How I built an electricity producing Solar Panel Several years ago I bought some remote property in Arizona. I am an astronomer and wanted a place to practice my hobby far away from the sky-wrecking light pollution found near cities of any real size. In my attempt to escape city light pollution, I found a great piece of remote property. The problem is, it's so remote that there is no electric service available. That's not really a problem. No electricity equals no light pollution. I built a wind turbine to provide some power on the remote property. Here is a video of the solar panel set up and in use on my remote, off-grid property. Let me state up front that I probably won't be able to help you out much if you decide to build your own solar panel(s). So what is a solar panel anyway? I started out the way I start every project, by Googling for information on home-built solar panels. After a while, I came to some conclusions: <a href=' seller. A solar panel is really just a shallow box.
Homemade Lotion Recipe - How to Make Your Own Lotion If you are still using the cancer-in-a-bottle store bought lotion on yourself or your family, there are super easy natural alternatives! In fact, this recipe is incredibly simple to make and all the ingredients are available here. It only has three basic ingredients and literally takes ten minutes to make! You can customize your lotion to your skin type and desired scent, and you can even make it for baby (calendula and chamomile…) There are endless variations, but some of my favorites are: Calendula and Chamomile for babyRosewater and Almond OilPeppermint, Wintergreen, and Ginger for sore musclesCoconut and Calendula for faceMint and green teaLavender and vanilla I’ve included my basic recipe below. NOTE: This is an improved recipe since many people were having trouble getting the temperatures exactly right to get the lotion to emulsify (as per the comments below). Organic Homemade Lotion Basic Ingredients: Note: All ingredients and many essential oils are available here.
DIY Solar Air Heating Collectors: Pop Can vs Screen Absorbers Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers Page Contents: The test collectors: Pop can collector on left and screen collector on right Collector Basics There is a lot of not so good information out there on what makes a good solar air heating collector design, so I thought I would include a little info on solar air collector physics, what makes for a good design, and how one can measure and compare collectors accurately. How do collectors work, and what makes a good design? On just about all solar thermal collectors, the sun shines through the glazing, and hits the collector absorber heating it. In full sun, the incoming solar energy is about 1000 watts per square meter of collector area. Most of this 850 w/sm that made it into the absorber end up going down one of two paths:: one part is picked up by the air flowing through the collector and ends up heating the room, and the other part ends up being lost out the glazing. The heat output the collector can be calculated as: 1. 4.
Build this open source DIY wind turbine for $30 Getting started with home wind energy projects can set you back a pretty penny if you buy a finished product, but if you're a little bit handy and don't mind scrounging for materials and getting creative in the garage or backyard, you can try your hand at building one of these DIY wind turbines for about $30 in materials. After all, it is #iheartrenewables week! We've previously covered Daniel Connell's open source concentrated solar collector plans, but now he's back with another great DIY renewable energy project, a vertical axis wind turbine based on the Lenz2 lift+drag design. Connell's design calls for using aluminum lithographic offset printing plates to catch the wind, which he says can be obtained cheaply (or possibly even free) from an offset printing company, and a variety of hardware and a bicycle wheel. "The turbine uses the ~40% mechanically efficient Lenz2 lift+drag design. Here's a little clip of the vertical axis wind turbine being challenged by strong winds:
DIY Open Source Solar Concentrator Tutorials Now Available © SolarFlowerEver wanted to tinker about with a homebrewed solar energy system? Then this project, SolarFlower, might be just the ticket for you. The creator, Daniel Connell, has been working on his concentrated solar energy collector for several years now, and has just launched a web home for it, complete with detailed tutorials. SolarFlower is: "An open source solar energy collector which tracks the sun automatically through a simple non-electrical mechanism. According to Connell, the potential uses for these devices include electrical generation, water purification, cooking, bio-char and charcoal, food dehydration, heating, gasification, and just about anything else heat can be used for.
Miss Kopy Kat Print on Fabric with an Inkjet Printer By Andrew Lewis Sometimes I have a great idea for a textile project, but I get put off by the thought of trawling through the seemingly endless bolts of fabric at the store. Then I think about the hassle of haggling over the price and ending up with three times as much fabric as I actually needed. I decided to try printing my own fabric on an inkjet printer, and the results really exceeded my expectations. The advantages to this technique are tremendous, and I don’t have to haggle over prices any more. I get my own designs, in the quantity I need, at a fraction of the price I would normally pay. About Ink Printing your own fabric is not as difficult as it sounds, and you don’t need any special equipment to get started. Materials Light-colored fabric Printer that uses pigment inks Scissors Card Sticky tape Directions Step 1: Choose a light-colored, flat fabric, and cut it to the maximum width that your printer can handle. Step 4: Create your design on the computer, and then print it out.
12 Easy Image Transfer Methods for DIY Projects The Graphics Fairy is a resource for Home Decorators, Graphics Designers, Crafters, Collage Artists and Junk Journalers. Find over 7,000 FREE Vintage images, Illustrations, Vintage Pictures, Stock Images, Antique Graphics, Craft Clipart, Vintage Photos, and Printable Art, to MAKE craft projects, collage, Mixed Media, Junk Journals, DIY, scrapbooking, etc! DIY and Craft Tutorials, and Home Decorating Ideas are offered as well. Daily vintage image downloads and crafting clipart since 2007. Looking for our ad free PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP site? Sumo Transfer Images Using Freezer Paper It was purely by accident that I figured out this method of transferring a printed image. It is simple to do and you don't need any special paper or products! If you can print it from your computer then you can transfer it to a fabric or wood surface. Now, this project I am about to show you is not very exciting, but it will give you the idea of how the transfer is done...so here it goes. I decided to cover my old and dirty mouse pad that looked like this: I used canvas and cut a piece a bit larger that than the mouse pad. Then I cut a piece of "Heat n Bond" the same size as the canvas and, following the instructions, adhered it to the back of my fabric. I then centered the mouse pad onto the back of the canvas and, again, using my iron, adhered the canvas to the top of the mouse pad. I cut a piece of macramae jute and secured it to the edge of the pad using hot glue. So, now you know how I covered the mouse pad...onto how to do the transfer. Trim the excess freezer paper using sissors. Lesa
Crocheting with plastic yarn Inga has put up a video about how to prepare plastic bags for knitting and crochet, as well as cutting up clothes. I'm currently crocheting a plastic floral display for an exhibition on recycling and re-using. I've found that the cheaper quality supermarket bags are much easier to work with, they are very much like paper, while the high street branch bags (the shiny ones) tend to stick really badly to the hook and knitting with those is a nightmare.