Archive for the ‘Saving Energy’ Category
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.
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April 18th, 2009
A War Between Eating And Sustainable Power
Today climate change is a reality that is acknowledge by even the most doubtful of skeptics. The warmer temperatures in areas where its supposed to be cool, scorching summers, and bone chilling winter have become a pattern that people cannot simply ignore.
What The War About?
Funny enough it seems that people are getting desperate and all are turning to bio-fuel like it’s the savior of all mankind. So what is bio-fuel? Bio-fuel is any gaseous, solid, or liquid material derived from biological materials. The argument ensues when people talk of the future. Bio-fuel’s raw materials are usually agricultural crops that are made to undergo fermentation and certain processes in order to produce bio-fuel.
The Problem
Who is the world’s largest oil consumer? Those with the highest number of vehicles running their roads, countries like the US, England and generally most of the European nations. When you think about it bio-fuel is made from corn, sugarcane, palm oil, vegetable oil, and etc; where do these agricultural crops come from? Third World Countries.
In Mexico they have this “tortilla crisis”. Corn which is the basic ingredient of tortilla is now sold five times the price it used to be marketed for. The reason for the inflated prices? The demand of bio-fuel in highly developed countries has severely altered the business people’s sense of profit. Why sell for a dollar when you can for 5 because the demand is now higher.
Who Suffers?
The first world countries will have to export goods from the third world countries to fuel their increasing demand for energy. The third world countries are usually tropical ones located near the equator, hence a higher crop growth of corn, and all those needed to manufacture bio-fuel; but for these countries corn is food, so is sugar cane. For the first world to survive the t poorer countries must either starve in hunger or break their back working to be able to afford the price hikes of the most basic of all commodities: food.
A Compromise
So what should we do? We need to address the problems of the environment and pollution, but it is also not right that to solve a problem we must create one. Think about it if the agricultural countries go into decline because its people can’t afford food then who will till the land to supply the giants with endless bio-fuel?
Sustainable energy is geared to sustain life, not make it harder. A proposal is in order. Since the crops needed for the production of bio-fuel can only survive in tropical countries then the governments of the more well off countries will have to invest in the agricultural countries to supply their own demand. These crops must be independent from those for local consumers. Stringent rules governing pricing and distribution must be implemented to further protect the source of the energy.
Sustainable power means the world working hand in hand to create a better way of life for the future. The road to betterment is paved with hard work and dedication. The ancient Egyptian used sails to go up and down the Nile; they were patient and they reached their destination. Let us all be patient but diligent in our quest for sustainable power to sustain life.
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April 15th, 2009
Pros and Cons of Alternative Energy Source
Due to increasing global energy consumption and the probable depletion of the world’s non-renewable energy source, ways of exploring and using alternative energy sources are being undertaken. Using alternative energy source can be both beneficial and difficult. Let us explore the different pros and cons of alternative energy source.
A major advantage of renewable energy is that it is renewable therefore it is sustainable and will never run out. More importantly renewable energy produces little or no waste products that may pollute or has harmful effects on the environment.
Some countries using renewable energy as another source of energy are also showing some economic benefits especially in many regional areas. Most of their projects are located away from the urban centers and capital cities. They were able to increase the use of local services as well as tourism.
General disadvantage of using renewable energy is that it is difficult to generate large quantities of electricity similar to that of conventional fossil fuels. Another common problem among alternative energy sources is the reliability of the energy supply. Since it is naturally generated, renewable energy supply relies on the weather condition.
Another drawback or disadvantage of alternative energy source is that it is relatively more expensive to set up the equipment necessary for generating the energy.
Here are the several advantages and disadvantages of alternative energy source.
• Solar energy- the sun is a great source of energy since it is free and is efficient. It is possible to maximize the energy given by the sun to replace traditional electricity. But there are limitations, like areas at high latitude and places with frequent rains are places not capable of producing efficient solar energy.
• Wind energy- wind is also an efficient electricity source. It is possible that wind energy can replace up to 20 percent of the total electric consumption in the future. It is also a very environment friendly source of energy since there are no harmful gases produced in the process of converting the energy. Location is a very important factor in using wind energy, high latitudes and coast lines are good places to set up windmills. A relatively big land area is also needed to put up sufficient number of windmills.
• Hydroelectric and tidal energy- both of these energy come from water. With hydroelectric energy it is mainly sourced from dams. Tidal energy, on the other hand, uses the natural tides of the ocean. Production of energy from water is another clean way of producing energy. However there are several disadvantages. Putting up river dams as sources of hydroelectric energy is very expensive, while tidal energy source depends much on the ocean. Since oceans tends to unpredictable there are only 9 places worldwide that are suitable for this kind of energy source. And tidal energy power plants are also said to provide negative effects on the migratory birds and the fishes.
• Biomass- biomass consists of fermented animal waste, agricultural crops, grains and other natural products. It can be used to produce an alcohol and also replace gasoline needs. It maximizes waste materials as an alternative energy source. A drawback, it that it still produces greenhouse gas.
Alternative energy sources although it is renewable also pose some disadvantages. But its unfavourable effects are relatively smaller than the harmful effects of conventional fossil fuels. The hunt for a cost-efficient and environmental friendly alternative energy source does not stop on the latest discovery.
