Solar for My Home

By: Energy Efficient Home Team™

“A chain is only as good as its weakest link” when restated for home energy conservation purposes is: A home’s energy efficiency and comfort is only as good as its’ thermal package. The thermal package is everything
between you on the inside of your home and the outdoors which helps you to maintain the temperature you find most ideal or comfortable. The material most common to creating this resistance is known as insulation. Insulation is measured by its’ depth or thickness and is calculated to effectiveness by its resistance to temperature differences on either side of the insulation commonly referred to as the “R-Value”. The R-Value is described by a number where the higher the number the more resistance there is to transferring the temperature through the object. In this case the object is the home.

Let’s start with the top of the home which is the most important. In the winter, after a snow look to the roof tops to see how long the snow stays on the roof. If the snow clings to the roof the home is better insulated than the house whose roof has melted the snow off. You are looking for signs of a well insulated attic or roof. To determine if a home has a well insulated attic when it is not snowing go and check the attic to see if it has any insulation, how much and its’ condition. If the insulation is matted the R-Value, the amount of resistance is diminished. Check to see that all areas are covered verses just spotty applications. An attic that is only partially insulated is like going outside without a hat on a cold winter’s day.

Once the attic insulation is stopping the heat from rising naturally, the wall insulation is important to keep the temperature from radiating out the sides of the building. It is also important to have a tight wind barrier to keep the wind from taking the desired temperature from your home. Tight seams and caulking around windows and doors with the use of a wind barrier like Tyvek with the added thick insulation of R19 or more is very similar to putting on a heavy parka coat and drawing the hood tight to keep all the body heat in.

To make your thermal package complete in your home you need good insulation around and under your conditioned space. We chose to insulate all our basement walls and the basement floor. This makes the structure like an old fashioned thermos bottle that will keep heat and cooling within the building for much longer times than those without this insulation. Also without good insulation around and under your conditioned space the heat or cold will be drawn into the ground and basement materials acting like a heat sink that is closer to the grounds natural temperature of approximately 40 to 50 degrees. This is not considered comfortable for humans.

Ventilation is a major consideration when a good Ecobuilt™ thermal package conditions the space. The tighter and more efficient the structure gets the more need there is for fresh air to prevent the possible build up of moisture from human living that has a tendency to cause a condition where molds and mildew will grow. Some of these molds can be very toxic and become life threatening if not addressed. Proper ventilation is also important in preventing the possible build up of radon.

A structure that conserves energy operates on the least amount of energy (i.e. natural gas, oil, propane or electricity, etc.) for the least amount of cost. In other words the cost of the furnace and the amount of the cost to run the furnace including maintenance are added together to figure out how much it is costing you to stay warm. The overall costs of one system are compared to another system’s costs to determine which has the least overall cost per year for the same results. Each system has its own advantages and disadvantages which must be personally chosen by the people living in the structure.
Energy conservation in a home starts with a good Ecobuilt™ thermal package because it works to maintain heat in the winter and coolness in the summer longer. So no matter what your preference is for the type of system you chose for heat or cooling if a home does not have an Ecobuilt™ thermal package your energy dollars are going out the walls, windows and doors, or through the roof.

We will address different characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of various systems and procedures at a later time. Cost will be a variable in two specific areas: the installation of equipment and the operation over the equipment’s life expectancy including maintenance. We encourage you to stay tuned so you will be able to figure out what are the most cost effective options and ways to save on energy costs as energy prices continue to increase.

The Energy Efficient Home Team is a success story in Ecobuilt™- Energy Efficient Home Technology since the mid-1980s. They have proven time and again that their building envelope technology is the top of the line for home energy savins.

Copyright © 2006, Dennis Maq & Siti M Crook, Energy Efficient Home Team™

Article Source: http://www.solarpanelarticles.com

The Energy Efficient Home Team™ is a success story in energy efficient home technology dating back to the mid-1980s. They have proven time and again that their Ecobuilt™ building envelope technology makes them the 21st century’s leading experts in energy efficiency in homes. Additional information about energy efficient homes and the Energy Efficient Home Team™ may be found at energy efficient home articles.

By: Andrew Leech

More and more British households are spending a higher percentage of their income on energy costs. According to Tony Lodge of the Bow Group, research shows that the number of households categorised as being in fuel poverty is expected to have almost doubled in the past four years, up from 2 million to over 4 million. Then there is severe fuel poverty, which refers to spending more than 15% of total household income on fuel.

Using the UK Government’s own fuel poverty criteria and set against recent energy price rises it can be calculated that an extra 2 million households have become victims of fuel poverty over this period.

Last winter, more than 25,000 people over the age of 65 died as a result of cold related illnesses. This was way in excess of other European countries with more severe climates than Britain. 22% of older people living in fuel poverty have gone without gas or electricity in order to make ends meet.

After the 2005 series of energy price rises had hit British households, Energywatch said: “With no immediate end in sight to energy price rises the effect will be increased levels of debt, fuel poverty and the possibility of disconnection.”

So with the latest round of gas and electricity increases, fuel poverty becomes an even more crucial problem and challenge, particularly for the elderly and low paid. It is estimated that approximately half of people in fuel poverty are of pensionable age and that considerably more than half of vulnerable households in are pensioner households.

AT GREATER RISK
Fuel poverty amongst older people is a particularly serious problem not only because they are at greater risk from the cold, but also because they are more likely to spend time within their home. In fact, households containing people aged 65 and over spend more than 80% of their time at home, whilst this figure rises to over 90% for those aged 85 and more.

Help the Aged estimate that between 20,000 and 50,000 people die each winter because their homes are cold. For this reason alone, the urgency of tackling fuel poverty deserves a high priority from Government.

Indeed, the Government was officially committed to ending fuel poverty for vulnerable households by 2010. However, it is increasingly accepted that this target will not be met and it seems highly unlikely that the Government’s other target of eradicating all fuel poverty in the UK by 2016-18 also will not be achieved!

INTRINSICALLY LINKED
Energy policy and fuel poverty are intrinsically linked. A balanced energy policy which should include new nuclear power stations, clean coal stations alongside gas and some renewable capacity can play a key role is stabilising electricity costs.

Through this route strategies aimed at reducing fuel poverty can function in the knowledge that a large area of fuel cost – electricity – will be far less volatile than, say, in the recent past. Other strategies boost support for better home design and insulation to improve heat conservation while other energy efficiency measures for households are sadly lacking.

An energy policy that strives to reduce energy costs is available. It represents a strategy which can significantly reduce fuel poverty and provide a better degree of certainty for the energy generators and customers alike.

Meanwhile the Government risks placing Britain at the mercy of being over-dependent on gas for its electricity generation and all of the implications this represents on grounds of higher bills and the inevitable social problems that would inevitably follow.

Article Source: http://www.solarpanelarticles.com

Andrew Leech, Editor of 4ecotips.com briefly explains about the rising UK energy prices that gives birth to a crucial problem called ‘fuel poverty’ that are becoming more and more critical for household and low paid these days. For more information on Eco News, Global Warming, Environment education, News on increasing Fuel prices in UK, Eco jobs,

We should be doing everything possible to develop geothermal energy technologies. This is a largely untapped area of tremendous alternative energy potential, as it simply taps the energy being naturally produced by the Earth herself. Vast amounts of power are present below the surface crust on which we move and have our being. All we need do is tap into it and harness it.

At the Earths’ core, the temperature is 60 times greater than that of water being boiled. The tremendous heat creates pressures that exert themselves only a couple of miles below us, and these pressures contain huge amounts of energy. Superheated fluids in the form of magma, which we see the power and energy of  whenever there is a volcanic eruption, await our tapping. These fluids also trickle to the surface as steam and emerge from vents. We can create our own vents, and we can create out own containment chambers for the magma and convert all of this energy into electricity to light and heat our homes. In the creation of a geothermal power plant, a well would be dug where there is a good source of magma or heated fluid. Piping would be fitted down  into the source, and the fluids forced to the surface to produce the needed steam. The steam would turn a turbine engine, which would generate the electricity.

There are criticisms of geothermal energy tapping which prevent its being implemented on the large scale which it should be. Critics say that study and research to find a resourceful area is too costly and takes up too much time. Then there is more great expense needed to build a geothermal power plant, and there is no promise of the plant turning a profit. Some geothermal sites, once tapped, might be found to not produce a large enough amount of steam for the power plant to be viable or reliable. And we hear from the environmentalists who worry that bringing up magma can bring up potentially harmful materials along with it.

However, the great benefits of geothermal energy would subsume these criticisms if only we would explore it more. The fact that geothermal energy is merely the energy of the Earth herself means it does not produce any pollutants. Geothermal energy is extremely efficient—the efforts needed to channel it are minimal after a site is found and a plant is set up. Geothermal plants, furthermore, do not need to be as large as electrical plants, giant dams, or atomic energy facilities—the environment would thus be less disrupted. And, needless to say, it is an alternative form of energy—using it would mean we become that much less dependent on oil and coal. Perhaps most importantly of all—we are never, ever going to run out of geothermal energy, and it is not a commodity that would continuously become more expensive in terms of real dollars as time passes, since it is ubiquitous. Geothermal energy would be, in the end, very cheap, after investigation and power plant building costs are recouped.