Solar power has many uses and benefits these days and it is not just limited to the big industry.
No not at all, Solar is now affordable and easily obtainable for your home or office and going in the Solar direction most often comes with a few perks in many states.
When you searched for Solar Power For The Home Owner or Facts About Solar Power or The Benefits Of Solar Power you may have been trying to address one of the following concerns:
* The ever increasing electric bill
* Concern over the depletion of fossil fuel reserves
* Environmental awareness i.e. global warming, the hole in the
ozone layer, etc.).
Three major concerns that can be addressed by simply making the shift to solar power.
When you use solar power, you can benefit in many ways. The key is to start out with a simple kit and use it in conjunction with your traditional energy source.
By using solar power, you will save money in the long run after you’re initial investment. You will immediately notice a substantial decrease in the electric bill in the coming months especially if you’re using solar power indoor and outdoor.
Plus you can take advantage of all the special programs, grants, and loans offered by the federal government that are now allowed for people who want to try solar power. Rebates are also in place for individuals who are able to consume a certain amount of solar power.
So what holds you back from buying your family a simple solar kit for Christmas?
Just think of what a statement it will make to all of your family and friends to give such a unique gift.
You don’t have to buy a solar panel kit if that doesn’t trip your trigger. Now you can find solar powered generators, cookers, lights, garden fountains, etc.
In my opinion though, for starting out and getting a little more comfortable and familiar with solar power for the home, I’d suggest buying a Solar How To Guide that is presented in video and gives you a solid step-by-step approach to building your own Solar Panels for cheap!
You can easily build your own solar panels with simply instruction
through these DIY videos, Click Here! By doing it this way you can cut that cost of a panel more than half building it yourself for around $200. Once you’ve assembled the solar panels, you can then say you have renewable energy!
The benefits of such a system is these power systems are easy to build and understand plus once built require little to zero maintenance.
So solar panels aren’t your thing and you think they’re bulky and ugly to look at especially if you place them on the rooftop?
Check out the availability of different photovoltaic cells and shingles. The ‘size’ problems have been effectively addressed. You no longer need to install a solar panel to obtain solar power. Photovoltaic shingles may be perfect for your home.
These shingles are sometimes called photovoltaic tiles. The energy produced can be used for heating the house and water. You can even heat the water of your pool using solar power. Click Here!
The energy created by the photovoltaic cells and shingles is just like conventional electricity.
How about solar water pumps? In remote places, water pumps have to be powered by sunlight. Windmills have always been quite popular when it comes to powering water pumps but now, solar power has become a viable alternative as well.
As you can see Solar power has many uses and many ways we can all go about utilizing the power of the sun.
Discover other ways to use solar power as we bring you information here at Solar How To.
Use the above information now to help address the three concerns mentioned earlier and before long you may be living off the grid!
Obviously the world is facing a lot of problems these days it’s becoming harder and harder to make ends meet as prices sky-rocket on many things that are necessary for everyday life.
We’ve arrived at a critical time and many people like you are looking for solutions that will save them money and make life easier.
Despite these concerns, you should not live in despair because as you should know, in every problem, there is always a solution.
As far as Home solar power, this solution can make a huge impact when it comes to saving money and making yourself less dependent on the all-mighty power companies.
Solar power for the home has been available for many years now. It’s just that many of us fail to realize not only its importance but also its affordability.
In older times, solar power was mainly used for powering small electrical devices. But now, with the great technological advancements, people are realizing that solar power is now becoming widely accessible even to ordinary individuals.
You can now find solar power kits which are less costly and in a price range from around $200 and up.
Now couldn’t be a better time to consider using solar power, if you’re still considering it, great! We’ve put together some solar facts that we thought you’d benefit from knowing so enjoy.
1. Albert Einstein received a Nobel Prize in 1921 for his experiments on photovoltaic and solar power.
2. Silicon from a ton of sand can be used in photovoltaic panels to generate the same amount of electricity that a 500,000 T of burning coals can produce.
3. 10,000 US households are now using solar energy to power their homes.
4. John Herschel (British Astronomer) was able to cook food by using solar power 200 years ago during his African journey.
5. In 1982, the first large scale power plants was opened in California.
6. If you can use solar power in your home’s heating system, you can slash the electric bill by 50%.
7. In the last thirty years, the price of solar panels has dropped considerably by at least 200%. Solar power kits can now be purchased from $200-$500.
8. In the year 2000, USDOE claimed that solar power is almost perfect (99%) in San Francisco; since California gets a lot of sunlight, 200 megawatts of green electricity can be generated if all the rooftops of county buildings and homes are covered with PV panels. By including school buildings, an added 1,500 megawatts is achievable. The generated power is enough to cover the city’s electrical needs during an entire day.
9. Germany is now using solar power despite its undesirable climate. The energy generated during sunny days is stored in batteries.
10. Energy from the sun travels for approximately 8 minutes to reach Earth.
If you’re interested in solar power and you want to try it out, you can start with a solar power kit. It is affordable and easy to assemble. The materials can be purchased from local hardware stores and the guides are easy to understand as well.
Make sure that you purchase a kit that is manufactured by a prominent and trusted company to ensure efficiency.
Solar How To hopes these facts will help you decide whether you can benefit from solar power or not. If you live in an area where there is many hours of sunlight throughout the year, solar power is an excellent choice.
Remember that solar power is free and clean! After your initial investment, you’re now creating FREE energy.
Why not start today with a basic solar kit? What a great idea for a Christmas present!!
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…it’s swimming season even though in some parts of the country it doesn’t seem like it due to cooler weather and in our neck of the woods, many rainy days!
My daughter just loves the water and it seems at a young age you don’t really care how cold it is!
I for one do care and if the pool is even slightly cool, I find reasons to avoid it until I’m really hot.
So I started thinking about ways I might be able to use my interest in solar to “take the chill off” and possible enjoy the pool of a morning or late at night.
In my quest, I came across this interesting “how to” and I wanted to pass on this information.
The success of heating your pool with sunlight will vary depending on how much sun you get, how big and cold the pool is, and how much dark-colored hose you are prepared to buy – but some increase in temperature is feasible for most people.
Steps
You’ll need dark colored hose pipe – black rubber hose is ideal and is relatively inexpensive. Alternately, use black garden irrigation pipe. It is thin-walled to allow quick heat transfer, inexpensive, but will kink easily. It is readily found in most home supply stores.
The more hose pipe you use, the more the water will be heated as it flows through to the pool. How much you will need will depend on how much you want to heat the pool, the size and regular temperature of the pool etc.
Consider setting many pipes in parallel to increase solar gain. If you use one long hose, the water temperature near the end may be to high to allow for further collection, and may in less efficient in gaining heat. The greater the difference in temperature between the water and the potential gain, the more efficient the system.
Most in-ground pools will have a hose bib that may be used to drain water from the pool. If you have something like this you can use it instead to send water through the hose and back to the pool. If not you will need a small pump, which will pump the water at slow speeds.
You can start with 50 or 100 feet of hose and add more if necessary.
Attach the hose so it circulates the water from your swimming pool through the pipe.
Let the water circulate for a few minutes so that the water coming out is not what was left in the pipe (which may already be quite hot).
To determine how much pipe you need or what kind of temperature rise you will get you need to start taking some measurements. You will need to know how fast the pipe fills a 1 gallon milk carton or bucket, how many gallons your pool contains, and a measurement of the difference between the pool temperature and the temperature of the water coming out of the hose (subtract the pool temperature from the temperature after it leaves the hose).
You can get an approximation of the impact of this method by dividing the temperature difference by the number of gallons in the pool. This will tell you roughly how much the temperature of the pool will rise when one gallon is circulated through the hose. For example, if the temperature difference is 10 degrees, and your pool is 5000 gallons, then the temperature of the pool will rise approximately 10/5000 = 1/500th or 0.002 of a degree for each gallon going through the pipe.
To find out how long it will take to warm the pool by one degree you divide the number of seconds it takes to pump one gallon by the degree rise from the last calculation. For example, if it takes 20 seconds to pump one gallon, it will take 20/0.002 = 10,000 seconds to heat the water by one degree.
Divide the number of seconds by 60 to get the number of minutes, and then by 60 again to get the number of hours – for example 10000 / 60 = 167 minutes. 167 / 60 = about 2.8 hours.
Slowing down the water will make the water warmer in the pipe but it will take longer to heat the pool. To increase the speed of heating the pool you can add more pipe.
If installing a parallel pipe system above the pool such as on a roof, be sure to install a vacuum break at the highest point of the pipes, otherwise the system can easily get vacuum trapped, and will not cycle water through all the pipes.
Tips
In most cases this is not even worth considering unless you have some kind of thermal cover for the pool. The rate of warming is typically too slow to compensate for overnight cooling that will occur if the pool is not covered.
An alternative to hose are vinyl solar panels that add some heating efficiency to this system and cost less than $150 per 2′x20′ panel. Solar panels equal to the area of the pool might be ideal, but vinyl solar panels are easy to add so the DIY installer can test the effects of a few panels on pool temperature and pump power before investing in more panels.
Do not expect major increases in temperature – this is unlikely to help make the pool usable in the winter months but may extend the swimming season – most people should be able to get 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit increases using this method with enough hose.
Remember that if you cover the pipe with plastic bottles or a glass sheet, the covering will reflect sunlight, reducing the amount of solar energy gained.
If your system is working correctly, your pipes should be cool to the touch, as this means the solar heat is being harvested and transferred to the water, instead of being released to your hand.
80-81 degrees Fahrenheit is what most people consider a comfortable pool temperature for activity in the pool although some can swim in 70 degrees. 84-85 degrees Fahrenheit is good for most people for relaxing pool usage.
Above-ground pools will lose more heat overnight than in-ground pools (when overnight temperatures drop below the pool water temperature).
The calculations do not cover all factors and are very approximate. They also assume the availability of constant warming sunlight. You may need to adjust for the hours of daylight that fall on the hose.
You may want to mount the hose on a board that can be angled to point more directly towards the sun or leave space between your hoses so they do not cast shadows onto each other, thus allowing a greater angles for the moving sun to strike the hose.
Warnings
Be careful not to let water drain from the hosepipe so that the pump is running ‘dry’ as this will damage the pump. Once water is flowing keep the end of the hose in the pool to prevent this. You might need to fill the pipe with water by connecting it to a tap and then closing off the ends initially before connecting to the pump.
In some cases you may want to mount the hose on a board and attach it to a sun-facing roof. This is not recommended unless you have a suitable low roof (e.g. shed) and/or are skilled at working at roof height.
If you want to use this method for warming water for other purposes note that most garden hoses are not suitable for use with drinking water. You will need to set up a ‘heat exchange’ system or use food-quality hoses.
We think so. Besides the fact that it’s solar and eco-friendly, having a fountain in your water garden keeps any Koi fish you may include – healthy.
Just ask our friends over at Our Backyard Oasis. They’ve recently put together several article “guides” about water gardens, plant selection and Koi.
With this water feature, the solar panel is built in to the lily pad. There’s a 6 volt solar pump, beneath the solar panel that continuously circulates the water up through the center spout which creates an upward spray (of up to 18″.) The water then falls back into the pond or pool with beautiful water sounds!
Solar how to likes to bring you all kinds of tips, tricks, guides, products and ideas that you can use to get going with solar.
…as you watch and listen to water gently cascading down each level, making sweet, soothing sounds as it makes it’s way down to the pool of water in the basin!”
There’s just something almost mystical about the sound and site of water. I truly believe that one could successfully use this gorgeous hand crafted multi-tier antique brown ceramic solar fountain as a prominent form of stress relief. A Water fountain nestled in your favorite garden area makes for the perfect relaxation product.
The best part is that this water fountain is solar and can be used anywhere outdoors because it requires no electricity!
It uses a state of the art solar panel and solar pump technology. Power is supplied to the fountain from natural outdoor sun and light.
It comes with a 10 ft. solar cable so you can place the solar panel in a hidden area that gets plenty of solar gain.
The 6 volt solar pump in the bottom basin continuously circulates the water up to the top pitcher, where the water cascades down the levels into the pool of water in the basin, making sweet, soothing water sounds.
This fountain includes everything you need, is self contained and needs no installation. It will definitely give you many years of soothing joy. No need for any tools or any kind of installation.
Add light to your garden or home at night with solar powered light kits.
It’s quick and easy. Just position the 3 light garden kit however you like. Then position the solar panel to catch the sun during the day so that it can recharge the batteries.
At night, the batteries power three LED spot lights. Position the lights as desired to highlight plants and trees, or attach to your deck to light outdoor seating areas.
Up to 8 to 10 hours operation time on a charge. Photo sensor automatically turns lights on at night and off in the morning. This kit is great for the beginner or novice pro gardener wanting to “go Solar. It’s easy to install and this Kit includes 3 high quality lights and solar panel.
Kit includes ground stakes and lights can also be surface mounted. ABS body with PS clear lenses. External solar panel charges 3 Ni-MH batteries. Lights are 7 1/4″ high, 3 1/2″ wide. Panel is 6 1/2″ high, 5 1/2″ wide.
Outdoor Lighting Tips
How to choose the right size exterior light for your home?
Keep in mind that most consumers purchase lights that are too small for their porch or patio, simply because the lights look bigger in lighting showrooms than they will when installed outside.
The rule of thumb is that fixtures should be approximately one-fourth the size of the entry door. If you’re going to use only one fixture beside a door, then the light should be one-third the size of the door.
Why this large? Well, outdoor fixtures when viewed from the street will look one-half the size they really are. You also want to have an adequate light throw from the outdoor light to properly illuminate your porch or entryway.
For some addition tips and tricks to outdoor lighting you can visit our Backyard oasis friends now.
Solar power has many uses and benefits these days and it is not just limited to the big industry.
…it’s swimming season even though in some parts of the country it doesn’t seem like it due to cooler weather and in our neck of the woods, many rainy days!
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