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GET RUNNING HOT WATER, NOT HIGH RUNNING COSTS

December 15th, 2009 No comments

Water heating is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions from the average home (excluding the family car).It’s also power hungry, using up to 35% of a home’s energy. 
The cost of installing and running a solar hot water system is less than most people realise.  The fact is, solar hot water systems generally pay for themselves within two years from installation and then the real savings start adding up.
A solar hot water system can save up to 90% of an average household’s hot water energy requirements.It can also save up to 3.4 tonnes of CO2 emissions from an average household per year.There are factors to consider such as the direction of the roof, quality and location, but in essence, the sun can provide the bulk of the energy requirements for domestic hot water.Conventional gas or electricity sources can make up any shortfall.  
The cost of electricity is growing and there is greater emphasis on finding renewable energy sources.When one counts the cost that generating electricity has on the environment, the argument for solar power is even more convincing.
Solar hot water has been the subject of massive technological development in recent times.  Consumers now have a choice between roof or ground-mounted systems, which are suitable for any weather conditions from below freezing to the harshest desert heat.
Solar hot water can be installed anywhere, new buildings and old.It is a relatively simple process to replace an electric hot water system, and many governments around the world are encouraging and incentivising householders to do so.
In Australia for example, eligible property owners, landlords and tenants are rewarded with generous government rebates when they replace their electric storage hot water systems with solar.The Australian Government is currently offering a 600 rebate per eligible installation of solar hot water to help people reduce greenhouse gas emissions.It is currently estimated that the average family can reduce their annual energy bill by up to seven hundred dollars by installing a solar system.  
Perth solar hot water company, Solar MyWorld, have experienced a huge increase in demand for their systems since Government announced the rebates.The company says people are making lifestyle adjustments to meet growing pressure to reduce their carbon footprint, and they have seen a consequent increase in demand.  
A study commissioned by the Australian Government, ‘Energy Use in the Australian Residential Sector 1986-2020 projected a 56% increase in residential sector energy consumption from 1990 – 2020.Water heating was the only major energy use predicted to decline over the study period, predominantly due to Government and State energy programmes.Water heating energy use reached a peak in 2002 at 92.4 petajoules (PJ) and is anticipated to decline slowly to 8.5PJ by 2020. 
Solar hot water is one of the simplest lifestyle changes that people can make. There are no reasons not to go this route.It is both cost-effective and low maintenance and on top of that, is kind to the environment too.Plus, a solar hot water system that has been correctly installed using quality parts should last at least a quarter of a century.That should warm you up!

Are You Ignorant About What A Passive Solar Energy System Is?

December 8th, 2009 No comments

It is quite surprising to learn that not many people know or even understand what a passive solar energy system is. Furthermore, they may not even realize that there are two distinct types of passive solar energy systems including those that heat and those that cool. To understand how a passive solar energy system works you can try feeling the effects of passive solar energy by sitting on a winter’s day next to a window that is facing south. What you feel is essentially what is known as passive solar energy.

Environmental Considerations

The basis of passive solar electricity system is that it heats or cools according to the environment on the outside. In reality, these systems are getting more popular by the day and many new buildings are being designed in particular to deal with using passive solar power. This implies the building designers had to learn the methods that guarantee that when the weather is warm outside of the building cools on the inside while the opposite will occur if the weather turn cold.

The only issue with incorporating a passive solar power system is that it needs so much work that you are going to finish up expending as much money and time and effort as you would to build for yourself a new home. Naturally, once the passive solar electricity system has been correctly incorporated the advantages will be enormous and you may also enhance the working of a passive solar power system at any point by adding windows and also skylights to the home in order to harness even more power.

There no doubts the incontrovertible fact that a passive solar electricity system can turn out to be a better choice than the highly well-liked active solar electricity systems and part of the reason behind this is that in the North Hemisphere most heat gain happens in windows facing to the south and also in 30 degrees to the side. With the arrival of more recent materials that are being employed to especially suit the passive solar energy system it has become feasible to get better heating and cooling solutions which make passive solar energy systems a fairly fantastic option to suit all of your energy wants.

Solar thermal energy is a special form of energy generation that involves harnessing the heat acquired from the sun which is then used as a first energy source. This type of energy use is dissimilar than the way other better known solar electricity systems capture and use the sun’s energy, which usually is naturally to get power from the light from the sun’s rays.

That is what I can tell you about Solar Energy Kits, there is more in-depth knowledge at Best DIY Solar Power House Guide.