MySolarDIYStory.com

Dan Redmond has been on a mission to cut down his household uses energy for the past few years. Many families like the Redmonds are also concern on how to use or save energy due to global warming and rising energy costs grow. Dan Redmond is not alone in turning the sun for energy. According to The Solar Energy Industries Association, there are more than 250,000 homes in the United States with some sort of solar power, although not all of them have taken the concept as far as the Redmonds. In 2007 about 13,000 homes installed solar power.

Redmond’s enthusiasm of solar energy has changed his family’s daily routine and also saved money! He paid $28.61 for electricity last month compared with $150 a month last year. The main change came when Redmond put solar panels on the roof of his 1925 bungalow, which he shares with his wife, Margaret McGilvray, and the couple’s two young sons. The system allows the family to use energy from the traditional power grid when the sun is not shining, uses what is known as net-metering. No electricity is stored in the house. Energy produced in excess of what is needed is fed back to the power grid, effectively making the Redmonds’ electric meter run backward.

The solar power system cost $23,000 after a $2,000 tax credit. Redmond estimates that the system will pay for itself in 10 to 15 years. The biggest lifestyle change is as low-tech as the solar panels are high-tech — the family uses a clothesline to dry its laundry. Redmond cooks using a solar oven, a small appliance that uses four reflectors, to heat food in Redmond’s front yard. The device uses only solar power and leaves no carbon footprint. Richmond says he can heat food to about 350 degrees in his solar oven, but the stove’s manufacture says it can heat food up to 400 degrees. The family also uses a small array of solar panels to charge iPods and cell phones. Whenever possible, Redmond runs errands on an electric bicycle that pulls a small trailer. Every little bit helps keep their power bill low. For Redmond, it’s not just about the money. “It was more about what we thought was important for ourselves and the decisions we’re making for our family,” he said.

For more information visit:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/20/solar.house/

Today, the sun’s energy is use for lots of things like:

Solar energy can be transformed into thermal or heat energy and are used to:

· Heat water – for use in homes, buildings, or swimming pools.

· Heat spaces – inside greenhouses, homes, and other buildings.

Solar energy can be also transformed into electricity in two ways:

· Photovoltaic (PV devices) or “solar cells” – change sunlight directly into electricity. PV systems are often used in remote locations that are not connected to the electric grid.  They are also used to power watches, calculators, and lighted road signs.

· Solar Power Plants – indirectly generate electricity when the heat from solar thermal collectors is used to heat a fluid which produces steam that is used to power generator. Out of the 15 known solar electric generating units operating in the United States at the end of 2006, 10 of these are in California and 5 in Arizona. No statistics are being collected on solar plants that produce less than 1 megawatt of electricity, so there may be smaller solar plants in a number of other states.

The main disadvantages of solar energy are:

· The amount of sunlight that arrives at the earth’s surface is not constant. It depends on location, time of day, time of year, and weather conditions.

· Because the sun doesn’t deliver that much energy to any one place at any one time, a large surface area is required to collect the energy at a useful rate.

You may learn more about Energy from the Sun, Photovoltaic Energy, Solar Thermal Energy, etc by opening the link given below

http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/solar.html#fromthesun

“Biomass” a renewable energy source refers to living and recently dead biological material which is used as fuel or for industrial production. Here, biomass refers to plant matter grown to generate electricity or produce biofuel, and this also includes plant or animal matter used for production of fibers, chemicals or heat. It may also comprise biodegradable wastes that can be burnt as fuel but excludes organic material which has been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum.

Industrial biomass can be developed from numerous types of plants, like miscanthus, switchgrass, hemp, corn, poplar, willow, sorghum, sugarcane, and a variety of tree species, ranging from eucalyptus to oil palm (palm oil). The particular plant used is usually not very important to the end products, but it does affect the processing of the raw material. Production of biomass is a growing industry as interest in sustainable fuel sources is growing.

Fossil fuels which origin in ancient biomass is not considered biomass by the generally accepted definition because they contain carbon that has been “out” of the carbon cycle for a very long time. Their combustion therefore disturbs the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere.

Read the whole story:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/b/biomass.htm

Solar energy is the light and radiant heat that is obtain from the Sun. It influences Earth’s climate and weather and sustains life. Solar power is occasionally used as a synonym for solar energy or more specifically to refer to electricity generated from solar radiation. Solar energy has been harnessed by humans form the past using a range of technologies. Solar radiation including secondary solar resources like wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass account for most of the available renewable energy on Earth.

A solar energy technology provides electrical generation by heat engine or photovoltaic. This means; space heating and cooling in active and passive solar buildings; potable water via distillation and disinfection, daylighting, hot water, thermal energy for cooking, and high temperature process heat for industrial purposes.

You may read the complete articles in the link given below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power

Solar energy is a free and readily obtainable source of energy. It is a non-conventional source of energy that helps in lessening the greenhouse effect. Solar energy has been used from ancient times in a primitive manner. Only after the rise in oil price in the 1970s, many countries have starts to devise extensive research and development programmes to exploit solar energy. Solar panel that absorbs energy of the sun is used for cooking and for heating water.

Millions of households in the world will start using solar energy in the next few years. Unlike USA and Japan, in India too, the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency and the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources are formulating a programme to have solar energy in more than a million households in the next few years. Solar thermal energy is being used in India for heating water for both industrial and domestic purposes.

If efficient use of solar energy could be found, then it would reduce our dependence on non-renewable sources of energy and make our environment cleaner. Therefore we can make our environment much cleaner by using solar energy.

More information: http://www.edugreen.teri.res.in/EXPLORE/renew/solar.htm

Solar energy is the energy that is produced by our sun. During the fusion process that the sun undergoes during its lifetime, it emits radiation. The fusion process produces many different wavelengths of radiation and sub-atomic particles.Collecting and converting usable energy from solar radiation can be accomplished by using many different forms of technology and includes various direct and indirect methods of harnessing the solar energy.

There are basically two ways to use this solar radiation, by collecting the heat from the light, and photovoltaic conversion of the light.

There are many different methods of collecting the heat and converting it to electricity, and many ways of converting the light as well. I’ll keep it simple here and give just a few examples.

Read the rest of this interesting article via this link: http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Solar-Energy-Really?&id=138709

Also see http://www.scifipie.com for more info.