Green Power Your Home

What is solar energy? Solar energy is energy that comes from the sun. All energy on this planet, at its very source, comes from the sun, and it is our most abundant energy source. Although solar energy can be collected in many different ways to generate electricity, the most popular method for homeowners is with the basic solar panel or photovoltaic panel.

Wikipedia has a pretty complete description of the mechanisms of a solar cell, but it can be quite technical. Let me just explain it very, very simply here. When sunlight hits the solar cell material (typically the semiconductor silicon), the light creates an electron and hole pair. The electron and hole go in opposite directions, and this creates a voltage, an electrical driving force. Now, if you hook up your house appliances to this voltage, you will be able to drive electrons (electricity) to run your appliance. This is solar energy.

Is making and installing a solar power system easy? Yes! Making and installing solar panels for your home is one of the simplest renewable energy systems you can implement. Many people have experience with this, and once you learn to build one panel, it's easy to scale up your energy generation but just building additional panels. You can get step-by-step instructions on making and installing solar panels. If your house is hooked up to the grid (and most likely it is), you may be able to sell excess power your produce back to the utility company!

What is wind energy? Wind is plentiful and leaves no chemical footprints. It's a great source of energy. When wind blows through a wind turbine, the propellers of the turbine spin, which moves a magnet around through a coil of wire. This creates an electrical current that can be harnessed for your home. Is the area around your home especially windy?

Most wind turbines are very large, but you can make a small one for your balcony. If you build your turbine twice as big, it will generate twice as much energy. If your wind is twice as fast, however, your turbine will generate four times as much energy. Fast wind and big turbine blades are important factors for your wind turbine.

Is building a home wind system easy? There are many types of wind turbine systems you can build for your home. Parts can typically be obtained for under $200 per turbine. And no, not all of the wind turbines are ghastly looking objects poking up from your backyard! Actually, many small wind turbines can be mounted on your roof or balcony, and they work really well in conjunction with your solar panels. This way, you'll have power on both sunny and non-sunny days. Many products provide both step-by-step solar panel directions AND step-by-step wind turbine instructions. Again, once you build one, the next one is much easier.

What is a battery? Simply put, a battery is an energy storage device. There are lots of reasons why in addition to building a solar or wind power system for your home, you might want to consider building some battery systems. With a well maintained battery system, you'll be able to save the excess power you generate when it's extra sunny or windy outside and you're not running the laundry machine. Another possibility is to take the power with you, perhaps when you go camping. Having a battery makes all that renewable energy you generate portable.

Typically, batteries are electrochemical cells, meaning that the chemistry inside the battery is what creates the electricity. In rechargeable batteries, you can run the chemical reaction in the opposite direction so it stores energy. Perhaps one of the most well-known, oft-used, high capacity battery is the lead-acid car battery. These batteries are great but require some basic knowledge of safety to ensure things go smoothly.

How can I build a battery? Well, to tell you the truth, you won't be building a battery. Building the actual battery itself requires some hazardous chemicals and strict safety. Instead, what you can do is purchase batteries and learn to connect them together properly in order to construct a battery system that can save your generated energy. There are also some tips for finding good batteries for cheap, so be sure to read more about building battery power systems for your home.

What is biodiesel? On its most basic level, biodiesel (or biofuel) is diesel fuel made from renewable energy sources, primarily plants and other biomass. Biodiesel is cleaner burning and 100% biodegradable. It is completely blendable with standard petroleum based diesel fuel, which means that you don't have to switch over to biodiesel completely to start saving money. In fact, though biodiesel is cheaper than regular diesel, you get slightly less mileage per gallon so some people prefer mixtures. However, biodiesel is sulfur-free, which is better for the environment and better for you vehicle or home heating system. Some people have even reported increased performance of their vehicle because the biodiesel helped clean the system!

If you have something that runs on diesel now, you're ready to use biodiesel. There's no need to convert your engine or anything like that in order to start using biodiesel. However, you'll have to check some of your gaskets and hoses, though. The solvent in biodiesel may be incompatible with them. Check this FAQ from Triangle Biofuels Industries to learn more details.

Is making biodiesel easy? Making biodiesel is quite easy! The whole premise is based on a process called transesterification of vegetable waste oil or other deep fry waste oil. To "transesterify" your vegetable oil, you need to mix a premeasured amount of base (lye + methanol) into your vat of oil, heat it, then wait a few days for the glycerin byproduct to settle at the bottom. You biofuel is now floating on top and you can use this to power your vehicles. While you could buy many biodiesel kits that sell complete equipment setups for several thousand dollars, it is completely possible to build your own safe, biodiesel setup based on instructions from experts. Then, you will be able to scale it for your home needs.