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You’ve gotta love brilliant people. I have this one friend who designed and set-up a system that uses basic filters and plants to purify the water leftover from his recycled paper-making business.
And then there’s the people who just wake up one morning, scratch their noggins and decide, “I think I’m going to make a solar panel this week.” I just marvel at those people. M. Davis of Arizona did just that.
Ok, so it might have taken him longer than a week, but with some materials scavenged from his garage, some parts sourced through ebay and a touch of brilliance, M. Davis now has solar power.
My first thought when I saw this project was ‘good for him. Too bad I’m not gifted enough to build a schmancy solar panel.’ But M. Davis has taken the time to document how he did it in plain English on his own web site and on Instructables. Plus, you can email him if you have questions!
Based on Davis’ writeup, the skills needed to build a solar panel like this are:
Basic Woodworking Soldering Electronics Wiring
For a seasoned do-it-yourselfer those skills are old hat. But, if you’re just starting out, recruit people you know who have these skills! Building a solar panel like this could save you some good cash. You could either make like M. Davis or hand over $485 CDN to Real Goods for a 62 Watt Solar Module.
Oh, and if this project is to basic for you, try building your own wind turbine. Or better yet, build me a solar panel!
We’ve cheered on the creative and efficient dome home design in recent months, and have now discovered a truly unique variation that’s sure to turn heads. Innovative company Solaleya was spotted at recent West Coast Green Festival by Inhabitat writer Chris Worrall. Solaleya is the creator of the dome house that, wait for it - rotates to follow the sun.
Yes folks, you’ve heard of rotating restaurants and dance floors. Now, you can actually order and live in a house that slowly spins to take advantage of passive solar heating and natural lighting opportunities. The domes come with a remote control allowing you to orient your picture window to the view of your choice.
Framed with FSC-certified wood and insulated with cork, Solaleya’s design presents a number of eco-friendly benefits. Unfortunately, each unit is pre-fabricated in France, requiring that it be shipped overseas to the construction site. But here is a design for living that can respond to the seasonal angle of the sun. That’s an impressive concept by any standard.
Want to be inspired? Check out what Steve and JD accomplished two years ago as they deconstructed and rebuilt their US home in the greenest way possible. Here’s just a sampling of their home’s ecofeatures. The couple:
spared materials from the dump by reusing them in the final product
reused much of the core and shell of the original building
purchased Forest Stewardship Council certified wood
insulated using soy-based spray foam insulation
installed recycled content products
incorporated solar electric and solar water heating technology
…I’ll leave a few surprises so you can enjoy the videos
The videos themselves are really well done, so enjoy!
I’ve thought about the heating system for the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH) for months now. The home will need a very tiny amount of heat because it’s so superinsulated, super sealed, and passize solarized. The computer model that simulates the energy performance of the house (using HOT2000) has the MCNZH using 2500 kWh. That’s roughly 6% of the heat that my renovated (with new insulation and windows) 1950s bungalow uses.
So we’ll need the equivalent of 9 Gigajoules of natural gas per year for space heating. Given that being connected to the natural gas grid costs about $400/year, and 9 GJ are worth $50-$100/year, it makes no sense for us to connect to natural gas. Plus, Canadian natural gas production is waning, so I don’t want to depend on having gas in the pipe in 20-50 years from now.
So we’ll only be connected to the electricity grid. That leaves the following heating options:
1. A Seasonally-charged, Huge Solar Water Tank: This is what Peter Amerongen used for the Riverdal NetZero Project. I’ve eliminated this option. The system ends up being very complex, and I think that it loses too much heat from standby losses whilst waiting for the heating season to come around. Godo Stoyke told me that they modeled 1.5% heat loss per day, given a tank with R100 and heated to 90 degrees C. In the end, the benefit of whatever heat is left over from the summer in December, when you finally need it, doesn’t justify the complexity.
2. Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP): I was pretty set on this option until recently.There’s a new one out that can heat your hot water too (at lower efficiency because domestic hot water needs to get quite a bit hotter than space heating hot water). It is expensive, though. Like $25,000 for a tiny system.
3. Baseboard Heaters On Each Floor And An Electric Instant Hot Water Heater. The big advantage is the heat delivery system is DEAD SIMPLE. The entire system is just so simple. Plus, although I’m not giving up on the concept of true net zero, we will have a wood stove in the home. If we burn 10-20 fires per winter (I know, I know, ground source pollutants - we’ll consider the fact that we don’t drive to be our offset for those), we will be using barely any electricity to heat with.
The question is, then, do we spend $20,000-30,000 on a GSHP that will almost never be used, or use the money to finance more solar electric, which will definitely be producing all summer long, regardless of how many fires we burn.
Know how to trick the sun that’s been beating down on you into doing something useful (besides making you sweat)? I can’t tell you how exactly, but I’d bet money that the dozens of solar experts listed on solarbuzz.com have some pointers for you.
This fantabulous directory includes solar retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers and associations - all catalogued by province for your sun-capturing pleasure.
Conventional electricity production is among the largest industrial sources of carbon dioxide, a primary greenhouse gas linked to climate change. It is also a major source of pollutants including nitric oxide, sulphur dioxide, mercury and particulates that contribute to poor air quality and smog conditions. By choosing renewable electricity sources, Albertans and Ontarians can take action and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. All of Bullfrog Power’s wind sources are certified under the federal government’s Environmental Choice Program EcoLogo standard for renewable electricity. Read the rest of this entry »
For the DIY crowd out there, here’s another way to save energy with the sun. If you like to tool around and ease the guilt that your power-feeding gadgets cause you, check out this Instructables project submission.
It’s minus 34 tonight and the generator just quit. Why did we say no to Hydro?
Anastasia Ledwon
Re-posted with author’s permission
Originally Published by TheTyee.ca
A friend who visited recently calls. “My roommate’s got all the lights on,” she complains over the phone, “and I keep thinking I should be turning off power bars.” I have to laugh; after spending 10 days with me in my off-the-grid house in northern B.C., my friend has become adept at tracking down phantom loads and power drains. Not exactly a big concern in her Vancouver condo with its cost-shared Hydro, but I do what I can to encourage people to conserve.
Not that I set out to be a champion of rugged self-sufficiency. Hydro made it almost a no-brainer. When my ex-partner and I first bought this house, it was wired for 110V and the previous owners had run a large diesel generator for power during waking hours. Deciding this was noisier and more polluting than we’d like, we looked into alternative power sources and compared them with putting in Hydro. Read the rest of this entry »
Have a curiosity about solar power that you’ve never pursued? Now’s your chance to use this fairly simple do it yourself project as a stepping stone to even greater applications while learning the basic calculations and considerations required!
* Note - Instructions will be provided to help you select the appropriate capacity of these components, assess the duty cycle of light, and choose an ideal location for solar-powered light.
Overview
What follows is a brief overview on installing a solar-powered fluorescent light in your home or garage. Each topic touched on is the subject of many articles unto itself, so this should be viewed as a starting point. The project will likely require further research into those aspects where you feel uncertain as to how to proceed. Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re one of the folks who still thinks all solar collectors on the planet are flat, then you have some catching up to do! Get a head start with this simple greenthinkers.org translation. It’s packed full of photos and diagrams, not to mention down-to-Earth explanations of logic behind evacuated solar tube collectors. If you get as excited about them as we did, check out Rebates & Promotions for a listing of current programs to help you afford your own home renewable energy system!
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Choose green for your next reno project.
