Tag Archives: Time
Day 6 Plotwatcher Time Lapse Video Camera
Day 6 Plotwatcher Time Lapse Video Camera HD time-lapse game camera that takes pictures every 5 to 10 seconds Allows hunters to analyze a potential hunting spot without manually scouting location Records up to 7 consecutive days; video resolution of 1,280 x 720 GameFinder software lets you review files in forward/reverse or scroll frame by frame SD card slot; simple one-button setup; supports USB drive The PlotWatcher HD Game Surveillance System has revolutionized scouting camera technology and functionality. Unlike trail cameras that trigger on short-range motion, the PlotWatcher captures images of an area regardless of how far the subject is from the camera. So whether the animal is 30 feet or 330 feet away, you’ll see them on the video. This greater field of view allows you to see game and their travel patterns that would have otherwise gone undetected by traditional trail cameras. Wi List Price: $ 179.00 Price:
DIY Wind Power Generators & Turbines – Slash Your Energy Bills and Reduce Your Carbon Emmissions At the Same Time!
Wind power is an excellent weapon for fighting climate change because wind generation produces no carbon emissions at all. When you consider that every unit of energy generated by wind, is a unit of energy free of carbon pollution, wind makes sense. Producing just 10 per cent of electricity from renewables could cut carbon emissions by 2.5 million tonnes a year. Small wind-electric systems can provide electricity to remote sites, or to houses that are also connected to the utility grid. But the prices! A small turbine can cost $US 2,000! A medium turbine $3,000! A large one can cost $8,500 – and that’s without the rest of the equipment you will need, and installation costs! Although wind systems require some attention, if you build a strong system, following a proven design, wind-electric systems make great economic and environmental sense. How much FREE electricity will I get? There seems to be a myth that wind power produces little power. Strange, when a 1.8-megawatt turbine produces enough power for 1,000 homes. More realistically for the DIY wind turbine maker, a small wind turbine, with a rotor diameter of 7 feet (2.1 m), and a swept area of 38.5 square feet (3.6 m2) will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 80 KWH! This is enough power for a low-energy home, yacht, or business. A medium sized wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 10 feet (3 m) and a swept area of 79 square feet (7.3 m2) will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 130 KWH! This would be suitable for a medium-energy home, business, or school. A large wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 12.5 feet (3.8 m), and a swept area of 120 square feet (11.2 m2), will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 230 KWH! This is for big energy consumers. A huge wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 56 feet (17 m), and a swept area of 2,462 square feet (229 m2) will produce, per month, at average wind speeds of 10 mph – 5,060 KWH! These power large farms, very high-energy businesses, villages, islands, and massive heating projects. Smaller turbines can be built for boats, caravans, cabins, or where only a small amount of electricity is needed. But for significant amounts of energy, you need a large enough rotor, as this is the wind turbine?s ‘energy collector’. When sizing a wind-electric system, you don’t add windmills in as you need them, as you can with solar panels. Because wind is more cost effective as you increase in system size, most people put up only one wind turbine, big enough to significantly slash their electric bills, or to fulfill all of their energy requirements for the foreseeable future. System Components: The turbine is only one component of a wind-electric system, and very often is not even the most expensive component. You need all of the necessary components to have a functional system. Plan ahead to buy quality components properly matched to each other and to your energy use. A complete wind-electric system includes: ? Turbine?blades + hub = ?rotor,? which is the ?collector? of the system. ? Tower?supports the turbine, getting it up out of the turbulent zone created by trees and buildings, and exposes the turbine to more wind ? Wiring and conduit?carries the electricity down the tower and to power-conditioning equipment ? Controller/Electronics?controls charging of battery or input to inverter ? Batteries?used for storage in off-grid systems or grid-tied systems with battery backup ? Inverter?converts direct current (DC) electricity from batteries or rectifier to alternating current (AC) for home use or ?storage? on the utility grid ? Metering?allows user to understand and manage system operation.Small wind turbine: needs a controller or inverter, and is suitable for battery less grid-tie or 12, 24, 48 VDC battery charging Medium sized: needs a controller or inverter, and is used for charging 12, 24, 48 VDC batteries Large: needs controller, dump load, and inverter. Suitable for battery less grid-tie or charging 48 VDC battery. Huge: suitable for battery less grid-tie How does a wind turbine actually produce electricity? The rotating blades convert the wind?s kinetic energy into rotation in a shaft. The rotating shaft turns an alternator, which makes electricity. The electricity is transmitted through wiring, down the tower, to batteries, or an inverter. The blades are designed to intercept wind and capture its energy. Most modern wind generators have three blades, to compromise between the highest efficiency possible (one blade) and balance (multiple blades). The blades must turn to face the wind, so a yaw bearing allows the wind turbine to track the winds as they shift direction. A tail directs the rotor into the wind. In small-scale designs, the rotor is connected directly to the shaft of a permanent magnet alternator, which creates Alternating Current. This wild, three-phase electricity means that the voltage and frequency vary continuously with the wind speed. The AC output is used to either charge batteries or feed a grid-synchronous inverter, which turns it to steady, usable Direct Current. In small designs, the rotor is connected to the alternator, eliminating the need for gears. In larger systems, a gearbox is used to increase alternator speed from a slower turning rotor. A governing system limits the rotor rpm and generator output to protect the turbine from high winds. A shutdown mechanism is also useful to stop the machine during an extreme storm, or when you want to service the system. Understanding the Ratings Wind turbine rating is difficult because rated output is pegged to a particular wind speed, and different manufacturers compare different wind speeds to better promote their particular model. To understand the real power of wind, cube its speed. For example, 10 kph of wind, gives 10 x 10 x 10 = 1,000 watts. Or, a 10% increase in speed gives a 33% increase in power. This means that very small increases in wind speed create huge increases in power. This also means that a turbine that produces 1,000 watts at a wind speed of 28 mph, might produce only 125 watts at a wind speed of 14 mph – so half the wind produces 1/8 of the power. So ignore the rated peak output of a turbine, and look for the monthly (or annual) energy production you require (from your energy audit), estimated for the average wind speed at your site. After all, long-term energy is what you?re after, not peak output! If, for example, you know your home has 10 mph winds, and you need 400 KWH per month, you know what turbine to build. Knowing a turbine?s swept area may also help you calculate the annual energy output for the wind turbine. Jim Green at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) developed a formula: annual energy output (AEO) in KWH = 0.01328 x rotor diameter (ft.) squared x average wind speed (mph) cubed. Easy! Getting Started: Consider: Is it your aim to slash your bills, or to be completely independent? Are you going to be stand-alone, or will you still be connected to (and adding into/taking from) the grid? If you’re staying connected to the grid, will your local power company pay you for the electricity you generate? First you need an energy audit of your home. Go to www.njcleanenergy.com for an accurate home energy audit, and great ideas on saving electricity and money. Sit down with your family, work out how many kilowatt-hours you all use, and find out where the waste is. But be realistic, reasonable, and think laterally. Just because you are now horrified at how much electricity your plasma TV uses, doesn’t mean the kids are never allowed to watch it. You may consider a smaller, more efficient TV for weekly use, and save the plasma for the weekend family movie. Next, work out your location’s average wind speed, at a website like www.awea.org for the USA. When you know how much energy you need, and how much your wind will provide, you will be able to see the size of turbine you will need. Now that you have a good idea of what you’re after, check out the DIY Wind Power Kits at EarthEnergyPlus.Com These kits have been selected with the DIY novice in mind, and include all the information you will need to build your own electricity-producing windmill! Detailed lists of the tools, parts, and where to get them. Video instructions you can play over and over. Great back-up from dedicated designers! Build your own wind power system this weekend, then sit back and watch your home-built wind generator turn a summer breeze into FREE electricity! Arthur PughEarthEnergyPlus.ComEarthEnergyPlus.Com/blogsales@earthenergyplus.com
Cleaning Up After Dinner: Save Time And Energy, Hand Washing Dishes Wastes Energy!
Energy efficient dishwashers can clean your dishes using less water and electricity than if you were to clean them yourself. That’s what efficiency experts claim. But is this really true? I didn’t think so until recently. I can clean the dinner dishes myself using about four liters of water, while energy saving dishwashers use around 4 gallons to a full load, plus all that electricity to heat the water and pump it around. I would like to share my techniques for cleaning dishes by hand using as little water and energy as possible. But remember that, for most people, energy saving dishwashers are a more efficient option than hand-washing, as long as you use the dishwasher properly. If you observe a typical North American clean dishes by hand, it’s easy to see why an efficient dishwasher beats washing by hand just about every time. Some people let the tap run continuously as they wash; some fill the sink with warm water and run cold water in the second sink for rinsing; some are constantly pumping dish soap into a sponge. When you add up all the energy that went into warming the water, manufacturing the dish soap, and even the energy for purifying and pumping the water to your home, it can wind up being a lot more energy than you would imagine. When people think about a dishwasher, they usually think of the electricity used to pump water around inside. They might think that they’ll save all that energy if they clean dishes themselves. In fact, pumping the water uses less energy than heating the water – only 20% of the total, compared to 80% for heating when you consider the heating that takes place in your hot water tank and in the dishwasher itself. You might think that hand-cleaning dishes would at least save you the remaining 20% of the energy used for pumping. But because people typically use much more water than ENERGY STAR dishwashers, the end result is more energy use in hand-washing than when using a good quality dishwasher. (Older models use up to twice as much hot water as newer dishwashers, so you might outperform that old goldenrod-colored 1970′s model!) Efficient dishwashers can clean dishes with a very small amount of water by doing two things you cannot do as a hand washer: Heating the water to 140F – because hot water is better at getting grease and food waste off dishes; and pumping the water at high pressure, which blasts food off your dishes more effectively than you can do with a scrub brush, using a very small amount of water to do so. Where ENERGY STAR dishwashers are not so energy efficient is where people sabotage the energy saving features of the appliance, by pre-rinsing, keeping their hot water tank temperature too high, using too heavy duty a cycle, making excessive use of the rinse-and-hold or heated-dry features, running the unit half empty, and using too much dishwasher detergent. It is possible to do better than a dishwasher in terms of energy consumption. Whether it’s worth the effort is another matter. Consider the fact that energy efficient dishwashers with an ENERGY STAR logo can do a full load for the energy equivalent of less than 1.55 kilowatt hours (kwh) of electricity (that includes both the energy for mechanical and heat). At a typical cost of ten cents per kwh, and assuming you wash the dishes using cold water, the most you would save is about a dollar for every six loads. And this is for a full dishwasher load – which is supposed to hold 6-8 complete place settings as well as 6 serving pieces. Assuming bread plate, dinner plate, bowl, cup and saucer, knife, fork and spoon, that’s about 72 items cleaned, so you’ll save about a cent for every five items if you wash by hand and use no energy. Let’s assume that you really do want to clean dishes yourself. I actually like washing dishes; it’s a good time for thinking, plus it cleans my fingernails! How can you wash dishes by hand using as little energy as possible? Here are my pointers: Never drain used water. After you’ve cleaned a load of dishes by hand, or rinsed vegetables, leave the water for later rinsing. Use this gray water to pre-rinse the dishes to remove most of the grease and other food residues. That way, when the time comes to clean, you won’t need as much water. Go easy on the tap. Run the water for short bursts, only when you really need water. Use aerators on your kitchen faucet. You can rinse dishes effectively while saving water using an aerator, which injects a stream of air into the water. Use cold or just lukewarm water. Where I live in Central America, no one washes dishes in hot water, but granted, the cold water tap is a balmy 70F. This just goes to show that you can, at the very least, wash in lukewarm rather than hot. Start with an inch of warm water. Wash dishes in that, and rinse in a second sink with cold water. Or stack the dishes on the counter after washing, and then rinse them all in cold after you finish the soap wash. Just like your mom taught you, start by washing the cleanest dishes – glasses, cups, cutlery, plates, leaving the dirty pots and pans for last. By following these techniques I can wash dishes from a meal for four people in less than a gallon of fresh water. But is it worth all the effort? And how many people can really outperform the efficiency of a well-built, energy saving dishwasher? If you think you can beat a new dishwasher, here’s convincing evidence that modern efficient dishwashers not only clean dishes using less energy, water and detergent than people do, but also get the dishes cleaner. A study in Germany asked over 100 subjects to clean 12 dinner place settings of dirty dishes. Each volunteer was left alone in a washing area and observed by camera; energy, water and detergent use were tracked. The dishes were then inspected for cleanliness using an international cleanliness standard. The same test was repeated with ENERGY STAR dishwashers. The efficient dishwashers consumed 15 liters of water and 1-2 kwh of energy to clean 12 place settings, while only two of the 113 hand-washers consumed less than 20 liters of hot water. (Over a third of the hand-washers consumed over 100 liters of water each!). However, 70 of those tested did manage to use no than 2 kwh of energy – including 27 who used 1 kwh or less. The way I read the results of this study, you can match the efficiency of ENERGY STAR dishwashers, or even be slightly more energy efficient. But the amount of energy saved is so small that it doesn’t justify the extra effort. The human hand-washers took at least 40 minutes to do the load, while the energy efficient dishwashers needed only a quarter hour of human work for loading, starting, and unloading the dishes. Considering that the US EPA/DOE rates dishwasher efficiency assuming 215 loads of dishes per year, a typical hand washer would be adding 25 x 215 minutes, or 89 hours of work to their year. That’s more than two weeks of 9-to-5 work out of your life! You are probably better off to save that effort and look at other things you can do to save energy. Just think how efficient your house would be if you devoted an extra 89 hours a year towards weather-stripping, sealing air leaks, and changing light bulbs to more energy saving lights. Or how much more relaxed you’ll be by using your dishwasher. You just gained two extra weeks of free time! Robin Green owns Green-Energy-Efficient-Homes.com, a website that helps people find ways to use less energy at home. For more on saving energy while washing dishes, see Energy efficient dishwashers on Green Energy Efficient Homes.
Time It Takes To Recoup An Investment Such As Wind Power Plant?
Let’s say the wind power plant costs $ 300 million. You will supply electricity to residential homes. What do you think? How long will it take to recoup that $ 300 million?
Green Energy: Its Time to Use it Now
Green Energy: Its Time to Use it now Author: Joseph Toth Green Energy: Its Time To Use It Now
The Time is Now to Change Your Home To Green Cleaning Products
Green cleaning products fall into the rule of thumb that nearly all men and women of science consent is true, there is no need to disinfect the entire house just so it feels clean. Green cleaning products are manufactured to cause the least impact achievable on the environment and that are risk-free to humans, animals, and wildlife as attainable. Many reasons exist to switch over to utilising green cleaning products but the basic reason is that most cleansers loaded with poisons which are harmful to the environment. Traditional cleaning agents are designed by multinationals As a business! The facts are most family, business and institutional cleaning is now better value, safer and as effective using non-traditional methods like eco-friendly green cleaning products. If deciding on a green cleaning product, consider if they’ll contaminate the air or water, be harmful to pets, nature or humans, understand how far trucks had to drive the product to get to you, and ifif package recycling is possible or left over product can be thrown out properly. The unfolding evidence about the problems of chemical cleaners, coupled with society’s worries about their use in schools, instigated the new york state legislature to pass a bill in april 2005 calling for all public and private schools to utilize green cleaning products. The bill was ratified by then-governor George Pataki and came into effect September 1, 2006. New York is the first American state to make mandatory use of green cleaning products in schools. Research authorities, such as Green Seal, have been instrumental in educating the public, government and corporations, in conjunction with elevating product standards as well as consumer trust. The growing demand for green cleaning products has led to much better consumer prices of these products, so there really is no excuse anymore as green cleaning Products are quite comparable to standard ones now. Green cleaning products are typically more concentrated have less waste material in packaging, and are fashioned in the equivalent categories as traditional industrialized cleaners. Bona fide green cleaning products and services are created with you and your family in mind. Green companies are established under the assumption that the planet, the people, and industry should all profit with the planet and future generations the beneficiaries. Eco Green Cleaning Products the basics of reducing your eco footprint. Visit MyGreenFeat for more great environmental tips and ideas.
The Right Time For Using Solar Energy For Houses
Use of solar energy is becoming more and more popular every day. The price of electricity is rising and the best alternative that we have today is using solar energy. We all know that global warming is on an everyday rise today. The main reason for this being burning of fossil fuels like coal,which in turn is being used to produce electricity,so if we want our future to be safe, this is the time we step forward and start using solar technology NEED FOR ELECTRICAL POWER Arguments that have constantly supported that electricity is of utmost importance and needs to remain are: 1) Need for light and power after it becomes dark 2) Need for appliances to work so that the food we eat remains edible. We would be greatly interrupted in our daily routine if we did not have power or electricity for large portion of day. Not being able to use electricity for either work or entertainment would be a great hamper on life as we know it. VARIETY OF SOLAR ENERGY PRODUCTS The main reason that many people don’t use solar energy is because they are not aware of what all it has to offer. Thsi being stated that they are not aware of what all products are available that can be used with the help of solar energy for an average home. In fact, you can install solar energy systems that range from small portable systems for your vacation home to large permanent solar energy systems that are built right into your home as either a standalone system or a grid system. It is this wide-ranging versatility coupled with the fact that it is a renewable easily available power source that makes it such a great thing. You can start out small with individual systems such as solar water heater,solar shower, solar lighting, solar fans. That is not all these days we also have solar radios,cookers,purification system. Solar energy is far more useful as it can be used to recharge your batteries and you can also power up every single appliance in your house with the help of the right solar system. It is just a matter of determining where you want to utilize it. Solar energy can be used in your garden or home. By using it in multiple places around the household you can cut your power bills significantly. There are a multitude of uses for solar energy around the household. It can be used to recharge your batteries, phone and other small appliances. Once you discover solar energy for the home, you will realize that you can power up virtually any electrical appliance or machine with the right solar energy system and supplies. CONCLUSION After reading the above article you can quickly start to see where and how utilizing solar energy would benefit you,your pocketbook and your children. Just remember that todays saving could lead to a bright and healthy future. So invest in solar system kits and you can enjoy every aspect of electricity with the help of solar energy, you can work in well lit conditions, you will save your money and you will protect the environment. You can enjoy solar energy for the house by working it in your life gradually. Bruce Campbell makes it easy to use solar energy, quickly & easily. Learn the essential keys to solar energy utilization. To receive more information visit the SOLAR ENERGY FOR HOUSES website.