Go Greener Tips

Being energy self sufficient is the wave of the future. As the available resources shrink, and the demand for energy grows, power companies are finding it more and more difficult to meet the power demands of its customers. There is talk now by most of the major utilities that if consumption keeps up at the current pace then they will be forced to have rolling black outs in order for them to conserve energy and stave off having to build new facilities. Think of it! Being told that you will not have power for several hours in the day, every day of the week!

The prospect of having your utility company – the one that you have been a slave to for all of your life – suddenly turning off the power is a frightening one. What will happen to the food in the refrigerator? What happens if you work at home and need to be on the computer during that time every day? How about if your kids are in school and they need to be online for their homework? Will this also mean that you now have to plan your day around the utility’s timing? This is not as farfetched as you may think!

Windmills have been around for centuries. Ever see the windmills in Greece that the Greeks used to mill wheat into flour? How about the windmills in the Netherlands that are used to pump out the water in the polders? Here in the US – how about the ubiquitous windmills that seem to be next to every barn in the Old West that are used to pump water? Again, this is the same, exact principle that we are using except that instead of pumping water, we are producing electricity!

Even in modern times we have had items generating electricity. Remember the light mounted on your bicycle that had a generator that produced light when the wheel made contact with your tire? The electricity is generated by spinning a magnet between two coils of copper wire. This spinning creates a magnetic field that is converted into a current that in turn lights up your light.

While most of us are not ready to use generator lights on our cars, or need the use of a windmill to pump water, the technology has existed for a long time and is still is in use all around the world. The use of these technologies to generate electricity is just the natural progression of using the existing technology and taking it a step logical step further.

Finding the best location for your solar panels and windmills is crucial for the maximization of their effectiveness as well as finding locations that will not interfere with traffic. The ideal locations would be those locations that have zero traffic and are well away from any dangers such as falling objects. Most people prefer to have the solar panels on the roof of their house as this makes a mostly perfect platform to evenly support the panels, and there being as flat against the roof line as possible also insure that they will have a minimum of movement in such conditions as wind.

The use of windmill power in an urban setting has some drawbacks. Most of these drawbacks have to do with the local building ordinances not being very excited over someone have these huge propellers in the back or side of their houses. Most neighbors would also have severe misgivings if you decided to put up a windmill on the side of your house that happens to be right outside one of the bedroom windows or visible to a great degree.

Also, there is also the factor that although windmills are reasonably quite apparatus, they still do make noises, especially the propeller blades that tend to chop at the air. Again, this noise might not bother you, but might drive your neighbor nuts.

There is also the fact that a windmill requires a very large free area that is not traversed or used in any way. The reason for this is quite obvious: there is a very real danger of being hit by one of the propeller blades if you are not very careful.

The ideal place for windmill power is on a farm or a business that is outside the city limits and has a lot of terrain available for windmill power. One of the better places to construct the windmills is between buildings where any wind gets funneled in to create higher velocities, or near hillsides where the wind will have a tendency to be whipped into vortexes that are caught by the blades of the windmills thus generating electricity.

Although there are many do-it-yourself kits out there that you can purchase to make a windmill, many of the components you need are readily available for little to no cost if you know what you are looking for. An example is that you can actually use anything from the stepper motor found in an old photocopier or printer for a very small wind generator, all the way up to a car alternator for a larger electrical windmill as the coil unit.

With many things found around the house you can come up with most of the components for your windmill. The modifications you need to make are minimal and easy to do, most people with average to little skill can usually make up a working windmill in just one weekend of work. As you make your own windmills you yourself will find the ways to cut the production down or the right components and their source to make the subsequent windmills much more efficient as well as easier to fabricate.

As for the windmill, you want it in an area that will receive even the mildest of breezes to keep them running and generating energy. Make a careful survey of your house; you may be surprised where the best breezes come in. An example is at my house that is built into a hillside, it turns out that the best breeze is actually in a small space between my house and my neighbor’s where the breeze is squeezed in between the two houses and gets funneled up the hill. This breeze is usually from 2 to 3 times the velocity of the wind around the house thus making this a perfect place to place my windmill and reap the rewards of this phenomenon.

When considering windmill energy for your home, farm, or business make sure that this is allowed in terms of the construction and erection of the units in your area. Windmills have the most constraints on them because of their height off of the ground. You obviously cannot install these units near an airport for the obvious reasons. Do the research and then pick out either the kit that you feel best suits your needs, or a ready built unit, or the do-it-yourself approach. No matter which way you go, there is no doubt that you will be rewarded with everlasting cheap, clean, 100% renewable green energy!

For more information about the building of renewable energy devices, visit Leonardo Nicholas Di Masi’s webpage.

Author: Leonardo Nicholas Di Masi-Duque
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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