Can I Use Solar Panels For Home Or Business Energy?
It is almost high noon on the energy front. Oil, the material that is used to produce most of the world’s electricity is becoming too expensive to use to produce electricity for home consumption. Even if you believe that there are lakes of oil left, which might be true, the main reason they have not been exploited yet is because it is too expensive to extract. The only thing that makes it a viable concern is the high price of oil on the market.
Therefore, it stands to reason that oil prices cannot go down in the long term, which means that our electricity and petrol prices will stay high and will probably keep going up. Add to that the fact that manufacturing is moving to the Far East and the fact that immigration is rising and the result is lower wages in the West. The probability is that the average national wage will not rise as rapidly as the price of energy.
So what can you do about it? Well, while commodity prices are certain to keep increasing, one thing has always kept falling and that is the cost of new technology. Or to be more accurate, slightly old technology. Cutting edge technology is always dear, but after a few years the price tumbles, as we saw with desktop computers and as we are seeing with laptop computers now.
The same trend is at work with solar panels. They are far less expensive now than they were a few years ago and they are far more responsive too. And did you know that the bits and pieces that are used to make solar panels can be purchased from plastic bins at most DIY and hobbyist stores like Radio Shack? If you knew what to buy you could literally go out and bring back enough bits and pieces to make a few solar panels the next time you go out for a loaf of bread.
So why are we not doing it? We did not know that was feasible? Nobody told us? We are not technically minded? We do not have the skill?
OK, all those reasons sound valid. Nobody has been telling us, but the fact is that it is easy to construct solar panels and not that dear any more. Professional installations are still dreadfully expensive – about $45,000 -, but you can do it yourself. There are two approaches you can take.
You can either get a schematic diagram, a plan, from a hobbyist shop or the Internet, purchase the components and make your panel or you can buy a self-assembly kit. Sincerely, there are kits about that teenagers can assemble as easily as they do a plastic model airplane. ‘Locate and insert part number 44 into the main board number 3′ – that sort of simple.
If you are fresh to the world of solar energy, then you may be asking yourself how solar energy panels work? Solar energy panels are also known as photovoltaic panels; photovoltaic meaning electricity from light. Solar energy panels work by collecting protons from the sun, which dislodge neutrons, and thereby create a flow of electrons or electricity. This electricity can either be stored in batteries for later use or used directly.
You can use solar panels to heat your pool, run your workshop tools, power the greenhouse lights and fans or if your system is big enough, supplant grid electricity in your entire home or business. Most solar energy panels are designed to last upwards of 20 years but involve little to no looking after.
There is a drop-off of the power supply after about 10 years of about 10%, but over the life-time of the solar panels, the energy savings made are enough to recoup the original cost of the system and more. Furthermore, prices are tumbling while energy prices are increasing. It already makes economic sense to change to solar energy power.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite topic, types of renewable energy. If you are interested in Sustainable Energy At Home, please click through to our site.
Make A Wind Turbine For Free Electricity
I am sure that you would like to come off the electricity grid. Who would not like to put a stop to those growing monthly bills? The trouble is that no one is stepping up to the plate to tell us how to do it. Politicians are just starting to ring the alarm bells even though they have known about the predicted oil shortage for decades – just as we all have.
The difference is that we are not being paid to make the right decisions for the country like they are. We look to our chosen representatives for guidance, but there is not much forthcoming. Yes, there are a few grants available for the installation of replenishable energy sources, but they will only benefit the middle and upper classes who can afford them anyway. They will also benefit the firms that sell these devices, because they will get their asking price from the state, which will pay with poor people’s taxes. Great!
Where are the government hand-outs (not money) informing people how they can assemble and fit their own solar panels and wind turbines without having to make somebody else rich by doing it? Surely, if the government were serious about sustainable energy, it would have worked out a way to allow average people to help themselves?
You can actually construct a very effective wind turbine from scrapyard parts and bits and pieces from a hobbyist store like Radio Shack. But no politician is telling you that. They want you to spend $45,000 on a green system and even better if you put it on your credit card or overdraft.
The reason why you should consider completing your own wind turbine is that you can probably get the parts for less than $500. It sounds like a massive saving and believe me, it is, but you will have to do a lot of work to carry out yourself, instead of lying back and watching a contractor do it for you. But I should imagine that you realized that already, eh?
I know that ‘building your own wind turbine’ sounds unbelievable, out of the normal person’s league, but in a way that is because we have become too focused. When asked your job, you might say that you are a data enterer of a maths teacher, a miner or a writer, but that is NOT all that you are and certainly not all that you could be.
Take a deep breath and buy some drawings to build a wind turbine or, if that is too daunting a solar panel. Believe me, once you have built one, the next one is much simpler and the icing on the cake, is when your energy device is standing there, hooked up to your home power supply and giving you a bit of freedom from the grid.
It will inspire you to make another one and become even more independent and, who knows, you may even stop what you are doing now and build units for your neighbours. you may become an eco-warrior!
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite topic – alternative power sources. If you are interested in Sustainable Energy At Home, please click through to our site.
What You Ought To Know Before Buying A Home Solar Electricity System
The replacement of traditionally created electricity with electricity generated from renewable or alternative resources is now a viable alternative for many people in the Western world. The main stumbling block is the initial outlay, which is why solar electricity is still not a viable concern in most other, hotter, countries.
The fact is that fitting solar panels to get your home off the grid is a lot cheaper than it was ten years ago, but it is still not cheap. Some countries have introduced incentive schemes and these are fine, as far as they go, but often they are intended for the middle classes, which is not a section of society as big as the working class and which can afford to pay for its own electricity anyway. These programs leave the preponderance of the members of society stuck with the grid. The new British proposal FITS is like this.
Other countries have so-called ‘Green Options’, meaning that you can choose to pull energy from producers of electricity from users of renewable resources only, which is great as far as it goes, but the end user is still stuck in the system of being on the grid and being subject to price hikes and power cuts.
If you truly want to get off the grid, do away with monthly bills and recover your freedom from the fat cat oil and electricity suppliers, you have to take a radical approach. The first step is to work out your electrical requirements.
Calculate the coldest and the hottest month and use the dearest plus 10% as your objective. The fact is that it could take you years to get off the grid, and by then appliances will be using less electricity than they do now anyway. You can also sell your surplus electricity back to the grid for real satisfaction.
The cost of the professional installation of solar energy systems can be exorbitant and take twelve years or more to recover, but if you assemble and install your own bank of solar panels, you can more than half that time frame. In fact, it is possible to decrease the cost by as much as 75%, if you are willing to assemble and install the solar panels yourself. This is a job that most capable teenagers can do, given the right plans or schemas.
The best way of going about it, is for you to read up as much as you can on the topic, because there are several routes you can go. The main ones, using solar panels or other means of renewable electricity, are: remain hooked up to the grid, using your own electricity first and selling back any surplus; remain linked up, but send surplus electricity to your own batteries, which could be an electric car; or you can get off the grid altogether.
The ultimate goal, in my eyes, is to provide my house with all the home-made electricity from solar panels that I need, to charge my hybrid car’s batteries from the same source and to resell any excess back to the electricity grid.
What a dream!
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite topic, types of renewable energy. If you are interested in Sustainable Energy At Home, please click through to our site.
Now Is The Time To Use Sustainable Solar Energy
The very life of every living thing on Earth is dependent on the Sun. Without the Sun, we would not have animal or plant life, which supplies us with food and companionship. Without the Sun, we would have died out in former days, without the Sun these days, we may last a while, but it would not be much of a life.
The Sun gives us much more too. What we now call ‘alternative, sustainable energy‘ was the only form of energy available to the world for thousands of years. In reality, nuclear and even oil generated energy should be called alternative, but we have forgotten a lot. Especially in the West.
It is not essential to go back to the ways of our farming ancestors and get up and go to bed with the Sun, although it is still the way of life of the majority of the world’s population. No, we have technology and we should use it. At the moment, we use sophisticated technology to find more lakes of oil and dig ever deeper in more and more inaccessible places to take it from the Earth. Or worse still, we go to war to steal or ensure supplies resulting in the death of thousands of young soldiers and the desolation of millions of ordinary, innocent citizens.
We have to use our fantastic advances in technology to produce electricity out of thin air. Literally. We already have the technology to create solar panels and wind turbines in order to create millions of kilowatts of electricity from the Sun and the wind. There is other technology that can make use of the movement of the oceans and the natural high temperature of the Earth itself, although some of these are only accessible in some areas. For example, wave power can only be taken advantage of, if you live on the coast.
However, solar and wind power can be used in any part of the world with differing levels of success. A permutation of the two types of power generators is perhaps best for most areas. These technologies have been developed more or less chaotically. What if we had spent our war chests of billions of dollars on progressing these technologies, instead of using them to level cities and kill people?
However, the technology is there to produce enough electricity to power a household. It is clear that we cannot wait for our governments to do much more for us. Their viewpoint is different, they do not want to harm big business. And the big electrical providers would be damaged if a significant number of people generated their own electricity and came off the grid.
The rich representatives in government are trapped between a rock and a very hard place. They recognize that oil is running out; they know that much more electricity will have to be generated from the wind and the Sun, but they do not want to harm the share value of big industry.
Imagine, what a hard time the energy producers would have explaining why the cost of electricity had to go up because he Sun or the wind had increased its charges. Whereas it is easy to defend when they say that OPEC has increased the price of oil. But, we are in OPEC, aren’t we?
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite topic – alternative power sources. If you are interested in Sustainable Energy At Home, please click through to our site.
categories: energy,global warming,climate change,alternative,sustainable,solar power,wind power,home,health,technology,science,other,uncategorised,fuel
Why Not Build A Wind Turbine For Free Electricity?
Have you ever thought about building your own wind turbine? It is not as simple as building your own solar panels but it is not hard either. Making your wind turbine look attractive is a bigger problem than making electricity from it. The first thing you have to do is invest in a set of plans to make a wind turbine and then set about buying all the components.
Assembling the components is easy. The bits and pieces can be picked up cheap from vehicle scrap yards and your local DIY store. Just imagine being even only 50% self-sufficient in electricity? Add in a few solar panels or a second wind turbine and you could soon be off the grid altogether.
Everyone understands about the continually rising cost of electricity and that it would be a good idea to generate energy from the wind and the sun just for the cost of the generators – the wind turbines and the solar panels – so you may be wondering why it is not a good idea to just go out and buy what you need from a professional installer.
Well, the answer to that is expense. Professionally installed wind turbines can cost tens of thousands of dollars and it can take 20 years to recoup the cost. On the other hand you can make your own for between $200 and $500.
If the turbine saves you $200 a month then it is evident that you will have recouped your outlay within three months maximum, if you assemble the turbine yourself. This is a very good incentive as with a little regular maintenance it will last you 15-25 years. Let’s just say 15 years or 180 months at at least $200 per month. That is $36,000 or an 7,200% return on investment.
Wind generated electrical power is very green as it requires practically no fossil fuels to produce it. I say practically none, because it may need a little engine oil to keep the blades turning efficiently. And that is it. You may have to replace a bearing from time to time, but that is the extent of your maintenance routine. It is not severe. You will also have to put some water in the batteries from time to time as well, unless you buy the sealed models, which you cannot fill up.
It really is not so difficult to build a wind generator. The average DIYer can complete this project with everyday tools. There are detailed instructions and drawings available on the Internet or at DIY stores to build a wind generator in your workshop at home.
So why not start to make yourself a wind turbine today? Fix it on a roof or a pole and begin generating your very own free electricity. You could be off that grid faster than you know it and you will be doing more than your bit to help the planet too.
If you want to read more about home-made wind turbines and solar panels, there is plenty of advice on the Internet.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite topic – alternative power sources. If you are interested in Sustainable Energy At Home, please click through to our site.
categories: energy,global warming,climate change,alternative,sustainable,solar power,wind power,home,health,technology,science,other,uncategorised,fuel
