What’s involved in the attractive sounding possibilities suggested by green DIY energy? With ever greater numbers of our population becoming concerned with global care-taking and saving natural resources, renewable energy becomes a big topic. Not to mention the possibility that the successful ‘do it yourself’er may be able to reach electrical independence from any big business power company.
The solar panel is the most well-known player in the renewable energy game, and also the most powerful with our current technology. They began their commercial use in the seventies, but since the cost of installing a home running system is still at a lofty twenty thousand dollars, many people can’t afford it. And so enters the more inventive method.
Of course there’s more than just the panels themselves involved with solar power. The “do it yourself”er will also need to take into account a storage battery, and an electrical charge controller, not to mention the wiring to the ground foundation (the main point of power entry for the house). Only a couple thousand dollars, rather than twenty, later and you could have yourself a reliable back-up in case of a grid outage, and a way of running certain fixtures constantly without worrying about running up the bill.
The next big player is the power of wind. Captured by windmills, this power sources require property with a large, generally clear space to allow for uninterrupted air flow. For those who are fortunate to have such circumstances, they still have to be ready to deal with an efficiency rate of only a quarter of the energy actually captured.
This twenty-five percent efficiency means that while the wind blows the fan blades around at 10 mph, the potential energy created is 60 watts. The storage, however, can only capture 15 of these watts, which is less than what is required to run a 25 watt incandescent light bulb. Multiple turbines may be one way to remedy this, but inevitably wind is still most value as a way of storing back-up power in case of a grid outage.
Last but not least are the little odd-job projects hiding in different places around the homestead, just waiting for the ambitious ‘do it yourself’ spirit. One of the biggest bills and power uses a household can have are those for heating and cooling. Many tactics exist for improving the home’s temperature control, including window coverings, eves, fixtures, and more efficient thermostats.
Green DIY energy is accessible to any who have the project-orientated spirit and the right resources. As storing and conversion technologies improve over the years, the prices also drop, making renewable power more and more feasible for the general public. With every step we take toward utilizing more of nature’s own power, the closer we come to greater saving our paychecks and a bit of the planet as well.
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