January 30, 2010

Solar Powered Homes

Filed under: Going Green — admin @ 2:00 pm

Have you ever noticed homes that have huge tinted windows in them as you drive by? You may wonder why someone would want such tall windows in their home. There is a reason for that and it is because of they are using solar power to heat their homes and to provide the energy they need to power it. Any home can be built to use solar power with just a few minor alteration to make and you too can build a solar power house that will save you a lot of money in the future as you use solar power to heat your home, pump and heat your water and also to provide energy to your home to power your appliances and lights in your home naturally and effectively without a monthly bill.

There are just a few suggestions when building your solar power home. It depends on where you live as to which side of the house you should put the most windows on. For the most part is more common to assume that the sun rises more toward the south side of your home. This is the side where you want to have the most windows in your home. That way you are allowing the sun to shine through and warm your home naturally. You also need to make sure that there are no trees that are directly close to the house that may prevent the sun from shining directly into the home. Don’t use dark colors in your home to decorate with. Instead use bright and light colors that will attract the heat more evenly and benefits you more.

Adding a solar source outside where you can use a solar power designed box to attract the heat from the sun can be transformed into energy to power your home and warm your water. The products that it takes to get this accomplished will cost a little more than if you built a standard home without using solar power. The good thing about solar power is that it is an initial investment.

Overtime when you totally rely on the sun to heat your home and all the other functions it can perform you will not have a monthly bill because you don’t pay for the sun every month like you do with other power sources. Use ceiling fans to reduce the amount of time you may need to run your air conditioner. Ceiling fans can produce a more even amount of heat and air without having hot and cold pockets throughout the home. Use metal insulated doors that will keep out the cold and bring in the heat. Keep the doors closed during the time of day that the sun is shining in on that side of your home in order to save the heat inside your home longer.

Owning a solar power home means that you are encouraging preserving our natural resources for the future. It also means that you will not worry with the increase in cost of electricity and gas because you are using the best source out there without hurting the environment.

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October 26, 2009

Green Home Plans – What They Need To Include

Filed under: Going Green — admin @ 10:40 am

Author: Scott Salter

Nurturing our environment, achieving a sustainable future and reducing global warming have been growing topics of concern for all of us. The need to protect the environment is in all of our hands and this responsibility needs to be exercised in almost everything we do and in the choices we make every hour of our lives. Actions we take now can lead to benefits later. When we all choose well and change our behavior to nurture, conserve and sustain, the effect can be enormous. The home in which we live is one such area where we have the ability to make a range of nurturing choices. In this article we will look at some of the more desirable elements that need to be included in green home plans.

Durability is a key tenet of a good green home plan. A green home plan will strive to use eco-friendly building materials and furnishings and will incorporate leftovers wherever possible. A green home design will make use of materials that are renewable and long lasting. The less often you have to replace materials, then the less material and effort that needs to go into maintaining them, resulting in a diminished cost of upkeep and less frequent replacement. Cork, bamboo and eucalyptus are examples of earth friendly and renewable materials that feature prominently in environmental building designs. Recycled materials should also be used wherever possible. This is relatively easily achieved when it comes to flooring as you can sand and refinish or even paint and stencil what is already there. Recycled glass (vertrazzo) looks attractive and comes in a range of colors. It can be used for both kitchen countertops and as a backsplash.

Efficient energy use is another key component of a green home plan. Using energy efficient appliances is a must and most manufactures these days will label their products with an energy star rating. But the biggest difference we can make is by leveraging that great bundle of natural energy called the sun. A solar power system can deliver most of an average household’s daytime energy needs and any excess energy that is created can be fed back into the electricity grid. Rebates for the installation of solar panels and also their improved efficiency are seeing the cost of installing residential solar power systems come rapidly down. The energy savings we can achieve by installing a solar panel array will be complemented by installing energy saving windows and ensuring that our homes are properly insulated. Both measures are designed to trap heat inside the house during cold weather and reflect heat when it is hot, leading to a reduction in heating and cooling costs respectively.

The third pillar of a good greenhouse plan should be the efficient use of water: something that is particularly pertinent for those living in drier climates. An enormous amount of perfectly good drinking water is wasted each day on activities like clothes washing and flushing toilets. These activities could just as soon be done using grey water (recycled water). Home water treatment systems such as a wet compost system or a sand filtration system will achieve the aim of using water efficiently.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/green-home-plans-what-they-need-to-include-550825.html

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October 3, 2009

Going Solar is Cheaper Than Ever

Filed under: Going Green — admin @ 1:13 pm

By Trevor Stokes

Published: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 3:30 a.m.

Jim Hannon/TimesDaily

Florence resident J.D. Weaver checks the wattage being generated by solar panels installed on the roof of his home on Cox Creek Parkway in Florence. Nine solar panels produce electricity and two panels are devoted to heating water.

The Weavers’ house is nestled among maple, mulberry, oak and hackberry trees along busy Cox Creek Parkway.

From the front, the house looks ordinary, with white panels and a new metal roof.

But seen from the back, the house has something most homes in the area don’t: solar panels.

J.D. and Mary Lou Weaver purchased their home in 1976, and this summer, they became the region’s first residents to retrofit solar panels on their roof.

“We’re trying to go green,” J.D. said. The couple has nine solar panels that produce electricity and two panels for heating water.

They got rid of their gas water heater, and in a month, will find out how much money they have saved. Their system has been operational for 60 days.

The main motivation behind going solar were increases in electric rates and fuel costs from the Tennessee Valley Authority, the area’s electrical wholesaler.

“TVA went up on our rates and our fuel costs,” Mary Lou said, “So I said I’ll put a stop to that.”

The solar industry as a whole has benefited from federal and state subsidies along with falling prices for photovoltaic panels that transform sunlight into electricity.

Solar systems like the Weavers’ are expected to grow in number in the next few years, with annual system revenues expected to surpass $55 billion by 2012, according to predictions from Pike Research, a renewable energy research firm.

The main barrier to going solar remains cost, which even in the past year, has changed significantly.

“Solar is really starting to get competitive price-wise,” said Chris Shearburn, systems engineer for Southern Solar Systems, the Huntsville-company that built the Weavers’ solar system.

Before, solar installations were driven by environmental concerns, but “now it’s getting to the point where it is making financial sense.”

Silicon – the major component in solar panels – has drastically decreased in price in the past year, according to the New Energy Finance Silicon and Wafer Price Index.

Silicon prices for short-term projects decreased from $450 per kg in early 2008 to roughly $70 per kg, wrote Nathaniel Bullard, solar analyst for New Energy Finance.

“This change in price for silicon, as well as the oversupply for finished photovoltaic panels, means that the price for panels have fallen 50 percent so far this year,” Bullard wrote in an e-mail.

In 2008, the company helped build a Habitat for Humanity home that included solar panels. Unlike the Weavers’ home, the other solar home in Tuscumbia was built from scratch.

At the residential level, drivers of solar conversions come mainly from subsidies at the state and federal levels. Alabama still does not offer tax incentives, which “has slowed the development,” Shearburn said.

In Tennessee, for example, commercial properties get a 40 percent tax credit for installing a solar system.

“When we first got into this a little over a year ago, it took over 30 years to get your money back (from installing residential solar systems). We weren’t really encouraging people at that time,” Shearburn said.

Now, the estimated payback time is 12 to 15 years. Plus, TVA has instated a program that pays 12 cents above the retail rate per kilowatt hour generated through solar – another incentive for homeowners who may be straddling the fence.

“If you can produce half as much as you use, you can zero out your utility bill,” Shearburn said.

On a recent cloudy day, J.D. looked at the array of converters and meters that transfer electricity from the silicon chips to the home, and said, “We don’t produce as much – that’s why we’re tied in with the city.”

The Weavers also own hybrid cars.

In their basement, a slender white water pump monitors the temperature on the roof. The solar water system heats water on the roof that then travels to a water heater in the basement.

The Weavers invested $6,000 for the solar water heater and $15,652 for the solar panels. When asked about the cost, Mary Lou said she had no hesitation.

In contrast, when the couple bought their home 33 years ago, it cost $14,000 – $52,986 in 2009 dollars, according to the Consumer Price Index from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

When asked about advice to other homeowners who may be considering solar panels, Mary Lou said, “I can’t say because I don’t know how much we are going to save.”

She later added: “It’s almost like getting our electricity for free – I don’t know that yet, but that’s what I’m thinking. We might even make money on it.”

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@TimesDaily.com.

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September 18, 2009

How to Get Renewable Energy Into Your Dorm Room

Filed under: Going Green — Tags: aa nimh, backpack, buy carbon offsets, carbon sequestering, carbonfund, chargers, coleman, dorm room, electricity, electronic gadgets, reactor, reducing carbon emissions, renewable energy projects, solar charger, solar panels, solar power, using renewable energy, wind power generators — admin @ 9:29 am

Solar Power for Your Laptop, iPod & More

It’s been quite some time since I lived in a dorm room, I admit — over 40 years in fact (yikes!) — and at the time, using renewable energy in my room was not really on my cultural radar.

But today is far different. Renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions are talked about all the time; and while you may not be able to install solar panels or sign up for green power at college, you can still make a difference.

You pretty much have two (and a half) options though: Portable solar power chargers for your laptop and electronic gadgets , Rollable Solar Panels and buying carbon offsets.

Solar Power For Your Gadgets
Even though there are some portable wind power generators out there, skip them and concentrate on portable solar power chargers for your electronics.

SolarWindSuperMall has covered a number of these before a number of times and is a good place to start to get a handle on what’s out there: First the portable solar power backpacks , the original Reactor Solar Backpack, the new stylish foldable solar power charger from Coleman or the AA NiMH or NiCD battery solar charger – compact foldable unit. All are worth investigating.
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Buy Carbon Offsets For Your Electricity Use
You’re probably familiar with carbon offsets for your flights, but most of the same people from whom you’d purchase these also sell offsets for your personal electricity use — Sometimes these are for renewable energy projects, other times they are for other carbon sequestering projects. In any case, they’re a good way to reduce the impact of your electricity use.

CarbonFund.org is one service which I reference a lot. They have offsets for your home either by preset amounts or by entering in your exact electric usage.

You’ll have to tweak their system though: Since you’re in a dorm room and never see an electric bill you’re stuck with presets, and the smallest one of those is for an apartment (under 1000 sq ft). You’re dorm room is undoubtedly much smaller than that, so the $50 is probably overkill. Based on their numbers, something like $25 is more like it, so adjust the numbers accordingly for a more appropriate offset.

There are other services out there to choose from, keep in mind, and a quick search will turn them up. Just make sure they’re reputable.

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