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We have come to rely completely on energy. We use it in almost everything we do; we live in it, use it for all our modern conveniences and more. Without energy we wouldn’t know what to do. In the past, before energy, there were lanterns for light and matches and wood for heat. That was the only options people had. When power was accessible to everyone by running power lines through cities, towns, residential areas to allow everyone to tap into the new generation, people were skeptical as to how this would affect everyone in the future.

Over the years, appliances became energy friendly, which made for less manual labor and more free time. Wash machines, dryers, dishwashers and the latest in cooking stoves that no longer needed wood. These were all great inventions and although people were skeptical they still took advantage of these appliances. Today we have the worry of saving the energy that we know and love so well. Our energy is fueled by non-renewable resources which will allow the depletion of these resources slowly and over time where we won’t realize it until it is gone. We need to find an alternative to the way we power our energy but we also need to store the energy that we already have.

Solar energy has been tested and experimented with as we learn more and more about how to conserve and store the natural heat from the sunlight. We all know how effective it is and why it is something that we should work very hard at conserving. Storing the solar energy can mean endless usage of water and other necessities by using conservative methods of saving energy.

Thermal mass systems are the process of using natural resources to make material that will store solar energy. This type of storage uses renewable resources from the earth, such as dirt, water and man made resources such as concrete to help store energy if only for a short period of time. Thermal mass can help heat water at night or heat your home long after the sun goes down or on cloudy days when the sun doesn’t peak through the clouds at all. These need to be worked on because there is no extensive long storage capability using solar power just yet.

Then you have the thermo-chemically phase which uses types of devices to store heat. Some examples of this type of storage includes

Paraffin wax inside of a storage tank. When the paraffin wax is cold it is solid but when it is heated it is a liquid that can help hold heat for a very long time without cooling it down. As the paraffin wax cools it becomes hard which can hold the heat in longer.

Eutectic Salts are inexpensive and can store heat in a heating system which will distribute the heat evenly and lasting hotter longer.

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There are two different types of wind turbine; Vertical and Horizontal. Each one performs their own function and they each of their advantages and their disadvantages. You should pick the one that is best for you and your needs. They do have one thing in common and that is that they produce energy from winds. They just do it in a different way. Vertical axis turbine has the main rotor shaft running vertically instead of horizontally. This direction can have its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is the gearbox can be put in the bottom of the turbine, unlike the horizontal turbines. All the weight is not at the top of the tower.

It also does not need to be pointed in the direction of the wind. The disadvantages of vertical axis wind turbines is that there can be pulsating torques that can happen during each turn when the turbine is running in the same direction as the wind. They produce a smaller amount of energy from the wind.

Different Types of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines
Windmill with a rotation sail. This type of turbine is the newest out there as it looks like sails on a ship once it is up and running. The sails can expand or contract to the changing winds. There is three sails on it and the speed is managed through magnetic counter that expands or contracts these vertical sails. It has a control unit that will help to control the sails so the damage will be minimal. The sails might tear but the frame is durable and will last through the storms.

Aerodynamic turbine is made up of airfoil base that is designed to capture the kinetic energy flowing from an artificial current to the center. It can utilize most of the air mass that passes through by redirecting it over the upper turbines. It can respond to wind and also rivers, creeks, oceans or other free flowing water systems.

Darrieus Wind Turbines are efficient but because of their size and shape they can produce cyclic stress on the tower which can wear it out sooner. It features three blades that work well in higher winds. They are held up by external structures that are connected from the ground up.

Giromill is a type of meal that features three vertical blades. It is self starting so the maintenance is low. These types of mills a low blade speed but they can create a high performance and success in channeling the energy from every turn of the blade.

Savonius Wind Turbine mills have two scoops that are used for wind conversion. Some do come in three scoops that make it self starting. They look like long helicopter blades that are bent in a direction. This style and shape is to provide enough energy to be adequate.

Windstar Turbines has straight aluminum blades that are attached on each end of the rotating shaft. This windmill features more than one rotor and they each have their own dual braking system that has pneumatic disc brakes. They are designed for strong powerful winds.

The advantages to running a vertical axis wind turbine is that they are easier to maintain and reduce cost, can withstand almost all wind, low high, smaller and easier to transport. The disadvantages are they take twice as much time to produce efficient energy from winds, need to be installed on flat land, low starting torque, some models use guyed wires which can add stress to the bottom. The design and the preference of the consumer make the best choice when it comes to choosing the right one for you.

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Dams have been around for a century now. Beavers used it, although not for energy and now humans employ it as source for that ingredient in survival: power.

Hydroelectricity

Hydropower generates hydroelectricity. It produces power with the help of gravity. It is the most common alternate source of energy. After the dam (called the hydroelectric complex) is built the complex it produces no waste whatsoever. Hydroelectric power comes from waters potential energy.

Imagine a glass bubble, and you’re in it. When the walls crack water exerts pressure on that one whole until water comes through that tiny gap. It’s the same thing with a dam. The engineers collect the dam’s power by harnessing it with the use of a turbine which then connected to a generator. In this matter the power extracted from the rushing water depends on the amount of force the water exerts on the turbine and on the difference of the water’s average gravitational pull. The difference between the height and the outflow is called the head

The amount of the water’s potential energy depends on how high the dam is from its outflow. Dams help cities by supplying energy during extremely high demand times and during off peak the turbines pump water into higher reservoirs so that when electricity consumption is high again.

Where Is The Power Supplied

Most hydroelectric power plants supply public entities; there are some which are funded by industrial companies for their specific use. Such industries like aluminum electrolytic plants build there own hydroelectric power plants due to their high energy consumption. In fact the world’s largest dam the Coulee Dam, located in Bellingham Washington was switched to support Alcoa Aluminum plant, which at the time was the largest supplier of materials for war planes; afterwards though it was used for public electricity and as a source for irrigation.

There are also small scale hydroelectric power plants, most of them are located in north America. A plant is classified as small scale when it only produces 10- 30 megawatts. These power sources are usually connected to power grids to supply energy to small isolated communities or even to a single family home. In China small hydro schemes are very popular due to a high number of factories wishing to have their own supply of electricity.

Other Common Water Energy Sources

Other common hydro resources are rivers, the ocean, waterfalls and even ponds or lakes. Rivers power plants where in no reservoir can be built are called run-of-the-river-, while the ocean is put into good use because of the tides. A tidal power plant harnesses the energy of the coming and the going of the tides. Uncommon but never the less employed are kinetic energy water plants.

Why It Makes Sense

Economically the use of hydropower is cost effective because our primary source the fossil fuel is expensive and slowly getting used up. Water is of the abundance and most of the time it is free. Granted that dams and other hydroelectric power plants are quite expensive to build, but the pros far out weigh the cons. The operating and maintenance cost of a hydroplant is considerably cheaper than looking for fossil fuel, drilling for it, and refining it to become oil. What’s more a hydroelectric power plant cannot be affected and is not subject to the rise and fall of fuel prices.

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In order to know where to find solar energy you must first know what solar energy is. Solar energy is energy from the sun. When the sun is shining solar energy is being produced as it sends the heat radiating to the earth. You can find solar energy anywhere or anything that the sun can shine on. There is a way that you can save the sunlight in order to provide heat during the cold, which is what millions of people have done throughout the years. It started thousands of years ago when people where able to use a thick lens or magnifying glass on an object that would attract the sun rays on that particular object and could get so hot it would catch fire. This gave a new prospective on how strong the heat from the sun really was.

The problem with capturing the suns heat is the fact that when it reaches the earths surface it does not go to one particular spot. It is spread evenly over the earth where the sunlight is able to reach. When this happens you may find it difficult to heat something using only the sunlight. Although the area or object may be hot if left in the sun too long it will not reach the full heating potential of the sun’s light.

In order to use the heat efficiently to heat a room after the sun goes down or when the sun is unable to shine because of clouds you will need to use a source that will attract the heat to one particular area. This source is called a solar collector. The solar collector attracts a lot of sunlight to one particular area allowing the sun to pass through the source and into the space. The objects in the space absorb and hold the heat from the sunlight and trapping it so it will not get back out with the help of the source. Glass is a great solar collector because it allows the sun to pass through it and into the space but the heat from the sun can rarely escape leaving the space under the glass to become warm or hot from the heat. The objects in the space help to hold the heat as it comes in so that the space will stay warmer longer. This allows the area to be heated using solar power.

Because glass is a natural solar collector it makes it great to put into a greenhouse or a sun room. The glass attracts the sunlight and traps the heat inside so that they temperature in the greenhouse or sun room remain warm even at night when the temperature outside may be cold.

Solar energy can be found anywhere the sun shines but in order to fill the heat you must have direct sunlight for an extended period of time. If you just use the morning sun to heat your home your house may not stay warm through the night.

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Kids today can learn about so many different things. We have a way to teach them about solar power. This resource will be their future and will depend on how we take care of it today. Solar power can be anywhere the sun shines and you can feel and see the warmth. Solar power can heat water, heat homes, schools, businesses, and it can produce energy. Teaching kids today how solar power works and how we can use it wisely will ensure that our future and theirs will be protected.

First of all, learning about the harmful affects of our energy usage today is important for them to understand why there should be another way to produce energy. Because the electricity that we use today comes from non-renewable resources we are setting ourselves up for a big fall. When that resource runs out we will rely on an alternative to supply our power. Scientist are working today to ensure that when we do run out of that resource we will be able to switch over to another way without missing a beat.

The problem with that is we shouldn’t wait until that resource is gone to switch over. We should be able to switch in the near future and preserve what we have left. Another problem with our energy production today is that it is harmful to the environment. It pollutes the air and will eventually make it impossible for us to use the sun as a natural resource. We can’t afford to lose that important alternative. In order to save our environment we need to teach the kids how we can all join together in order to save there solar power.

Solar power can generate energy using natural resources and man made solar sources that will attract the solar power to the source. In order to make this affective we need to be able to find solar sources that are not expensive but can provide the solar power that we need. A standard home can benefit greatly to switching over to solar power. It is easy to do. Also when you build your home you can build it using solar power as a way to naturally generate electricity into your home, heat your water, and other functions that can be controlled by using solar power. In the long run, we benefit by not paying for a resource that is slowly taking away from a natural resource. Our kids will be rewarded for our careful planning.

All ages can benefit from conserving solar power but it needs to start now in order to benefit the future. Teaching the kids the way to save the energy and how we need to come up with a way to save the solar power in the future in order to supply heating, water, and other necessities in large quantities rather than by individual houses, which is how we do it today. One day we may not need to run power lines through fields, streets and yards because we will all have solar power boxes in the back yard instead.

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Solar energy is a natural source of energy that comes directly from the sun. When solar energy hits the earth it spreads over the earth’s surface and provides warmth evenly. If you could capture the sun’s rays into a particular area for a long period of time it would provide enough warmth for nighttime or on cloudy days. Learning where to find solar energy can help you to get started today. Solar energy does not cost anything because it comes from the sun. The source that you choose may cost some but in the long run it should be your only expense, unlike gas or oil heaters that you continue to pay for monthly in order to have power or gas heat in your home. Solar power can provide heating, cooling and ventilation.

If you want to make your own solar power to capture the energy for heating its easy to do if you can find a solar collector, which is anything that attracts the heat from the sun in a concentrated amount, such as glass or clear plastic. Getting into your car that has sat out in the hot sun all day long can be extremely hot and you have to roll down your windows to cool it off inside. That is because the glass has attracted the sun and the objects in your car, including your seats, have trapped the heat not allowing it to escape. When you roll your windows down you are allowing the heat to escape causing your car to cool down. The same thing is true about greenhouses. The glass or clear plastic can attract the sun and not allow it to escape causing the greenhouse to maintain the heat for the plants to grow effectively.

In order to heat your home using solar energy, you need to know the information on a passive and an active home. These two types of solar homes offer the homeowner options to choose from and your cost of heating may be down. Solar energy does not only heat your home but it also heats your water and if you use solar energy lights it can light your home at night.

Passive homes do not use any equipment to heat the home. Passive homes use windows that are made to allow the maximum amount of sunlight into your home. The sunlight is controlled by keeping the doors closed in the hottest part of the day not allowing any heat to escape. At night thick curtains may be used on these windows so that the warmth stays inside during the night. This allows the sun to naturally heat your home without any help.

Active homes do use equipment to help circulate the heat in the home. Some of the equipment that may be used includes pumps, blowers and an alternative heating source in case the sunlight was not enough during the daytime. In order to heat the home with sunlight these homes use special boxes on the outside that attract the sunrays to it. They are made from a dark colored metal to help attract the sun more. The water or air that is carried in the pipes and ductwork is heated by this glass box that has captured the sunlight. Then the heated water or air is then carried to the rest of the home.

In the long run, solar energy helps to heat the home naturally and without depending on a company to supply it for you. Solar energy can be found anywhere the sun is.

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It is a well known fact that the sun is the strongest from the south. People who want to conserve solar power uses this theory in order to get the most sun into their houses with minimal expense. If you are building a home that you want to be solar power, it is best to put the most windows facing the south side. Although it is not always true, depending on where you live, it is a general rule to go by. Passive technology turns sunlight into heat that can be used for several things, including ventilation and cooling. You can heat homes and businesses with passive solar. Passive solar systems depend on gravity fed and natural resources in order to make passive solar work. If it uses a pump or fan to force the liquid through, than it is an active solar.

Passive solar technology offers direct and indirect gain for heating spaces, water heating systems, use of thermal mass and also phase change materials which helps to regulate the temperature indoors. There is also the solar cooking equipment, the solar chimney which allows for ventilation and earth sheltering. Passive solar can also be found in a solar furnace and solar forge, although these are a little more complicated. Sun rooms are another example of passive solar power as it lets the sun come into the room without allowing it to escape. There is no mechanism or no engine to power just the clear panes of glass attracting the sun and trapping it within.

Solar gain is referring to the increase in temperature in an area, an object or a structure that is a result of solar radiation. The stronger the sun the more solar gain you have. A solar furnace is any huge object that is created in order to channel the heat directly to one place. The heat can be unbearable but it does produce a lot of electricity from it. Temperatures can reach up to 3,000 degrees. When you compare the expenses associated with passive solar you realize that the cost of passive solar is minimal when you compare it to active wear.

Because there is no mechanism to power it makes it more affordable. With active solar you must have a device that can power the heat that you take in and used it. Passive solar is the most popular with those who are experimenting with the conception of solar power and may find that they like it enough to stick to it. When you are ready for an upgrade it is easy to move up to active power. Adding a mechanism that will easily and conveniently pump the water on through the source is an effective way of combining today’s technology with conservation and preservation that we have access to.

Passive solar power is something that we will be seeing a lot of in the future as the need for solar power becomes more in demand. There will come a time when even those who depend on active solar may have to switch to passive solar.

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Solar power can be found in several different places on the earth. You can find solar power in a parked car, in a building with no air circulating, in a home without windows opened or fans circulating the air. When you step into any of these places that have been in the sunlight for a while you soon become overpowered by the amount and the intensity of the heat. This kind of heat can be taken and converted into heat that can heat your home, your water, an outbuilding, or any other building you would like to have heat in.

Heating by solar power is a free way of heating. When you heat using solar power you use a source that will direct the heat from the sunlight during the daytime to your solar source. A solar source is a device that you use to attract and trap the heat from the sun. Just like a car out in the parking lot gets hot when it faces the midday sun and the windows are rolled up. The seats can become very hot, too hot to sit on. These seats are a solar source because they trapped the heat inside and didn’t want to let them go. When this happens the seats will still be warm long after the sun quits shining directly on that car.

Creating a solar source can be easy to do with a little thought put into it. With a solar source you need to think about all the things that attract the sun, such as metal, the color black, glass that is tinted or clear, mirrors and more. There is an endless supply of idea to signal the heat your way and trap it for your use. To get the heat to benefit your water system or even your heat, you need to come up with a way that you can circulate a liquid that when it passes by your solar source it will heat the water naturally because of the concentrated amount of heat that was trapped inside your solar source that day.

When the liquid carries through the solar source and travels into the home it can go directly to the water source where it can be kept warm, like a hot water tank, but naturally without using gas and electricity to keep it warm. This solar source can be a great challenge to create but you will enjoy the rewards for years to come. You can also find solar sources in stores as well as online. Shopping for solar power items has never been easier and it is not expensive.

Coming up with a solution that will carry the heat into the home is simple and practical. If your idea is successful you will have heat during the winter and warm water all year around. The main goal is not only to preserve the natural resources and the environment but it is cost effective when you can use something that is natural that you need to use.

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Wind power is taking the energy generated from the wind and using it in more productive ways. Wind turbines are a machine that can transform the kinetic energy found in wind and convert it into mechanical energy. Mechanical energy works with kinetic energy to balance into the mechanical system. When the mechanical energy is converted into electricity it can be called a wind turbine.

There are two different types of wind turbines; Horizontal axis and Vertical axis. The most common of these two are the horizontal axis. Horizontal axis features the main rotor shaft and generator at the top of the turbine. The horizontal axis is pointed into the wind. Most of these horizontal axis have a gearbox that allows the blades to turn quicker to generate more electricity. The tower is what provides turbulence. The turbine can be pointed somewhat upward and stand well above the blades. The blades are made of durable material capable of withstanding high winds.

When you see these turbines in the field you may think that they are no longer helpful but there are several people who believe in using them still. Horizontal axis wind turbines can either turn upward or downward. If they choose to turn the blades upward, they don’t hold good together for longer periods of time. They begin to crack and breakdown in high winds. When the blades are downward facing they stay in line with the wind longer and they can outlast through the high winds without breaking. Because they are so durable it keeps the cost down as well.

Types of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines

Windmills Consists of four or more blades, usually short, and can wooden blades. These were used to grind grain. As the winds picked up it would rotate a mechanism inside allowing it to run the grain through a mill crushing it.

Rural Windmills was originally from Australia but later moved over to the USA. Farmers found that this type of windmill was good to pump water and electricity to the barns and fields. This windmill had several blades and can still be seen today in fields. They were constructed of metal usually in order to carry electricity for lights or maybe a radio.

Modern Turbines are what we have now standing in fields. They feature three blades that are pointed at the ends. The reason for their unusual shape is because they have been proven to exceed wind velocity up to 6 times more, allowing for high efficiency and reliability.

The advantages of this type of wind turbine include stability, tallness, bendable, durable and strong. The disadvantages my include cannot operate well close to the ground, hard to transport over sea, difficult to install, not in big demand, there are concerns with how they affect radar, structural damage done with storms and wear.

There are good points and bad points to owning these types of turbines. They have been proven to work and you can have one or thirty one out in your field. They do help to generate electricity and other great things that we would normally have to go without.

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We have ways to heat our water, our homes and provide us with electricity. We probably take all of this for granted and if we lost them we would probably panic. We take for granted that these conveniences will be there for us from now on. We expect glitches to happen but we want them to be fixable without going long without all of these. We appreciate the heat in the winter when it snows outside and when the temperatures drop. We need water to live and although it is usually running under the ground we want the convenience of it running through our pipes and into our homes.

Electricity is nice when you can have lights with just a simple flick of the switch. In the summertime we experience some power outages when everyone turns on their air conditioners in order to tolerate the extreme temperatures beating down from the sun. This heat is sometimes so intense it can make someone, who has trouble breathing, struggle for every breath.

The sun is a very intense ball of gas up in the atmosphere. It burns twenty four hours a day, seven days per week. We only see it during out daytime but on the other side of the globe they get the daytime when we get the night. When the sun light beams down on the earth’s surface, a small percentage of the solar radiation heading for earth gets reflected. There are larger amounts of the sunlight that is actually absorbed. When you consider the fact that the sunlight must go through fog, clouds, dust particles and harmful pollutants in order to reach us that reduce the amount of sunlight that we receive even more. When it finally makes it to the earth’s surface it is then radiated back up into space. When it reaches the earth, plants and vegetation absorb it and the oceans, winds and other resources absorb the sunlight as well.

Some people use some of the heat generated from the sun in order to heat homes, power electricity and provide water to their families and businesses. When you think about all that you have that runs through a machine it may be possible to reroute that in order to run it all by sunlight. Scientists have only started to make this possible but it is far from being completed. When you consider all the solar energy that reaches the earth’s surface and then radiated back into the atmosphere, you could power electricity, heat and water from now on. This solar energy can be redirected and concentrated using special boxes that attract the light during the day to heat water and homes throughout the night.

Solar power is very important and provides a natural way to heat, obtain electricity and water with just a little more effort. In the future we may have no other choice but to look at natural resources in order to have these necessities and conveniences. Solar power is important now and in the future.

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