attempt to harness with renewable resource.

Both the Romans and the Greeks found that by covering their south-facing window openings with glass or mica, they could capture and hold in the heat in the winter. Using the sun’s energy passively, they discovered the most optimal advantage.

Believing Europe would eventually run out of not only wood but coal, a man named Augusta Mouchout developed the first steam engine that was sun-powered, although it was not done passively. William Gyrlls Adams, in the same time period, found that when light was shined on selenium, the material shed electrons, which created electricity.

However, the expense of capturing the sun’s energy made it cost-prohibitive for any real development of this work, and non-passive solar energy innovation lagged until…through research by Albert Einstein…the creation of electricity from solar photovoltaic cells (PV) progressed another notch with work done in 1953 by Bell Laboratories.

And, even then, it was considered too expensive. Despite the success of scientists’ Daryl Chapin and Calvin Fuller’s work in creating measurable electrical current with solar photovoltaic cells, further progress in solar energy cell research and development essentially lay dormant.

Until the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973 showed how heavily the Western world relied on oil, solar energy laid in stagnation. Then, the U. S. government led a desperate effort to find fossil fuel energy alternatives. With the government providing research subsidies, photovoltaic solar energy cells were finally being produced more economically. In the 1990′s, Japan rushed headlong into PV energy in rooftop solar. This resulted in a significant price reduction in PV energy cell expense.

Remaining more expensive than conventional energy sources, solar energy panels are also more cumbersome, and in some locations, just can’t do the job. For the normal household, there is as well, the drawback not only in expensive of each PV panel, but the number of panels that it takes to generate large amounts of energy.

However, in third world countries, especially rural areas, there are many locations where sunlight abounds, homes are small, and solar panels are extremely cost-effective, not only to the individuals using them, but for the environmental footprint not left behind.

Learn more about solar energy panels. Stop by Timothy Peters’s site where you can find out all about home solar power and what it can do for you.

The United States has adopted solar power at a snail’s pace. Generally, the reason you hear for this is the high price of solar energy components. This sounds right…and valid…until you look at the economies of scale bringing prices down, escalating fossil fuel prices, and what it’s costing us not to adopt solar energy.

At a rate of about 27 tons (54,000 pounds) per person per year of greenhouse gases emitted by the average American (statistics attained from the Nature Conservancy), our contribution to global warming is…enormous. The average worldwide is 5.5 tons or 11,000 pounds per person. Let’s see, that means the average American adds about 5 times more greenhouse gas per year than everyone else in the world. Does that make you think a little more about the cost of not adopting solar energy? Would you, like millions of other Americans, prefer in this case to contribute less rather than more?

Let’s talk a bit about the cost of solar power. Adoption of solar power in developing countries has been rapid and satisfying. That’s because there are so many places that would never be able to have a conventional on-the-grid electrical power supply from a fossil-fuel power plant. But, they can have a $200 solar panel. They may actually be able to take their very first shower, and know that they can have the experience of hot water in that shower over and over. At the same time, they know that once that solar panel is paid for, every shower after that is free. You don’t have to be an economist to decide what to do…get solar or wait…forever.

Other countries, including those in Europe, hard hit by rapidly escalating fuel costs, and an unstable supply source, have been more aggressive in their adoption of solar power. The installation of rooftop solar systems for hot water heaters has escalated rapidly as fuel costs have risen.

Currently, China has about 4,000 companies that manufacture solar water heaters. According to an article in Grist (http://www.grist.org), as of March 2010, there were around 27 million solar water heaters installed.

The United States has plodded along behind, but has set standards and initiatives to move forward. As a major consumer of fossil fuel energy, we have maintained enough economic leverage to keep even imported energy costs relatively affordable. With the world economic instability, however, and rapidly depleting fossil fuel availability, this may change quickly.

It’s not all bad news, however. If, in fact, with all of the world initiatives on stabilizing global warming by using renewable energies, we were to achieve the stated goals by 2020, we could have an equivalent reduction of 690 coal-fired power plants. That is to say, by using renewable energies instead of fossil fuels, we could slash our net carbon emissions by 80%.

Do you agree… a pretty impressive objective? Definitely worthwhile? And that’s not the whole story. Moving forward rapidly to adopt solar power means we can also affect significant savings as mass production and distribution make solar energy a very affordable option.

In the United States, solar energy has simply not been able to find a price point compared to fossil fuel energy. Only the most environmentally-conscious and/or the most affluent families have adopted solar as a result. In fact, when you compare the United States to Europe in its use of solar water heaters, we fall far behind, except for swimming pool solar waters. Even that, however, is a step in the right direction. It increases the possibility that as more and more Americans decide the right thing to do is to “go solar,” the impetus will generate greater economies of scale that will move solar energy to parity with fossil fuel, and beyond. It will, hopefully eliminate the need for any governmental subsidies or initiatives to move it to the forefront of all other power options.

Currently, however, through state and federal subsidies, tax incentives, rebates and net-metering, there is a level of impetus that can move the United States toward a robust and wholehearted solar energy adoption. There are several states, including Hawaii, California and Florida, who have added their own incentives to those of the federal government, to successfully lead the initiative to solar adoption.

Solar power adoption has, undoubtedly, been slow. With industrial and political pressure, coupled with usability, availability, reliability and cost of solar components, solar energy has simply not yet measured up as a strong competitor to fossil fuel energy…the competitor that has the proven track record.

Although slow to reach the front door of the orphanage for adoption, solar power seems to have all factors currently coalescing to say to the world, “Pick me. I’m the perfect choice for your adoption now. I will be the sunshine of your life.”

There is every indication that history will show…now is the time for solar power adoption.

Learn more about solar energy history. Stop by Timothy Peters’s site where you can find out all about home solar power and what it can do for you.

categories: home solar power, solar power, solar energy, renewable energy, environment

Is your patio lighted? How about your curb or your driveway? If they are, I think I could hazard a safe guess that they’re solar.

If you want to increase safety and visibility around your home or business, solar lights are great. They’re cost effective, also, which you’ll especially notice if you use them to replace utility-power electrical lights. Decorative lighting is especially easy to place anywhere in your landscaping you choose, as they require no electrical wires or plug-ins. Plus, depending on the number of LED’s and the fixture in which they’re placed, you can choose bright light or low light.

Today, you can find a huge selection of outdoor solar lighting on the market. From luminaries that look like Japanese paper lights to lady bugs, turtles, and a myriad of other designs, solar powered lights have become so popular it’s hard to find a home without them.

New, beautiful, affordable garden art is being designed for indoor and outdoor solar energy lighting. Using rechargeable AA batteries (solar charged, obviously), combined with LED lights, fixtures are being created by some very imaginative artists. From the romantic to the frivolous, decorative garden art can easily accent your landscape…without having to have that string of electrical lights, plug-ins…and often a minimum-maximum space requirement.

Show your creative side when you use your decorative lights placed to create the setting and scene you want. Do you want an elaborate setting, or are you a more whimsical designer? Choose the theme you want to set for your event, and move from early evening into full darkness easily and magically. Set your stage with the lights you choose to accept and capture the mood of your event and your evening.

Allsop Gardens carries an amazing variety of solar lighting. You’ll find there solar powered lights that look like fireflies, Calla-Lillies Finials, Fuschia Finials, as well as beautiful Soji Lanterns. They have artistic creations designs for even the most discriminating decorator.

And if you go to the Solar Light Store, you’ll see that they carry solar path lights, solar spotlights, and solar tube lights, along with lots of other solar lighting choices.

They’re available in stepping stones also, making it easier to know where you’re going, and to “light your way” as you traverse a dark section of your yard after dark. You won’t need a flashlight to see where you’re going, and the person behind you won’t be left in the dark if you’re the only one with the flashlight.

A solar lighted house number, which turns on automatically after dark, can ensure your home is easily found by emergency providers in case accident, fire, or medical emergency. A great gift for your mom on Mother’s Day, or your dad on Father’s Day, especially if they live alone, and might have that occasion when they needs help, and can’t get the yard light turned on. Being able to see an address easily has on more than one occasion saved a life.

Another great invention in solar lighting can be found in solar powered security lights. Whether it’s your remote mountain cabin, or on the front of your own home, you’ll always have a security light, with or without electrical power.

Whatever budgetary goals you may have, you’ll find that decorative solar lighting will fit your needs, and any style you desire.

Decorative solar lighting simply provides tons of available options. Do you want soft, romantic lighting around your hot tub? Or would you like a turtle on every rock, or lots of fireflies in all your trees? You can have whatever you want, and you can create a safe environment as well with light-strewn pathways that provide a way to move about in the dark without fear of tripping over some unknown object.

There are also water features that use only solar energy. With some beautiful solar spotlights encased in very real-looking stones, you can light whatever water feature you’ve created. Solar lighting allows you to enjoy your water feature as much, if not more, at night, than you do in the day.

And what’s the very best part? Decorative solar lighting doesn’t require you to do anything…no action needed. Solar lights will capture and store light all through the day, then, when it turns dark, your solar lights will turn on automatically. When it’s morning, and daylight is back, they turn off automatically, and start storing light again. Plus, the biggest bonus…while all of this is happening your utility meter isn’t moving because of your solar lights…not one bit.

Want to find out more about solar power lights, then visit Timothy Peters’s site at: www.HomeSolarPowerExplained.com