Skylights for lower energy use

Daylighting - The practice of letting natural light into a building to reduce energy costs

What it is all about:

Windows and skylights are used to illuminate a home or office to reduce use of light bulbs and lower overall energy consumption.

When you combined energy efficient windows with a proper design, the use of artificial lighting will be reduced during the daytime hours without needed to use more energy heating/cooling the space.

How to implement:

South facing windows are best for day light and maintaining a comfortable temperature throughout the different seasons. The south facing windows will let plenty of light into he home during winter without letting in direct light in the summer. North windows are also and okay option for day light, but east and west will let in too much direct light. The east and west windows are necessary for cross ventilation however.

Does it work:

 Of course! When a building maximizes its natural light while keeping seasonal temperature change to a minimum without using energy it is always a win. If you need more plenty studies have been conducted about humans and work productivity in a naturally lit environment. Humans thrive in natural light.

Terms to be familiar with:

Tubular Daylighting Device (Tubular Skylight): Something like a compound skylight. A tubular model will use mirrors and lenses to spread light within a building.

Lighting Power Density: a means to measure the electrical lighting installed in a building with a mathematical formula.

Indirect Lighting: Lighting that is a result from reflection...like some of the light from a tubular skylight.

Building Envelope: The external boundary of a building. Walls, entrances, windows, and roofs.

What does Photovoltaic mean and why is it useful

Photovoltaics

Photovoltaics is the direct conversion of light into electricity at the atomic level. Some materials  
exhibit a property known as the photoelectric effect that causes them to absorb photons of light and release electrons. When these free electrons are captured, an electric current results that can be used as electricity.

The photoelectric effect was first noted by a French physicist, Edmund Bequerel, in 1839, who found that certain materials would produce small amounts of electric current when exposed to light. In 1905, Albert Einstein described the nature of light and the photoelectric effect on which photovoltaic technology is based, for which he later won a Nobel prize in physics. The first photovoltaic module was built by Bell Laboratories in 1954. It was billed as a solar battery and was mostly just a curiosity as it was too expensive to gain widespread use. In the 1960s, the space industry began to make the first serious use of the technology to provide power aboard spacecraft. Through the space programs, the technology advanced, its reliability was established, and the cost began to decline. During the energy crisis in the 1970s, photovoltaic technology gained recognition as a source of power for non-space applications.

Thanks to NASA for putting it so well...you can find the rest if you would like to follow the link.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2002/solarcells/
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/solar-power/photo-voltaics/

Solar Energy....why bother?

Why should any of us bother to use solar panels?

Solar Panels on a House

• Solar energy is just about as natural as it can get....besides the small cost to put the panels together and ship them around the world.
• The sun is the engine for the generation of energy. The very same engine that has fed the entire planted. The same source that had made that fossil fuel millions of years ago. 
• We must utilize the power of the sun for use now...not in millions of years.

Okay fine...so what can you do with solar panels?

• Yes you can charge just about anything given enough solar panels. It takes about 36 cells if you buy them in a 3X6 grid...each one of them will produce approximately 1/2 volts so if you can get 36 in series you will be able to produce 18volts. In our case 18 volts would be enough to charge some 12volt batteries. 

Great but that seems expensive....I mean brand new solar cells are quite costly...

• That is true however if you are willing to invest in some new panels you can also purchase some cheap damaged panels from ebay or even from the warehouse. All you would need to do is discard a few of the damaged cells and replace them with new cells you will be able to make more panels for a lower cost.

The investment is just too big for me right now...I won't be able to afford anything if I spend all my money in panels...

• We all know that feeling...however there is another perk to using a renewable energy source. Two terms are used to describe the fact that the city you live in will have to buy your excess energy produced by solar panels. 
• A Feed-In Tariff is a term used when a utility company sets a set rate for small energy producers. These prices are usually higher because the utility company can just as easily pass that price on to their consumers. This pricing practice generally removes the volatile nature of the wholesale market.
• Net Metering would be something quite different. This makes better sense for those small energy producers that will generally always use more energy then produced. The idea is when energy is generated using a green method the utility meter on the house will roll in the different direction. This means the consumer can ultimately get paid if the household produces more than it uses.

Hmm...well that sounds a little better.

I love to recycle and you should too!

I truly love to recycle everything I possibly can. I think we all should join together in the movement to lower our collective carbon footprint.
This blog will be a small initiative to help spread the word of all things Green. Wind, Water and Solar to start with and then later we will search deeper and find new and interesting ways to implement different projects.
First project will be mostly about gaining enough resources to afford a few solar panels and hopefully we will get the ball rolling from there...

Please follow in the footsteps of removing our carbon footprint and replacing coal with cleaner fuels.
If you are any sort of Earth Scientist then you know we have massive natural gas resources. A new company has come out of the woodwork and they are in the business of removing our foreign dependence of oil...Even though we get most of our oil from Canada and Mexico however that is bad enough.
If you are into trading stocks and want to diversify your portfolio I would recommend checking out the company...American Power Group or APGI on the stock exchange
Duel fuel is the next step towards the future