Did you know that most of your energy money
goes toward your heating and cooling bills?
As if that wasn’t bad enough, heating and cooling contributes to
pollution and harms the environment.
Better choices are definitely the way to go in order to protect your
environment and save your money.
Tips for using
the sun’s energy:
Ø Turn off your heat and pull your blinds
up—the sun peering through your windows will prove to be a heating effect
Ø If you want to heat your home using solar
energy, pull up the blinds from the South-facing windows so that sunlight can
enter the room
Ø Of course, if you are trying to keep the
hot summer heat out of your home, you definitely want to opt for shading, such
as trees and blinds, to keep the sunlight out
Ø As mentioned before, there are windows
available that help trap the sun’s heat, but prevent the outside coolness from
getting inside
Ø When building or reconstructing your house,
consider using heat-retaining materials that will trap the sun’s heat. Heat-retaining materials will allow you to
have a heating system during cool nights.
For example, Trombe walls have built-in heat-storing materials that
absorb the sun’s heat throughout the day and are able to heat your home during
the night.
Ø If you are remodeling your home, consider
adding more windows to the south side of your wall and minimizing the number of
windows facing the north side.
Ø Solar water heaters can be used to heat the
water at your home. Water heaters can
be either active or passive. With an
active water heater, an electric pump is used to circulate the heat transfer
fluid, while a passive water heater uses no pump.
Ø A roof-mounted solar collector should be
facing the south side on your roof to produce the best results. The solar water heating system will
circulate water through this solar collector , and the sun will warm the water.
Ø Solar water heating saves up to 85% per
year on utility bills (compared to electric water heating) and reduces the
carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
Ethanol:
Ø Ethanol is produced from corn (bioenergy); it
is used as a gasoline additive in cities that have problems with pollution.
Ø E85 is a mixture that consists of 85%
ethanol and 15% gasoline; new cars on the market are able to use E85 and
gasoline.
Ø One problem that scientists have had to
face with is the short supply of corn.
Scientists are trying to use new technology to develop ethanol from
other biomass.
Ø Other car fuels, such as petroleum diesel,
are fairly clean sources of fuel, but they are not renewable.
Ø Ethanol, another alternative fuel, makes up
the fuel M85.
Some helpful
websites to check out:
http://www.seia.org/ (site offers info on solar
as well as other energy resources)
http://ojps.aip.org/ASMEJournals/solar
(you have to be a subscriber to this website to access the latest solar news)
http://www.epsea.org/ (filled with latest
energy news, but focus is mainly on solar energy)
*The main information source for this website came
from the Clean Energy Choices handbook, America Online, and other
websites. Clipart and pictures are from
Clean Energy Choices and HP Creative Solutions Project Kit.