Archive for January, 2010

alternative fuel

a newscast of a man who may have not only found a cure for cancer but an alternative to fossil fuels as well!

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Can I hook up a series of solar panels directly to a home power circuit?

I’m wondering if I can connect about 15 or 20 low voltage, 1 inch by 1 inch solar panels directly to a home 120V power circuit without any inverters or extra equipment?

NO! You need special equipment to make any hook up to the electrical system. Solar panels are direct current or DC and your electrical service is alternating current or AC. You would need inverters and phase matching equipment to make those kinds of connections.

For a Photovoltaics system to work properly you will need batteries for storage, wiring to handle the system amperage , inverters, phase converters, and fairly large arrays of solar panels to make the system worth while.

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How much energy do we save when we use light energy from solar panels?


Tons & tons

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Energy saving practices: what can I do to reduce my electric bill?

I live in an arid climate; and one of extremes – very hot in the summer, and cold in the winters: Reno/Sparks, Nevada, USA.

My concern relates principally to the summer months(utility bill approximately doubles during the summer months): we are currently experiencing 90o and at times 100o + temperatures(F).

1) AIR CONDITIONER: have a very good one, but it "gorges" on electricity. Turn it on usually around noon, and off at 9-10:00 p.m.(always on low, with "Money Saver" option turned on).

Due to the architecture of my apartment, unable to adjust air flow(with a directed fan)back into my bedroom – a real problem: have an oscillating fan in it, but doesn’t seem to help much – very warm at night with window open.

Other electrical appliances, and usage:

2) CONCENTRATOR(oxygen supply) in bedroom – use 8-10 hrs. a day.

3) MICROWAVE: minimal, sporadic usage.

4) COMPUTER: usage = probably around 12 hrs. per day(always put on Stand By when not in use).

5) TV(cable, 74 channels): usually on when I’m up and about(approximately 12-14 hrs. per day / take 2-3 hourly naps everyday). Because of uninteresting fare, I have it "muted" a good portion of the time.

What’s your recommendations to save on my electric bill?

Alberich
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"Heidi T": what are microwave and TV "power strips"?

Leave your Air Conditioner on and just set the thermostat, your wasting energy by just turning it on and off all of the time, because then it spends alot of time just trying to cool the place down again. Leave the fan on low to help circulate the air. I know it sucks, but your summers are like the winters up north, you have a high bill in the summer, they have really high bills in the winter.

Computer is fine, look at the control panel and see if there are power options and enable hibernate or power savings option.

Microwave and TV are fine, just make sure you have them on power strips.

See what you can do to make protect any air drafts along the doors and windows, this will help save on the air conditioner if it bothers you. Closing the blinds and curtains will help keep out the light which would warm up the the apartment.

Turn off any lights your not using.

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as anyone ever made their own solar panels for their house?

I was thinking of doing this on my house and would like to either build them myself or just install the units myself. And also adding in a storage for it. Just seeing if anyone has done either of these and their experiences with it.

I’ve seen some of the home made collectors (what solar thermal panels are called). They do not have nearly the efficiency of quality manufactured ones have, and they deteoriate rapidly. Connect with a reputable renewable energy dealer (I can recommend one). You may be able to purchase as starter system for around $1,800 (and gvt is giving a 30% tax deduction on that)

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Home Wind Powered Generator Motor Specs? Multiple Q’s, I’ll reward big on this one!?

1. What are the specs of the DC motor/other required to/capable of creating a Wind (or other source) Powered Generator that will run a standard home on its own (or 12,000-16,000 kWh per year)

2. What is the torque (in Newton-Metres or Foot-Pounds) required (to be generated by the wind/other) to move that shaft fast enough to generate enough power for that home.

3. What is the speed that that shaft will be spinning (in Hertz/RPM/other) because of that Torque in #2.

Bonus 4. What is the resistance of that motor/other, that is, how much inherent resitance does it have to turning the shaft. (Probably answered when 2 & 3 are answered?)

Anyone who answers all three questions will not only get the 10 points, but I will personally look through your previously answered questions and give you up to 10 thumbs up for any answers I don’t hate. Runners up will get a thumbs up, identical correct answers will get the 10 bonus thumbs up as well, all BS answers will get reported. GOOD LUCK!
Addendum to #2. Instead of Torque, Kinetic Energy would actually be better, but either one is fine.

It looks like you need help in converting electrical power requirements to mechanical power requirements. I’ll try to provide you with the knowledge to do that.

1. Because the wind is variable, the windmill will not be on all the time. There are a couple of options. You could oversize the windmill to generate excess power and store it in batteries. Or you could just use the power from the windmill when it is available and rely on the grid for the rest of the time. If the windmill generates more electricity than you are using, you can send the power to the grid. But the selling price is much lower than your buying price.

2. If you use 1000 kWh in a month like me, then the average power is 1000kWh / (31*24hours) = 1.344 kW. If your generator is 80% efficient, then you’ll need to supply 1.344/0.80 = 1.68kW worth of mechanical power on average.

Since power is torque times angular frequency, you can see that as the RPM increases, torque decreases. This presents a unique problem. If you put too much of a load on the generator, it will cause the windmill to stall. So, the faster the windmill turns, the less torque required for the same output power. There’s some math involved here. Mechanical power can be in horsepower or watts, and you can convert between the two.

I had to get out my old physics book. This will help you in determining the input mechanical power. One horsepower is equal to 746 watts. Rotational power (in Watts) is torque (in Newton meters) times the angular frequency in radians per second (one full rotation is 2pi radians).

Setting up a home windmill is not cheap. The payback time may be longer than you’re willing to invest in. You’ll need several things besides the windmill and generator. Battery storage is optional, but helpful. You’ll need an inverter to convert the power from the windmill to 60Hz 120V, and synchronize the frequency with the grid’s power.

1 Comment

what are the alternate fuel resources that can be used for automobile applications?

alternate energy resourses such as ethnol, hydrogen & its benefit to consumers. How cost efective will it be to aconsumer if he decides to purchase in alt. fuel powered vehicle (car)

Without a doubt hydrogen seems to be best as it is least damaging to the envireronment.Ethonol although less harmful than fossil fuel,still is a polutant.Elecric trains can travel at faster speeds than motor cars.These express trains pick up thier power as they hurtle along.Motor vehicles could do this as well if the infrastructure there.Even solar power could be used to recharge batteries.Electric power is the way to the future

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who long will the solar power panels for sall it b and q take to pay for themselfs?


Complete waste of time and money, have you really looked into it??? Look again!!
There that’s saved you a lot of cash!!!

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How efficiently do plants use solar energy when compared to solar panels?

How does the amount of chemical energy stored in plants compare to the electrical energy stored by solar panel/batteries?

Most plants are around 1% efficient at turning sunlight into a useful form of energy it can use. Bamboo is probably somewhat higher. Solar panels are somewhere around 20% efficient now I think. Trees are much cheaper to use for collecting solar energy if you have the land area though.

I came accross a new, proven and tested home made wind power system and solar power system which eliminates our electricity bills. It was written by a Renewable energy enthusiasts Michael Harvey the diy called Earth4energy. You can get your copy to save energy and help environment while eliminating your power bills. Get it from here:

http://how-to-build-cheap-solar-energy.blogspot.com/

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Do water saving projects provide carbon credit in arid countries?

Hi,I am from Saudi Arabia. We want to start a water saving project for irrigation water saving. How much water saving provide 1 carbon credit by minimising the usage of energy for irrigation and reduce the consumption of desalinated water also.

Also let me know whether water saving projects will help us against global warming?
Plz share your comments…

Why don’t you desalinated sea water theres plenty of it around, but use wind turbines or solar panels. to create the energy required.

1 Comment