Archive for the ‘Saving Energy’ Category
Saving Energy in the home
Why is efficient home insulation good for saving energy?
Almost half of your electric bill goes to regulating the temperature of your home. Thus if you want to save on your electric bills, the best place to start is your home’s insulation system.
Insulation is important to minimize or eliminate the heat exchange/loss inside your house. Good insulation keeps the interior warm during winter and cold during hot summer days. A well-insulated house allows your heating and cooling systems to effectively work as needed. Proper insulation can save as much as 10% of your monthly electric bill.
Meanwhile, if your house has leaks or if it has insufficient insulation, air will pass through; and heat exchange will occur on areas where insulation is inadequate. This results to heat loss. And because a house with leaks and insufficient insulation requires more power to regulate its temperature, energy consumption will likely increase.
Where to insulate?
Areas of the house including the switches, power outlets, plumbing fixtures, walls, windows, doors, ceilings, floors, basement, crawl spaces and attic should be properly insulated.
Insulation Tips
Make sure that you consider factors such as building design, budget and climate when selecting the R-values of the insulation materials. Use the proper R-values insulating materials for particular parts of the house.
Consider parts of your house such as the attic, floors, kitchen, bathroom, windows, walls, door and other parts where heat loss are more likely to happen. Use the required insulation materials on these parts to effectively control the temperature.
Sunk-lights can be a source of heat loss but you need to be careful on how close you place the insulation next to these fixtures. Check with your local building codes for reference.
When constructing a home, check on some construction materials that provide both structural support and good insulation.
Follow the product instruction when installing the insulation. Product instructions are the best source of information on how to maximize the use the products.
More Energy Saving Tips
Reduce your light consumption. Some lights produce heat that affects the temperature of the house.
Keep your temperature sensor away from hot materials like stove, oven, lights and other appliances that emit heat to get accurate temperature reading for effective heat regulation.
If the temperature outside is comfortably warm or cold, turn off your heating or cooling system. During heat season, open the drapes of the south-facing windows to allow natural light to enter your home. Close it at night to prevent cool winds from coming in. During winter, keep the drapes and shades closed to help reduce heat loss.
Buy energy-efficient products that will help minimize heat loss and reduce power consumption. Find a reputable contractor and ask advice on good heating and cooling equipment to buy.
During winter, adjust your thermostat at the lowest comfortable level; during summer, highest comfortable level.
Minimize the use of heat generating appliances to reduce the use of cooling system and save on electric bill.
A well-insulated house is like a well-sealed refrigerator. Lesser heat loss means lesser power consumption; and more heat loss means the motor will work harder to maintain the desired interior temperature and thus more energy consumed.
Saving energy means saving money. Make sure that you routinely check your house for leaks and holes and replace or repair leaking parts as soon as you discover them.
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May 11th, 2009
The Solution to Pollution – Sustainable Power
The World Health Organization, The U.N., and governments from all over the world are now concerned with pollution. You hear celebrities calling a call to arms, to unite against pollution. A media frenzy on how polluted the whole planet is the event of the decade.
Pollution causes instability, discomfort, disorder and harm the environment and the people living in it. There are many kinds of pollutants it could be noise, energy, light, heat, and worst chemical.
Sources Of Pollution
There are two kinds of pollution source; the point source pollution or the non point source pollution. Point source pollution is aptly named because the source is readily identifiable and may be singled out. Usually a point source only affects only a single span of area or space while the non point source will affect a larger area. Non point pollution usually affects water bodies. It’s so severe that nothing will be able to reverse the damaging effects.
A History Of Pollution
If you believe that reverting to a “traditional” way of life will reduce or at least slow down the effects of pollution then you’re wrong. The moment fire was discovered, and metal grinding was used pollution ensued. Even human wastes probably some polluted areas since the Paleolithic times, its just that at that time nature dwarfs human actions giving it a period to recover.
Pollution gradually increases as humanity evolves and society develops. In fact glacier slices in Greenland show pollution in connection with the ancient Mesopotamian, Greek, roman and Chinese era. A closer study showed that pollution increases with the rise in the utilization of metals. With the decline of any human social progress the middle ages showed a slow pollution progress; although, pollution was generally concentrated in pocketed areas like cities.
The gradual increase of populations and the widespread use of industrial processes saw the materialization of a civilization that is slowly but surely creating a negative impact on nature. It was inevitable that pollution would get so severe that people would finally notice that the environment is slowly degenerating. The industrial revolution paved the way for total environmental pollution as we know it today
A Declaration
Unknown to a lot of people, the issue of pollution is not one that’s been discovered during the 19th century. During the 9th towards the 13th century Arabic writings regarding pollution were already prevalent.
The first medium of action in which the western society first notice was so basic and simple that it is literally all around us: air. Pollution as a cause became popular towards the end of world war II when the effects of atomic testing and the atomic bomb became undeniable destructive. In 1952 great smog descended upon London prompting the death of more than 8,000 people. This event precipitated legislations sanctioning the use of coals and other polluting energy resources prevalent in those days.
Over time, the growing pollution made people realize that the main cause of nature’s demise is our relentless use of energy. This gave rise to environmentalism and the quest for sustainable power. Energy is an integral part of the human world. We cannot live without energy; our very existence depends upon it. That is why it is imperative that we find alternate energy resources that will never be exhausted and will not harm the environment as time goes by.
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May 6th, 2009
Alternative Energy Sources
Alternative energy is often referred to as energy from a source other than the conventional fossil fuel source like oil, natural gas and coal. Alternative energy is not popularly used and is usually environmentally sound. It is also often times renewable energy. Several alternative energy sources are solar, wind, biomass, wave and tidal energy.
Population problem is not only a problem or concern about the number of people. People consume food, fresh water, wood, minerals, and energy every day. The increasing energy consumption is leading to the depletion of conventional energy sources as well as increasing pollution.
We are currently reliant on fossil fuel and other non-renewable energy. This causes great harm to out environment and will also tremendously affect future generations. Most of the current population relies on non-renewable energy source such as oil, natural gas, fossil fuel and coal.
Fossil fuels are non-renewable source of energy, it means it could run out. Also, when fossil fuels are burnt they produce the gas carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon dioxide is known as a greenhouse gas since it traps heat from the sun and preventing it from escaping out of the Earth’s atmosphere into space. The amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere is increasing. It leads to rising Earth temperature called global warming.
Alternative and renewable source of energy is therefore a necessity. Renewable energy is derived from resources that are regenerative or regenerate after consumption. For this reason, renewable energy unlike fossil fuels do not produce as many greenhouse gases.
There are several countries that are providing incentives for private sector or personal efforts to use renewable energy by giving tax incentives and subsidies. Currently, just 14 percent of the world’s energy consumption comes from renewable energy sources. But there is great potential for alternative energy. It could be large enough to cover many times the current energy consumption.
Several sources of renewable or also called alternative energy are sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat. Wind energy comes from wind power that is generated from wind turbines. Wind energy are non-polluting energy source with low maintenance cost although the initial expense may be high.
Solar energy come from the sun’s rays that reach the Earth. Solar energy can be converted into heat and electricity. Solar energy can be converted to thermal or energy generated from heat. It can be used to heat water and heat spaces like inside greenhouses, homes and other buildings.
Biomass energy comes from plants and animal material that are usable source of energy like wood from trees, waste from other plants, manure or animal wastes. Biomass energy has numerous benefits. It uses waste materials that are usually dumped and uses up methane gas (a greenhouse gas). Fuels like ethanol can be made from biomass and uses as an alternative to petrol.
Meanwhile, hidro power makes use of the energy the water gains when it drops in elevation. That is why plants are near waterfalls or dams. Hidro-power has been used since the start of the electric age but unfortunately the value of this energy has not yet been developed and maximized.
Another alternative energy source would be geothermal energy or energy derived from the underwater heat the world is emitting. Geothermal power plants are unaffected of changing weather conditions. It is also price competitive and helps the people’s reliance on fossil fuels lessen.
These only show that we can choose alternative ways on using energy to lessen its negative impact on our environment. Alternative energy sources provide us a choice for a bright and healthy future. It may something be out of the ordinary but it can also be useful.
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May 3rd, 2009
Alternative Energy – Helping Out in Times of Energy Crisis
How important are the alternative energy sources? People most commonly get the energy to power many types of equipments and things through the kinds which can be acquired on natural resources. And what are these? What will first come to mind when subjected to such question will be the likes of petroleum, electricity and coal.
But with the increase of the industries that rely a lot in the consummation of energy resources, the negative effects in nature is also on the rise. There is also the truth that many factories emit harmful chemicals that can be bad to nature. There are also many facilities and gadgets that require a lot of energy resource to be consumed. Plus the fact remains that there is a continuing rise of people’s population all over the globe. With these situations, there are pros and cons that happen in the process. And here are some of the harmful effects that such can be caused by the advent.
1. High technologies are on the rise. But these cause negative outcome to nature. Not everything that is new and advance can cause positive effects to the surroundings. And these add to the factors that utilize available energy causing the latter to diminish faster.
2. People find new ways to use old resources in new and innovative ways. But sometimes, people overlook the harmful effects that such activities can cause the environment. If this is the case, there will come a time that even the alternative sources of energy will not be able to provide what is expected from them.
3. There are environmental agencies that have done surveys with regards to energy consumption. It found out that with the current trend in the consumption of petroleum products, four decades from now, all the reserves for such products will run out if the trend will not change.
4. People have become too dependent in using natural energy resources. If time will come that there will be little or no more left of these resources, a lot of people’s activities and businesses will cease to exist. Transportation will stop. Trade will be affected. Communications will be stopped. Factories and other kinds of manufacturing businesses will stop from operating. Growth will be hindered as well as success.
To stop such negative outcome or slow down the timeline so that it won’t come about in the near future, people must do their part to be able to conserve the available resources. They must use their geniuses to find new ways and techniques to turn alternative resources into the kind of energy that can substitute the diminishing ones.
1. People must be serious about energy conservation. They must do everything in their capacity to save their use of the available energy resources. For example, if they can do without cars or riding on public transportation, or if you can just walk, then you better do that. Even if this is only a small step, this can be a big leap towards better results in conserving energy.
2. People must be responsible on whatever they do when it concerns the environment. You must remember that nature gives you a lot that you owe it as well.
Overall, it is people’s duty to look for alternative energy source to help us on our daily lives. We must also aim to alleviate the negative effects that these may cause to humanity and the environment.
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April 30th, 2009
Make Your Own Green Energy Source
Hi guys,
How about this for a fantastic idea. Wouldn’t it be great if we can produce our own green energy source? If we can do that, we don’t have to pay electrical bills or gasoline anymore for our cars. While we can buy some of the equipment, the rest will have to be done on our own.
Take solar or wind energy for example. We already know how to harness and make it. If you want to make one, do some research online and then set up the system yourself.
To have solar energy, you will need to buy an inverter, battery, charge controller, solar panels, some wires and support structure. The only difference with wind energy is that you need a fan. Once you have everything you need, you can put it all together.
If you are not skillful, you will be happy to know that some companies sell the entire system. By buying it from them and having it installed by their experts, you are sure that there won’t be any problems the moment you switch it on.
There is one more thing you need before you can use one or the two green energy sources. Before you buy the materials or the system, make sure you have a flat area that is about a hundred square feet or so because it occupies a lot of space.
For those who don’t have the space or the budget to use these two energy sources, another option is to create your own biofuels.
Biofuels are used in many countries and they get it from harvesting corn, sugar and other crops. Luckily, you don’t need a farm to produce it because you can also make your own using some recycled waste.
A good example of this is vegetable oil which we use for cooking. To turn this into a biofuel, we first filter it by warming up the liquid and then filtering this with a coffee filter. The next step is to remove the water also by boiling it again at 100 degrees for a short period of time.
We need to know the amount of lye present in the vegetable oil and we do this by a process known as titration. When we are done with that, we now mix sodium hydroxide to produce sodium methoxide.
The process of converting used vegetable oil before it becomes a biofuel takes quite awhile and it must be heated the entire time. This is done so the fuel we produce is pure and only when this is achieved that we give it time to cool.
Just how much biofuel we make after all the work varies but you will have an idea of how much you have produced since this is the one you see floating at the top. If there is still some glycerin present, filter it again. From there, you already have your own backyard biofuel which you can use and even sell to those who are just as concerned with the environment as you are.
By making our own green energy sources, we make ourselves less dependent on gasoline in its various forms to power our heater, home or car. Why don’t a lot of people do it? Well simply because they don’t have the time to make it and would rather rely on someone else to do it for them.
