Archive for the ‘Facts About Solar Energy’ Category
Energy crisis, peak oil – is it any wonder that more and more people are checking out the benefits of renewable energy and specifically solar power? Solar power is environmentally friendly and easy to use.
Solar power solutions for your home have so far been seen as too costly and difficult to install. People would be surprised how relatively inexpensive and easy it can be today to install solar power at your home. By installing solar power solutions at your home, you can drastically reduce your electricity bills and contribute to the next generation being left with a green and functioning environment.
In this article, we will look at three different solar solutions for home use:
Solar Oven/Cooker: One of the easiest ways to use solar energy is cooking with a solar cooker or solar oven. There are different devices available, like panel cookers, parabolic cookers or box cookers. These cookers are based on the principle of concentrating the sun’s energy into one area, using mirrors or other reflective material, which generates enough heat to cook and bake.
Solar Power for Heating: The solar collector, a dark painted box with a glass cover through which pipes are fed, is the main component of a solar heating system. Filled with anti-freeze, the fluid in these pipes is heated by the sun’s rays. The heat exchange is happening in the hot water storage tank, where the pipes from the solar collector are threaded through. Both, the pipes from the solar collector and the hot water storage tank are separate closed systems, so that the working fluid does not contaminate the hot water.
There are active systems, where the fluid is moved by pump and passive systems, where the fluid moves by natural convection.
You can use the generated hot water for different purposes, like running hot water for kitchen or bath, for house heating or even heating the pool, if you have one.
Solar Power Generation: The light rays of the sun can be turned into electric current by using certain materials, which is called a photovoltaic effect (PV). A young French scientist by the name of Becquerel was the first to identify this effect. Later in 1923, Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for his theories describing the photoelectric effect, which is the basis for the photovoltaic processes.
It was not until the sixties and seventies of the 20th century that the PV technology was made more reliable and also cheaper by the space industry using this technology in their space craft.
By connecting many individual solar cells you can form a photovoltaic module and the size of it and the amount and intensity of the solar rays determine the voltage and current you can generate.
You must utilize solar energy when it is available or store it for later or continued use, as it is not available at night or on overcast days. Rechargable batteries have to be used to store the surplus solar power generated electricity.
Today, solar cells have become very efficient and are readily available.
Even a not so experienced home-handyman can now create his own do it yourself solar power system, saving a lot of money. At the same time you can show your neighbors how environmentally responsible you are and that you contribute to solving our energy crisis.
If you want to find out more about how to create your own Solar Power at home, then go to 24/7 Free Power’s: Solar Power Solutions at Home
Paul W. Johnson has a background in Information Technology and worked for over 20 Years as an international IT Project Manager and Consultant. Since his semi-retirement to his 100 acre lifestyle farm in scenic New Zealand, where he lives with his wife and two children, he is following his interests in renewable, alternative energy generation, natural health and organic / biodynamic farming. His website www.247freepower.com provides information about renewable, alternative energy sources and promotes his choice of DIY Solar and Wind Power Guides
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/solar-power-solutions-for-your-home-967984.html
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Facts About Solar Energy — Little Known, Yet Interesting
Ever wished you could win more games of Trivial Pursuit? Or go on a long winning streak of some trivial game show? Well, you have to start your trivial knowledge somewhere, so how about we give you some interesting facts about solar energy for your first category? Let the facts begin.
Which country uses the most solar energy?
If you guessed the United States, you’re wrong. Britain? Nope, try again. Brazil? Not yet. Germany? Bingo. Ethiopia? Germany was the right answer.
In spite of its location way up above the equator and its relatively small population, Germany currently uses more solar energy than any other country. That blows holes in the common assumptions made in the northern states that solar energy isn’t a plausible local energy solution.
Was Albert Einstein involved with solar energy?
Of course, he was! Did you think the guy who defined the equation for energy wouldn’t know the facts about solar energy? In fact, though his work in solar energy was overshadowed by things like relativity and nuclear weapons, it had a large part to do with his Nobel Peace Prize for Science in 1921. Albert Einstein in fact was responsible for numerous solar experiments with early photovoltaic solar panels. The only question is whether this is what made his hair stand up in all directions.
Can raw solar energy, without any sort of power cells, really boil water?
Yes, it can. In fact, we’ve even known how to do it for a long time. In Africa, scientists have taught people how to sterilize water bottles by placing them on top of dark surfaces. But to get water to the point of boiling, all you need is one of those handy little solar cookers from the 18th century. Or, you can get a full solar oven if you’d rather. The solar oven was invented in 1830 by John Herschel, an astronomer.
Are Einstein’s photovoltaic panels still in use today?
No, but kind of yes. Photovoltaic solar panels are still used today, but in the 1950s they were given a silicon base and became much more efficient than they had been when Einstein was doing his research. Silicon is a product of the seemingly unlimited resource we call sand. It only takes 1 ton of silicon to produce enough photovoltaic cells to make as much electrical energy as can be made from 500,000 tons of coal. Further, you don’t make all kinds of air pollutants when you use silicon based photovoltaic solar panels, as you of course do make when you burn fossil fuels for electricity production.
How has inflation affected the cost of photovoltaic panels?
Are you kidding? After all of that hyperinflation during the 1970s? Actually, photovoltaic panels cost about 200% less than they did in the 1970s and are in some cases twice as efficient at the conversion of solar energy into electricity as they were in the 1970s. So you get about four times as much electricity for your money from photovoltaic panels now. Sounds like hyper deflation to me. Seriously, it is just a matter of improved photovoltaic production technology.
So there you go! You have now mastered some facts about solar energy that might come in handy during your next game of Trivial Pursuit.
By: Don P. Tedson
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
Get more solar energy facts, and learn how solar energy can help in your life, by visiting www.solarenergyfacts.net
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