Residential Wind Turbines – The Future of Renewable Energy
These days, people want to avoid rising costs for the power they use each day. They also want to make a better environment by taking advantage of renewable energy. From a site called newenergytips.com comes a report covering the advantages of a technology becoming more common today – residential wind turbines.
A residential wind turbine is just a small wind generator. They are normally located atop very easily built towers. In many cases sold locally, they are easy to come by.
There are even plans that will guide you to build a wind generator of your own, saving you a good deal on the new cost of a turbine. And of course, professional installation is now more and more easy to find as well.
Residential wind turbines can be a great way to cut down on energy costs while reducing your dependence on fossil fuel based energy sources. Wind doesn’t create any pollution, and is going to be here for the life of the planet, making it very environmentally friendly.
Residential wind turbines can be installed in locations that gets winds of at least 10 or 11 miles per hour . Although they do work better in large areas, such as those with an acre or more, where the wind is not stopped by buildings or other obstructions, they can even be used in smaller yards provided that the tower is tall enough.
Residential wind turbines are a great way to begin a small scale move to alternative energy sources , and small turbines are not obtrusive additions to any property. Many can even be installed on a roof , although a tower height of up to 30 ft. may be required if the area where you live is not very windy.
Residential wind turbines vary in both the size of the tower and the size of the blades; longer blades can capture more wind power, but they also take up more space. You can choose ready-made residential wind turbines with professional installation, or build and install one yourself from plans
When you find a turbine, think about the average amount of energy you consume. Just sum up your power bills, both in dollars and kilowatt-hours.
Most users with residential wind turbines stay hooked up to their utility, helping to supplement the “grid” (or “power network”) with their own power from their turbine. When your turbine isn’t running, you will be able to draw power from the utility company’s grid.When this happens , you can then sell the electricity you generate BACK to the utility! Whenever it’s windy, your battery bank will charge up and store any excess energy you create.
The early days of residential wind turbines saw units that needed huge amounts of wind before they would be spinning fast enough to generate useful power. New models though come with rotors that are made with less heavy materials and with generators having low friction, making them perfect for power generation even in a light wind. Smaller size residential wind turbines can be placed in 7-10 mph wind areas, and provide almost 1 kilowatt of power in a single turbine.
One of the generators previously mentioned hooks up behind the turbine blades, providing DC electricity that can be stored in batteries. Something known as an inverter converts this DC to the AC in your home, straight from the battery bank. You can then power your TV or refridgerator, but you might also think about emergencies and choose to power heaters or lights.
One whole house may not be able to be run by one turbine, a single unit will definately suit many of your needs. Residential wind turbines will help you make the switch and start to leave your utility behind.
When you use residential wind turbines, each kilowatt you generate, one kilowatt of power will remain within the utility grid, directly reducing the amount of energy used by non-renewable sources. The stored power generated by the wind can also be used in emergencies when there are power blackouts.
Most of the time, residential wind turbines can provide more electricity per dollar of their cost than solar cells can. Think about doing this yourself, and take your first action toward energy freedom today! See newenergytips.com for more information on this subject.
Finding Solar Hot Water
I just found this at newenergytips.com. It’s not bad: Are you looking for solutions for converting your home to provide you with solar hot water? Solar hot water is an easy thing to come by , if you know how to harness it.
There are several reasons you might be looking to harness solar hot water. Top reasons are:
Generating space heat or cooling
Actively heating air
Passive space heating
Heating a pool
Before you try to embark on any solar hot water projects, it is recommended you perform a solar site survey to know just exactly how much solar hot water (or electricity) you can expect to reasonably get, knowing the area of the country you reside in and the solar patterns in your area. This assessment is only about an hour long, but will prove invaluable.
Methods of Generating Heat from Solar Hot Water
The two most easily found, and as a result most common types of solar hot water producing machines are the flat-plate type of collector and the evacuated tube.
Flat Pate Collectors
Flat plate solar collectors are less expensive than evacuated tubes, but you also tend to have to have a greater number of them to get the same result .These collectors are simply plates, as their name suggests, much like a car’s radiator inside.
Evacuated Tube Collectors
Maybe one of the easiest methods to generate solar hot water that is becoming even more popular today is to use evacuated tubes (or “collectors”). These are relatively new devices , and are glass tubes, removed of all air (a vacuum is a poor insulator , and will allow heat to flow freely from the outside to the inside metal plates than if there were air were inside ).
They contain tiny metal pipes that run from top to bottom of the tube with what are actually heat fins attached. At approximately 6 ft in length, they have connectors on the ends to connect to your house’s heat pumping system.
A “transfer fluid” that is usually alcohol is circulated inside the tubes that can create , in some areas , as much as 80% of a house’s heat . Since they are constructed of glass, they are semi-fragile when out of their mounts, but once attached I have seen them withstand very extreme wind and even hail without breaking .
Normally found together in groups of ten, these evacuated tubes are positioned in a mount that, as shown in the picture here, can be affixed a few inches above a roof, or can be mounted directly to it.
The heat produced by your solar tubes can be used primarily in one of two ways to achieve the payoff mentioned earlier:
- Feeding the hot water produced back into a water heater. This greatly reduces the load on the heater, giving maximum efficiency and minimal load when the water heater is called on to do its job. This way, instead of heating up incoming water from supply temperature (usually around 48 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit), it might only have to take the intake water from 100 degrees to 120, or maybe not even heat it at all.
- The heated water/glycol mix can then be circulated into tubes incorporated in a radiant in-floor heating system. This heats the floor of a house using simple copper tubing routed just underneath the flooring itself. The change this can make on a cold winter day is many times simply amazing.
As a matter of fact , this may be a good oportunity to mention that a water heater blanket (for sale at most building supply houses) can save a great deal of energy when tucked around your heater. Check out newenergytips.com for more info on this.
Do It Yourself Home Solar Electric Power Panels
The newest creations for the area of solar power energy development are the Solar Panel Kits. These were inspired by many people who have realized that there much more significant benefits that solar energy utilization can provide homes. Not only would it cost less in the long run, there would be much less dependence on a non-renewable energy resource and the associated pollutants and waste products can be dispensed with altogether.
Residential Solar Energy Reviews:
The kits are easy to use and needs only tools and a rudimentary knowledge in fixing things. The market is replete with information on the matter so a bit of research and reading is required to make it right. Most of the DIY home solar panel kits are under $50 so you can get started setting up your own system for as low as $200. It’s not hard to find the best home solar panel kits.
Make sure you get a permit if your subdivision requires you to get one to put up a solar panel in your area. The best way to handle this part is if one is undertaking renovations, incorporate the solar panel kit into the over-all design to make it part of the living home instead of an external resource attached to the house.
The required tools to make cheap residential solar panels are simple and are available in most hardware stores, The tricky part is connecting the solar panel power generator into the main current circuit box of the home. This would require an expert hand as the dangers involved may well be beyond a novice electrician. It would also be nice to engage the electricity specialist since they would have the keen knowledge to how best utilize the power generated by the solar panel kit for distribution all across the home.
For a very small investment, sometimes as low as $300, you can slash your home energy bills to as low as $10 a month with your own clean, renewable home solar power panels and help fight global warming. By weaning from fossil fuel based electricity, solar power kits would be the proper alternative power source for all in terms of savings and environmental responsibility.