Simple tips such as turning of appliances (at the wall outlet) and lights when they are not being used can save hundreds of dollars a year as well as conserver a surprisingly large amount of energy.

Proper insulation in the roof and walls will help with heating and cooling, as will drawing heavy duty blinds on summer days and winter nights, as it will result in cooling in the summer and keeping the cold out on those chilly winter nights.

Fluorescent, halogen or led lighting instead of traditional light bulbs will help a lot as well having a climate controlled reverse cycle, low energy rating air conditioner.

Many appliances now have energy ratings clearly labelled on them so you can make the choice to use the greener, more environmentally friendly appliance. These include, dish washers, dryers, washing machines, stoves, fridges and air conditioners.

Surprisingly running your climate controlled, reverse cycle, air conditioner efficiently and maintaining a comfortable living temperature constantly, will ensure the air conditioner doesn’t need to work harder at different times and will use much, much less energy.

As the major focus of this blog suggests, replacing traditional grid energy sources with alternative energies such as solar and wind power will help slash thousands of dollars of your energy bills, conserve energy whilst maintaining the lifestyle you have become accustomed to.

Over the next few months we will bring you many more practical tips that you will be able to employ in your household to save money and conserve energy, in the meantime get started by using wind and solar power to help power your homes, Read More….

Tips For Greener Living – Conserve Power and Reduce Your Energy Bills is a post from: DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed

For a long time, the thought of solar power for the average homeowner was just a dream. The high cost of having a solar power system installed in the home was far to expensive to seriously consider, no matter how desirable the economic and environmental benefits were.

That has all changed recently with the introduction of DIY Solar Power Kits. DIY (Do It Yourself) solar kits come in two forms, the relatively pricey self contained kits which are ready to assemble or a guide which shows you how to build your own solar panels with materials available at your local hardware store for a couple of hundred bucks.

These guides are readily available online, they usually are priced around the 40 or 50 dollar mark and the better ones come with instructional videos, email and phone support and even online forum support. Getting a better diy guide is essential to ensuring your home made energy project is a success.

The process of assembling and building your own solar panels is surprisingly easy, no phd in physics required here, just some basic handyman skills and the ability to follow the clearly defined instructions is all that is needed.

In fact the project is that straightforward and simple I highly recommend you get your children and spouse involved, whilst its a great educational tool for your kids to become environmentally aware, its also a great bonding process and lets face it, anything that gets out from behind a computer or put down the playstation controller has to be beneficial.

So stick to the man, get off the grid and start enjoying free, clean energy and check out the following reviews of DIY Solar Power Kits

Living Off The Grid – Go Green With Home Made Energy is a post from: DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed

The cells being produced by The University of Washington’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) project team will enable UAV’s to fly further than those using conventional fuel sources, not to mention its cost saving and environmental friendliness factors.

The cells are spread across the wings of the aircraft and allow harvesting of energy on the fly (if you will pardon the pun).

Its certainly encouraging progress into the military looking toward alternative energies and shows just how far we have come when even our defence force heads down the path of solar energy, who knows what repercussions this may have in civilian life, many of the military ground breaking research projects eventually filter their way into every day life in a beneficial incarnation.

If you are solar enthusiast or  hobbyist why not try your hand at building your own solar panels, you can find more information about building your own solar panels here

UAV’s To be Powered by Solar Cells Made from Moth-Eye Film is a post from: DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed

When it comes to lights in our future, solar lights are the way to go. Humans have been using the light from the sun for ages, but it has only been in the past few years that we can harness and use the power from the sun. Using solar lights is another step towards become more eco friendly.

In addition to being versatile, solar lighting has the Green advantage. Sunlight, our renewable and sustainable energy source, provides this free energy without pollution. As we continue to enjoy this benefit from sunlight, we are able to light our great outdoors without contributing to Global Warming.

Lets get a clearer picture of how these gems of light work, in a nutshell. A small solar panel is affixed to the top of the light fixture, a much smaller version of the collectors we have all seen on rooftops. During the daylight hours the suns energy collects there and transfers to a rechargeable battery attached inside the fixture. The battery charges during daylight and after dark the energy releases to the LED (Light Emitting Diode) which gives off light until sunrise when the cycle begins all over again.

Today solar lights are used primarily to brighten the outside in our gardens, the backyard, around the pool, and the path to the front door or garage. With this in mind, solar lighting fixtures are available in a vast assortment ranging from functional to decorative. Solar lights can be found to attach up high on a building or to hang from a post or tree shining down to light a wider area. There are many lantern designs to choose from for use closer to the ground making our walkway safer to navigate. Would lights on your pool, pond or moat be pleasing? You’ll find a floating variety offered as well.

Discard any thoughts of a complicated installation. Digging a trench or pulling wires from your home has no part in this. Your experience of placing solar lights will be as easy as pressing beautiful candles into a holder or hanging a picture on an already made hook. Each solar light stands as an independent unit connecting only to its energy source, the Sun.

The LEDs that are in these solar lights last much longer than regular light bulbs. They don’t take much power either. They Usually will actually last for decades and you shouldn’t have to replace them. Of course they are a little bit dimmer than other bulbs, which is why many manufacturers put in reflective surfaces, which makes them appear to be brighter.

Solar lights are going to vary in costs. Some home improvement stores offer great prices, while a boutique with garden enhancing lights may charge a little more for the lights. No matter what you pay for them, you won’t have to keep paying for electricity to use the lights, since sun light doesn’t cost a thing. If you replace other lighting fixtures that use electricity with these solar lights, you will probably notice that you save some money on your electric bill.

The advantages of solar lights are many. Even short, gray, winter days hold enough sunlight to fully charge the battery for night use. As long as the sun continues to rise and set the lights will turn on and off automatically. The LED produces no heat ensuring safety around children and pets. During a power outage you may sit outside and read a book or play cards with your neighbours. Solar lights are clearly a benefit to our planet and its the neighbourly thing to do!

Solar Lights: Have You Cashed In On It Lately? is a post from: DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed

Solar lights are the wave of our illuminating future. While we have used the energy of sunlight for eons, we are only recently able to efficiently harness and manage this power. Solar lights are a step in lighting our journey toward a more Earth-friendly tomorrow.

In addition to being versatile solar lighting has the Green advantage. Sunlight, our renewable and sustainable energy source, provides energy without pollution. As we continue to benefit from sunlight were able to light our great outdoors without contributing to Global Warming.

Lets get a clearer picture of how these gems of light work, in a nutshell. A small solar panel is affixed to the top of the light fixture, a much smaller version of the collectors weve all seen on rooftops. During the daylight hours the suns energy collects there and transfers to a rechargeable battery attached inside the fixture. The battery charges during daylight and after dark the energy releases to the LED (Light Emitting Diode) which gives off light until sunrise when the cycle begins all over again.

Solar lights are used in many ways today. Some use them in lovely gardens, to light up their yards, for lighting around pool areas, or even to light up a garage or sidewalk. For this reason, you can find lights that are decorative and beautiful, and others that are made to be functional. These lights can be easily attached on buildings or up in trees so that they shine down the light to provide lighting for a larger area. For lighting the ground, there are lovely lantern styles available to make it safe to walk in the dark. Even floating lights are available, adding beauty to a pond or even to your backyard pool.

Release any thoughts of a complicated installation. Digging a trench or pulling wires from your home has no part in this. Your experience of placing solar lights will be as easy as pressing beautiful candles into a holder or hanging a picture. Each solar light stands as an independent unit connecting only to its energy source, the Sun.

The LEDs that are in these solar lights last much longer than regular light bulbs. They don’t take much power either. Usually they will actually last for years and you shouldn’t have to replace them. Of course they are a little bit dimmer than other bulbs, which is why many manufacturers put in reflective surfaces, which makes them appear to be brighter.

Solar light fixtures can cost different prices. Some at boutiques may be more expensive, while better deals are often found at home improvement stores. In spite of what you may pay for these solar lights, you will find that they don’t cost anything to use them, since the sun won’t cost you anything. You probably will notice that your power bill goes down if you have replaced other lights with new solar lights.

The advantages of solar lights are many. Even short, gray, winter days hold enough sunlight to fully charge the battery. As long as the sun continues to rise and set the lights will turn on and off automatically. The LED produces no heat ensuring safety around children and pets. During a power outage you may sit outside and read a book or play cards with your neighbors. Solar lights are clearly a benefit to our planet and its the neighborly thing to do!

Solar Lights: The Newest Tech That Saves You Money is a post from: DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed

Using the water’s power is an age-old phenomenon. Over the years it has been employed for irrigation and working a variety of machines, including water-wheels. But today, it is used more importantly as a alternative energy source.

Nowadays hydro-power is generated in 3 different ways: hydroelectric power, tidal power, and wave power.

Hydroelectric dams:

This form of hydro power accounts for over 90% of all renewable energy generated. Power is generated in large dams, where water is forced through large turbines.

What makes hydro-electric dams so popular is that they have two very important roles – to store and distribute water to various cities, and generate thousands of megawatts of electricity at the same time.

The disadvantage is the devastating effect dams can have on plants, animals and even humans. When dams are built they flood large tracts of land that were once occupied by various species and communities of people. Furthermore, the water-borne animals, such as fish can also be affected. An example would be salmon that are blocked from swimming upstream to spawn by the newly erected dam.

Tidal Energy:

The second most popular type of hydro power, tidal energy is produced by currents caused from the natural ebb and flow of the tide.

France and Russia have successfully used tidal power since 1966. One system is used in large bays and estuaries where water from the high tide is dammed up and diverted through turbines at low tide.

The only drawback with using such a system is that it only operates as the tide turns, which is every 6 hours.

The latest tidal power system operates where large windmill-type turbines are placed in shallow water, and spin slowly as the tide comes in and goes out.

Since this system is an underwater version of a wind turbine, the technology is up to date and refined. Also, water has a high density than air, so the turbines can spin in the lightest of currents.

The disadvantage with this tidal power system is that it can only operate in shallow area. This is usually where other economic activities, such as oyster farming, take place, and also where marine life thrives.

Wave Power:

Harnessing the power of the waves is the newest type of hydro-power. The system works where surface waves, are used to displace air, which is then compressed and release through turbines, that then spins to make electricity. Two type currently exist – the first is built along the shore-line, where waves constantly break, and the second is built on floating devices in the deep oceans.

The good thing about using the ocean’s waves is that they have the equivalent kinetic energy of 2 million kilowatts of electricity.

But, like any renewable energy system, there are environmental implications. These systems can damage the various corals and other ocean species along our coastlines. And the hydraulic fluid used could cause major water pollution if it ever leaked out into the sea.

Closing thought:

Man has developed innovative techniques to harness the power of water to produce electricity. But, like most renewable energy solutions there will always be social and environmental impacts.

Hydro Power – How We Harness The Power Of Water is a post from: DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed

Are you searching for information on do-it-yourself solar panels for your home? This option will help you do your part for the environment, by reducing your emissions, and it will also help you to save money during the economic recession. This will enable to drastically reduce your energy costs while contributing to the safety of the environment.

DIY solar panels have only recently become available for anybody that wants them. It you desired to use sunpower solar panels it would have been very expensive. Installing these solar panels would have needed a whole team of experts as well as tons of space since they were enormous.

They also needed enormous batteries that nearly required another building to store them. It can sometimes seem confusing and difficult to figure the amount of sunpower required by solar panels to produce adequate power output.

Currently even common people can alter all of their power requirements at a portion of the price considering that they do some of the work. With the increase of knowledge a lot of these high tech experts have discovered ways for easy do-it-yourself solar panels.

Nowadays diy solar panels are smaller and easier to install but have the ability to power both your small and larger appliances. You will get a clear positioning guide with your diy solar panels. You will be glad to know that the energy is stored in deep cell batteries. Most of all, they are less expensive and have a better efficiency than the ancient solar panels in the past.

You won’t believe how much money you can save with do-it-yourself solar panels. First of all, the price of getting the do-it-yourself details is inexpensive. Of course, under these circumstances, you would not have to hire someone to fabricate them and put them in for you. This saves a lot of money.

Secondly, you can construct a diy solar panels project in only a weekend — although it does also depend on the level of material with which you begin the project. It’s even possible to make two of these sun-powered solar panels in 24 hours. As soon as your solar panels are up and running it won’t cost you another cent, unless you decide to expand in order to get more power.

Do-it-yourself solar panels are an excellent way to have and apply a harmless, reusable and potent source of energy. Every solar panel you have installed in your home will produce energy in the form of electricity. Think about all the energy you require for your house without paying for it. It’s far better than contributing to pollution and will save you plenty of money. I have never noticed the sun mailing you a bill for power each month.

Do it Yourself Solar Panels for the Home is a post from: DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed

The Prius which is a hybrid vehicle which runs on Toyota’s hybrid synergy drive, will come equipped with a roof covered entirely in solar panels.

Disappointingly the panels will only provide power for the cars air-conditioning unit, in order to reduce energy consumption and reduce the load on the motor vehicles electrical system.

Whilst this doesnt represent a huge step forward to the goal of running production vehicles on solar energy it is nevertheless a small step, one which we hope other motor vehicle production companies will follow suite

Check out the following link on how you can get involved in moving toward solar energy and creat your own solar panels Home Made Solar Power

Toyota Prius Gets Solar Upgrade is a post from: DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed

Of recent times we have seen a shift to new energy sources, wind power in the US now accounts for 18,302 MW (mega watts) of energy usage which relates to around 4.5 million households being supplied. More recently we have also seen the largest solar thermal production plant ever built, churning out around 354MW per annum.

Unfortunately the demand for energy in the U.S. far outstrips that which these resources can provide. In the summer of ’07 usage ran at a staggering 783GW (Giga watts) and the winter clicked in at a hefty 640GW.

As we look toward the future things only look grimmer, NERC (North American Electricity Reliability Corporation) has stated in 2017 summer time usage is forecast to be around a frightening 950GW and 756GW in winter time.

With dwindling resources and the fact that power sources such as coal have devastating environmental impacts (currently coal fed boilers supply around 49% of our electricity needs) it is imperative we find a greener and renewable energy source and we need to find it quickly!.

It is a sad state of affairs when two environmentally safe and renewable energies, solar and wind power, account for a meager 0.1% and 0.7% of annual power production respectively.

The good news is more and more households are starting to take matters in to their own hands. As the public has become more aware of the very real environmental crisis we are facing, we have seen a shift to renewable energy with more than 10% of residential households switching to alternative energies.

Many householders have even gone to the length of setting up DIY Solar and Wind power systems for their homes.

We can only hope corporations and big business take the example set by the homemade energy brigade and follow suit

To read more about ways you can become one of the people turning away from coal based fuels, and to look into setting up your own solar or wind power DIY project [Click Here]

You can also read reviews of a number of the leading DIY Solar Power and DIY Wind Power kits here DIY Solar Power Kits Reviewed

Facts About Energy Comsumption – Why Move to Alternative Energy? is a post from: DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed

Global warming is one of the “hottest” issues nowadays. The current climate change is the worst yet to happen. Global warming is an overall increase in world temperature which is attributed to the increasing number of greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere. Searching an alternative energy source is considered a way of reducing the toxic emissions.

Greenhouse gases can be produced both by natural and industrial processes. The most abundant greenhouse gases on earth’s atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and CFCs.

There are several sources of greenhouse gases. Burning of fossil fuels and deforestation lead to higher concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Without the trees and plants to take in the carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels, natural gas and petroleum products, all of the CO2 emitted stays in the atmosphere.

Also the use of CFCs or chlorofluorocarbons in refrigeration systems and in fire suppression systems and other manufacturing processes also increase the greenhouse content of our atmosphere. While the use of non-organic fertilizers in agriculture also lead to higher nitrous oxide concentrations, another greenhouse gas.

In the United States, greenhouse gas emissions mainly come from the use of fossil fuels as energy source. Approximately 82 percent of the greenhouse gas emission in the United States in 2006 came from the combustion of coal, natural gas and petroleum (United States Energy Information Administration). Meanwhile in Asia, Chine is expected to increase its emission of greenhouse gas because of the construction of old-fashioned power plants in its internal provinces. Currently, the carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are the highest in 150,000 years. The 1990s was most likely the warmest decade in history, while 1998 was the warmest year (Greenpeace).

Not controlling the greenhouse gas being emitted by human activity can increase climate change the next hundred years that will be much faster than anything known and recorded in history. There are necessary steps to be undertaken to control the toxic emission that will soon be killing us.

To minimize the consumption of oil, petroleum and other fossil fuel, we should use energy efficiently. Energy that we use should be generated from renewable energy source, which would mean harnessing the natural energy from the sun, winds, crops, tides and waves.

Green energy is another term used to describe sources of energy that are considered to be environmentally friendly, which is also similar to the renewable sources of energy.

There are numerous ways of generating electricity and energy from renewable and natural sources that generate clean and safe energy. Wind, sun, and heat can generate electricity for less price and less carbon emission than those of coal and even gas.

Shifting the world’s attention to alternative fuel source other than relying on fossil fuel is among the solutions in resolving the drastic climate change. Greenpeace cited that with renewable energy and using it smartly, can deliver half of the world’s energy needs by 2050. Greenpeace also cited that it is feasible to reduce carbon dioxide emission to almost 50 percent within the next 43 years.

Governments are taking steps to use and tap alternative energy sources as main source of energy. The European Union leaders made an agreement in March 2007 to ensure that 20 percent of their nation’s energy should come from renewable fuels by 2020. This is part of their effort to cut carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gas. There are even governments offering incentives to their residents who are using green energy.

Alternative energy source may not be the only way to reduce the greenhouse emission that human activity produce. There are simple ways in which we can do to contribute in reducing toxic gas emission and mitigate global warming.

Global Warming is a post from: DIY Solar Power Guides Reviewed