Photovoltaic Systems

Archive for June, 2011

This month, we started rolling out the new logo on Twitter and Facebook; expect to see the look applied to the site in the next couple weeks.  In terms of our new articles, the most shared one on Facebook was about the Sunset Idea House, while the most shared one on Twitter was about C3 Modular.  Below you’ll find an outline of June coverage.

Innovative Prefabs:

• Solar-Powered Sunset Idea House 2011
• Scenic Eco Prefab Complete in Torrey, Utah
• Cedar-Slat Tiny Sunset Cabin on the Lake
• C3: First Modular Green Home in Chicago
• Blue Crest Prefab Home Finished in Austin
• Efficient Prefab Finished in Yucca Valley
• ZETA Fabricates Homes for NZE Project

Homes & Projects:

• Off-Grid NZE Mountain Cabin in Colorado
• The Boneyard House with Salvaged Materials
• Traditional Style Passive House Built in Ohio
• Menlo Park Passive House Open for Tours
• 125 Haus to Showcase Next Gen Housing
• Pure Salvage Tiny House Made for Living
• LEED Platinum Condos at Primera Terra

Technology & Products Innovation:

• Top 10 Green Building Products [2011]
• Designer Ceiling Lamp Powered by the Sun
• New Corrugated FSC Plywood by Corelam
• New Alkyd Paint Made with Old PET Bottles
• Crush: 100% Recycled-Content Glass Tile
• Water Legacy Helps with Greywater Reuse
• MyGen Bundled US-Made Solar by Kyocera
• Formica Unveils FSC-Certified Laminates
• EcoFactor Cuts Home Energy Use by 17%
• Trendy Handmade Tile Now at Modwalls
• Panasonic Intros New Dual-Sensor Fans
• Ford Showcases the Garage of the Future
• Eames Lounge Goes on Semi-Annual Sale
• Save Energy with an Energy Star Ceiling Fan

Know-How & Green News:

• Housing Recovery Brings Changed World
• Eight Reasons for Passive House Growth
• Report: Climate Change Could Affect IAQ
• Certified Homes Yield a Price Premium
• How to Reduce Exposure to Formaldehyde
• Cancer List Includes Styrene, Formaldehyde, and Glass Wool Fibers
• Ed Begley Jr: Green Efforts Make Economic Sense
• Tigressa SoftStyle Area Rug [winner announced]
• Week in Review Archives

Also, subscribe to our weekly newsletter for updates, article summaries, newsworthy links, and other site news.

Related Articles on JetsonGreen.com:

1. The (Green) Tiny House Movement
2. Cedar-Slat Tiny Sunset Cabin on the Lake
3. Reclaimed Tiny House Built by Students

Using DIY energy solutions to draw from the globe’s huge raw resources has to be one of the most promising ways to help stabilize our faltering economies. Sunlight, wind, rain and tides are just a few of the usable raw forces that could be converted and used by every household. DIY energy projects will require some time to make, but once you’ve done so you will save money for the rest of your life-time.

Straightforward and fun DIY energy projects are available on the net and don’t cost much to construct. Several sites even contain videos to show how a device is done. What has been complex science that geniuses alone can interpret is now a science kid’s project. Available kits have comprehensive simple to install parts and are fun to make up.

Before one delves into fashioning any energy converters, it is pertinent to grasp the mechanics to fashioning a renewable and sustainable energy available for use. Energy is gathered in a DIY power scheme – you do not actually make it. In fact, free natural energy is all about us. For illustration, the sun gives solar power to earth which exceeds the total power consumed by humanity by a factor of over 20,000 times.

Solar panels are built specifically to garner some of this energy. There are solar panel kits available in the DIY stores and the internet. It is easier to do this than creating all the parts yourself, but it will cost more.

Solar panels are made up of individual cells that absorb solar energy. The sun’s light is in fact made up of tiny packets of energy called photons. As the photons strike a solar cell, the face of the cell becomes negatively charged and the lower side is positively charged, which creates a potential difference, precisely as in a battery. You can store this converted solar energy inside a simple battery for later use. Another option is to then turn your DC power into AC with an inverter, so you can use it in home appliances or sell it back to the power company.

The sunshine may clearly supply us with all the energy we could conceivably need. And the other natural energy resources bring similar benefits. The rush is on to make the technologies easily and inexpensively available in everyone’s home. Natural, low-cost solar power is now available to most households eager to spend a bit of time in building their own system.

A DIY energy project can be an enormous amount of fun for your kids, and they will discover a lot too. In fact people are also doing DIY energy projects with wind and biomass systems. DIY energy projects don’t have to be big – you can make some relatively simple yet useful things like garden lights powered by the sun, or a small water heater for your laundry. Other bigger home projects would need more money to build but in the long run, would have saved a lot more.

The ordinary individual now wants to get lots more involved with green power and fuels given the pressures on the global climate. Green energy resources would include anaerobic digestion, geothermal, wind, hydro, solar, biomass, tidal and wave power.

With so many options available, a household DIY energy project is a perfect way to work unitedly on a fun project that will save both money and the earth’s environment.

If you’ve been wanting to start your own rel="nofollow" href="http://www.yourdiyenergyprojects.com/diy-energy">DIY energy project, be sure you first have a look at Paul Robertson’s informative rel="nofollow" href="http://www.yourdiyenergyprojects.com/diy-energy">FREE REPORT on DIY Energy Projects, including a whole range of great ideas on how to save money.

Due to tree felling, we lose as many as six billion trees annually. There is so much that is made from trees and this means there is a huge need in the marketplace. For example, paper is utilized both in the home and workplace and wood is used in the construction of houses. Alas, we need the items that the trees produce but we can do something about the depletion of our timberlands.

Even though we have Arbor Day, and we all should plant a tree every Arbor Day, that is simply taking care of a small part of the problem. This is because virtually all individuals aren’t going out and planting a tree. It would help, obviously, if everyone did.

Did you know that there are more or less 7 billion people living on the planet? That is merely an approximation because you can’t keep an exact count. Nevertheless, we could replace the trees that are lost yearly if each one of those people did actually plant a tree on Arbor day. We know that this is unlikely to occur.

Thus, planting trees is something you should consider if you are concerned about the air we breathe and the planet. And I don’t mean to only go out once each year and plant a tree. I am suggesting planting a tree about once every month or even once per week. We need to try to make up for those who never plant trees even though they go on using the earth’s valuable resources.

Numbers suggest that anywhere up to 15 million trees are planted on Arbor Day. On that basis, we nevertheless need to take that number up by a further 5 billion. And yearly, it simply continues to get worse.

A complete answer is necessary that still encourages individuals to plant trees but I would also propose the following. If a law could be passed that whenever a tree is felled by lumber companies, they then had to plant two new ones, this could really make a big difference.

But until somebody has the presence of mind to make this a reality, we are left to take care of replacing the trees ourselves. In actual fact, restoring the number of trees required is definitely attainable. If each month, roughly 10% of people worldwide could plant a tree, that would make up for the numbers being chopped down every year. Approximately 7 billion new trees would be achieved by doing this. For the number of trees we need to return to, an effective net gain of 1 billion trees will be the way to achieve this goal.

Every person worried about the the environment can do his part by planting trees. Once again, it just takes 10% of our population to begin making a difference. And you may be one of those people.

We know how dreadful it feels to make the huge effort to research sustainable renewable energy now and simply come up short. It is so strange how most will not help themselves with this. Your course is clearly laid out ahead of you if you simply ways to going green considered and discover the truth.

There is no doubt that the DIY solar power is much cheaper and an eco friendly method to generate home electricity.

This article will talk about the basics behind building a solar panel. The cost of electricity consumption is on the rise day by day. So using this source of energy is an economically beneficial way to cut down on your electricity bills. It causes much less damage to the environment.

You have to understand clearly how these solar panels work. Photovoltaic is a substance or a material which produces energy when you expose it to light. In this case, the sun is the source of light.

The sun’s energy is captured and the heat energy is converted to electrical energy through the panels. There are solar cells in the panels. These cells are tied together by means of wires. The pact of solar cells can be really small or really large, whatever you desire. The cells capture the sun’s rays and convert them into electrical energy. With this electrical energy you can power anything starting from lights, fans, appliances to everything than can possible operate on power.

The panels together form a photovoltaic array. It seems a complicated thing. But it is quite easy to understand. The photons of the sun are caught by these panels. The current gets conducted by the crystalline silicon cells which form semiconductors. This current is either directly passed on for usage or it is stored in batteries to be used later.

What are the advantages that DIY Solar Panels have?

DIY solar panels have the following advantage:

* The energy that is derived from the sun is eternal and it has no limits. Therefore the source possesses abundant resources.
* This type of energy is eco friendly. It causes no pollution or any Carbon Footprint.
* The solar panels need very little maintenance. So that saves a lot of trouble.
* You can purchase a Solar Panel from the savings that are incurred from utility bills.
* If you have a solar panel fixed to your home and you are putting up your home on sale, the resale value of your home increases.
* There is shortage energy of resources and the government is trying to promote alternative energy resources. If you make use of alternative energy resources, you will receive federal tax incentives.

The tools and other hardware equipments that you need for building DIY solar panels can be purchased from any hardware store. They will cost you something around $200. You can either borrow the tools that are needed or you can also buy them from any local shop. Building DIY Solar Panels don’t call for any special skill as such.

Acquire wealth of information on how solar panels work, benefits and many other informative tips on saving electricity. Learn how to build solar panel today, you can visit http://www.greenearth4energy.com/build_solar_panel.html.