Off Grid Solar Living: Lessons in Energy Efficiency This story is meant to provide information about off grid living, meant to teach you or inspire you. I get a lot of people that ask me ‘What’s it like to live off the grid?’ I think a lot of people picture us huddled around a candle in darkened cabin in the middle of the woods. Well for the first couple weeks we moved into our home, that’s exactly what it was like! But we’ll get to that. Off Grid or Off Our Rocker? A few years back, we grew tired of the city and noise and hassle that came with it. But there were other houses in the neighborhood running on solar kits and small wind generators and we naively thought ‘How hard could it be?’. Oh, You Mean We Need Sunshine? We chose to move into our home in the winter that our little hamlet would break the record for snowfall in one year. And worse, our builder had suggested a forced air electric furnace for our modular home to save money. Altitude Adjustment We learned that EVERYTHING needed to be on power strips. via SustainaBlog
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 slicker yuppies (you know the kind, the ones that like to blab loudly on their cell phone while they work on some business administration degree in a cyber cafe somewhere in Trendyland.) and their 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? After a while, I came to some conclusions: seller. Oops!
Les bottes ou ballots de paille Les enduits : Puis, on enduit. Il faut toujours enduire un mur en paille sur ses deux faces car, sinon, le vent passe au travers, lui faisant perdre son fort pouvoir isolant. L'enduit constitue aussi la protection contre le feu ou les rongeurs. La première couche d'accroche est bien liquide : un lait de chaux ou une barbotine (soupe de terre argileuse) que l'on imprègne partout et qui couvre les brins de paille. Pour l'enduit de chaux, le plus fréquent et le plus adapté aux façades externes, on aura fait la couche d'accroche avec la moitié de chaux aérienne et l'autre moitié de chaux hydraulique pour sa prise rapide, dans une proportion d'un volume de chaux pour trois volumes de sable. Pour l'enduit de terre, on peut employer des enduits prêts à l'emploi, formulés pour un bon résultat, mais il est possible, et très économique, d'utiliser des terres locales. Ces enduits demandent une longue période de séchage, surtout sur un support d'origine végétale.
New Catalyst Lets Us Store the Power of the Sun In Brief Scientists have found a way to “crack” water three times more efficiently using solar- and wind-generated electricity, which means it’s possible to store renewable energy for later use. Rainy Day Energy One of the problems with using renewable energy sources is that you’re overly dependent on the fickle whims of weather. Drawing power from the Sun is fine, but what happens when it’s overcast? Or, if using wind energy, what do you do when the breezes are unusually still? But if one could store excess power generated during especially sunny days, or on very windy days, then one could tap into these sources whenever they are needed—effectively erasing the advantage held by such on-demand energy sources such as nuclear power and other nonrenewable energies. Now, a team of scientists from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Toronto have taken a major step to making this process easier and more efficient. A Metallic Gel
canettes alu panneau solaire pour le chauffage solaire domestique:: Comment fonctionne Panneau solaire - l'énergie solaire En construisant votre propre panneau solaire à l'aide des boîtes de coke, vous pouvez réaliser des économies importantes pendant la saison de chauffage. Selon la qualité de la construction et du matériel, un mètre carré de panneau solaire pop peut peut chauffer entre 10 et 15 m2 de votre espace de vie. En d'autres termes, 2x1m panneau solaire (2 mètres carrés couverts avec des cannettes de boissons gazeuses) peut chauffer jusqu'à 30m2 (mètres carrés) de votre maison. L'image suivante montre un schéma simplifié des éléments du panneau solaire pour le chauffage de l'air. Le ventilateur aspire l'air froid de la salle. Par une journée ensoleillée, indépendamment de la température extérieure, le soleil est rapidement chauffer l'air dans des bidons. Ce système solaire n'est pas en mesure d'accumuler la chaleur - l'énergie solaire qu'ils produisent. VOULEZ VOIR PLUS DE PROJETS BRICOLAGE? Custom Search
Accueil South African team may have solved solar puzzle even Google couldn't crack | Environment It is a problem that has so far stumped even Google’s brainy engineers – how to generate cheap solar electricity using a small-scale array of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s energy. Now a team at a South African university – led by a former Intel strategic planner – believes they have cracked it. Once they have completed a prototype system in October they have big plans for rolling out the technology. The idea behind the design – so-called Concentrated Solar Power or CSP – is simple. A field of mirrors on the ground tracks the sun and concentrates its rays on to a central point which heats up. There are a handful of large-scale examples of such solar plants around the world generating electricity, and there are predictions that the technology could generate a quarter of the world’s energy by 2050. Paul Gauché is the South African founding director of the Solar Thermal Research Group at Stellenbosch University that is testing a new approach.
Panneau Solaire en canettes Je vous présente aujourd’hui mon œuvre préférée. C’est un capteur solaire thermique à air. Je me suis inspiré d’américains qui réalisent et commercialisent des panneaux fabriqués avec des canettes recyclées. C’est ici que ça se trouve : Ils vendent ça 2700$, donc je me suis dit que je pouvais essayer de le fabriquer moi-même (et si possible de l’améliorer). Les canettes sont percées et assemblées en colonnes dans lesquelles l’air circule et se réchauffe quand il y a du soleil. Le principe (en rapide), c’est que le panneau est posé sur un mur orienté Sud (la position verticale est idéale pour l’hiver car le soleil est bas dans le ciel) et dès que le soleil se montre, l’intérieur du panneau surchauffe (effet de serre : les canettes sont peintes en noir et le caisson isolé et la vitre empêche la chaleur de ressortir). Petite photo du panneau : Fabrication : Le plus long, c’est la préparation des canettes : il faut d’abord les collecter puis les laver et les percer.
GREB - La Baie - Entreprise locale 7th Grader mimics Nature 13 year old copies Nature to Improve Solar Performance Thirteen year old Aidan Dwyer was walking in the woods in Upstate New York in the winter and noticed a spiral pattern to tree branches. Aidan realized the tree branches and leaves had a mathematical spiral pattern that could be shown as a fraction. After some research he also realized the mathematical fractions were the same numbers as the Fibonacci sequence. "On the oak tree, the Fibonacci fraction is 2/5, which means that the spiral takes five branches to spiral two times around the trunk to complete one pattern. Aidan's backyard in Northport, NY. The 7th grader next wondered why nature used such a pattern? Aidan discovered that the Fibonacci pattern helps deciduous trees, in higher latitudes, efficiently track the Sun and collect the most sunlight even in the thickest forest, on the cloudiest days. The American Museum of Natural History has awarded Aidan a Young Naturalist Award for 2011.
Fabriquer un panneau solaire thermique pour moins de 5 euros | energies2demain Active Solar Heating Active solar heating systems use solar energy to heat a fluid -- either liquid or air -- and then transfer the solar heat directly to the interior space or to a storage system for later use. If the solar system cannot provide adequate space heating, an auxiliary or back-up system provides the additional heat. Liquid systems are more often used when storage is included, and are well suited for radiant heating systems, boilers with hot water radiators, and even absorption heat pumps and coolers. Both liquid and air systems can supplement forced air systems. Liquid-Based Active Solar Heating Solar liquid collectors are most appropriate for central heating. The liquid flows rapidly, so its temperature only increases 10° to 20°F (5.6° to 11°C ) as it moves through the collector. The flow rate depends on the heat transfer fluid. Storing Heat in Liquid Systems Liquid systems store solar heat in tanks of water or in the masonry mass of a radiant slab system. Distributing Heat for Liquid Systems
The Solar Conundrum The Solar Conundrum: heat decreases the production of electrical energy in PV. Hybrid Vacuum Tubes.By efficiently drawing heat away from the solar panel for space heating, hot water, de-salination and cooling the photovoltaic cells are maintained at an optimum operating temperature. This results in significantly higher electrical output than standard photovoltaic panels. This type of device is commonly referred to as PVT. Both energy outputs are optimized replacing the need for two separate conventional panels (PV and Thermal), dramatically reducing installation time and cost whilst maximizing useable installation area. Through its unique patent pending design, V3Solar is able to concentrate up to 150X more sunlight on 1X sun mono PV without the cells overheating. Light is transferred to electricity in nanoseconds. The V3Solar patent pending design also delivers a higher level of efficiency from PV.