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Atila Alacan asked:


Solar energy is a natural source of energy that comes directly from the sun. When solar energy hits the earth it spreads over the earth's surface and provides warmth evenly. If you could capture the sun's rays into a particular area for a long period of time it would provide enough warmth for nighttime or on cloudy days. Learning where to find solar energy can help you to get started today. Solar energy does not cost anything because it comes from the sun. The source that you choose may cost some but in the long run it should be your only expense, unlike gas or oil heaters that you continue to pay for monthly in order to have power or gas heat in your home. Solar power can provide heating, cooling and ventilation. If you want to make your own solar power to capture the energy for heating its easy to do if you can find a solar collector, which is anything that attracts the heat from the sun in a concentrated amount, such as glass or clear plastic. Getting into your car that has sat out in the hot sun all day long can be extremely hot and you have to roll down your windows to cool it off inside. That is because the glass has attracted the sun and the objects in your car, including your seats, have trapped the heat not allowing it to escape. When you roll your windows down you are allowing the heat to escape causing your car to cool down. The same thing is true about greenhouses. The glass or clear plastic can attract the sun and not allow it to escape causing the greenhouse to maintain the heat for the plants to grow effectively. In order to heat your home using solar energy, you need to know the information on a passive and an active home. These two types of solar homes offer the homeowner options to choose from and your cost of heating may be down. Solar energy does not only heat your home but it also heats your water and if you use solar energy lights it can light your home at night. Passive homes do not use any equipment to heat the home. Passive homes use windows that are made to allow the maximum amount of sunlight into your home. The sunlight is controlled by keeping the doors closed in the hottest part of the day not allowing any heat to escape. At night thick curtains may be used on these windows so that the warmth stays inside during the night. This allows the sun to naturally heat your home without any help. Active homes do use equipment to help circulate the heat in the home. Some of the equipment that may be used includes pumps, blowers and an alternative heating source in case the sunlight was not enough during the daytime. In order to heat the home with sunlight these homes use special boxes on the outside that attract the sunrays to it. They are made from a dark colored metal to help attract the sun more. The water or air that is carried in the pipes and ductwork is heated by this glass box that has captured the sunlight. Then the heated water or air is then carried to the rest of the home. In the long run, solar energy helps to heat the home naturally and without depending on a company to supply it for you. Solar energy can be found anywhere the sun is.

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Energy Tags: energy resources, battery technology

Solar energy is power that is drawn from the sun's rays. There are many uses for this power source such as, heating, producing electricity and lighting, as well as powering household appliances and experimental motor vehicles. Converting a household's energy needs over to sun driven applications is a great way to help control global warming, as well as reduce power costs.

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Billscutter.com reports on how solar power can provide practical energy and cost savings, following the installation of solar water heating panels, while warning against the risk of contracting to installers who value their profits above your environment.

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[tag-tec]Active Solar Energy[/tag-tec] Active solar builds on the same principles as passive solar but uses additional technology such as fans and pumps to maximize the desirable effects and minimize the undesirable ones. It is used to produce energy for heating and cooling spaces, to store energy for later use, and to heat water. Most active solar energy systems use specialized collectors to capture the rays and used the stored power and additional electricity as necessary to run pumps and fans for distribution.

Solar collectors The key to solar collection is the solar cell, or photovoltaic (PV), fashioned from semiconducting materials such as silicon, much like computer chips. As this material absorbs light, negatively charged electrons break free of their atoms and flow, or conduct, through the material. Through conduction, these electrons—electricity—are transferred to a fluid-filled metal tube; this is usually made of copper or aluminum, both of which are good thermal conductors. The tubes are fill with air, water or a solution of water and glycol (antifreeze). The direct current (DC) produced passes through an inverter and emerges as alternating current (AC), which is then shunted to the utility panel to be distributed as 12- or 240-volt power for lights, appliances and outlets, as well as for domestic hot water heaters, swimming pools, radiators, radiant floor heating systems—even car washes.

Some industrial and commercial architects are beginning to add solar heating systems to warm up fresh air from outdoors before it is drawn into the building’s HVAC system, greatly reducing the amount of energy needed to heat the building conventionally.

Obviously, the percentage of your energy needs that you will be able to supply with a [tag-ice]solar [/tag-ice]collector system will depend on several factors, including the efficiency of the system you install, and where the building is located. Ideally this will be somewhere that experiences cold temperatures but that also receives plenty of sunlight; that way, even if it cannot supply everything necessary, it can at least reduce the need for traditional heating and electrical sources. Although they cost more, photovoltaic arrays that move to track the path of the sun help take advantage of as many hours of sunlight as possible. Many states offer tax credits, deductions, and sometimes sales or property tax exemptions for approved solar energy systems. If you are thinking of selling the house or structure any time soon, however, be aware that you may not qualify for a loan from many banks or other lenders unless you have some form of traditional system in place as a backup.

Solar Arrays While small solar units can power such things as calculators and watches, to produce significant quantities of electricity photovoltaics are generally assembled into modules—self-contained in weather-resistant housings. The modules can easily be assembled into arrays of an appropriate size residential, commercial, scientific, and industrial installations.

The solar arrays of old were thick ungainly slabs of hardware, which made them unpopular with any but the most devoted enthusiasts. These days, however, solar arrays use a thin-film technology that allows them to be used in dozens of new ways, including as roof tiles and roof shingles that are as durable as traditional asphalt shingles but, of course, have the added benefit of doing more than keeping rain and snow out of the house. The efficiency has improved as well, although there is plenty of room for improvement. Although the first solar cells had efficiencies of less than 5 percent (they have been around since the 1950s, believe it or not), today’s solar cells are still capable of converting only 15 percent of the sun’s rays to electricity.

This low efficiency is one reason that scientists have developed concentrating photovoltaic systems (CPVs). These use lenses or mirrors to focus more of the sun’s rays into a single area—hence the word concentrate—as well as to use less silicon-type materials, a costly part of the system, in favor of higher-performance conductors such as gallium arsenide. There are three types of CPVs to date:

§ Parabolic-trough systems—These use long U-shaped reflectors that focus the sunlight onto an oil-filled pipe in the center of the trough. The oil heats up, and can then be used to boil water to produce steam to turn a turbine. § Dish/engine systems—These look a little like satellite dishes. Again, they focus the rays onto a receptacle that heats a fluid. As the fluid heats, it expands and either moves a piston or a turbine. § Power tower system—This uses a large expanse of mirrors that focus the rays to a receiver on top of a tower. The receiver is filled with molten salt that, when heated, can power a conventional steam generator. Because molten salt holds onto heat for days, power tower systems can still be producing electricity even if the day is cloudy.

CPVs are not home-use systems. Because they are nearly always controlled by tracking systems to keep them aimed for maximum efficiency, they are used for large-scale solar plants—sun farms, in essence.

Energy Tags: solar cells, solar energy

Heating oil prices are increasing slowly, they are becoming more obvious as time goes by, and the prices will continue to go up and up until the fuels needed are burnt up. We need these fuels to produce heat and warmth in our homes, so where are heating oil prices headed? I will be discussing where I think that heat oil prices will be going as well as what we may have to turn to when there is no longer any natural resources left to use.

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