Hi Guys,

I hope that you’ve all had a really great day.

Up to now we have looked at various aspects of renewable home energy solution, however there is a crucial element that we haven’t looked at yet: Energy Storage.

Most home energy solutions operate within a just-in-time system framework; that is during the day their solar panels and wind turbines produce electricity and any surplus produced is pushed back into the grid. At night, their reduced electricity production often forces them to draw electricity from the grid.

At best you consume as much as you produce and if you use more than you produce you still have you still have reduced electricity bills.

Although we are going to concentrate on photovoltaic cells for solar energy and wind turbines for home energy solutions I believe that if you have the space then it is advisable to store some of the energy you produce.

Without storage, you operate within a “just-in-time” framework that is not only dependent on your variable end-use demands, but you are also completely at the mercy of one of the most uncontrollable variables known to us: the weather. After all wind turbines are useful only when the wind blows and photovoltaic panels work only when the sun is shining. Energy storage is therefore needed to store surplus electricity produced at times of low demand.

To date cost-effective energy storage has been the orphan stepchild of alternative energy even though energy storage is a core enabling technology for many classes of alternative energy. Because of this power storage has been a key constraint in preventing the widespread adoption and use of solar and wind energy in general.

The trouble is that the period during which energy is generate from renewable sources, cannot always be matched to the time of demand. This leads to volatility in your supply and reduced reliability and stability. Energy storage systems are therefore an integral part of any renewable energy system especially if you go off grid.

Energy storage must consider both the amount of energy that can be stored (energy density of the material) and the efficiency at which it can be recovered.

Short duration storage technologies are frequently more important than long duration systems. In general, technologies that can store huge amounts of energy are not particularly good at releasing it quickly and technologies that can deliver energy quickly are not particularly good at releasing huge amounts of energy.

When an energy storage system is used you get stability within the electrical system and the quality of the voltage supplied will be considerably higher than under a just-in-time system.

From a user point of view there are both technical and commercial criteria for selecting the most suitable technology. This does not stop there though; because when one considers an electricity storage system one has to balance the technical with the economics and each case needs to be looked at individually. It ultimately all boils down to a return on your investment.

As far as energy storage goes conventional, commercially available lead-acid batteries have a very high-energy efficiency and all other energy storage technologies have to compete with this.

Batteries are the most expensive item in renewable home energy systems when considering the system’s total lifetime costs; and there are big variations in battery lifetime in different installations.

Rechargeable batteries or accumulators are the oldest form of electricity storage and are widely used. However, progress in battery technology has been slow.

Batteries can respond to changes in power demand within microseconds. Only super-capacitors equal such a response time. Batteries usually have very low standby losses and can have high energy efficiency, depending on the application and the details of the operation.

Most batteries contain toxic materials, hence the ecological impact from uncontrolled disposal of batteries must always be considered. Because of this current battery research focuses on new and improved materials and manufacturing processes, as well as on their operating conditions.

Ultimately the choice is yours on whether you operate a just-in-time energy system or whether you integrate an energy storage system into your home energy system.

One could start with a just-in-time system and gradually incorporate a energy storage system gradually to your home energy system with some the money you save on your electrical bill.

As always, I wish you everything I wish for myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home enegy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product

Hi Guys,

I hope that you are having a good day.

Ultimately everything boils down to MONEY. Can you afford a renewable energy system for your home? Are you wasting your money by installing a renewable energy system?

Your perception of cost and the reasons you would like to install a renewable home energy system will also determine your decision on whether or not you will install a renewable home energy system.

The first thing you need to do when considering installing a renewable energy system, be it a ground source heat pump, solar panels, a solar hot water system or a wind power generator, is to find out whether your home is suitable for such a system.

Once you have determined that your house is suitable for a renewable energy system, you must find out whether you will be allowed to install such a system by your local planning regulations and whether you will get planning permission to do so.

Assuming that your house is suitable for a renewable energy system and that you will be able to get planning permission then you can either build your own renewable energy system or get the system professionally installed.

A local energy company was recently advertising their renewable electricity generating system i.e. solar panels. They were also advertising a solar hot water system.

I decided to investigate and went onto their website to get further information. I must say that they did provide quite a bit of useful information – enough for one to make an informed choice if you put in a bit of effort to calculate your return on investment.

They will install an electricity generating system i.e. solar panel system that could provide up to 40% of your energy needs. However, this is based on using a standard 2.08 kWp installation generating 1768 kWh/year with a typical home energy consumption of 3300 kWh/year. They also include a rider that the output will vary.

Prices for the system starts at £10,995.00 and include fully installed 16 photovoltaic panels, inverter, cabling and fittings.

This led me to take a look at my electricity consumption and that came to 6953 kWh/year. More than double their typical home energy consumption.

(Interestingly enough my electricity consumption is only 58% of the approximate 12000 kWh/year that the average American household uses and less than 4% of the 191000 kWh/year that Saint Al Gore uses.)

The question is, if I were to invest in the above mentioned system, what would the return on my capital be?

The above mentioned system will only provide me with 25.4% of my electricity requirement. The 6953 kWh cost me £877.78. Therefore the above mentioned system will save me £223.20/year.

The break even point for the return on my capital, assuming a 0% interest rate, is £10,995.00/£223.20 = 49.26 years.

However if you were to borrow the money at 5% interest repayable over 5 years to finance the installation of the above mentioned system the break even point would be £10,995.00*(1.05)^5/£223.20 = 62.64 years.

Now, bearing in mind that your solar panels have a 25 years life expectancy, I don’t think that the above is good value for money.

The starting price for the solar hot water system was £4,939.00. Interestingly enough, they do not mention the energy saving provided by the solar hot water system. They only state that you may not need to run your boiler in the summer to heat your water.

They also keep including percentage energy carbon saving which as far as I am concerned is meaningless. People dealing in the so called carbon trading scams and governments wanting to tax us more than we already are, would be interested in those figures.

It is well known that so called professionally installed system will always cost considerably more than DIY systems. Buy building your own system you can save a really tidy sum of money.

If you wanted to build your own solar energy system, there are quite a few good publications such as The Solar Electricity Handbook 2009: A Simple, Practical Guide to Using Electric Solar Panels and Designing and Installing Photovoltaic Solar Pv Systems that will provide you with all the information you need to build and install your own system.

Save on your energy bills by generating your own power at home with solar and wind energy to reduce or eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at DIY Power System

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home energy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product

Hi Guys,

I hope that you have had a good day.

For me it is all about numbers. I want to know what something is going to cost me, its life expectancy, the return on my investment and maintenance cost if any.

I also would like to know how long it is going to take to do the work. And as labor is a considerable component I would like to know whether I can do some if not all the work myself.

When installing a renewable energy system on my property, I would like a relatively quick return on my investment.

I for one am skeptical of figures quoted for the installation of various ‘green’ systems and I am even more skeptical of the type of return on investment quoted by those with a vested interest in promoting those systems.

I think that it would help if the renewable energy industry was a lot more transparent than it is at the moment. Getting an idea of the cost for various components is not that easy. However, with a bit of patience, you can obtain some indication of price by trawling through various websites.

It would appear that some of the renewable energy companies use the same business model as that used by double glazing companies’ i.e. getting a pushy salesman or woman into your home to best ‘advice’ you on the ‘right’ product for you and prepare a quote for the system you are interested in.

I was talking to a friend of mine over the weekend and he told me about another friend of his who had installed a ground source heat pump at his property.

Now unless I was constructing a new house or planning to landscape my garden this is not something I would consider doing. However, I digress. During our discussion the talk turned to what the return on their investment was going to be. Apparently the break even point for the return on their investment for the ground source heat pump system installed on his friend’s property was 35-years.

I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned, that is not a viable return on investment at all, especially when the system’s life is estimated at 25-years for internal components and 50+ years for the ground loop.

Save on your energy bills by generating your own power at home with solar and wind energy to reduce or eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at DIY Power System

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home enegy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product

Hi Guys,

I hope that you have had a good day.

With all the advances in renewable energy technology, it has become easier to start converting your home into a renewable energy home. A renewable energy home utilizes renewable resources to provide electricity, hot water, heat and peace of mind. A peace of mind that comes from the knowledge that even though energy prices keep rising, yours won’t.

There are several ways to implement your renewable energy home plan. The first is through solar energy. In a renewable energy home you can install solar hot water panels which heat and store water for use and you can also install solar panels, which use photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity.

Both these solar systems can be pricey if you purchase them through and have them installed by a professional. Fortunately for us there are many great resources available to build your own solar panels and solar hot water systems that can reduce the cost greatly. For some professionally installed systems over half of the cost is labor costs.

If you are about to start building your own house, a great way to make it a ‘green’ energy home is through the implementation of passive solar design. The passive solar elements have to be planned for during the design stages because it is difficult to add any of these elements during construction or after the house has been constructed.

Passive solar takes advantage of the south facing (if you live in the northern hemisphere) sides of the house for heating and cooling. By installing lots of highly efficient windows and heat retaining bricks and stone on your south facing areas and awnings, you are taking advantage of passive solar techniques to develop your green energy home.

Another addition to the green energy home would be a windmill. Windmills are used to generate electricity from the wind. Windmills can be installed on rooftops or in yards and offer pollution free electric. Windmills can be purchased from retailers or there are a wide variety of affordable kits available for the motivated do-it-yourselfers to handle the implementation of their own green energy home plans. However a word of caution, even though governments try talking the talk, they don’t often walk the walk. Planing regulations may prohibit you from installing a windmill in your property or rooftop.

If you lucky enough to have a stream, with a reasonable flow of water, on your property, you could add to the efficiency of your green energy home with a small hydroelectric power system. This is also a great pollution free option that is easy to maintain and works as long as there is water available.

The ultimate green energy home combines as many of these resources. By using wind, water and solar to generate electricity you are looking not only at huge savings and possible profits from your electricity usage, but you would truly be ‘green’ as each of these options contributes allowing you to go off grid. To further combine passive solar design and solar hot water systems, you are reducing your energy needs exponentially and truly living the dream of going green.

A ‘green’ or renewable energy home doesn’t require more maintenance than traditional homes. Solar technologies require little to no maintenance and wind and water turbines require only regular oiling for peak performance. There is no better time to create your ‘green’ energy home and start living your ‘green’ dream.

Save on your energy bills by generating your own power at home with solar and wind energy to reduce or eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at DIY Power System

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home energy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product

Hi Guys,

Today I’m not going to talk about renewable home energy solutions but I’m going to post an article about a subject that I think involves everybody – the great global warming scam.

For me renewable home energy solutions is about freedom. My freedom to do what I want with my money. If I can generate my own electricity, heat my home in the winter and cool my home in the summer without having to pay ever increasing energy costs (including hidden taxes to pay for so called green energy) then I will have achieved my goals.

Here is the article by Gary North.

It’s Not Just That Global Warming Is Fake. What Matters Is Why This Fakery Is Being Promoted.
Gary North

July 3, 2009

Global warming is based 100% on junk science. The most vocal promoters are not interested in the details of physical science. They are interested in two things: political control over the general public and the establishment of international socialism.

Junk Science vs. Real Science

For a detailed, footnoted, 12-page article, written by three scientists, two with Ph.D’s from CalTech. , Click here

This paper was sent to tens of thousands of natural scientists in the United States.

Over 31,000 scientists have put their reputations on the line and signed a politically incorrect petition opposing the 1997 Kyoto agreement or protocol. Here is a photocopy of a signed petition.

Here is a letter from a former president of the National Academy of Sciences. He asks recipients of the petition to sign it.

Back in the 1970′s, the bugaboo was the coming ice age, as this Time Magazine article promoted. Not to be outdone, Newsweek got on board. The article warned: “Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects.” Want more examples? Click here.

It, too, was based on junk science. It, too, had the same solution: government control over the economy. The goal never changes: government management over the economy. The justification has changed. If the voters won’t accept control over their lives on the basis of one brand of junk science, maybe they will accept another. As they used to say in the Nixon Administration: “Let’s run this up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes.”

Socialism’s Last Stand

The global warming movement is not about global warming. It is about the creation of an international political control arrangement by which bureaucrats who favor socialism can gain control over the international economy.

This strategy was stated boldly by economist Robert Heilbroner in 1990. Heilbroner, the multi-millionaire socialist and author of the best-selling history of economic thought, The Worldly Philosophers, wrote the manifesto for these bureaucrats. He did this in an article, “Reflections: After Communism,” published by The New Yorker (Sept. 10, 1990).

In this article, he made an astounding admission. He said that Ludwig von Mises had been right in 1920 in his article, ”Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth”. Mises argued that without private ownership, central planners could not know what any resource is worth to consumers. With no capital market, the planners would be flying blind.

Heilbroner said that for 70 years, academic economists had either ignored this article or dismissed it without answering it. Then Heilbroner wrote these words: “Mises was right.”

Heilbroner was one of these people. There is no reference to Mises in The Worldly Philosophers.

This admission was the preliminary section of Heilbroner’s manifesto. He was cutting off all hope by socialists that there is a theoretically plausible response to Mises. The free market economy will always outproduce a socialist economy. Get used to it, he said.

Then, in the second section, he called on his socialist peers to get behind the ecology movement. Here, he said, is the best political means for promoting central planning, despite its inefficiency. In the name of ecology, he said, socialists can get a hearing from politicians and voters.


The article is not online. An abstract is. Here is the concluding thought of the abstract.

The direction in which things are headed is some version of capitalism, whatever its title. In Eastern Europe, the new system is referred to as Not Socialism. Socialism may not continue as an important force now that Communism is finished. But another way of looking at socialism is as the society that must emerge if humanity is to cope with the ecological burden that economic growth is placing on the environment. From this perspective, the long vista after Communism leads through capitalism into a still unexplored world that roust [must?] be safely attained and settled before it can be named.

Heilbroner did not care that a worldwide government-run economic planning system would not be called called socialism. He just wanted to see the system set up.

Heilbroner’s peers got the message. That was what Kyoto was all about.

Conclusion

If you like poverty, inefficiency, and bureaucratic controls over the economy, and therefore control over your choices, the “climate change” movement is ideal.

If you want to subsidize China and India, neither of which will enforce the rules laid down by unelected international bureaucrats, this movement is for you.


If you want to pay more for less energy , there is no better way than to pass the cap and tax bill which the House has passed. It will be sent to the U.S. Senate next week.

The rest of us should oppose it.

I hereby authorize anyone to reprint this article or post it on any website, just so long as the text is not changed.

© 2005-2009 GaryNorth.Com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without permission prohibited.

I hope that I’ve given you something to think about.

Save on your energy bills by generating your own power at home with solar and wind energy to reduce or eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at DIY Power System

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Yours in freedom.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home enegy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product

Hi Guys,

I hope that you have had a good day.

As follow up to my previous two posts here are some more ways to reduce our energy consumption.

Remember every reduction has to pay for itself in the long run and that every reduction in my energy consumption that I can make reduces my future energy storage requirements when I finally go off grid.

And so without any further ado lets get on with it.

Today we are going to talk about keeping temperature loss to a minimum as well as temperature control.

Thermostatic Radiator Valves

Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) have to be fitted by Law on all new systems. TRV’s are cheap to buy and simple for a plumber to fit. The valves will soon pay for themselves in savings made on heating costs.

TRV’s let you control the temperature of individual rooms, so each room can be it’s optimal temperature and no more. TRV’s can sense the air temperature around them and regulate the flow of hot water entering the radiators to keep a set temperature within a room. They do not control the boiler – your thermostat does that.

They can help you save money and energy by allowing lower temperatures in some rooms than in others, and to provide background heating in rooms that are not used regularly or to even turn off the heating in rooms that aren’t used.

TRV’s, in the main, cannot turn off the boiler when the whole house has reached the right temperature. A room thermostat is normally used to control the boiler.

Radiators in the room containing the room thermostat do not normally have TRVs. But if they do, you should keep the TRVs on their highest possible settings, and set the room thermostat to the required temperature instead.

Prices for TRV’s, including VAT, vary between £9.00 to £23.00 per valve. And unless you can do the job yourself you will have to include the cost of a plumber.

Reflective Radiator Panels

Did you know that we loose nearly 70% of a radiator’s heat on warming the wall behind it. Reflective radiator panels are an ideal solution to help you to reduce your heating bills.

Reflective radiator panels consist of reflective material installed behind radiators to reduce heat loss through external walls. They generally come in two forms; rolls of foam approximately 3mm thick with a metallic film or more rigid profiled units shaped to provide turbulence to push air into the room rather than be absorbed into exterior walls.

If you have uninsulated exterior walls, the heat that would otherwise be lost through the walls, will be conserved within the property and will subsequently reduce your energy requirement.

The rolls of thin foam with a metallic coating need to be fitted with the radiator off the wall. The more rigid profiled variety can be fitted with the radiator in-situ. The panels are most effective when fitted behind radiators that are mounted on un-insulated external walls.

Each panel is 688mm high x 444mm wide. In general a standard sized radiator will require two panels. A pack of 10-panels will set you back approximately £40.00.

Homemade Fuel

An open fire is something I really enjoy during a cold winters evening. There is something magical in a fire, the red glow of embers, the crackling of the wood as it burns and a glass of wine.

A great way to quickly turn a portion of your household and garden waste into free fuel for your open fire or wood burning stove is through using a Logmaker. The Logmaker will produce compact newspaper encased logs in minutes. These can easily burn for up to 1-hour depending on their content.

You can turn up to 30% of your household waste and most of your garden waste into homemade fuel using the Logmaker. These include shredded paper, ripped up junk mail, ripped cardboard such as: cereal packets, egg boxes, toilet roll tubes (rip into small pieces first), teabags, nut shells, wood shavings and sawdust, dried leaves and twigs). The logmaker helps you recycle your waste while producing free bio-fuel for your fireplace.

A Logmaker will set you back an approximate £20.00.

Chimney Balloons

In winter, open chimneys, when not in use are a source of heat loss. A quick and effective way of reducing this heat loss is through the use of a chimney balloon.

Chimney balloons are a simple and effective way of blocking chimneys when not in use.

A room with a blocked chimney needs only about half the heat when compared with a similar room with an open chimney, so it makes sense to fit a chimney balloon in every chimney which is not in everyday use.

The balloon effectively stops cold draughts coming down your chimney and warm air escaping up your chimney.

The balloons are made in a special laminate to make them airtight, tear-resistant and long-lasting. It also has a special shape that allows a little ventilation on two corners to keep your chimney dry.

Using a chimney balloon is completely safe: if it is accidentally heated, it shrivels and deflates.

The cost of a chimney baloon is approximately £20.00

Loft Insulation

Loft insulation decreases the amount of heat escaping through the roof. It acts as a blanket, trapping rising heat from the house below. Without it, you could be losing as much as 15% of your heating costs through your roof. If you currently have no insulation and you install the recommended depth (270mm for mineral wool) you could save around £205 a year on your heating bills.

Installing loft insulation is relatively quick, clean and free or inexpensive to install. You can easily save money on a professional installation by doing it yourself.

It’s never been more important to think about insulating your loft. Without proper insulation a lot of the valuable, expensive energy you use to heat your home will be lost through the loft. The recommended depth for mineral wool insulation is 270mm however there are other materials which require different depths.

In fact, by not insulating your loft you could be wasting as much as 15% of your heating costs.

Loft insulation is an effective way to save energy and money at home. A well insulated house keeps warmth exactly where you need it – indoors.

So, insulating your loft – or topping up any insulation you have already – will help to heat your home more efficiently. By using less energy you automatically reduces save money on your heating bills.

Loft insulation is effective for at least 40 years, and it will pay for itself over and over again in that time. The better insulated your home, the less energy you need to keep it warm – the more money you’ll save in the long run.

Loft insulation generally comes in three types – blown material (mineral wool or cellulose fibre), mineral wool quilt, and loose fill. A specialist contractor must install blown material, but installing mineral wool quilt or loose fill is fairly easy to do yourself.

Spray applied foam insulation normally exceeds U-values (also known as the U-factor or coefficient of heat transmission, which is a measure of the rate of non-solar heat loss or gain through a material or assembly) and air leakages targets, is very cost effective and can can provides additional strength to your roof and increased sound insulation. Prices vary greatly between companies carrying out spray applied foam insulation. However, if you go the DIY route the lowest price I could find after a limited search was around £5.00 per meter.

Multi Foil Insulation products comprise a series of extremely thin low emissivity, metallic or metalized films inter layered with low thermal conductivity wadding, or foam of various types. The various layers are then welded, glued or, more usually, sewn together to form an insulating blanket. These include extruded polystyrene (XPS), expanded polystyrene (EPS), polyurethane (PUR), polyisocyanurate (PIR), multi-foil insulation and glass and rock fiber. The prices of multi foil insulation is approximately £5.00 per m2.

Glasswool, or glass mineral wool for thermal and acoustic insulation is manufactured from sand, lime and soda ash, with recycled glass added. Glass mineral wool is one of the most environmentally friendly, stable and sustainable insulants available. Its raw material is silica sand, the earth’s most abundantly occurring natural material. The prices of 270mm of Glasswool loft insulation comes to approximately £7.25 per m2.

Sheepswool insulation has a unique advantage, its breathability. That is it’s ability to absorb and release moisture from the surrounding air, without compromising it’s thermal efficiency. When wool fibres absorbs moisture, they generate tiny amounts of heat. This warmth acts to prevent condensation in construction cavities by maintaining the temperature above the dew-point in damp conditions. The prices of sheepswool varies considerably from approximately £6.30 per m2 to £14.50 per m2.

However when comparing loft insulation it is a bit like comparing apples with oranges. It is up to you to do your due diligence and decide what you want to spend to achieve a thermal conductivity value equal to, or better than, the recommended depth of 270mm for mineral wool.

In the UK, when comparing the thermal values of insulating materials i.e. U-values, U-factor or coefficient of heat transmission, it is important to remember that the best performing material is the one with the lowest thermal conductivity value

Draft proofing

If you can feel cold air coming in around the windows in your home it means warm air is escaping. In a typical home this heat loss can accounts for up to 20% of the total heat lost.

Draft proofing is an easy DIY task. Simply fill the gaps and use draft excluders for your external doors thereby decreasing the amount of cold air entering your home.

By draft proofing your home you could save around £30 a year on your heating bills.

I hope that I’ve given you something to think about. As I’ve said before, if your home consumes less energy you will be able to reduce the amount of energy you have to generate as well as store.

Save on your energy bills by generating your own power at home with solar and wind energy to reduce or eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at DIY Power System

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home enegy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product

Hi Guys,

I hope that you have had a good day.

I did not include lighting as a way of cutting down on your energy consumption in my previous post as I felt that it was best to look at it as a subject on its own.

Lets face it if you are planning a new build you would be looking at day lighting, sunpipes and rooflights. Measures to bring in as much natural light into your home.

You will also be looking at the function of each room in the house as each has its own particular lighting need or requirement.

You would consider: -

• The general lighting of a room;
• Localised or task lighting i.e. concentrated light for activities such as reading, sowing and cooking
• Accent or mood lighting to create atmosphere or to focus attention on certain objects or areas;
• The type of lighting best suited for the task;
• The type of light bulbs required for the job; and
• The energy requirement for the lighting.

Light bulbs:

What can I say about light bulbs without opening a can of worms?

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post I have installed LED light bulbs in some areas of the house. I have also replaced some 60W incandescent light bulbs with 11W energy saving light bulbs. However the energy saving light bulbs come with all sorts of restrictions one of which is that it cannot be used with a dimmer switch. I also have a compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb in one room. CFL’s are being pushed as the lifesaver when it comes to saving energy.

I find myself at odds with governmental policies to ban the energy-inefficient but electro-magnetically clean incandescent bulb in favor of the energy saving light bulbs, CFL’s and LED’s. Surely it should be up to you to choose what you use. But then we live in democracies don’t we?

If energy-inefficient but electro-magnetically clean incandescent bulbs are to be banned surely they should also ban light bulbs that produce radio frequency pollution and high frequency radiation.

Some CFL packages have a warning about the radio frequency pollution of these lights saying that the light may interfere with radio reception.

This is something that you can test with a portable radio on AM. As you bring the radio close to an energy efficient bulb that produces radio frequencies the radio will begin to buzz. This electromagnetic interference (EMI) will be of concern to anyone using wireless technologies such as mobiles or wireless computers.

CFL’s have also been found to produce high frequency radiation, which travels around household electrical systems and causes radiation throughout homes (and other premises). Because the high frequencies travel along the wire you can can also be exposed to them in other rooms of your home including the room that contains the CFL.

However, the real problem is that these frequencies are making people ill. Three independent organization in the UK that include the British Association of Dermatologists, the Migraine Action Association, and Epilepsy Action, have all reported illness among their members who have tried CFL’s. The most common symptoms are headaches, including migraines, fatigue, confusion, dizziness, ringing in the ears, eyestrain, nausea and skin irritations.

Not only do we have human health problems associated with exposure to these compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)there is also the environmental problems these bulbs pose due to to the fact that they contain mercury, a neurotoxin that can cause kidney and brain damage.

As long as the mercury is contained in the bulb, CFLs are safe from the environmental aspect. But eventually, any bulbs – even CFLs break or burn out and most consumers simply throw them out in the rubbish where they will end up in landfills and this poses a huge threat to the environment

And its just too bad if you should accidentally break one these new eco-bulbs. One study in the USA found that “immediately after the bulb was broken – and sometimes even after a cleanup was attempted – levels of mercury vapor exceeded federal guidelines for chronic exposure by as much as 100 times.

So much for eco-bulbs. Obviously those legislating are unaware of the ecological and environmental problems associated with these bulbs or they are part and parcel of the climate-industrial complex and care more about money than the lives and environment of those that they represent.

This is not to say that you should reject CFL’s out of hand but rather be aware of the risks associated with some of these light bulbs.

After all, not all energy efficient bulbs are the same. They do not all contribute to dirty electricity and produce radio frequencies. Those that don’t include some CFL’s, some LED’s and some halogen bulbs.

Unfortunately a considerable number of bulbs on the market will make people sick.

So before replacing your old incandescent bulbs for energy saving ones consider your lighting requirements and spend a bit of time reading about the replacement bulbs you want to use and before buying the product read what it says on the box.

I hope that I’ve given you something to think about.

Save on your energy bills by generating your own power at home with solar and wind energy to reduce or eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at DIY Power System

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home enegy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product

Hi Guys,

I hope that you have had a good day.

If you are like me you probably would like to reduce the size of your energy bills. After all the less energy we consume the less we pay.

However there is also another reason I would like to reduce my energy consumption and that is to reduce my energy storage requirements when I finally go off the grid.

And so today I would like to discuss ways to reduce our energy consumption.

The world is faced with an energy crisis now and none of us remain unaffected anymore. I personally think that this crisis is artificial in order to force up the prices of energy and to exert control over us.

I don’t think that we can expect anything from governments expect lip service. Government is more often than not part of the problem; for instance to tax component for a litre of diesel in the UK is 65%. The higher the price per litre of fuel the more money enters government coffers.

Ultimately it is up to us to do something to reduce our energy needs and to generate our own energy to power our homes.

It costs me on average £45.00 to fill up my car on a weekly basis. This means that my weekly contribution to government coffers is £29.25, which comes to £351.00. With three cars at home, as a family we contribute around £1053.00 to government coffers to get to work.

Once electric cars have become efficient and are able to travel longer distances than they can at present without the need for constant charging and no longer cost the earth, I will definitely get one. Who knows we may even have cars that recharge themselves with solar cells incorporated in the body of the car.

But what happens to our energy tax contribution to government coffers if this were the case. It probably explains their plan to try to charge us for every mile we drive instead of charging us road tax.

So what can we do, if anything, to reduce our current level of energy requirements?

There are some relatively easy steps can be taken to reduce our energy needs. However, we do need to consider the benefit of carrying out such energy saving measures. After all what good are they to you if you land up paying more than what you are already paying.

One must balance the cost to benefit requirements for each element of our energy reduction programme.

Quite a few cost saving measures mentioned below are associated to standby power. Standby power is also known as vampire power, vampire draw, phantom load, or leaking electricity, and refers to electric power consumed by electronic appliances while they are switched off or in a standby mode.

So let us look at how you can save power at home.

Computers:

At the vary least you should set the power settings on your computer to automatically go into Sleep or Standby mode after 15 minutes or so of inactivity.

Turn your computer and its monitor off when you’re done for the day.

If you use a desktop, use an LCD monitor. They use lots less energy than CRT’s.

You could always use a power strip so you can easily turn off all your computer accessories at once.

I personally turn off my laptop along with all accessories off at the wall switch when I’m done for the day. As everything is connected together through a power strip I know that everything is switched off at the same time.

Air Conditioner:

Set the temperature at the maximum or minimum you are comfortable with, depending on the season. The operative word here is comfortable.

Try not to set it at too high or too low temperatures. In our house I’ve got to keep checking the thermostat as our teenager keep changing the temperature settings.

Setting the air conditioner at reasonable temperatures helps save a lot of energy.

Unfortunately for me, I’ve got to keep checking our thermostat as our teenagers keep changing the temperature levels to what they feel is right for them.

Washing Machines:

Minimize the number of washes by washing full load of clothes every time. Also, if washing machine packs up you could buy a new machine with a better energy rating than your old one had.

You could also try to wash your clothing at a lower temperature setting or on a reduced wash cycle.

Television:

Switch off your television at the wall plug when not in use. Take off the power plug of your television set when not using it. This may not sound a big deal but this tiny step will help save power.

Power adapters:

Power adapters are very common “electricity vampires” as they have no power-off switches. These include mobile telephone chargers, electric toothbrush chargers and the like. I am quite sure that you may have touched one of these adapters when not in use and discovered that it was warm to the touch. Switch them off at the wall plug. Better yet, keep them unplugged until you need them.

Geysers:

Keep the geyser thermostat at the minimum heat. You do not need to heat the water at a very high temperature or for too long.

Refrigerators and freezers:

Bring hot food to room temperatures before putting it into the refrigerator. You can also save power by taking cold or frozen food out of the refrigerator much before the mealtime, thereby saving power in heating it.

Car:

For an air-conditioner equipped car, pull up the windows of your car before switching on the air-conditioner.

Save on your energy bills by generating your own power at home with solar and wind energy to reduce or eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at DIY Power System

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home enegy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product

Hi Guys,

I hope that you have had a good day.

As you know I am dead set against many of the policies forced upon us by the climate-industrial complex / environmentalist movement.

I am all for having real open debates about real issues. I believe in the dissemination of scientific information to all people. Only through the dissemination of real information and thoughts can we progress. Wouldn’t it be great if the efficiencies of renewable energy were improved exponentially in the same way that computing power was improved? Think what this would mean to society.

However I believe that there is one group of people that will ultimately stand in our way – the climate-industrial complex.

You know that the global warming / climate change scammers are loosing the battle as their tactics become ever more desperate. The problem with these shills is that they do not have any hard science to back up global warming / climate change. After all climate change has always been with us.

The global warmist changed tact and started talking about climate change once they felt that they were loosing the argument. In fact they do not want to debate or present hard facts to get their points across. Their so-called facts have been refuted time and time again by real scientists. Their tricks and darn right lies exposed for what they are. Global warming was always a pseudo science. A dogma presented by the climate-industrial complex to scam us out of even more money.

As the so-called science behind man-made global warming utterly collapses, many of the biggest promoters of the theory along with environmental activists are growing increasingly desperate.

When they started seeing that their enterprise was floundering they resorted to intimidation, threats and censorship. They tried to shut down all debate and threatened those who disagree with them.

Here’s a bunch of quotes / threats emanating from global warming / climate change scammers:

‘At what point do we jail or execute global warming deniers’ – Talking Point Memo

“An entire generation will soon be ready to strangle you and your kind while you sleep in your beds”

“high crimes against humanity”

“This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors”

And there were calls for

government leaders skeptical of global warming to be thrown “into jail.”

And

for Nuremberg-Style trials for skeptics

Climate blasphemy

Really! Does this mean that global warming / climate change is a religion now?

UN official warns ignoring warming would be ‘criminally irresponsible’

‘Internet should be nationalized as a public utility’ to combat global warming skepticism’

U.N. official says it’s ‘completely immoral’ to doubt global warming fears

Former US Vice President Al Gore compared global warming skeptics to people who ‘believe the moon landing was actually staged in a movie lot in Arizona’

UK environment secretary David Miliband said ‘those who deny [climate change] are the flat-Earthers of the twenty-first century’

Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics

These are but a small sample of threats and intimidation emanating from the climate-industrial complex.

Do they sound like rational people? I think not. If anything they give an indication of the dictatorial tendencies of the climate-industrial complex and a disregard for basic human rights.

If they were only trying to scam us out of yet more of our income and cost was the only issue here, it might be just irritating, but there is something far more sinister going on, something that attacks the very heart of our status as free-thinking individuals, and our ability to progress as a society.

Now is the time to start protecting yourself against the climate-industrial complex by generating your own power at home with solar and wind energy to reduce or eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at DIY Power System

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home enegy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product