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Posts Tagged ‘solar panels for homes’

Did you know that the U.S. indeed has an enormous potential for developing renewable energy sources? A couple of different types of renewable energy – especially solar power. For example, we have such things as wave energy (from ocean waves), and wind energy. All these renewable sources have lots of un-tapped potential.

The western world has for over a hundred years relied mostly on such fossil energy sources as oil and coal. However, the “times they are a-changing” as Bob Dylan sang. Coal and oil have been used because they were cheap and abundant. Not to mention the convenience of using these sources of energy.

It is now evident that the Earth’s stored fossil energy reserves are running low. It gets increasingly difficult to extract them. Also, there is the looming threat called “Global Warming”.

Personally, I believe this is a real issue. It is not that hard to realize that massive amounts of carbon dioxide are released when we burn coal and oil. This originates from carbon which has been hidden in the depths of the Earth for many millions of years. Now we humans are opening a Pandora’s box by releasing tremendous quantities into the air.

The 20th century saw a dramatic rise of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere. The reason this is a concern is the “greenhouse effect” of CO2. This gas is invisible to us but reflects infrared radiation back to the surface of the Earth. Which means that as the CO2 level goes up, so will the Earth’s temperature go up also.

You will be affected in different ways depending on where you happen to live. In some parts of the world, it can lead to disastrous consequences – drought, desertification, famine. And then there is the alarming fact of rapid melting of the polar ice caps. In case this continues unabated, we will have a rise in ocean levels, likely a couple of feet. Then, coastal cities like New York would be partly submerged. And if you live in a place like the Netherlands, you’d likely find your area submerged also.

What can we do about these problems? The answer to that challenge is to stop using fossil fuels ASAP. Let us turn to renewable sources, such as solar panels – they have enormous promise. I guess you belive solar panels are way too costly? Not anymore. There is money to be saved if you set up those home solar panels with your own very hands.

If you like to be self-reliant, you should be interested in DIY home solar panels. Install them on your house, and say goodbye to those high utility bills. People in the U.S. have proven themselves to live up to even the toughest challenges. Therefore, my firm opinion is that even this challenge will be met successfully.

Technorati Tags: diy solar panels, home solar panels, Renewable Energy, solar panels for homes, Solar Power

For as long as I can remember, I have had a dream about building my own house. And not just any house. This house should be beautiful; but it should also be eco-friendly.

To be eco-friendly, or gentle on the environment, means a couple of things. The first thing in my view is to create a good environment inside the house by using sound construction materials. What you really want to avoid is getting some hazardous materials into your home. For example: formaldehyde – a very dangerous compound – is found in certain types of particle board. Formaldehyde is a gas which makes you sick, even in minute amounts.

Another important aspect is how you heat the place. Where I live, electricity used to be very cheap some years ago. Guess what – everyone figured they should use electric heating in their dwellings. As far as I understand it, this solution isn’t used much these days, as the electricity cost has increased a lot.

Same thing with oil. Back when I was a kid, I remember how everyone used oil to heat their home because it was cheap. The rising cost of oil is making this an expensive solution.

If you insulate your house better, you can beat the mounting costs of energy. Houses built during the merry days of cheap energy tend to have very flimsy insulation. People didn’t care to put money into better insulation when oil was so cheap anyway.

Things have changed nowadays. There are even cases where better insulation has reduced the energy cost by 50%. Believe it or not, there are super.insulated houses that hardly need any extra heating. So if you spend some cash upfront on insulation material you get it back in the long run.

Ideally, you’d want a solar powered house. Suppose you could turn all the sunlight which falls on your house to useful energy – then you wouldn’t need any other source. Even your car could run on that energy.

In practise, this isn’t possible today. But in laboratories, scientists have reached a more than 40% efficiency with solar cells. In other words: these cells can transform nearly one half of the sun’s light into useful electric power.

Of course, these cutting-edge solar cells are still very expensive. But solar panels with more modest efficiency are mass-produced, and getting fairly inexpensive. Nowadays a number of manufacturers are producing photovoltaic cells with up to 20 per cent efficiency, using streamlined methods like continous printing.

In case you would like to get home solar panels, there is money to be saved if you set them up yourself. Just like with most home improvement projects, doing it yourself cuts costs.

Besides the money saved, there is another nice bonus: self empowerment, ie. doing your own thing.

Once installed, solar panels for homes typically are expected to last for over 20 years. Which means that even though they cost you a chunk of cash, you can save money down the line.

Technorati Tags: home solar panels, photovoltaic cells, Renewable Energy, solar panels, solar panels for homes, Solar Power

Everyone seems concerned with the economy nowadays. It seems there is a crisis going on. Car makers such as General Motors are going bankrupt because of the slow market. Now, how come people are not buying cars?

Naturally, part of the reason is the current recession. But there is another thing: the global warming. Many folks hesitate to throw their money on buying a gasoline-powered vehicle.

Soon, there will be a shift toward electric cars, this seems certain. There is really only one weakness with electric cars: batteries haven’t been powerful enough. But better batteries are being developed. As soon as these are manufactured in full scale, the old gas-powered vehicle becomes obsolete.

Electric cars are actually much more efficient than traditional vehicles. One of the reasons for this is that an electric engine works only when it really needs to. There is no “idle” on such an engine.

Suppose you  replace most current cars with electric ones. Well, this will of course lead to a greater demand for electric energy. And of course nobody likes to pay more for their utilities? OK, to that I say: claim your freedom from the grid with your own solar power! Solar panels for homes are the best thing since sliced bread. You can install your own photovoltaic panels on your very own rooftop.

And then you can get electricity for your house and your car, straight from the sun. The system does not cause any pollution, plus it is free once set up.

You may think that this will be something very expensive to install. Well, that used to be the case but not anymore. The cost of making solar cells is going down rapidly. Everyone knows that there is a huge demand for cheap solar power products. Which causes a bunch of manufacturing companies to put great efforts into making them.

One company, Nanosolar, has found a way to make solar panels in an assembly line process. The process is a bit like printing newspapers. A semiconducting material which looks like paint is sprayed on to a metal foil. The process is fast once everything is put together.

Just think of the enormous surface area of all rooftops – what a tremendous potential there!

Technorati Tags: home solar panels, residential solar panels, solar panels for homes, solar power products