Archive for the ‘hot water heaters’ tag

Alternative Energy Sources to Help You Go Green

The need for alternative energy sources is nothing new but in this present time, the need is urgent on a global level. People and governments are reeling from the impact of the startling rise in energy costs and alarmed at the many dangers posed by environmental problems.

Across history, we have seen change in the kinds of energies used. As early as the 1200s, people swapped wood for coal as deforestation occurred locally. 300 years later, societies then depended on petroleum after depleting the supply of whale oil used to fuel lamps. In the early 1900s, corn-based ethanol oil supplied the demand for energy.

When the world started to run on wheels and navigate the skies and seas, the need for fuel increased, eventually drying up local oil wells. As a result, the US turned to importing oil to keep transportation, industry, and domestic needs moving, eventually relying so heavily on foreign oil that 58% of its supply is now imported.

According to the latest statistics from the US government, global energy consumption is still increasing and by 2030, it’s expected that the world will require 700 quadrillion BTU in order to keep running.

Switch or Stay?

Besides the depletion of our natural energy resources, across the globe, people are also feeling the effects of the increasing cost of electricity and the rising cost of living expenses. On the home front, this poses a dilemma, as family needs are a priority, and electricity certainly qualifies as a basic need.

So what are the alternatives to providing the basics, yet still offer affordability?

As a result, many people are seeing “green”. The green movement is tapping alternative energy sources instead of relying too much on utility companies for energy needs. Alternative sources of energy provide renewable sources for your electricity needs at the fraction of the cost of utility-supplied energy.

The switch to alternative sources of energy will take time to put into action across the country but as the energy landscape changes, more homes and industries will be using alternative energy. likely triggering the decline of over-dependence on imported oil. This will be good for economies dependent on expensive imported oil, like the United States.

These are very good reasons for evaluating alternative energy sources NOW.

To get started, assess which alternative source of energy is best for your needs – solar, geothermal or wind energy options.

Popular Forms of Alternative Energy Sources

Solar energy is a favorite renewable energy alternative for domestic energy. This option uses photovoltaic technology to convert sunlight into electrical energy. Solar panels alone produce hot water and steam. Combined, these technologies provide optimum energy to power homes. Solar energy has very low levels of carbon dioxide emissions compared to gasoline emissions of the same chemical compound that is partly to blame for climate change.

For geothermal energy, the earth’s heat is tapped to supply energy needs. To trap this energy, holes are drilled deep to the level where a potential geothermal heat spot is present. The escaping steam is directed into a turbine linked to a running generator, which converts steam to electricity. This is the preferred method for large industry and utility companies.

The homeowner, however, need not dig so far to enjoy the benefits of geothermal energy. The geothermal heat pump uses the stable ground temperature a few hundred feet under the ground to provide you with heat and air conditioning. It can also provide you with hot water.

Wind energy is converted to electricity with the use of wind turbines. Wind power produces a minimal 1.5 per cent of the world’s electricity. Currently, this is a popular alternative energy source in Denmark, Germany, Spain and Portugal.

Choosing Your Alternative Energy Source

Keep in mind that it is not cheap to install solar panels or invest in geothermal or wind energy – it will depend too on the volume of electricity you need to power your home – but the rewards later on will last a lifetime. You may also be eligible for a federal tax credit, if you’re a US resident, but many governments around the world are offering incentives to residents to convert to renewable energy sources.

Talk to alternative energy merchants and ask them to help you make the transition from utility supplied energy to alternative energy source today.

Know About Water Fuel Car

There is a need for many consumers and companies to change the way they fuel their transport and the water fuel car may be the solution to a problem that affects so many people around the world. The world is currently in crisis, environmentally and financially and right at the middle of both of these areas is the price and damaging nature of fuel.

A water fuel car would set about righting the wrongs of the current price levels of fuel. As mentioned, the potential financial crisis been repeated in newspapers and with TV sending message about credit problems. Yet we are face with increasing fuel cost. As a lot of people NEED cars rather than a want or a luxury, they have no choice but to pay the ever-rising price of fuel.

The introduction of a water fuel car would alleviate a lot of the financial worries of people and would create some sense of financial freedom for a great number of people. The water fuel car is not being championed by everyone but then again, many people have a lot to lose from a system that would reduce the demand for fuel. For a long time, oil cartels have been controlling the high prices. Water fuel cars will help people to have the freedom to decide and we could see a lower demand for fuel, which can lead to a drop in oil prices.

A lot of people are in favor for a water fuel car as it will benefit both the people and the environment. These are huge eco-friendly times and the amount of products which now claim to be safer to the environment is proof of the changing needs of today’s market. If a product can provide an environmental element to it, it will appeal to a growing target market and the company that provides the first water fuel car is likely to receive a lot of sales and a lot of praise.

The need for a water fuel car has come about due to the downturn in the environment and the onset of climate change. Many people indicate that if we carry on to contribute to the pollution there might be adverse effect in the future. This means that a water fuel car can be a good and easy solution to the problem.

The water fuel car is no longer the dream of tomorrow but a plausible solution to today’s problems and when will likely make a huge splash in the market!

Advantages And Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy is derived from beneath the earth’s surface. There are a variety of different thermal resources, each of which creates its own engineering challenge as to the way that the energy can be tapped. In some cases current technologies are not practical or economic for successfully extracting the thermal energy. To all intents and purposes geothermal energies are renewable because the latent quantities of energy are so large we cannot imagine them running out.

The environmentally-friendly potential is enormous because, in principle, well designed plants could be cost effective and reliable as well as being clean in terms of emissions. Also they need not produce local environmental visual scarring. Unfortunately the emphasis is on the word ‘potential’ because much more research and development and capital investment is required to make a wide-scale success of some of these various sources.

Everywhere under the earth’s surface there is hot material but it occurs in different forms and at very different depths. Four types of resource are recognised which could be used for substantial amounts of energy transfer and used, for example, to drive electric power stations, in theory at least. A fifth method can be used for smaller applications but, despite the modest energy transfers per installation, this method can be easily engineered and therefore is quite valuable in practice. These five resources are briefly discussed.

The main one, applicable to power generation, is referred to as the hydrothermal reservoir and this has some track record of success. The reservoir is water or steam at a high temperature and the way that the heat exchange is engineered depends on the temperature. It is the fact that the heat carrier (water) is already present (and water is very convenient to handle) which makes this source reasonably accessible. The steam, or hot water flashed to steam, is used to drive turbines to generate electricity.

The other three powerful resources are hot dry rock, geopressure brines and magma (molten rock) and although they have the potential to provide energy the current technologies are not sufficiently developed to make them commercially viable. It does not require much imagination to recognise some of the problems. For example the dry rock must be fractured and liquid forced through the cracks; the geopressurised liquids are rich in methane and exist at great depths; the magma is too hot for conventional processes to be used. It should be possible, eventually, to provide large proportions of our energy requirements using these sources but that state of affairs is a long way off.

The fifth and more modest resource is to extract heat from the ground just under the surface and this is a technique that has been used for ages. It relies on the sun’s radiation warming the ground which then behaves as a giant storage medium. Where such heat at low temperatures is available at a shallow depth, a water-circulating scheme with heat pumps can be used to transfer the heat to where it is required. Applications include heating of houses, greenhouses etc but you’ve got to be lucky to have suitable back garden.

As an added feature where heat pumps are used the heat transfer can be used in reverse so providing cooling in summer. This method of heat transfer is not suitable for large scale power generation and since it is dependent on the sun, its applicability is limited in cooler districts. Some installations are available in the UK, although we doubt it would be economical for an individual domestic plot, but may be cost-effective for small community schemes.

The environmental pollution caused by geothermal installations is small because there are few emissions. Visually a geothermal site need not be offensive because of its construction which only requires a small profile and can easily be screened, by trees for example. Nevertheless, there can be a few problems caused by solids produced where salts carried up in the water must be disposed of and there have been cases of subsidence due to the drillings. Perhaps the worst scenario is when magma has unexpectedly found its way to the surface through the drillings. None of these drawbacks are insuperable.

Successful schemes are in operation around the world and some have been continuously productive for about 100 years, although they tend to be located in specific areas. Fairly obviously, location is dependent on the amount of geothermal activity and its depth, something which is related to the earth’s plate tectonics. Countries which have taken advantage of geothermal energy include the US, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, Iceland, Mexico, Canada and New Zealand.

There are many more, the International Geothermal Association has more than 60 members. Even the UK has three experimental sites in Southampton, Cleethorpes and Penryn although we cannot see geothermal energy becoming a large scale contributor of renewable energy here (wind, water and possibly solar being more likely contenders q.v.). Of the developing countries, maybe half of them have the potential to develop geothermal sites.

In summary, internationally the quantity of geothermal energy is virtually infinite and the environmental benefits are beyond reproach. Set against this are the disadvantages that considerable more Research and Development is needed to take advantage of the buried wealth and even when a commercially viable site is identified the initial investment cost can be a serious deterrent. Maybe if some of the multinationals who have the resources to invest in oil exploration could channel them into geothermal exploration, research and development we might see geothermal energy being tapped on a significant scale. But then we’re prejudiced aren’t we?

Hydrogen Fuel Cell – Advantages And Disadvantages Revealed

There is no denying the fact that invention of hydrogen fuel cell as an alternative fuel is great from environmental perspective but the question is about its execution .How does that work? It can be easily said that adopting hydrogen fuel is good for saving our environment and decrease global warming but saying and embracing the facts are two different ball games

Hydrogen fuel cell: It is environmental friendly

The hydrogen fuel cell is one of the cleanest burning fuels ever developed. Hydrogen is extracted from water and put into the fuel cell as gas and it can power the vehicles. In this process the only by product that is emitted out of the fuel cell is the water vapor. Thus this is a fact that hydrogen fuel cell are good for the environment .Hydrogen fuel cell basically acts like a world’s humidifier.

Hydrogen fuel Cell: The darker side

There are some drawbacks also with the hydrogen fuel cell. It is understood that only a completely efficient system can produce, store and transport the hydrogen with no unwanted emission of gases into the atmosphere. But achieving this will be very costly affair and after all this researchers also fear that 10-20% can still leak into the atmosphere. Thus if we estimate that hydrogen fuel cell will replace all the technology that uses oil and gas then such leakages would double or triple the total hydrogen content deposited in the atmosphere .Other research point out that when this hydrogen will reach the stratosphere hydrogen would be oxidized and this will make the stratosphere more cooler leading to more cloud formation. This will in turn delay the break up of polar vortex at the poles causing holes in the ozone layer to grow bigger and larger and long lasting .The rough estimate shows the depletion of ozone in north pole to be in the range of 5-8% in North pole and 3-7% in South pole . The correct depletion will depend on some unknown quantities. Also we know little about the soil absorption capacity of hydrogen from the atmosphere .It is believed that this process can compensate for all new anthropogenic emissions.

Despite all this drawbacks and concern the use of hydrogen fuel cell in the long run will be environmental friendly. If the only emission from these hydrogen fuel cell is water vapor then this is a huge plus over the toxic gases that are released into the atmosphere with the gasoline burning cars.

We find that though there are some disadvantages of hydrogen fuel cell but advantages out weigh those and the bottom line is that Hydrogen fuel cell have a positive effect on the atmosphere . So hydrogen fuel cell holds a good promise in future among the alternative fuel.

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