There are many choices available for you to use solar power for home. Be a friend to Earth, Save Money, and use Free, Renewable Energy For Your Home. What's more, it is clean and friendly on the environment too. You can even share your comments and ideas on solar power for the home and other green ideas for energy use at home.
The Solar Roadways project is working to pave roads with solar panels that you can drive on. Co-founder Scott Brusaw has made some major steps forward since our first visit back in 2007, so we visited him again for an exclusive update on the project, including the first ever video recorded of the Solar Roadways prototype! For more information visit www.solarroadways.com . This Solar Roadway project is highlighted as one of many planet-friendly solutions in the feature film by YERT - Your Environmental Road Trip. To learn more about YERT, visit http . Flattr this video here: flattr.com And you can become a fan of YERT on Facebook here: www.facebook.com
The roof top garden is simply a garden, usually in containers, that is located on a roof top. Any construction - an office, garage or shed, can have a green roof garden if it is substantial enough to take the excess weight and has a suitable surface.
If you’re planning a green roof garden, you should consult a structural engineer to ensure that the roof is waterproof and can handle extra weight of planters, moist soil mixes, decking, furnishings and people.
Deliberate the purpose of the space. If you are looking to grow a container or two of herbs and vegetables that is one thing; or are you planning a garden where lots of people will visit? Or, are you designing an outdoor space for relaxation and entertaining that incorporates flowers, shrubs and trees into the project? I have even seen an orchard on a roof!
Realistically, how much time do you want to spend on your garden? If your time is limited you may want to keep the garden element of the project modest, you can always add afterwards, enough so that you can give the plants the attention they deserve.
The largest difficulty to successful container gardening on a green roof top is powerful winds and hot sun. You need a rooftop water supply, outdoor electrical outlet and storage space for tool and supplies. Roof gardening requires plenty of water, so check how and where the roof drains.
Containers can be made from plastic, terracotta or wood. During the growing season it will commonly be sunny, hot, dry and windy so you must select hard-wearing plants that will tolerate such conditions.
If you’re going to grow permanent plants such as shrubs or small trees or perennials in containers, choose plants that are one or two zones hardier than your climatic zone. For example, if you’re in Zone 5, choose woody plants that are hardy to Zone 3 or 4.
Give some lath-type structures for shade. You can use vine-covered trellising as a wind-break or privacy screen. A trelis or screen must be suitably supported.
Choose drought resistant plants as they will stand up against sun and wind. Many drought tolerant plants have silver or grey-green leaves, their light leaf colour reflecting the harsh rays of the sun. Some have a coating of fine hairs on their leaves or stems, helping to trap moisture around the plant tissues.
A green roof top garden is an ideal place to grow native perennials. This will help the native plant population and they will be able to deal with the climate. This will also encourage native butterflies and birds to drop by for a visit.
To view a number of terrific picture examples of green roofs or for extra help and advice about roofing solutions, visit the ICB website.
There are many ways to make your home more environmentally friendly. More people all around the world are going green every day. The changes that are made in your home are not just good for the environment, but they are good for the people and pets that live there as well. Many people do not realize that the products that they use every day in their homes are not good for the environment. They may use harsh chemicals to clean, shine their floors, and to paint their walls. With so many environmentally friendly products available today, there is no reason to continue using detergents, disinfectants, and household items that end up in the ground, air, or water. The first step to making your home environmentally friendly is to know which types of products are harmful and which are green and safe for everyone.
Some homes have harsh chemicals in several rooms, including the kitchen, laundry area, and bathroom. These rooms are the best place to begin to make your home more environmentally friendly. The harmful chemicals in cleaning products evaporate and get into the air that is breathed by everyone in the home. They may be odorless or even have a good smell, but the chemicals are still in there. Cleaners with pine oil or orange oil may smell good, but breathing them can be harmful. Research has shown that most homes have inside air that is far more dangerous to breath than outdoor air. The way to remedy this is to replace the chemical based cleaners with natural products. Some of the best cleaners have lemon oil, vinegar, or other organic ingredients from plants that work as well or better than chemical solutions. Vinegar is a natural antibiotic that kills germs when it is used in a solution to clean.
Cleaning products are not the only villains in a home that are harmful. Carpeting, vinyl flooring, and paint almost always have Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in them that are transferred into the air in a home. Even the upholstered fabric on a sofa or chairs is treated with formaldehyde, a known cancer causing chemical. Most people cannot afford to completely gut their home and replace carpeting and vinyl flooring or their furniture. If you are really determined to make your home more environmentally friendly, this is an option, and it can be done gradually. Carpeting can be replaced with green carpet, a type that contains no VOCs or toxic dyes. It should also be able to be recycled. Carpeting made of wool is sustainable, and a good choice. Another choice for replacing flooring that has VOCs is hardwood flooring. There are organic, earth friendly types of hardwood that can be purchased from companies that plant a tree for each one they cut down.
Other areas in the house can also be made more environmentally with a few changes. One of these is to stop using gasoline-powered lawn mowers and equipment that use fossil fuels. If you store gasoline for power tools, it should not be kept in an area adjacent to a home since it contains high levels of VOCs. Replace lawn tools with earth friendly models that do not use this fuel at all. Also, a home that has a gas stove or gas dryer needs to be checked for leaks which could be lethal to those living in the home. Laundry detergents that contain phosphates or harmful chemicals can easily be changed to organic ones that do the same cleaning job. In the basement, it is important to check for radon. This gas is radioactive, and it is responsible for the death of 20,000 people who develop lung cancer from breathing this gas.
There are many other ways to go green in your home. You could have a solar heating system installed to replace your gas or electric furnace. Solar panels are capable of providing enough energy for many homes, and a solar water heater should be installed as well. A way to save on the water that is used for showering is to install low-flow shower heads in bathrooms, and toilets should be replaced with those that use a very small amount of water. Usage of electricity can be reduced by installing motion sensitive lighting that goes on only when someone is nearby. Every home should have a mechanical ventilation system that recycles the air in the home through the heating and air conditioning unit as well. Good ventilation is especially important in the kitchen when cooking is done because it can produce VOCs as well. One of the cheapest forms of ventilation is to simply open windows. Even in the wintertime, a small opening is necessary to keep indoor air healthy. Even if you are not able to make all of the changes in your home that you would like to make, every small change to go green is making your home more environmentally friendly.
Our world has the potential to change wholly with the new philosophy of zero waste. According to this standpoint, you should reuse a product for as long as possible. In most cases, people’s decisions not to act greatly hit nature. For this reason, individuals should be be made aware of zero waste and the full recycle policy. When this particular policy is implemented, it is crucial for all those concerned to recycle as much as they can. Enacting this policy will require different types of waste products put into several bins. This recycling policy can also be utilized by companies that are green.
Another thing that could help with this policy would be to install bins along the roadsides. Each individual collection container would hold a particular type of recyclable product. For example, plastic bottles, cans, cardboard, and other dry products need to be kept separate from each other. As trees are cut each time paper is created, it’s a smart idea to recycle as much paper as possible. It is much easier to recycle paper when it is sorted from other items. Because plastic is another type of material and can be tough to recycle; it needs be deposited in a container of its own.
Slop pails can be used to keep scraps of food that have been put in biodegradable bags. Because of its valuable properties, glass needs to be collected in yet another container. It may be placed in the same containers as other dry waste items, but it is best to keep it separate so that it does not become contaminated. Biodegradable garden waste can be put in the same container as food waste. Anything not mentioned separately earlier has to be recycled according to its natural tendencies. Materials needs to be disposed of depending on how they are broken down. As a result there can be no waste, and full recycling as well.
You can collect the waste at your home and separate it into the correct categories, thereby easily doing away with it. With numerous folks following this policy, the world can be stopped from becoming more contaminated. The long-lasting effects of following this policy would be very good. Consider how things would change in our planet if nothing is wasted. The zero waste and full recycle is a wonderful concept that really has to be followed for the good of the planet. Now is the time for us to go even further in following green living so that we can prevent more harm to our earth.
While the harm that the earth has already sustained is unlikely to be reversed, we can prevent future damage with the dedicated effort of a lot of people. The ideal answer to the issue is to practice a greener lifestyle. It is turning into more than something that is a fad, and it is turning into an essential policy. For our planet to be a better place, with just minimum pollution, is a possibility with people ready to take action.
When most home owners start looking into the idea of installing solar panels in their property, they very rarely have any reservations about using natural energy to power their home. The thing that usually stops them from going ahead and installing this type of system is the cost. Even with the knowledge that they will be doing their bit to help the environment and saving money on their annual energy bills, in the past this wasn’t enough to outweigh the significant initial investment they would have to make. Has anything changed?
Once a home owner has installed an average sized solar power system into their home, they could typically expect to save around $200 a year on their fuel bills. This sounds like a pretty good saving, which most households would be very happy with. However, when you consider that it would probably cost in the region of $15-20,000 to install the solar system in the first place, all of a sudden it doesn’t seem like such a great investment after all. But things get more interesting when you take into account all the figures.
The reality is that the cost to the individual homeowner is actually a lot less than the full cost of installation, and instead of having to pay $15,000 dollars, they might only need to pay a tenth of that depending on where they live in the country. The reason for this is that there are so many initiatives to get more homes using natural power sources, that the government and the power companies could actually end up paying 80-90% of the cost of installing the system for you. Which suddenly makes the math a bit more attractive.
Plus, energy isn’t getting any cheaper. With much of our power still coming from resources that will eventually run out, traditional energy prices will be a lot more expensive in ten years time, than they are today. All of which means an even greater return on your solar power investment as your savings increase.
As with any investment, it can take time before you get your money back, and you might want to move before your solar panels are in profit. However, seeing as homes that benefit from natural energy can be more valuable, you shouldn’t lose out. Installing solar panels isn’t going to make you rich, but when you compare it to other investments the figures stack up pretty well. Plus, as well as saving money on your energy bills, you will be helping to make the world a better place too.
This video starts with a visual montage of the sheer number of air conditioners used on our street in Cairo, Egypt, describing them as energy parasites that actually increase the heat of the surrounding air. It then shows the vacuum tube heat pipe solar absorption cooling air conditioning system installed by solar engineer Les Hamasaki at the Debs Park Audubon Environmental Center in Los Angeles. Les Hamasaki describes the 10-ton solar chiller and we conclude with a note about how solar …
In the process of doing research for an article I did on solar green products, I came across the Stirling air engine. The engine was once called a hot air engine because it requires no internal diesel or fuel to run. Let’s take a deeper look at this unique engine that requires no fuel and has recently been adapted for use on solar collector dishes.
The Stirling engine was originally invented and patented as an air engine by Robert Stirling in 1816. It may have been designed as a replacement for the steam engine, because the steam engines used in factories would explode frequently, causing many injuries and fatalities. These days, because of the cost of fuel and the environmental problems with coal, many new designs are incorporating the Stirling engine in solar power systems.
The Stirling engine is a heat engine that is vastly different from the internal combustion engine. It is highly efficient, operates quietly and is great at converting otherwise wasted heat into kinetic energy. Its only drawback is loss of power from internal fraction. The gasses (most often air) used inside the engine remain inside and are never expelled. With no exhaust valves like a gasoline or diesel engine and with no explosions from combustion, the engines run very quietly.
The heat source needed to start and maintain the Stirling cycle depends on the temperature difference between the hot and cold chambers. The greater the differential between chambers, the faster the engine will operate. In some cases the difference that occurs when the cold chamber is cooled by wetting it is enough differential to start the engine.
Operation is simple: the gases are heated by an external source, causing the hot gas to move toward a cold chamber, in the process, a piston is driven and a flywheel rotated. To put it simply, movement is achieved from heat expansion. A few knock-offs of the Stirling engines are small enough to fit in your hand. Others system are designed to drive electrical generators. They are a about the size of a fifty-gallon drum.
The Stirling engine is ideal for use in a solar power generating system. With one of the hottest heat sources available (sunlight), the hot chamber will continue to operate without external fuels as long as there is daylight. This makes it ideal for use as a peaker type power plant when the demands for electricity are at there highest.
With better-designed engines and new types of material, a movable (tracking) parabolic mirror, and a single Stirling engine you can produce 25 kilowatts of electricity.
In a future article about green products I will list the different solar technologies and how they compare to the competition.
Michael
Want more green products check out Michael’s website at Green Products
When doing the research for a article on new green products, I was unaware of many of the different ways to convert the energy of the sun into electrical power. I have written about solar cell or photovoltaic cell systems, so let’s look at another type of solar energy system.
The Stirling engine was originally invented and patented as an air engine by Robert Stirling in 1816. It may have been designed as a replacement for the steam engine, because the steam engines used in factories would explode frequently, causing many injuries and fatalities. These days, because of the cost of fuel and the environmental problems with coal, many new designs are incorporating the Stirling engine in solar power systems.
The Stirling engine has many different designs, some more efficient than others. Some designs use the two cylinder Alpha design, some the Beta single cylinder design and some the Gamma design (a variation of the beta for use in multiple cylinder applications). The beta Sterling design has a single chamber with two pistons and uses a highly efficient regenerator gas as the thermal conductor.
The heat source needed to start and maintain the Stirling cycle depends on the temperature difference between the hot and cold chambers. The greater the differential between chambers, the faster the engine will operate. In some cases the difference that occurs when the cold chamber is cooled by wetting it is enough differential to start the engine.
The Stirling cycle is pretty simple. When a heat source is applied to the large end, it causes the air to expand which moves a piston. A flywheel is used to maintain movement between cycles and add a convenient place to tap the power from the engine. What is so amazing about this design is that the design is very scalable. Engines have been produced that are as small as your hand to a large as a car but the concepts remain the same.
The system is ideal when a concentrated heat source is applied, in this case sunlight. The sunlight is collected with parabolic mirrors and focused on to the surface of the hot chamber, causing the chamber to be heated and the engine to start. This temperatures can be very high. You know this from, when as a child, you took a magnifying glass and focused it on a piece of paper. When done correctly the paper would get dark and then a flame would appear.
The engine and support equipment is contained in a package small enough to be suspended from the end of a metal arm, much like the design of satellite TV systems but on a much larger scale. Some systems are producing 25K watts of power and have been installed and operational for a couple of years.
I will compare the different solar technologies in a later article. For now, I need to lay a foundational understanding of each of the green products used to produce power so a comparison can be made.
Michael
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New research that may see you giving more attention to the air we all breathe in has recently been released in ‘The New England Journal of Medicine’.
The research proved that extended exposure to ground level ozone gases significantly increases the likelihood of dying from respiratory complications. In fact, the risk is at least 30% larger in the metro areas with the highest ozone concentrations when compared to the places with the lowest concentrations of ozone gases.
450′000 people were followed in nearly 100 metropolitan regions for a duration of 18 years. During this time, Riverside California had the highest concentrations, whilst, at the other end of the scale, the lowest were recorded in San Francisco.
Most often, urban centers towards the north-east of America had lesser concentrations than states in the west like California - Los Angeles was shown to have a 43% greater risk, while Washington DC came in at 27% and New York at 25%.
What the experts recommend you to do to manage the risk is to your outdoors jobs and chores in the morning, or in the late afternoon in order to avoid the sunniest, hottest part of the day, particularly if you live in one of the warmer climates. Keeping your windows unopened when ozone gases are at their highest level is also advised.
In general, educate yourself about the world you live in. Give serious consideration to limiting your exposure to something that experts are increasingly finding to be dangerous. This research on itself isn’t conclusive, yet it does give a pretty clear indication of the danger that surrounds us.
If you, or someone you love, be suffering from breathing problems, you should find out the ozone levels in the area in which you or they reside. Though it may appear drastic to move to another area, it might literally result in prolonging their or your life.
About the Author:
Next - just head on over to the Daily Health Bulletin for tips on avoiding ozone dangers, plus for a limited time get 5 free fantastic health reports. Click here for a video summary of this study - Long Term Ozone Danger.
A study that might see people paying more attention to the air we all breathe in has been released in ‘The New England Journal of Medicine’.
The research showed that extended exposure to ground level ozone gases substantially increases the risk of dying from respiratory problems. In fact, the risk is at least 30% larger in the metro areas that have the highest ozone concentrations when compared to the places with the lowest concentrations of ozone gases.
It followed 450,000 subjects in 96 metropolitan regions over an 18-year period. During this time, Riverside California had the highest daily average concentrations, whilst, at the other end of the scale, the lowest were recorded in San Francisco.
More often than not, cities in the northeast part of the country had lesser concentrations than states in the west like California - Los Angeles was shown to have a 43% bigger risk, while Washington DC came in at 27% and New York at 25%.
A good way to lower the risk is to your outdoors jobs and chores in the morning, or later on in the day so as to be out of the way for the sunniest, hottest hours, particularly should you be living in one of the warmer climates. Having your windows closed when ozone levels are highest is also a good idea.
On the whole, keep yourself aware of the world you live in. Seriously consider limiting your exposure to something that experts are increasingly finding to be dangerous. This research on itself isn’t conclusive but it gives a strong indication of the danger that is all around us.
If you, or someone you love, be suffering from respiratory problems, you should find out the ozone levels in the town or city in which you or they reside. Though it may seem drastic to move to another area, it could literally result in extending yours or their life.
About the Author:
Next - just head on over to the Daily Health Bulletin for tips on avoiding ozone dangers, plus for a limited time get 5 free fantastic health reports. Click here for a video summary of this study - Long Term Ozone Danger.