Solar Kits

For numerous years, the only kinds of solar panels commercially offered have been crystalline solar panels arranged in a rectangular casing and placed on a roof. This is why most people, as soon as they consider solar power for their home, imagine this as their single option. Below are a few recent advancements in solar power and mounting options you may have never heard of before.

Thin Film Solar Panels – Man Is This Thin!

Picture the solar panel you see in a solar calculator. That is a thin film solar panel. Thin film solar panels are used extensively in satellites. Thin film technology is currently being expanded into suburban and industrial use and was named one of the greatest inventions of 2008 by TIME magazine.

Thin film solar panels are flexible, not like polysilicon cells found in conventional crystalline solar panels. These thin film solar panels are being labeled as second generation solar power technology.

Thin film solar panels are more resilient to hailstones, rocks, and so on. If a portion of a crystalline solar panel is broken, the entire solar panel will stop working whereas a thin film solar panel will continue to operate.

Thin film panels can also be flexible and modified to many surfaces. They can be applied in places traditional crystalline solar panels cannot be mounted onto. I have even seen a thin film panel sewed onto a jacket that powered a MP3 player.

The downside to thin film panels is that they do not take up as much energy because they are so skinny. These panels are not nearly as efficient as conventional photovoltaic panels but they are much cheaper. Thin film solar panels are printed onto the rolled backing, eliminating many of the high energy and chemical intensive processes that are standard in conventional PV manufacturing.

Thin film solar panels are low wattage and need more room than traditional solar panels and they are more prone to degradation. In order to counter several of these competitive disadvantages they have versus conventional solar panels, manufacturers offer better warranties for thin film panels.

The biggest thin film solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the United States is the Blythe plant located 200 miles east of Los Angeles, California. The 21-megawatt solar power plant uses thin film solar cells made out of cadmium telluride. At full power, the plant will create enough electricity to power an anticipated 17,000 homes.

Now let’s look at traditional solar panels and some of the mounting options that are offered you may have never heard of before.

Mounting Selections For Traditional Solar Panels – It’s All About the Mount

Solar panel mounts come in three main varieties: pole mounts, roof-ground mounts, and flush mounts. With these mounts, you can set up your solar panel on your roof, onto an RV, on top of or against the side of a pole, or even install them as a free-standing unit.

Pole Mounts – No This Is Not What Santa Claus Uses For His Sleigh

Pole mounts, particularly top-of-pole, have been well-liked for a long time. Top-of-pole mounts are essentially a steel or aluminum rack and rail structure bolted or welded to a large casing that sets on top of a pole with set-bolts to keep it stationary. Side-of-pole mounts are regularly used when you need to mount to the side of a communications tower or telephone pole. Tracking mounts are similar to top-of-pole mounts, but they also have a technique of automatically aiming the mount to follow the sun.

Top of pole mounts (as well as sun trackers) are one of the simplest mounts to install. They really only need a single steel pole set in the ground (typically in concrete), and the mount slips onto the top of the pole. Most common sizes use a 2-inch to 8-inch pole, usually around 11 to 13 feet in length. They can go higher if you need to get the panel up higher to get around shading from close by bushes.

Common Roof-Ground Mounts

Roof-ground systems can be mounted onto a roof or ground without a lot of deviation in setup. They are typically constructed from stainless steel in a grid-like system of supports. Roof-mounted panels for smaller systems are the easiest to install, using small flush-mount brackets that raise the panels to the best angle for solar collection.

Ground mounts, as the name suggests, are solar panel mounts that are installed on the ground (as opposed to a pole mount or roof mount). They have supporting, changeable legs that allow you to optimize their vertical orientation for solar exposure. Ground mounting systems typically require plenty of steel supports, concrete foundations, and galvanized footings, which can be challenging, when you are attempting to keep your system low cost. Ground mounted systems need structural strength to prevent weight bearing failure.

Although module mounting systems are offered for ground and roof installation, roof mount installation is the most popular and cost effective approach. The roof mounted panels are attached to a mounting system normally consisting of an aluminum or steel support structure that attaches the panels to the roof.

The Smack Down On Flush Mounts

Flush Mounts are reasonably priced and straightforward to install – these are perfect for single panel installations and smaller solar arrays. Flush mounts are mounted onto a level face such as the top of an RV, a roof, or the top of a boat and are not used for ground installations. These mounts serve to separate the solar panel from the mounting surface and allow airflow to go below and lower the temperature of the solar panel for smooth operation. Flush Mounts are usually used with small solar arrays on roof tops and RVs, because the structural design of a flush mount cannot hold big solar panels.

There are many new options available in the expanding realm of solar technology. To learn how to calculate the number of solar panels you need for your home and other solar power secrets they don’t want you to know about, go to purchase solar panel kits

Technorati Tags: Alternative Energy, energy, environment, green, home, solar panel, Solar Panels, solar power, thin film solar panels

There is nothing else lush to a desert dweller than entering their cool home on a sultry afternoon. Cool as in temperature cool. It’s so simple to get ruined living in a centrally cooled home with a central air unit. Each room is as cool as the next. I’ve known people who wore a sweater in their air conditioned home instead of attempting to discover a setting that’s cooler than the out of doors temperature yet not freezing cold. These people have a large amount of expendable money and do not mind their big energy bills. I have separate air conditioners in my windows, and I have a conveyable air conditioner to address my cooling wants.

On the other hand, I need to watch my power usage, and that includes my aircon bill in the summer months. I wait till the temperature within is too high to be made sufferable with a fan. That’s when my window air-con units pay for themselves. On the other hand, some people say that re-cooling the house each day expends more energy than always leaving it at one temperature. In my case, my technique works best for me, according to my electrical bill!

The only areas I cool are the rooms in which I live. This loses the lavatories, washing room, cupboard and porch areas. In the cool of the evening, I open my windows and let the cool air enter. I close the curtains and windows in the morning before the sun comes up. If I’m out of the house in the day, the units are shut off. When I return in the evening, the units are turned on the lowest setting it’ll take to make the rooms I’m using comfy. I do not cool my bedroom till an hour before bedtime.

If I’m home in the day, the windows and curtains stay shut. The units are turned on the lowest setting possible. I constrain myself to the instant living areas ; kitchen, living room or den. The unit in my bedroom is shut off. A cold shower in the day helps me to adapt to the temperature. I do not wish to have to chill the house because I have worked up a sweat cleaning or exercising.

These few, simple tips keep my energy bill down and help me to stay comfortable in the heat of summer.

More air conditioning tips can be found at the following sites…

If you are interested in Solar Landscape Lights, you will get more information at DIY Solar Power For Homes.

Technorati Tags: diy, econ friendly, energy, family, green, home, home improvement, how to, improvement, solar, Solar Panels, solar power

A home’s points of entry can become a fast exit for energy and finish up costing a tidy sum on power and water bills. To circumvent being shortchanged by windows, doors and the garage, home energy mavens endorse making one or two straightforward alterations.

Seal The Envelope Before Sending the Bill

Homeowners should seal windows and doors “like an envelope” -or otherwise risk air-conditioning the whole neighborhood. In reality, it’s guessed a full 50 % of yearly use costs result from homes’ cooling and heating systems. To test that doors and windows are not drafty, look for light under or round the door and condensation round the windowpane, which is a suggestion of cooling loss. Also, check the attic to be sure it’s correctly insulated and not letting air escape.

Quick Tips :

1 Install thick, durable weather-stripping under your garage door to reduce this common energy leak. Polyurethane insulation or fiberglass duct wrap are both good options.

2 Weather-strip and caulk all cracks between the wall and the window trim. Replace broken glass and putty any loose window- panes to help secure the windows for harsh wind.

3 An cheap solution to drafty windows is the Shrink & Seal Window Kit, available at Lowe’s stores and lowes.com. It fits standard windows and is installed with a hair dryer that literally shrinks and seals a crystal-clear film over the window.

4 Upgrade that old fridge to the sole ENERGY STAR-qualified fridge devised in particular for the garage : Gladiator GarageWorks’ Chillerator, by Whirlpool Company . It’s fifteen p.c more energy efficient than current Fed. energy standards, saving a standard of $487 in energy costs over its lifespan.

“One of the simplest ways to save on utilities is to make wise appliance upgrade decisions,” said Richard Karney, Manager of Energy Star at the Department of Energy (DOE). “Most people cannot imagine the energy drain associated with older appliances.” ENERGY STAR-qualified appliances are part of a joint program of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and DOE to help consumers save money and the environment.

According to a survey by Whirlpool, 42 p.c of north Americans have an old fridge in the garage. Studies prove that a 10- to 15-year-old chiller costs a median of $82 more a year in resources compared to an ENERGY STAR-qualified chiller bought today.

That is what I can tell you about Solar Energy Kits, there is more in-depth knowledge at Best DIY Solar Power House Guide.

Technorati Tags: diy, econ friendly, energy, family, green, home, home improvement, how to, improvement, solar, Solar Panels, solar power

A characteristic U.S. Family spends more than $1,600 a year on home utility charges, yet making some easy changes around the home can economize and make cooling and heating systems better, according to World Energy Solutions, a public traded energy services company based in St. Petersburg, Fla.

By assessing facilities and kit, World Energy Solutions ( symbol : WEGY ) helps companies lower their application consumption and upkeep costs and extend the life of their apparatus.

“Many of the energy-saving strategies we use for our commercial customers can also be applied to the home,” says Benjamin Croxton, chief executive officer of World Energy Solutions. “There are many common-sense, low-cost and no-cost ways to lower your home energy use as well as many new technologies that can be applied to your home’s energy-consuming systems.”

Here are a few tips from the North American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy on things house owners can do to make their houses more energy efficient :

* Turn down the temperature of your water heater to the warm setting.

* Use energy-saving settings on chillers, dishwashers, washing machines and garments dryers.

* Use compact fluorescent bulbs, which can save three-quarters of the electricity utilized by incandescents. First to get replaced should be any 60-watt to 100-watt bulbs that are used a few hours per day.

* Have your heating and cooling systems serviced in the fall and spring. Duct sealing can also improve the energy efficiency and overall performance of your furnace or central air conditioner.

* Clean or replace furnace, air conditioner and heat-pump filters.

* evaluate your cooling and heating systems to ascertain if you must replace or retrofit them to make them work better to supply the same comfort, or better, with less energy.

“If your home’s central air-conditioning system is over 10 years old, a new up-to-the-minute system can save you thirty p.c or more of your house’s air-conditioning expense,” announces George Hiker , air-conditioning expert with World Energy Solutions.

If you want to get more information about DIY Solar Panels, check us out at Best DIY Solar Power House Guide.

Technorati Tags: diy, econ friendly, energy, family, green, home, home improvement, how to, improvement, solar, Solar Panels, solar power

Seeing an orbital image of planet Earth at night you immediately become aware of two things. Firstly, how much energy is used to maintain the human experiment; secondly, how inequitably it is distributed around the globe. As James Lovelock recently observed, …ivilisation is energy-intensive?yet the real energy that is involved in human existence cannot be seen as easily as the orbital photo of our nightly planet suggests.

The real energy driving the human experiment is mystic energy. There’s definitely some link between the physical energy emitted each night by our towns and the mystic forces that are driving late-modernity, yet this tells only part of a much bigger story.

Much of the mystic energy driving the human experiment is bounded by conventions. In reality it is kind of a believable offer to make claims that conventions are energy streams that draw on power from the past, condense and focus energy in the present and, like a torch light, channel and project energy into the future. The fibre optic cables and satellite transmissions that bring speed and flexibleness to the planet and its globalizing economy and culture, as well as the urban incandescence of the Earth at night, are in truth the by products of an invisible but obviously outlined confluence of energy generating conventions.

Roots & Brooks

Rabindranath Tagore, one of India’s great poets, describes creation as an awakening, an explosion of energy. Not the conventional Huge Bang, but something akin as Brahma awakens and its joy is limitless. The roots of the Indic convention lie in this expression of boundless-joy. Today this story has combined with many others like the course of the Ganges as it first meets the great brooks of Yamuna, Ghaghara and Kosi and goes on thru twists and turns, eventually spitting again in the monsoonal Delta of Bengal.

Similarly, the turbine engines of culture are alive with the dynamic dance of practices, churning away like the great brook Ganges as it makes its ( untidy ) way to the ocean. The stories cultures tell themselves are the source of much energy, the dreams ( and nightmares ) that induce states, drive business and government big wheels are far more forceful than nuclear energy. The fables and metaphors that frame our comatose daily coming and goings are what we want to turn to when wanting to rethink civilisation and our job in its upkeep.

The Academic energy bill

When you think about conventions as passages of power it is possible to take a look at any social structure and ask about it : What practices power it? Who pays? Are there alternative energy sources?

Take one of societies most complicated and contested establishments : Education. Some distance from being monolithic education is a undoubted power grid generating large energy for the expansive and rapacious commercial and the cultural practices of a globalising world.

The energy of this system draws on an array of traditions each bringing to the current system energy in the form of values, practices and beliefs. The humanism that drove education for centuries has been absorbed by the utilitarian needs of a rapidly globalising society. The pragmatic concerns of utilitarianism are at least in part off set by an opening up of democratic processes and a greening of the school. Furthermore, we also have the romantic tradition placing the child at the centre of the learning equation. Thus we find humanist, utilitarian, democratic, environmental and romantic strands at work; all provide energy and work to maintain the coherence of the system.

And the cost? The humanist convention privileged the old elites, where culture and cash and power coalesced, the poor payed ; the practical, as power shifted from the old elites to the new, a new kind of education appeared and the user pays, eventually the poor are excluded and as cash flows upwards, they pay again.

The democratic offers a way out, as does the environmental : both come from traditions that challenge hierarchies, yet both are too fragmented to test the dominance of the practical, their effect is ameliorative but they contain the potential energy to challenge this dominance should a movement in the world-system set off a power failure – such a shift may be either social or environmental. And the romantic? Child centredness is powerful, as it’s the root of both soft and hard individualism, but it is too simply coopted by the dominant cultural elites, especially those looking for a cultural off-set for the vacuum made by the loss of humanism to utilitarianism.

To get more information about How To Make Solar Panels, visit our in-depth review at Best DIY Solar Power House Guide.

Technorati Tags: diy, econ friendly, energy, family, green, home, home improvement, how to, improvement, solar, Solar Panels, solar power