Renewable Energy & Self Sufficiency

Generate-Free-Electricity-Magnetic-Generator

2010-02-05T00:32:00.001Z

Electricity is something we all take for granted. The cost of electricity is getting higher and higher and we all seem to accept this.

Well stop the press, I have proved that electricity can be generated at home with nothing more than a Lister CS 5.1 or Lister 6.1 CS Diesel Stationary engine that has been modified to run on waste vegetable oil.
http://homebrewpower.co.uk/Generate-Free-Electricity.html

Radiator-Booster-MK2-As-Featured-In-Your-Sleaford-Lincs

2010-02-01T08:33:00.002Z

The Radiator Booster MK 2 is a product I have featured in the February 2010's edition of 'Your Sleaford Lincs' Simply placed on the top of any radiator they efficiently distribute your heating and reduce heating bills.

To purchase one please visit the link below to purchase one.

How-To-Build-A-Wind-Turbine-On-The-Cheap

2010-01-31T22:35:00.003Z

Learn how to build a low voltage DC wind turbine and what is required.

Introduction

I have read a countless books, mails, how to guides and the rest on how to build a wind turbine and none of the so called guides actually help, hence I will show you what is required, step by step.

The guides where OK but did not really get to the point, which was in simple terms what do I need to obtain to make one!

As you can see from the picture above, my wind machine is in motion and it is almost all of the time, so long as there is a breeze it is making free power to supply my battery bank, all day and all night!

My wind machine specifications

6 x Carbon fibre reinforced plastic blades 3ft long
1 x Circular steel hub 3mm steel (Home made) 150mm Diameter
1 x 10Ft standard steel scaffolding pole
1 x 4ft Angle Iron type steel for tail
1 x Custom mounting swivel bracket (Home made)
12 x M6 roofing bolts, nuts and washers for blade mounting
1 x Brooke Crompton 90VDC 3000W permanent magnet DC motor (PMDC)
1 x Length of 16MM 2 core copper twin wire for power transfer
1 x 600MM x 300MM x 5MM Perspex clear Perspex for tail fin
1 x Lucas blocking Diode to prevent batteries spinning wind machine!

A down to earth explanation of how it works!

The reason I chose this particular motor is because when you spin a PMDC motor then it produces DC, DC is what charges SLA batteries so PMDC motors are the ideal solution for a Homebrew wind machine, these can be found world over in surplus shops, look out for them!
So if we spin up a PMDC motor then we produce a DC voltage, the faster you spin it the higher the voltage will get.

When you connect a PMDC motor to a battery then the motor spins, this is using power from the battery bank to produce motive force, now if you where to manually spin the motor at the same speed as it was trying to go connected to the battery then effectively the motor would be producing the same voltage the battery was supplying, so the battery would not be under any load i.e. 12V battery connected in parallel to a PMDC motor spinning at a rate to produce 12VDC produces an equal and opposite electric force.

However, once you begin to spin the motor faster than the battery bank voltage then you are effectively charging the battery bank i.e. 12VDC battery bank connected in parallel to a PMDC motor producing 13.5VDC is charging the bank or in simple terms putting power into your batteries!

Now we could go into overcharging, regulating, desulfating, trickle charging and more but for now we have the basics in place and we are producing power and storing it in a chemical form (Batteries) for later re use.

More information

Blocking Diode
Purpose is to allow the produced voltage to flow from the wind machine (PMDC Motor) into the batteries but not the other way, so in wind the batteries will charge but in no wind the wind machine will NOT rotate.

SLA Batteries
Purpose is to store electricity in a chemical form

PMDC Motor
Purpose is to effectively use it in reverse to induce a current flow into the motor windings from magnets and provide us with a useful charging current at the right voltage.

16MM Copper cable
Purpose is transport our voltage from the wind machine to the battery bank with the least amount of electrical resistance, copper is a good electrical conductor but of course it has a resistive value, the larger the cross sectional area of the copper conductor, the less resistance we have. Big really is better when it comes to your cabling!

How-To-Connect-A-Battery-Bank

2010-01-30T17:05:00.001Z

Find out how to connect a battery bank & find out more about how to cross tie a battery bank.

In larger battery banks, where you have multiple series – parallel strings of batteries, you run the risk of some batteries getting more “depleated” than others, and this degrades your pack performance.

A simple way to reduce this effect is to cross-tie your batteries. This is a not often used but important method of getting extreme life out of your expensive batteries.

See above diagram for details of Cross-Tied-Battery-Bank

The dotted lines show the cross tie cables. It’s also important to make sure your cables are large enough so that you are not losing power as heat through resistance.

If you have caps on your batteries, not maintenance free, check the water levels once a month and top them off during charging. Do not overflow.

Generate-Electricity-From-Trees

2010-01-20T21:52:00.000Z

Green Electricity Using Trees

Here is a simple concept I have wanted to try out for many years.

1. Tie a rope to the tunk of a tree 2/3rds the way up.

2. Connect the end of the rope to a ratchet driven generator (Permenant Magnet)

3. Wait for the wind to get up.

4. Create free power!

Simple idea to produce electricity and could be scaled up to generate massive amounts of power from the swaying of trees in the wind

Grow-Your-Own-Food | Organic-Gardening

2010-01-07T12:43:00.000Z

1. Grow Your Own Food: Introduction.
You don’t need a large garden or allotment to produce fantastic fresh food. Growing your own is not only cheaper, it's healthier, good fun and satisfying. We all know that fruit and vegetables are good for you, and fresh from the garden is the best possible choice for all the family and guests.

2. Grow Your Own Food In Small Gardens.
You can do it in small gardens or back yards too! There are lots of herbs, fruit and vegetables that grow just as well in containers so you can easily turn your paved areas into a productive kitchen gardens. Choose dwarf varieties where possible. Not forgetting windowsills - there are seed trays and propagators specially designed to fit.

3. Try Grow Bag Gardening.
You can grow lots of plants in a grow-bag. They are great for tomatoes, but you could also consider cucumbers, hot-chillies and peppers. The potato sack is a relative newcomer into the grow bag selections. Just right for the patio, it's a no-mess, easy way to grow perfect, delicious, ready to cook potatoes.

Plant sprouting seed potatoes into an organic peat-free all purpose compost.
Keep adding more layers of compost as the plants grow.
Watch out for flowering as two or three weeks later your new potatoes will be ready.

4. How To Grow Herbs.
Herbs are perfect plants for garden, patio or your window box. Everyone can grow herbs, even a pretty pot of parsley on the kitchen windowsill will provide instant garnishes. Salads will come to life with the addition of home grown chives and the amazing fragrance of freshly picked basil. The more herbs you grow, the more uses you will find for them!

How To Grow Basil
Sprinkle on salads and add to tomato dishes. Grow indoors, or outside in summer.

How To Grow Mint
Confine the roots to avoid excessive spread. Use the leaves to make tea and add to cold drinks.

How To Grow Chives
Chop and add to salads and dips for a mild onion flavour. Very attractive clump forming plant.

How To Grow Sage
Versatile plant which has either silver green or purple foliage. Leaves used to add flavour.

How To Grow Coriander
Lower leaves can be used instead of parsley. Seeds can be dried.

How To Grow Sorrel
Use the young leaves in salads for a slight lemony tang. Larger leaves can be added to omelettes.

How To Grow Dill
Grow from seed each year. Dry the seeds for use in pickling, salads and fish dishes.

How To Grow Thyme
Lovely in pots but also good planted in cracks between paving slabs. Add leaves to meat and poultry dishes.

How To Grow Marjoram
A decorative plant which enjoys full sun. Use leaves fresh or dried in cheese or meat dishes.

How To Grow Parsley
The leaves can be used fresh, dried or frozen, often as a garnish. Sow fresh seed each year in spring.

5. How To Grow Fruit Trees.
If you have a small garden why not plant a fruit tree? Apple, pear or plum all look good and will provide a plentiful crop. They come in different sizes so you can usually find the right tree for the space available.

Plum trees are often overlooked, but they are attractive and will produce plenty of plump, juicy plums you can eat straight from the tree.

Even if you don't have a garden, you can still grow your own fruit trees. There are dwarf forms of apples, nectarines, peaches, cherries and pears, specially developed to grow in pots.

6. How To Grow Superfoods.
Certain foods have earned a reputation for being exceptionally good for us. This is because they are packed full of antioxidants which help to keep our bodies healthy.

How To Grow Blueberries
Buy young plants and grow them in decorative containers on the patio. They require an acid soil so use ericaceous compost and rain water. Grow two or more, so that the flowers will be pollinated and feed with B&Q Organic Living fruit and veg food concentrate.

How To Grow Strawberries
A strawberry pot with ripening berries looks fabulous on the patio. They are great value because at the end of the season each will have developed baby plantlets on the end of long shoots. Plant them into small pots whilst still attached. Once roots have grown, cut from the parent and you will have new plants for the following year. B&Q Organic Living fruit and veg food concentrate can help to improve fruit quantity and quality.

How To Grow Blackberries
A real seasonal treat. You can grow your own against a fence or over a wall in the garden. Cultivated varieties have larger berries than their wild cousins, produced on long, arching, very thorny stems. They are extremely vigorous, so prune hard.

How To Grow Blackcurrants
There are three types of currant, but the black variety is considered the healthiest. Attractive bushes which have pretty flowers and lots of juicy fruits in late summer. Can be container grown, but needs to be watered well.

8. Involve The Kids In Gardening.
Growing food is fun for all ages. Give children their own mini vegetable patch. They will have great fun, it's educational, and a good way to get kids to try new food. Let them plant things which are quick to grow and can be eaten straight from the plant. Carrots and peas are good, and strawberries will always be a hit. Teach them how to germinate seeds, care for seedlings and tend plants – let them enjoy the challenge and develop a valuable life skill.

9. Ready-Made Plants.
If you don't want to grow from seed, there's a wide range of fruit and veg available, already grown, and ready for you to plant. Look out for mixed collections, they give you a selection of plants which compliment each other.

10. How To Make A Raised Bed For Vegetables.
Raised beds for vegetables take up less space, are easy to manage and look great.

Raised vegetable beds can be any size so even a small garden can accommodate one. The idea is that you never step on the soil so it doesn’t become compacted. The plants enjoy a better growing environment and you can plant closer together, which is more economic and looks attractive too. Plant small quantities of each type so you get plenty of variety and interest.

Buy-A-Snow-Shovel-ABS-Plastic-Draper

2010-01-05T22:40:00.000Z

With the Snow warnings around the UK right now I thought it would be a good idea to offer my readers a really good Snow Shovel!

General Purpose Abs Plastic Lightweight Shovel
ABS tough plastic spark-free blade with polypropylene mix shaft and moulded ‘Y-deeÕ handle. Blade width: 250mm and 305mm long. Sold loose.

The Draper Snow Shovel is ECO friendly as it should with care last a lifetime. ABS plastic will never rot.

Lister-CS-Stationary-Engine-For-Sale-UK-Ebay

2010-01-02T11:07:00.001Z

Find Lister CS Stationary Engines for sale in the UK simply bookmark this page and check it on a daily basis. These wonderful engines are easily run on waste vegetable oil (WVO) they will also run on waste motor oil (WMO) and can be used in combined heat and power (CHP / CHAP) setups to provide carbon neutral heat and power for somes and small businesses.

OLED-Paint-By-Lomox-The-Most-Efficient-Form-Of-Lighting-Ever

2010-01-01T16:09:00.000Z

The Carbon Trust, a UK based non-profit trust set up by the British government, has awarded money to fund a new lighting technology that could lower your power bill and carbon footprint in the next couple of years.

The technology is being developed by LOMOX Ltd, a welsh start-up which won a grant from the Carbon Trust of £454,000 ($720,000) to bring organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) to the commercial market.

The fund money is going to 'Lomox', to aid further development of organic LED technology. OLEDs use approximately 50% of the power of fluorescents for a given light output, or about 12% the power of a traditional incandescent lamp.

Traditionally, the problem with OLEDs has been that they have a limited lifespan. Lomox believes it has found a way to make OLEDs last longer than fluorescent lamp technology, which are already a substantial improvement over standard incandescent lamps.

OLEDs can be painted on to a surface, enabling an endless variety shapes and uses. Those glow in the dark stars on the ceiling of your old room could be replaced with a printed roll of the Lomox paper, drawing a tiny amount of power and providing enough light to navigate in the night. The product could also find its way in to road signs and advertising boards.

In that application, small solar PV and rechargeable battery combos could provide power through the dark nights to illuminate signage more efficiently than traditional flood lighting. Since the message itself would be illuminated, less light would be spilled on the space around the sign.

Alternately, or perhaps additionally, the technology promises fixture-free lighting in offices and homes — the ceiling itself becomes the light source. This would also increase efficiency by moving from a point source (Incandescent Lamp) to a radiant light source. With light coming from every direction, radiant lighting reduces or eliminates the need for redundant lighting to prevent poorly illyminated sections in the room.

Lomox plans to have its first products to market in 2012. The OLED technology produces 150 lumens per watt, close to high-end traditional LEDs.

OLED technology isn’t restricted to lighting products, either. OLEDs have demonstrated the ability to be used in flexible displays, TV screens and PC monitors.

If Lomox has indeed found the cure for OLED’s usually-short lifespan and is able to keep the price low, the technology could be licensed for a new generation of thinner, lighter and more power-efficient home displays. Put in cell phones, OLED displays would yield longer battery performance.

In short, Lomox received the grant from the Carbon Trust to develop its longer-lived OLEDs into a commercially viable product. Once completed, the technology promises long-term energy savings and high performance in a highly versatile package. OLEDs could be the must have lighting solution for the next generation.

Estimates predict that 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 could be saved if all modern lighting was replaced with OLEDs by 2020. The future’s bright for wallpaper, a future which could be very illuminating indeed for green schemes.

Recycling-Websites-In-The-UK-Resources

2009-12-31T12:41:00.015Z

Below is a small selection of UK-based recycling websites which introduce the benefits and practicalities of recycling at home and also at work.
If you know of any other websites that should be included in this resource list then please leave a comment and I will add your resource.

Recycle Now - where and how to recycle - Official UK recycling campaign

Loads of tips and advice on how to recycle almost everything! Recyling is a big issue and we are here to help.

News and information for the Recycling and Waste Management Community

The one-stop recycling information centre

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,871 groups with 6,848,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on “Browse Groups” above the search box. Have fun!

Don'tDumpThat provides a quick, easy, and free way to get rid of things you don't want without them ending up in a landfill site. All you have to do is find your nearest Don'tDumpThat forum using the interactive map or your postcode. Once you've found your local forum, register with a username of your choice and your email address - and you're ready to go. Quick and simple.

WheretoRecycle provide a service for people to find out the best places to recycle your unwanted goods. You can even earn cash with most recycling companies. We will be adding to this site on a weekly basis as we find out more places to recycle your unwanted goods.

Lets-Get-1-Million-People-To-Be-More-Sustainable-In-2010

2009-12-30T19:04:00.001Z

Let's Get 1,000,000 People To Be More Sustainable In 2010: A new Facebook campaign I have started to try and do something to change the way we live our lives. Anyone can do something small but the power of all the people out there can do something that will really make a difference for out children and our children's children.

Join up for free and let other know what you have done to make a difference in 2010. Click the picture to view the group.

Top-10-tips-for-living-more-sustainably-in-2010

2009-12-30T15:46:00.001Z

Ten tips for living more sustainably in 2010
A new decade & almost the beginning of a new year - is the time many people try to live differently.

For some, that change means living a more sustainable lifestyle. Sustainability, once merely a buzz word, is fast becoming the way to live consciously.From reducing your water usage to buying organic, here are 10 easy ways to make 2010 your year of sustainable living:

1. Use water more efficiently: Water is a limited resource and limiting it within your home is a cornerstone of sustainability. Rain butts, largely unheard of even a decade ago, are becoming a popular way to collect and reuse rainwater (Grey water) for purposes like gardening. Meanwhile, conserving water in the home by taking shorter showers or even fixing a leaking tap also can make a difference at a time when many communities are experiencing water shortages or are expressing concerns about water overuse.

2. Compost: Turning over leaves by way of a new compost garden is one way to live a more sustainable lifestyle. A compost heap is a simple, way to collect garden waste, like leaves and grass cuttings, and kitchen scraps such as raw vegetable peelings and tea leaves, and return them to the ground as organic matter.

3. Seek Eco-friendly packaging: To better fill that compost heap, alter shopping habits to look for products with compostable (Biodegradable) packaging.

4. Buy local & organic: Many farmers and, increasingly, food manufacturers, are offering foods and drinks made using sustainable practices. It could be a farmers market tomato, a local dairy's milk, an organic snack food, or any number of natural or organic items. The bottom line is that natural, organic and locally produced foods provide both sustenance and sustainability.

5. Go to seed: Take the locally grown movement a step further - like in your own garden or patio. One afternoon spent planting seeds or small plants can yield plenty of rewards a few weeks or months later, in the form of fresh, inexpensive and organic vegetables and fruits. You don't need a large plot of land, in fact, to start a small garden.

6. Ride out the trend: Sustain your own energy level by choosing to ride a bike or walk to a destination that isn't all that far away. Add a basket to a bike or take along a rucksack to bring something back home.

7. Re-recycle: Recycling is nothing new and most people have been recycling in some form for years. But recycling can be taken to another level, going beyond obvious and traditionally recycled items like drinks cans or newspaper to the smallest of waste materials, from plastic straws to the paper straw wrapper. Why not recycle clothing as well, by donating clothes and buying used clothes?

8. Plug in: Learn how to operate appliances more efficiently. For example, use cold water in the washing machine: clothes will still be cleaned, without the use of heated water. Turn off appliances when not in use, whether it's the television, computer or radio. Better yet, completely unplug. Many electronics and battery chargers continue to draw a small amount of power even when they are in standby. Instead, switch off at the socket outlet to cut power completely when not in use.

9. Lighten up: Use energy efficient lighting and lamps when possible and turn off lights when not in a room. That will reduce energy use and the family outgoing budget.

10. Get involved: As the sustainability movement gains momentum among the public, there are more opportunities to join in. Local communities, schools and organizations often have green committees, and there is a plethora of national and grassroots organizations geared around earth-friendly living that appreciate new volunteers or members.

Biodiesel-Sunshine-In-A-Jar

2009-12-30T13:29:00.001Z

Well we are fast approaching 2010 and here at www.homebrewpower.co.uk we are thinking about what we can offer up to our readers and customers.

We have decided that one of the main aims of 2010 will be to produce our own Bio diesel from WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) We believe we have sourced a supply of waste oil to use for bio diesel production and have the knowledge to create a Bio diesel reactor.

Bio diesel is pretty much ,'Sunshine in a jar' It will provide our diesel van with all the B100 fuel we require.

We are also working towards a WVO powered heating system using Babington technology for heating our conservatory and with forced hot air the garage and workshop areas of our premises. Our aim is to design a fully automated, fail safe Babington heating system that uses waste vegetable oils for fuel.

We will post updates as and when they happen (Time permitting)

Track-Santa-Claus-2009-Via-Google-Earth

2009-12-23T15:29:00.000Z

For anyone of my festive followers who would like to sit up (With the kids) and watch Santa Claus live delivering all the presents all around the world then click on the link below.

Track Santa Claus

Merry Christmas

Protos-Plant-Oil-Stove-Breaking-News

2009-12-11T09:52:00.000Z

An Innovative Cooker

A cooker powered with plant oil?

That doesn't seem so unusual in an age in which even automobiles run on rapeseed or other common cooking oils. But, a high-tech, high-quality stove that is nevertheless so inexpensive that even poor families in developing countries can afford it, is a special challenge that requires a unique focus.

All people eat. Around the world we prepare many different types of food in many different ways. Over 2.5 billion of the world's population prepares food on open fires. Up to 700 kilograms of wood are needed per person per year to fulfill such cooking requirements, often leading to severe deforestation as well as health and safety problems. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that every year as many as 1.6 million people die - mostly women and children - from indoor air pollution caused, in large part, by those fires. Furthermore, deforestation leads to ecological problems like flash floods and mudslides - as seen recently in the Philippines and elsewhere.

The Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances Group (BSH) is working to provide a viable alternative to open fires, charcoal, kerosene, or gas used for cooking. Specialized in developing world-class home appliances, BSH is dedicated promoting sustainable living all members of society around the world. In 2003, BSH acquired the plant oil cooker technology and offered to apply its considerable know-how to further develop the technology and create a market-ready, plant oil cooker.

The plant oil cooker with "protos" technology, developed by BSH, was conceived to be more than just another appliance; in addition to fulfilling the basic human need of food preparation, it also has the potential to generate positive ecological, economic, health, and social benefits. The innovative protos technology allows the use of any type of available plant oil as fuel for cooking.

protos.

Copenhagen-Climate-Summit-Absolute-Devastation

2009-12-09T07:22:00.001Z

Copenhagen climate summit: developing countries warn of 'absolute devastation'

The Copenhagen climate summit was thrown into disarray last night after developing countries said the current plans for a deal on global warming condemned millions of people to “absolute devastation”.

The row broke out after the draft text of a deal allegedly prepared by the Danish government emerged, which campaigners claimed favoured rich countries and risked squeezing poor nations out of the negotiations.

The text, a draft agreement, was interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on carbon emissions for developed and developing countries – meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much.

They also expressed concern that a 'climate fund’ – supposed to provide financial assistance from richer nations to developing countries – would be run by the World Bank, under the control of developed nations.

Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, the chief negotiator for the G77, a group of 130 developing nations including China, said the leaders of the rich world had a “moral obligation” to cut greenhouse gases.
He said failure to keep temperature rise below 2C (3.6F) would lead to the disappearance of island states and “certain death” for Africa.

He also said the United States President Barack Obama was condemning “the cousins and extended family of his own daughters to be destroyed to preserve the interests of the few”.

And he said the funding proposed by Gordon Brown of $10 billion per annum to help poor countries adapt to climate change was not enough to “buy developing nations citizens enough coffins”.

“What we need to ask the President is the following: We see the 2C target exposes over 100 countries to massive suffering and devastation. If that is the case, on what definition of leadership would the most developed and industrialised nations sign up to that? Would he accept that the cousins and extended family of his own daughters be destroyed to preserve the interests of the few?”

On just the second day of negotiations, Mr di-Aping upped the pressure on the rich nations to make drastic cuts in greenhouse gases.

“A British Prime Minister cannot say the cost of inaction as far as climate change is concerned will result in irreparable damage on the world and then follow that by not committing his own country the EU and advanced countries to commit to ambitious and radical reductions in emissions.
"That is what is necessary and we call on world leaders and ordinary people to put the utmost pressure on politicians to come to their senses. It is not acceptable that this opportunity will be wasted because of a few leaders.”

Mr Di-Aping, from Sudan, pointed out that the world paid $1.3 trillion to bail out the banks in the financial crisis.

He said substantial money should also be offered to help poor countries adapt to climate change, but ultimately rich nations must make cuts in emissions.

He compared the money being offered to poor nations to adapt to climate change to a sum of money being offered to an individual becoming ill.

“For example someone is going to give me a trillion dollars for exchange for having cancer,” he said. “Would a person accept that kind of damage to his health for any amount of money? I doubt it.”

However the developed nations insisted that there is still everything to play for at negotiations.
A spokesman for the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy played down the importance of the text.

"In this kind of process, many different working papers are circulated among many different parties with their hands on the process. These papers are the basis for informal consultations that contribute with input used for testing various positions. Therefore, many papers exist. That is quite normal."

It is understood the text has been circulating as part of the process of trying to reach an agreement but has not been accepted formally by any countries.

Global-Warming-Caused-By-Suns-Radiation

2009-12-08T19:23:00.000Z

Copenhagen climate summit: global warming "caused by sun's radiation"

Global warming is caused by radiation from the sun, according to a leading scientist speaking out at an alternative "sceptics' conference" in Copenhagen.

Professor Henrik Svensmark argued that the recent warming period was caused by solar activity. Photo: REUTERS

As the world gathered in the Danish capital for the UN Climate Change Conference, more than 50 scientists, businessmen and lobby groups met to discuss the arguments against man made global warming.

Although the meeting was considerably smaller than the official gathering of 15,000 people meeting down the road, the organisers claimed it could change the course of negotiations.

Sceptics 'may resort to illegal acts to stop climate deal'

Past decade warmest on record, says Met Office Professor Henrik Svensmark, a physicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen, said the recent warming period was caused by solar activity.

He said the last time the world experienced such high temperatures, during the medieval warming period, the Sun and the Earth were in a similar cycle.

Professor Nils-Axel Morner, a geologist from Stockholm University, said sea level rise has also been exaggerated by the “climate alarmists” using computer models.

He said observational data from lake sediments, coast lines and trees show sea levels have remained stable.

Professor Cliff Ollier, another geologist from the University of Western Australia, also said the environmental lobby have got it wrong on ice caps. He said the melting of ice sheets is caused by geothermal activity rather than global surface temperatures.

Professor Ian Plimer, from the University of Adelaide, claimed carbon dioxide from volcanoes rather than humans is driving warming as part of a natural process.

The meeting was organised by Danish group Climate Sense and the lobby group Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).

Craig Rucker, Executive Director of CFACT, admitted the organisation have taken funding from Exxon Mobil in the past but pointed out that many environmental groups are also receiving funding from major corporations.

Graham Capper of Climate Sense said manmade global warming was a myth and scientists who said otherwise were lying. :

"There are people who know they are lying and do it simply for money and others who think they are doing good," he said. "But they not good scientists."

Lord Monckton, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said he was speaking to delegations from the US and Canada about question marks over the science.

He said a recent poll by the Telegraph, that shows only one in two people accept man made climate change, show people are questioning the consensus being pushed by the UN summit.

“As anybody knows who follows the opinion polls in Britain and Australia and the US, in the last few weeks and months there has been a rapid collapse in the global warming chimera so while we still have our freedom, let us speak out.”

Free-Heating

2009-12-02T18:17:00.003Z

Free heating is something lots of people this time of year will be thinking about. The temperature has dropped to almost 0 Degrees right now here in the UK, everyone is running central heating 7 days a week and worrying about the increasing costs of fossil fuel.

Free heating would be the answer for us all right now!

There are many ways that we can provide ourselves with free (Well almost free) heating providing we put some initial efforts in.

The number 1 thing we can do to get free heating is to use wood to heat our homes. Wood is a ‘Carbon Neutral’ source of energy and it actually heats you 3 times. 1. Felling 2.Splitting & 3.Burning!

Solar hot air panels are also another great source of free heating, providing the sun is shining (Even well below freezing) the solar hot air panels will provide warm air for you.

Some people have used solar hot water to heat a heat store (A large insulated body of water) through the day, then on an evening the heated water can be pumped around their radiators which in turn heat your home.

Finally you can burn waste vegetable oils with a babington burner and use the produced heat in all manor of ways to heat your home. The uses of a Babington burner are endless.

Free Heating is something we can all achieve with a little bit of handy work and imagination.

Wishing all my readers a very ‘Warm Christmas’

Babington Burner Atomizing Nozzles For Sale

2009-12-02T10:08:00.002Z

Our Babington nozzles are now on ebay and we have for the christmas period added a ‘Accept Best Offers’ so for anyone wanting a Babington Burner Nozzle but think the price of £39.00 to be a little bit over budget then why now make me an offer?

Babington Burner Link Via Ebay

Babington Burner Atomizing Nozzles For Sale

Babington burner atomizing nozzles are used to atomize almost all combustible fuel sources. Fuels such as vegetable oil, WVO waste vegetable oil, WMO waste motor oil, waste gearbox oil, waste transmission oil, peanut oil, canola oil and paraffin oil can all be burned very cleanly.

We guarantee to send each individual Nozzle out within 5 working days of receipt of money.

Complete-Catagories-Section-Added-To-Left-Column

2009-12-01T16:11:00.002Z

HomeBrewPower now has a great new way to search for interesting links. You can use the google search facility if you prefer that system of searching but I have now added the facility to find all posts by catagory or topic.

Just scroll down the left sidebar and you will see a complete list of every single Topic I have covered since the website was born! Just click the link you are interested and every single page that is tagged with the topic will be displayed, newest first.

I hope this is a valuable addition to www.homebrewpower.co.uk

How-To-Make-A-Wind-Turbine

2009-12-01T15:44:00.002Z

Learn how to make a wind turbine from recycled parts with little or no money.

Many ask if it can be done. Well yes it can be done. Many of the parts used in small scale wind turbines can be found in scrap yards or your local tips.

To make a DIY wind turbine that is capable of producing DC (Direct Current) then you require the following items.

PMDC Motor (Permanent Magnet Direct Current) 50 to 1,000 Watts and as high voltage as possible 90–140 are the best.

A Blocking Diode To Suit.

Some PVC pipe for the blades.

A Tail Fin.

Scaffolding Pole To Mount

Mounting brackets.

Some suitable cable

Lots of constant, non turbulent wind!

For a more detailed explanation of how to make a wind turbine then visit our DIY Wind Turbine page.

UFO-Captured-On-Camera-At-The-Big-Green-Gathering-2007

2009-11-25T13:09:00.002Z

Well it seems whilst the guys over at Navitron were installing the worlds largest solar powered shower unit for the Big Green Gathering back in 2007 that the ‘Little Green Men’ were keeping a watchful eye over the installation!

I noticed this picture late last night and decided I would mention it to my fellow readers.

I will leave it to my readers to decide if this is a UFO or not but the fact remains that the picture is on their website for all to see! I wonder if Ivan (The Director) of Navitron knows about the picture??

LINK to actual page at Navitron

Eco-Christmas-Ideas-For-Christmas-2009

2009-11-23T15:26:00.003Z

Thoughts on a cleaner greener Christmas for 2009

Well it is actually 'that' time of year again where we are all thinking about what to buy for our children and loved ones this Christmas, for me it that time of year to worry about all the excess and waste that goes on during the Christmas festive period. Excessive plastic bags usage, packaging galore and heating and lighting on all day long. My largest worry is the amount of plastic products are used in gifts and toys, plastic is made from crude oil which is a fossil fuel, it does not biodegrade for 100's of years and is toxic when burned.

What we can do this Christmas to be more Eco Friendly

After all Christmas is about giving so I am not about to suggest that we stop giving gifts away, there are things we can all do to be more Earth Friendly this Christmas 2009, below are some ideas you may want to try out.

1. When you go Christmas shopping this year, take with you re usable bags to bring your presents & gifts back with you.
2. Try doing your Christmas shopping all at the same time so you are only traveling once. It will save you travel costs as well.
3. Why not make your friends & children some carbon neutral gifts. You could make them something from Wood, which is a renewable source, or how about making a 2011 Eco Calendar from recycled paper?
4. How about wrapping all your presents and gifts in used newspaper? Sounds cheap but if you take your time it looks really nice!
5. Buy your children or loved ones a bicycle for Christmas, sounds simple but not enough people get out these days and exercise, go on do them a favor and why not get yourself one while you are at it?
6. On Christmas day, once all the present opening is done with, spend 20 minutes with your friends and family collecting all the paper, cardboard and empty boxes and flat packing them for your recycle bins. This may sound obvious but if it is left until after your Christmas meal then it is more likely to all get thrown in the waste bin and becoming land fill. You know what it feels like when you have indulged in more than your share of Christmas lunch, pudding and trifle then started on the sherry! Recycling will be the last thing on your mind.
7. Get yourself some LED Christmas lights, they are more energy efficient than traditional filament lamp ones.
8. If your family are over for the festive season then the central heating will be on all day. Why not go into the bedrooms and turn down the radiator control valves (TRV's) a little bit?
9. If you are all sat around having fun and chatting away, turn the television off at the wall, if you like background noise then pop on the radio instead, it consumes much less power than a television does.
10. If you insist on a large outdoor display of lighting for all to see then why not at least put them on a 24 Hour timer? Who will be there to see them at 3AM!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very Merry Eco Christmas 2009.

Calculate-Power-Available-From-A-Given-Wind-Speed

2009-11-22T15:06:00.003Z

A common question I come across is...

How Can I Calculate the Amount of Power Available at a Given Wind Speed?

Since air has mass and it moves to form wind, it has kinetic energy. You may remember from college that:
kinetic energy (joules) = 0.5 x m x V2

where:m = mass (kg) (1 kg = 2.2 pounds)V = velocity (meters/second) (meter = 3.281 feet = 39.37 inches)

Usually, we're more interested in power than energy. Since energy = power x time and density is a more convenient way to express the mass of flowing air, the kinetic energy equation can be converted into a flow equation as below:

Power in the area swept by the wind turbine rotor:
P = 0.5 x rho x A x V3
where:P = power in watts (746 watts = 1 hp) (1,000 watts = 1 kilowatt)rho = air density (about 1.225 kg/m3 at sea level, less higher up)A = rotor swept area, exposed to the wind (m2)V = wind speed in meters/sec (20 mph = 9 m/s) (mph/2.24 = m/s)

This yields the power in a free flowing stream of wind. Of course, it is impossible to extract all the power from the wind because some flow must be maintained through the rotor (otherwise a solid wall would be a 100% efficient wind power extractor). So, we need to include some additional terms to get a practical equation for a wind turbine.

Wind Turbine Power:
P = 0.5 x rho x A x Cp x V3 x Ng x Nb
where:P = power in watts (746 watts = 1 hp) (1,000 watts = 1 kilowatt)rho = air density (about 1.225 kg/m3 at sea level, less higher up)A = rotor swept area, exposed to the wind (m2)Cp = Coefficient of performance (.59 {Betz limit} is the maximum thoretically possible, .35 for a good design) V = wind speed in meters/sec (20 mph = 9 m/s)Ng = generator efficiency (50% for car alternator, 80% or possibly more for a permanent magnet generator or grid-connected induction generator)Nb = gearbox/bearings efficiency (depends, could be as high as 95% if good)

Climate-Depot

2009-11-20T20:26:00.001Z

Climate Depot seems to have all the climate issue answers!

Some think it is gossip, others say fact but may I present you with the website and let you, my readers, decide what you think of Climate Depot.

CLIMATE DEPOT WEBSITE LINK

Videos-From-The-Energy-Saving-Week-2009-Energy-Saving-Trust

2009-11-15T15:16:00.003Z

Home Truths
Home Truths videos from Energy Saving Week 2009
In 2009 we recruited up to 50 families across the UK to help us identify how we waste energy in the home. Capturing these wasteful acts were Undercover Reporters who created a video capturing their families wasteful habits.
You can see all five Home Truths videos here.
The Barry family
The Sime family
The Arnold family
The McKeown family
The Manning family

Geothermal-Energy-Just-Add-Water

2009-11-12T12:30:00.001Z

Geothermal – just add water

With a $25 million influx of federal stimulus money, two companies are planning to try a different way of generating geothermal power just west of Newberry National Volcanic Monument.
But to test this method, Newberry Geothermal and AltaRock will need to add something more to the equation — an estimated 77 million gallons of water or more.

“The water question is clearly one that we all know is there, and that we will have to address,” said Doug Perry, the president of Newberry Geothermal.

In a traditional geothermal system, a company drills a deep well and taps into a pent up supply of water or steam, heated by the surrounding rocks. But when Newberry Geothermal drilled test wells in 2008, they found hot rocks but no water or steam.
So the idea with the new method, called enhanced geothermal systems, is to pump outside water down into a system of hairline fractures, have the rocks heat up the water, then pump it back to the surface. The hot water or steam will be harnessed to turn turbines, then cooled a bit and sent back down to be heated up again.
But the rocks could be leaky, said Asante Riverwind, with the local chapter of the Sierra Club, and people don't yet know how much water one of these plants would consume to generate power.
“Where would they get this water, given the water concerns already existent here?” Riverwind said.
Newberry Geothermal already has a temporary OK to use up to 100 gallons of water a minute, which it can get from any of four groundwater wells.

The company had to make up for the water it removed from the groundwater aquifer by buying mitigation credits, which pay for other projects that put water back into streams and rivers of the Deschutes Basin.
“Some farmer, someplace in Deschutes County or the Deschutes basin, is not irrigating, and in return the groundwater mitigation buyer is using that water instead,” said Scott McCaulou, program director with the Deschutes River Conservancy.
The Newberry project doesn't need to mitigate for that much water, compared with irrigators and other water users, he said — it's about the equivalent of watering 2 or 3 acres of alfalfa.
If the company needed to use more water, it could either apply for a new temporary license to do so, which would require more mitigation credits, McCaulou said, or buy up new water rights.
And the geothermal project will probably need to use more water, Perry said.

Water is needed for several steps in the enhanced geothermal system. Crews use water to drill a well, and then pump pressurized water down into that well to fracture a network of tiny cracks in the rocks thousands of feet below the surface.
“It takes a lot of water for a short period of time” to create that network of cracks, Perry said.
The company will also use water to drill another well or two that will eventually bring hot water back to the surface. And it will use more water to test how well the whole system works — how easily the water flows from the original well, through the network of cracks, and back up to the surface.
Because this is a relatively new way of doing things, especially in the United States, geologists don't know exactly how much water this will take, Perry said.

But based on a similar project in France, Perry estimated that drilling the wells, creating the cracks and testing the system would take between 77 million and 121 million gallons of water — more than the 53 million gallons they currently have the OK for.
In comparison, on the peak summer day in 2007, the city of Bend used 27 million gallons of water, according to a city publication.
Creating the cracks would also take an OK from water officials to use more than 100 gallons a minute, he said.
Perry added that most of the water used in these tests remains in the different rock layers. Some of the fluid, however, is lost to evaporation — and that has to be mitigated for.
After the testing phase for enhanced geothermal systems, if the company decides to build a power plant, additional water would be needed to keep flow circulating through the system.
Project planners don't yet have an estimate for that volume, Perry said, noting that a lot depends on how leaky the rocks are and how much water needs to be replaced.

There could be alternatives to groundwater as well, he said. Project designers could end up piping in gray water, or treated wastewater, and cycling that through the underground reservoir. Or, some new technology uses liquefied carbon dioxide instead of water, he said.
But it will be several years before Newberry gets to the power plant stage, he said, and the company hopes by that time the enhanced geothermal tests will reveal more about how much water would be necessary.

“We'll know enough so it will be a lot more factual based, (rather) than by analogy,” Perry said.

Solar-Electricity-Handbook-By-Michael-Boxwell-Book

2009-11-10T14:54:00.004Z

Solar Electricity Handbook

The Solar Electricity Handbook is a simple, practical guide to using electric solar panels and designing and installing photovoltaic PV systems.

The Solar Electricity Handbook assumes no previous knowledge of solar electric systems, it explains how panels work, how they can be used and explains the steps you need to take to successfully design and install a electric photovoltaic system from scratch.

Path-To-Freedom-Urban-Homestead

2009-11-09T16:35:00.002Z

I found a great urban homestead all about self sufficiency and just had to share it with all my readers.

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/

A Family in the City An Urban Homestead A Homegrown Revolution

Path to Freedom is a grassroots, family operated, original urban homestead located in the midst of Pasadena
Surrounded by urban sprawl and just a short distance from a freeway, the Dervaes Family have steadily worked at transforming this ordinary city lot into an organic and sustainable micro-farm.

This website documents the many steps the Dervaeses have taken and hopes to inspire fellow travelers on their own life-changing journey. Be inspired to take the first step...

Lots of inspiration on Renewable Energy Types & Uses.

Electricity-Free-Fridge-2-Pot-Fridge

2009-11-08T15:39:00.002Z

Cool: Fridge Without Using Electricity!

This is incredible idea is an extension of the pottery water cooling vessels used though the millennia.

Cool: Fridge Without Using Electricity!

This is Mohammed Bah Abba's Pot-in-pot invention. In northern Nigeria, where Mohammed is from, over 90% of the villages have no electricity. His invention, which he won a Rolex Award for (and $100,000), is a refrigerator than runs without electricity.
Here's how it works. You take a smaller pot and put it inside a larger pot. Fill the space in between them with wet sand, and cover the top with a wet cloth. When the water evaporates, it pulls the heat out with it, making the inside cold. It's a natural, cheap, easy-to-make refrigerator.

So, instead of perishable foods rotting after only three days, they can last up to three weeks. Obviously, this has the potential to change their lives. And it already has -- there are more girls attending school, for example, as their families no longer need them to sell food in the market.

100-Ways-To-Save-Our-Planet

2009-11-07T11:02:00.002Z

Here are 100 Ways to help save our planet and it's fragile enviroment.......Before it is too late.

In Your Home – Conserve Energy

Clean or replace air filters on your air conditioning unit at least once a month.
If you have central air conditioning, do not close vents in unused rooms.
Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120.
Wrap your water heater in an insulated blanket.
Turn down or shut off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods.
Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time.
Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5 .
When using an oven, minimize door opening while it is in use; it reduces oven temperature by 25 to 30 every time you open the door.
Clean the lint filter in your dryer after every load so that it uses less energy.
Unplug seldom used appliances.
Use a microwave when- ever you can instead of a conventional oven or stove.
Wash clothes with warm or cold water instead of hot.
Reverse your indoor ceiling fans for summer and winter operations as recommended.
Turn off lights, computers and other appliances when not in use.
Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refridgerators, for example, use up to 50 more electricity than newer models.
Only use electric appliances when you need them.
Use compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and energy.
Keep your thermostat at 68 in winter and 78 in summer.
Keep your thermostat higher in summer and lower in winter when you are away
Insulate your home as best as you can.
Install weather stripping around all doors and windows.
Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.
Plant trees to shade your home.
Shade outside air conditioning units by trees or other means.
Replace old windows with energy efficient ones.
Use cold water instead of warm or hot water when possible.
Connect your outdoor lights to a timer.
Buy green electricity - electricity produced by low - or even zero-pollution facilities (NC Greenpower for North Carolina - www.ncgreenpower.org). In your home-reduce toxicity.

In Your Home – Reduce Toxicity

Eliminate mercury from your home by purchasing items without mercury, and dispose of items containing mercury at an appropriate drop-off facility when necessary (e.g. old thermometers).
Learn about alternatives to household cleaning items that do not use hazardous chemicals.
Buy the right amount of paint for the job.
Review labels of household cleaners you use. Consider alternatives like baking soda, scouring pads, water or a little more elbow grease.
When no good alternatives exist to a toxic item, find the least amount required for an effective, sanitary result.
If you have an older home, have paint in your home tested for lead. If you have lead-based paint, cover it with wall paper or other material instead of sanding it or burning it off.
Use traps instead of rat and mouse poisons and insect killers.
Have your home tested for radon.
Use cedar chips or aromatic herbs instead of mothballs. In Your Yard
Avoid using leaf blowers and other dust-producing equipment.
Use an electric lawn- mower instead of a gas-powered one.
Leave grass clippings on the yard-they decompose and return nutrients to the soil.
Use recycled wood chips as mulch to keep weeds down, retain moisture and prevent erosion.
Use only the required amount of fertilizer.
Minimize pesticide use.
Create a wildlife habitat in your yard.
Water grass early in the morning.
Rent or borrow items like ladders, chain saws, party decorations and others that are seldom used.
Take actions that use non hazardous components (e.g., to ward off pests, plant marigolds in a garden instead of using pesticide).
Put leaves in a compost heap instead of burning them or throwing them away. Yard debris too large for your compost bin should be taken to a yard-debris recycler.

In Your Office

Copy and print on both sides of paper.
Reuse items like envelopes, folders and paper clips.
Use mailer sheets for interoffice mail instead of an envelope.Use mailer sheets for interoffice mail instead of an envelope.
Set up a bulletin board for memos instead of sending a copy to each employee.
Use e-mail instead of paper correspondence.
Use recycled paper.
Use discarded paper for scrap paper.
Encourage your school and/or company to print documents with soy-based inks, which are less toxic.
Use a ceramic coffee mug instead of a disposable cup. Ways To Protect Our Air
Ask your employer to consider flexible work schedules or telecommuting.
Recycle printer cartridges.
Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.
Report smoking vehicles to your local air agency.
Don't use your wood stove or fireplace when air quality is poor.
Avoid slow-burning, smoldering fires. They produce the largest amount of pollution.
Burn seasoned wood - it burns cleaner than green wood.
Use solar power for home and water heating.
Use low-VOC or water-based paints, stains, finishes and paint strippers.
Purchase radial tires and keep them properly inflated for your vehicle.
Paint with brushes or rollers instead of using spray paints to minimize harmful emissions.
Ignite charcoal barbecues with an electric probe or other alternative to lighter fluid.
If you use a wood stove, use one sold after 1990. They are required to meet federal emissions standards and are more efficient and cleaner burning.
Walk or ride your bike instead of driving, whenever possible.
Join a carpool or vanpool to get to work.

Ways to Use Less Water

Check and fix any water leaks.
Install water-saving devices on your faucets and toilets.
Don't wash dishes with the water running continuously.
Wash and dry only full loads of laundry and dishes.
Follow your community's water use restrictions or guidelines.
Install a low-flow shower head.
Replace old toilets with new ones that use a lot less water.
Turn off washing machine's water supply to prevent leaks. Ways to Protect Our Water
Revegetate or mulch disturbed soil as soon as possible.
Never dump anything down a storm drain.
Have your septic tank pumped and system inspected regularly.
Check your car for oil or other leaks, and recycle motor oil.
Take your car to a car wash instead of washing it in the driveway.
Learn about your watershed.

Create Less Rubbish
Buy items in bulk from loose bins when possible to reduce the packaging wasted.
Avoid products with several layers of packaging when only one is sufficient. About 33 of what we throw away is packaging.
Buy products that you can reuse.
Maintain and repair durable products instead of buying new ones.
Check reports for products that are easily repaired and have low breakdown rates.
Reuse items like bags and containers when possible.
Use cloth napkins instead of paper ones.
Use reusable plates and utensils instead of disposable ones.
Use reusable containers to store food instead of aluminum foil and cling wrap.
Shop with a canvas bag instead of using paper and plastic bags.
Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently.
Reuse packaging cartons and shipping materials. Old newspapers make great packaging material.
Compost your vegetable scraps.
Buy used furniture - there is a surplus of it, and it is much cheaper than new furniture.

Think-Green-Be-Green

2009-11-07T10:52:00.001Z

Not just America, we all should think green and do something that makes a difference to the world for the better

What-A-One-Kilowatt-PV-System-Does-In-Eco-Reductions

2009-11-06T13:00:00.001Z

DID YOU KNOW...

A one kilowatt PV system each month:
Prevents 150 lbs. of coal from being mined
Prevents 300 lbs. of CO 2 from entering the atmosphere
Keeps 105 gallons of water from being consumed
Keeps NO and SO 2 from being released into the environment or an equivalent system that produces 150 kWh per month

It's more than just a luxury, you are helping look after our planet by reducing your carbon footprint whilst living a more sustainable lifestyle.

Sust-It.Net-Energy-Saving-Calculator

2009-11-06T09:28:00.004Z

If you are considering saving energy or becoming more self sufficient then I strongly suggest that you pay Sust-It a visit. This website is great for those of us living Off-Grid on either Solar, Wind Generator and or a combination of them. You can browse appliances by category and it gives you the following information:

1. Power used in KWH/Per year (Kilo Watt Hours)
2. Co2 Emissions in KG Co2/Year (Kilo Grams Of Carbon Dioxide)
3. Cost Per Year in £ to run.

If you require more detailed information you can simply click the more info tab and find out more about that particular appliance.

Christmas-Present-For-The-Eco-Minded

2009-11-05T19:12:00.006Z

Here is a nice Christmas present for that special person who loves looking after the planet.

I have ordered one for myself!

DIY-Solar-Air-Heater

2009-11-02T18:13:00.000Z

Make a DIY solar air heater from soda cans for next to nothing.

Pictured above is a simple small passive solar heater made from recycled aluminium drinks cans and used to heat a room.

If the building to be heated is well insultated, a solar heater such as this can lift the temperature by a significant number of degrees. A larger heater or a number of similar heaters can be used to heat larger spaces, or to heat smaller spaces to a higher temperature.Offcuts of 2 x 4 and a sheet of plywood were used to build a box to tightly hold 5 rows of 10 black-painted aluminium drinks cans.

The inside of the box was then sealed using silicone to prevent hot air from escaping.

Cold air is drawn in from a hole at the bottom of the box, and the heated air emerges from the top passing through a pipe into the room to be heated. A perspex sheet was glued to the box to let sunlight in but not let the hot air escape.

HomeBrewPower-Magazine-On-Scribd.com

2009-10-26T21:37:00.000Z

I have just been notified that the HomeBrewPower Monthly magazine has made it to the Scribd.com website!

Full link below

http://www.scribd.com/doc/21661334/Home-Brew-Power-Magazine

Renewable-Energy-Latest-News

2009-10-26T14:45:00.000Z

How 'Off-Grid' can we really become? We are in times where technology is at the tips of our fingers. Electronics are cheap, almost disposable, we do not think twice about leaving the lights on all night or turning off the central heating system before bedding down for the night. You may think that living without mains electricity and a piped gas supply is nothing but a childhood dream but you would be wrong! There are actually people out there who generate their own electricity & gas.

The 'Green Revolution' is something that is no longer associated with Hippies in the 70's, more and more are moving away from traditional homes and purchasing land to build there very own 'Off-Grid' home from environmentally friendly materials and producing clean, green power.

The thing that ALL potential 'Off-Gridders' fail to grasp is that to become self sufficient one MUST reduce the impact they have on our planet. Not just cutting back on how many coffees they have a day, you have to look at your entire lifestyle and make huge changes to be able to live a happy life away from the power hungry energy providers. I will not, in this post, go into the details of how and why but this is the one thing you need to look at prior to trying to jump into Green Living.

Mains Electricity - We use and abuse electricity on a daily basis without even thinking about it. To live successfully away from the electricity grid you need to use it like you do when drinking the very best red wine! You simply can not leave appliances on standby, everything has be be energy efficient and every drop of electricity you generate has to be stored and used only when needed.

Natural Gas - there are 2 alternative ways to supply gas for cooking and heating.
1. Bottled propane, expensive and you have to haul the bottles back to the shop to be exchanged.
2. Methane Digestion - Using food waste and or manure you can generate methane that cab be used for cooking and heating! Is is a simple process which we will cover in further posts.

Examples

Lemar's Homestead
Green-Trust
Ken Boak

Renewable Energy UK Website Forum

2009-10-26T11:22:00.001Z

I found this fascinating Free Website Forum on renewable energy today:

http://apps.homebrewpower.co.uk/Forum/TopicGroup

You should visit and join.

Renewable-Energy-Discussion-Forum

2009-10-18T15:02:00.000+01:00

Just a reminder about the HomeBrewPower - Renewable energy free forum.

Please visit the following link and be sure to bookmark it for future reference.

http://apps.homebrewpower.co.uk/Forum/TopicGroup/

Babington-Burner-Balls-For-Sale-UK

2009-10-17T11:48:00.000+01:00

Our Babington Burner Balls are selling out as fast as we can manufacturer them!

The cold weather is setting in now and more and more people are looking into cleaner and cheaper ways to heat their homes. The Babington Burner Nozzles are the perfect solution to burning animal and vegetable fats easily.

The Babington Nozzle works on the same principle when a whale surfaces to breathe. It is not the whale spraying out water from it's blow hole but air blown out under high pressure and the water running over the whales skin creates surface tension (Thin film of sea water) when the air passes through the film of water the water is atomized.

We are proud to announce that our Babington Nozzles are now in full production and payments should be made to shop@homebrewpower.co.uk via Paypal for £39.99 - Free P&P within the UK and + £5.00 worldwide shipping.
We guarantee to send each individual Nozzle out within 5 working days of receipt of money.

Our Babington Burner Nozzles have the following specification:

Ball Diameter
50MM

Ball Material
1MM Thick Spun Brass

Air Connection
15MM Copper Compression Gland

Brazing Metal
55% Sure Silver M25T Rods 680 Degrees Celsius Melting Point

Atomizing Hole Specification
0.0135" Diameter Hole - Pillar Drilled @ 20,000 RPM

Air Pressure Suggested Rating
15 - 80 PSI - Set To Suit Individual Application

Finish
Acid Dipped, Hand Wired & Polished

Notes On Finish
Oxidization will occur when exposed to air - This does not affect performance
Construction

Hand Made In The United Kingdom

Babington Ball Usage
Clean Atomization of combustible oils & fats - Various Heating Projects

Chug from Vegetable Oil Diesel has added a link to my Babington Burner Nozzles, you can read about it HERE
Here is a really informative website for people wishing to know more about the Babington's

Another link to a really powerful Babington burner setup HERE

Homebrewpower Website is dedicated to information and news on WVO, WMO, CHAP, CHP, Solar Power, Solar Panels, Solar Hot Water, Wind Generators, Wind Machines, Solar PV, Alternative Energy, Energy Saving, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Neutral, Sustainable Living plus much more.

For more on Renewable Energy please visit
http://www.homebrewpower.co.uk

EMAIL Questions

Solar-Power-Powered-Shed-Help

2009-09-11T12:34:00.000+01:00

I have recently noticed that one of my website pages Solar Power For My Summerhouse Shed receives over 200 hits a day.

It seems from my own research that more and more are looking to move into 'Low Impact' houses / log cabins. Domestic dwellers are now also looking to move away from grid connected lifestyles. The enquiries for 'Solar hot water, Solar hot water powered swimming pools and Off-Grid cabins' are coming through to me on a daily basis. All great news for my business and even better news for our planet. I am always happy to see the completion of one of my Renewable Energy installations as I get to walk the client through their new devices. To see the clients face light up when the hot water tank heats up by the power of the sun is such a great sense of achievement, or when the inverter springs to life from the battery bank and their television comes alive with nothing more than the power of the wind and the sun (Priceless)

Whilst on the subject of interesting pages here are the best ones from HomeBrewPower.

1. Solar For Log Cabins
2. Lister CS Stationary Engines
3. Renewable Energy Types & Uses
4. Renewable Energy Installer UK
5. Babington Burner Nozzles For Sale

Enjoy the links!

Solar-Hot-Water-Wood-Stove-Hybrid-Installation-Schematic

2009-08-26T17:27:00.000+01:00

Here is a schematic for a Solar hot water installation coupled with a wood burning stove I recently completed. The existing system was a semi pumped and vented hot water and central heating system.

The old fuel oil boiler was removed and the pipework modified to allow for heating via both Evacuated Solar Tubes and the Wood stove.

The main components were purchased from Navitron

I utilised a retro fit coil heat exchanger to replace the electric immersion heating element. My client is extremely pleased with how the whole system integrates. The whole 5 bed roomed house is heated via the wood stove and the hot water is heated via the evacuated tube solar hot water system and can be boosted via the wood stove.

If you are interested in a free quotation for a similar bespoke solar hot water installation then please do give me a call or drop me an email.

Pictures of the installation to be posted soon.

Cross-Tied-Battery-Bank

2009-07-26T14:46:00.000+01:00

In larger battery banks, where you have multiple series – parallel strings of batteries, you run the risk of some batteries getting more “depleated” than others, and this degrades your pack performance.

A simple way to reduce this effect is to cross-tie your batteries. This is a not often used but important method of getting extreme life out of your expensive batteries.

See above diagram for details of Cross-Tied-Battery-Bank

The dotted lines show the cross tie cables. It’s also important to make sure your cables are large enough so that you are not losing power as heat through resistance.

If you have caps on your batteries, not maintenance free, check the water levels once a month and top them off during charging. Do not overflow.

Breaking-News-Eco-Friendly-Couple-Go-Shopping-On-Horseback

2009-07-17T09:10:00.000+01:00

Video Link: (Source STV) CLICK HERE

An eco-mad Aberdeenshire couple have swapped their hatchback for horseback when embarking on their weekly shopping trips.

Green-thinking Joyce Youngson-Lamb and her husband Geoff now embark on a scenic two hour horse ride to pick up their groceries – when it only takes ten minutes by car.

But the environmentally aware pair insist the eight mile round trip to Ballater that involves crossing the River Dee is no big deal.

Joyce said: “Shopping on horseback is under-rated. It’s the perfect way to multi-task and today’s modern woman has to do exactly that to keep up!

“I like to trot along to the shops with my husband and our two horses. It gives us fresh air and exercise and we’re able to support the local community”.

Geoff added: “I’m an environmentalist, so I like doing things the hard way. Environmental living is about being difficult and it’s never the most economical or the most profitable”.

Their journey is made possible by following the old Deeside Railway line which has been closed since the 1960s.

And recent repairs to some of the bridges mean horses can now go along the picturesque route

Joyce said: “Prior to that it was pedestrian and cyclists only and with us having half a tonne of horse each, we needed to know the bridges were safe”.

Their shopping list is chosen with extreme care. After all – there is only so much they can carry back.

Joyce added: “Some things suit horse shopping better than others. For instance - our steak. If you think it’s tender when you get it, by the time you get it back on the horse, it’s absolutely super-dooper tender.

“Gin and tonic is a bit heavy but we can usually manage. Eggs though are a definite no, no”.

Breaking-News-UK-Government-Release-New-Microgeneration-Tarrif-For-Renewable-Energy

2009-07-16T22:00:00.000+01:00

The Government has announced today (July 16th 2009) the details of the proposed feed-in tariff for microgeneration from systems like small wind turbines and solar photovoltaics. The new tariff will pay for all energy generated by your system, irrespective of if you use it yourself or sell it back to the grid. The amounts paid are in addition to any saving you will make by purchasing less electricity from your supplier and any income you earn from selling your surplus power to your electricty supplier.

The key points of the announcement are:

- 36.5p/kWh for small solar photovoltaic systems up to 4kW and 28p/kWh for systems up to 10kW.
- 23.0p/kWh for small wind turbines between 1.5kW and 15kW.- Replaces the current ROC system which pays 10p/kWh.- Effective as of the 1st April 2010, but all systems commissioned from now on will qualify.- Systems installed from now until April 2010 will be eligible for both LCBP grants AND the new tariff.

A typical home solar photovoltaic system of 3kW, generating approximately 2,300kWh per annum will therefore earn around £1,000 per annum, which is an additional £600, dramatically reducing payback times.

An Evance Iskra R9000 small wind turbine will typically earn £2,000 - £3,000 per annum which is an additional £1,000.
A Gaia 133 small wind turbine installed at a modestly windy site will earn £6,000 - £9,000 per annum which is an additional £3,000, making it a very economic proposition with likely payback times of less than 5 years on a typical site.

Grid-Tie-Inverter-G83-Certification

2009-07-13T18:55:00.000+01:00

What is a Grid-Tie Inverter?

A Grid-Tie inverter converts DC (Direct Current) from renewable energy sources such as Solar PV and Wind Turbines into 230 VAC (Volts Alternating Current). What is clever about a Grid-Tie inverter is that it synchronizes with the national grid's electricity supply frequency and back feeds the grid. This pushes electrical current back into the national grid and if the power your inverter is supplying is in excess of the power you are consuming then it will effectively run your electric meter backwards.

The clever part of a Grid-Tie inverter is that if the national grid supply is shut off then the inverter instantly senses this and ceases to create power. If this did not happen then the grid would still be energised by your Grid-Tie inverter (Extremely dangerous to a linesman / electrician working on a supposedly dead grid!)

In the UK a Grid-Tie inverter has to have a G83 Certificate to allow it to interconnect to the national grid system.

With recent advances in technology a Grid-Tie inverter can be purchased for around £100 GBP for a 200W version which will allow you to reduce your electricity bills. They can be added in parallel over time to allow for expansion. You can use them with many sources of renewable energy, some examples are: A Wind Turbine, Solar Panels, Micro-Hydro Turbines or even a Diesel Generator running on WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil)

The ever popular Windsave house mounted wind turbine uses the same setup described above to back feed the national grid system.

NanoSolar-Printed-Solar-Cells-Cheapest-In-The-World

2009-07-13T13:14:00.000+01:00

NanoSolar Inc - Printing Solar Film

For a number of years I have been watching the development of a Californian based company NanoSolar Inc (Nano Solar Inc). My interest started when I realised that the cost of solar cells were so high it would never become viable for every rooftop to have a solar panel array. I have thought of various ways and means to bring cheap renewable energy to the masses but always strayed back to Solar PV cells.

What they have come up with is a way to print (Screen Print) Solar Substrate straight onto a thin foil material which means no more expensive silicon wafer based panels which are thick, heavy and expensive to produce. The new technology opens up a whole new dimension for end users.

Imagine an all electric vehicle with a Solar PV shell? How about solar slates that are cheaper than roofing tiles? A parking lot for electric vehicles with a solar roof? The new uses are endless!

NanoSolar Inc are fully booked with orders for the next 2 years (Correct as of July 2009) The demand is huge, they are gearing up for more production capacity already!

I would love to see a time when renewable energy can directly compete with fossil derived fuels (Coal, Oil & Gas) I think the Printed Solar Panels are a step in the right direction.

Semiconductor Printing

Printing is by far the simplest, highest-yield, and most capital-efficient technique for depositing thin films. Printing is extremely fast; the equipment involved is easy to use and maintain; and it works in plain air (no vacuum chamber required).

Another key advantage of a printable CIGS ink is that one can print it just where one wants it to be, achieving high materials utilization of the semiconductor material.

Printing is much simpler and more robust than vacuum deposition techniques such as sputtering or evaporation which have conventionally been used to fabricate thin-film solar cells; the process cost of vacuum techniques is so high that the result is not an inexpensive cell relative to the per-square-meter economics that the solar industry requires.

Renewable-Energy-Website-UK

2009-07-13T09:09:00.000+01:00

FreeLoader–Globetrotter-Pack–Review–Cheapest-UK-Price

2009-07-10T14:02:00.000+01:00

FreeLoader – Globetrotter Pack – Review – Cheapest UK Price!

‘To purchase a Free Loader Globetrotter Pack at an exclusive price we have teamed up with the UK’s leading distributor of alternative energy products ‘Tango Group Limited’ If you would like to purchase one then please use Discount Voucher Code AMSC8093

This is an offer not to be missed! 10% Off plus free P&P in the UK!

Pros
If you are an outdoors type or are planning a holiday in a remote location or backpacking across the globe then this really is something you will be glad you purchased. The FreeLoader Globetrotter is a portable solar energy recharging station; it is a battery pack for storing solar energy and a recharging pack for charging up practically any portable electronic device!
On a sunny day you can recharge the FreeLoader battery pack via the 2 small solar PV wings and also attach the Supercharger solar cell to boost the charging. Once the Free Loader battery pack is fully charged you can take it with you and when you need to recharge something you have the means to do so.

Never be without charging power again, regardless of where you are on earth, providing the sun shines, you have what it takes to keep energised!

Due to the technology behind the Free Loader – Globetrotter Packs batteries (Li-Ion) they hold lots of power and are incredibly light unlike the older battery technologies (NI-CAD – NiMH) which store similar amounts of power but weigh much more.

Cons
When road testing the FreeLoader Globetrotter Pack from Tango Group we found it really hard to pick fault with its performance, design, ruggedness nor its overall feel. The only thing we considered a tiny problem was that the Free Loader power pack case was finished in a stainless steel effect and it may, over time, get scratched! This is merely an aesthetic design issue and cannot be counted as something that goes against the product.

Design
The design of the FreeLoader Globetrotter Pack is great. The power pack is compact and has detachable solar PV wings. This enables compact storage and prevents against accidental damage when not in use.

The FreeLoader Globetrotter Super Charger (The Large Additional Solar PV Panel) is practically indestructible. The Solar Cells are mounted on a clear PVC sheet (Not Glass) so it will withstand knocks and drops! It comes in its own weatherproof carry pouch with can be attached to all manner of items via the Velcro straps. It will mount to a Bike, Back Pack, Tent Roof, even On Top Of Your Head!

Features
The FreeLoader Globetrotter Pack has the following features.

1. Will charge virtually any electronic portable device
2. Master cable to connect the unit to any of the 11 charging adaptors
3. 11 Adaptor charging clips
4. FreeLoader Portable Solar Charger
5. Supercharger solar PV panel
6. Supercharger case
7. FreeLoader tough case
8. Li-Ion 1000MAH internal rechargeable battery
9. 6V DC output charging voltage
10. 250MA output charge current

Durability
The FreeLoader Globetrotter Pack is designed with durability in mind. The last thing you want is your only source of power breaking in the middle of nowhere! Everything in its design has been thoroughly though about to make the FreeLoader Globetrotter Pack long lasting and able to withstand the most hostile of climates.

Value
£49.49 including UK Delivery is an exclusive price only available from HomeBrewPower, just Email us HERE to receive your special discount code for use at Tango Group Limited

Rating (1-5)
5 out of 5!

Free-Loader-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:46:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Free Loader products at the best prices on the internet!

PowerMonkey-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:45:00.001+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase PowerMonkey products at the best prices on the internet!

EcoZone-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:45:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase EcoZone products at the best prices on the internet!

Horizon-Fuel-Cell-Technologies-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:44:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies products at the best prices on the internet!

Air-Free-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:43:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code fromHomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase AirFree products at the best prices on the internet!

Solio-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:42:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code fromHomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Solio products at the best prices on the internet!

Solar-Technology-International-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:41:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code fromHomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Solar Technology International products at the best prices on the internet!

Eton-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:40:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code fromHomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Eton products at the best prices on the internet!

Tefal-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:39:00.001+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code fromHomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Tefal products at the best prices on the internet!

Trevor-Baylis-Brands-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:39:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code fromHomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Trevor Baylis Brands products at the best prices on the internet!

Moppel-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:38:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code fromHomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Moppel products at the best prices on the internet!

Efergy-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:37:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code fromHomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Efergy products at the best prices on the internet!

Radiator-Booster-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:32:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Radiator Booster products at the best prices on the internet!

HYMini-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:31:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase HYMini products at the best prices on the internet!

H2O-Power-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:30:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase H2O Power products at the best prices on the internet!

Eco-Button-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:27:00.000+01:00

UniRoss-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:26:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase UniRoss products at the best prices on the internet!

Pure-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:25:00.000+01:00

Science-Time-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:24:00.001+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Science Time products at the best prices on the internet!

Battech-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:24:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase BatTech products at the best prices on the internet!

Aladdin-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:23:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Aladdin products at the best prices on the internet!

Reestore-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:22:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase ReeStore products at the best prices on the internet!

Eco-Savers-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:21:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Eco Savers products at the best prices on the internet!

Power-Plus-Product-Reviews

2009-07-06T18:20:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with 'Tango Group' to enable us to offer you reviews on all of their Eco / renewable energy products.Use our links on the left and right of each web page to browse for the Brand of your choice.

Read the review and follow the instructions to obtain your special TangoGroup discount code from HomeBrewPower

For product reviews and to purchase Power Plus products at the best prices on the internet!

Sprig-Product Reviews

2009-07-06T18:19:00.000+01:00

Tango-Group-Homebrewpower-Partnership

2009-07-06T15:42:00.000+01:00

HomeBrewPower are pleased to announce a Review partnership between ourselves and Tango Group.

We will now be able to offer complete Renewable Energy Device reviews / product evaluations for all the popular brands as set out below:

Sprig
Power Plus
Eco Savers
Reestore
Aladdin
Battech
Science Time
Pure
UniRoss
Eco Button
H2O Power
HYMini
Radiator Booster
Efergy
Moppel
Trevor Baylis Brands
Tefal
Eton
Solar Technology International
Solio
AirFree
Horizon
Eco Zone
PowerMonkey
Free Loader

Every review will be categorised for easy access via our sidebar links. Please do tell your friends as there will be exclusive discounts on all the products I review from Tango Group via my website.

The first 2 reviews will be hopefully live in the next couple of days!

Off-Grid-Home-Building-Money-Saving-Tips

2009-07-03T21:01:00.000+01:00

TIP 1: If you buy building materials in small quantity you will pay full retail price. Instead figure out exactly what materials you will need. Include everything from screws to appliances. Make your material list look professional and take it to any large construction supplier like B&Q or Wickes. Do not talk to a clerk but go straight to the contractor desk or speak to a manager and tell them you are building your own home and would like the contractor discount for buying all the materials from them.Most building supply stores will give you anywhere from 5% to 15% discount if you buy all material at one time. They may even throw in free delivery if you live within a certain mileage.If you have to buy in small quantities go to the mom and pop building suppliers with your list and ask the manager for a discount if you buy all your materials from them over time. You will still usually get a discount and be supporting your local dealers.

TIP 2: If you are using solar (I hope) try to buy your panels in bulk for a big discount. Most panel suppliers will give 30% or more for bulk sales of ten panels or more and a smaller discount if you buy more than one. Talk to the owner if possible as salesman rarely have power to discount. Get your power controller and necessary wiring and even batteries from the dealer and get an even bigger discount!

TIP 3: Recycle whenever possible. Good used Doors and windows can be had for free or cheap from most window installers. Get double pane and insulated doors for exterior. They may need painting and might be different sizes but the savings is worth a little extra work.Good used appliances can be had for free or cheap. Check out your local freecycle website, garage sale, city dump, or look for homes being remodelled and make an offer. Sinks, toilets, cabinets, tubs, showers are always being thrown away so do some scrounging and don't waste money on new ones.New propane appliances can be expensive but if you have or can buy an old RV cheap salvage all your propane appliances to outfit your home.

TIP 4: Design your home for efficiency. Consider how big of a home you really need. Smaller homes are cheaper to build, cheaper to heat and cool, easier to clean and lower in property taxes. Because people are looking for smaller efficient homes they also raise in property value faster than big inefficient homes.

TIP 5: Use the sun and passive energy. Situate you house to take advantage of the sun for winter heating and solar panels. Plant trees for natural summer cooling. Use overhangs to block summer sun and porches for cool resting spots. Passive air turbines instead of expensive air conditioning.

TIP 6: Go solar! There is a fed rebate of 30% for any size solar electric system installed by a professional installer. You can get this rebate even if you do the work yourself if you will contact an installer and ask them to design your system and oversee your work. get them to sign off on the work as being installed professionally and you can get the rebate. Many installers will do this and I do it all the time for clients. If you buy your equipment from them they can get you a bigger discount and they will give you valuable advice for designing the right size system for your needs. It may be worth a few hundred dollars to have their professional experience and you will save a lot in the rebate and having a correctly designed system.

TIP 7: Do the work yourself! Even if you have no building experience you can save a lot by having a knowledgeable builder use you for labor on your own home. Take a construction class or volunteer with a habitats for humanity project or your neighbors construction to learn the skill you need. Home construction is not difficult and most people that have basic construction knowledge can do it themselves or with a little guidance from a knowledgeable builder.

Solar-Panels-For-Shed-Summerhouse-How-To-Calculate

2009-07-03T16:08:00.000+01:00

Renewable energy in your shed / workshop / out house / barn / stables or similar.

Below is what you need to know!

How much power do you require?

What you have to look at is how much power you want and for how long per day. Start off by listing everything electrical you are going to be using in your shed, for example:
1 x 600 Watt Power Drill
1 x 60 Watt Light Bulb
1 x 10 Watt Radio

Next thing to do is work out how long per day you are going to be in your shed per day, also whilst you are in your shed, how long are you going to be using each of your electrical appliances. Example below:

2 Hours per day in my shed on average. (Total time per day in Shed)
1 x 600 Watt Power Drill for 1 hour per day.
1 x 60 Watt Light Bulb for 2 Hours per day.
1 x 10 Watt Radio for 2 Hours per day.

Now for the simple math behind it all!

Drill - 600 Watts x 1 Hour = 600 Watt Hours or 0.6 KWA (Kilo Watt Hour)
Light - 60 Watts x 2 hours = 120 Watt Hours or 0.06 KWA (Kilo Watt Hour)
Radio - 10 Watts x 2 Hours = 20 Watt Hours or 0.02 KWA (Kilo Watt Hour)
Total use per day = (0.6 + 0.06 + 0.02) = 0.68 KWA Per Day

My rule of thumb is to double your estimate therefore 0.68 KWA x 2 = 1.36KWA

Calculating your Solar Panel size.

Lets assume that on average a typical location in the UK will receive 5 hours of bright sunshine per day (Wishful thinking I know!) Notice we are working with 2 known quantities now 1. Power (Watts) and time (Hours) this enables us to work out what we need easily.
Take our total load (1.36 KWA) and divide it by sunlight hours (5) = (0.272) This is the figure in KW that are panel will need to provide for 5 hours to enable us to place enough power in our battery bank to let us use our electrical equipment for designated time above (2 Hours per day) 0.272 KWA can be converted into Watts by x 1000 so: 0.272 KWA x 1000 = 272 Watts or a 272 Watt Solar Panel Is required!

Calculating your battery bank size.

We know from our calculation's above that our electricity demand is 1.36 KWA worst case, so our battery bank is required to put out a minimum of 1.36 KW for 1 hour (KWH) If we are going to use a 12 V (Volt) battery bank then we can start looking at the figures:
We know we need 1360 Watts for one hour.
We know we have 12 Volts DC from the battery bank.
Ohms Law states that P (Watts) = I (Current In Amps) x V (Volts)
So we have 1360 (Watts) = ? (I - Current In Amps) x 12 (Volts)
So without boring you too much if we divide 1360 by 12 We get 113.33 Amps!

Batteries are measured in AH (Ampere Hours) But note that the specified AH on a battery is normally measured over a 10 hour period so the drain on a measured AH is 1/10th over 10 hours!
Lets assume for our rule of thumb and to be sure we are going to double our needs so we require 113.33 * 2 = 226.66 AH (Amp Hour) at 12VDC. Easy!

Calculating Your Inverter Size.

(The thing that takes battery DC and makes domestic AC for use with household electrical equipment!
We know that we are going to be using a 12V DC battery bank to power the inverter so we know we require a 12V DC inverter!
We know we require a Max of 1360 Watts or 1.36 KW of power and lets factor in 100% to allow for losses and inefficiencies, this gives us 2.72KW.
So We would choose a 12V DC inverter at 3000 Watts or 3 KW.

Choosing a Solar Charge Controller.

There are many different kinds of solar charge controllers available in the current market, PWM controllers (Pulse Width Modulation Controllers) Electronic controllers and MPPT (Maximum Point Power Tracker) to keep this section simple you are best sending me an EMAIL with info on what you are wanting to do and I will suggest the best solution for your needs.

If you want more information please do EMAIL me and I will provide you with a free quotation for either supply only or supply & installation.

Renewable-Energy-Types-And-Uses

2009-07-03T11:42:00.000+01:00

Types Of Feasible renewable energy for domestic homes.

Below are the types of renewable energy groups that can be implemented into a domestic home.

Solar Panels: Domestic Grid Tied.

Solar panels are NOT a cheap option but are a low maintenance option for anyone considering using renewable energy to supply part of their electricity needs at home. To give you an idea of costs associated with a solar PV installation then budget on £6.00 per watt of installed solar, considering you will need (for a three bed roomed typical family home) something like 3000 Watts of solar panels on the roof to give you electricity for free (Most of the time - On Average) then you are looking at an £18,000.00 investment with a typical payback time of 15 to 25 years!

Solar Panels: Remote Building / Shed / Workshop / Hobby Shop.

I would recommend Solar PV panels for a remote type building where you only require a small amount of electricity, i.e. Low energy CF lighting / domestic sockets for laptops / low energy appliances etc. The great thing about remote power is you have the solar panel connected to a battery bank via a charge controller which looks after the batteries and keeps them charged and ready for use. From the battery bank you have an inverter to convert the batteries power into domestic 230VAC (Volts Alternating Current)

Solar Hot Water Panels: Domestic Use.

There are 2 main types of solar hot water panels 1. Flat plate collectors 2.Evacuated tubes collectors. There is much debate over which technology is the best and I am not going to go into the 'for and against' argument here but in my opinion if you are here to look for the best way of reducing your gas or electricity bills then installing Solar Hot Water panels is the way to go. In the UK we could produce at least 70% of all our hot water requirements from the sun that shines on our house roofs! That is one big saving for the average UK home. If you think that you might pay £3,000.00 for a simple solar hot water installation and your hot water heating bill comes down by 70% then the payback time for the installation is not too far away!

Wind Turbines: Domestic Grid Tied.

Wind turbines mounted on the side of your house are one way to reduce your electricity bills considerably. When you hear the phrase 'Grid Tied' all it means is that the electricity the wind turbine produces is pushed back in to the electricity network grid, in effect if the wind turbine is producing electricity in excess of what you are using then your meter will run backwards lowering your electricity bill. This is one way to save money but when the grid goes down (In the event of a power cut) your grid tied wind turbine automatically disconnects from the grid so you have no power! Great for energy saving, no good at all if you want to keep on using power in the event of the national grid shutting down (Power Cut).

Wind Turbines: Off-Grid Power / Remote Power / Shed Power / Workshop Power.

If you require power away from the electricity supply then a wind turbine is a great option. They typically output 12VDC or 24VDC and can be used to charge a battery bank for later use via an inverter. They are much cheaper than Solar PV but you must remember that the wind does not blow all the time so you may want to consider combining a wind turbine with some solar panels.

Low-Impact-Sustainable-Living

2009-07-03T11:28:00.000+01:00

So what is 'Low Impact Sustainable Living'?

In modern day society we have become accustomed to using a huge amount of energy (Mainly in the form of domestic electricity) and heating. We are living high impact lifestyles which unfortunately are extremely damaging to our planet.

So how do we go about living a 'Low Impact' and more sustainable existence? First thing to consider is reducing our 'Carbon Footprint' it sounds technical it's simple. Try switching your incandescent lamps to compact fluorescent (CF) lamps. The saving is instant and you will be reducing your electricity reliance. Turn off lights when you leave a room. Try fitting TRV radiator valves to all but one of your radiators. You can adjust each room to a comfortable heat setting and turn down the heat in the rooms your not frequenting as often, all these simple steps are minimizing your 'Carbon Foot Print'

Some people choose to do their little bit to help towards a more sustainable existence where as others take 'Low Impact Sustainable Living' to a whole new level.

Below are some examples with short descriptions.

Lamar's Off-Grid Solar Log Cabin
Lamar lives off-grid in a wooden cabin he built himself

Simondale Low Impact House
A low impact house hand built in Wales UK

Judy Of The Woods
A Lady of the Welsh woods

DIY-Wind-Turbine-Blades

2009-07-02T21:31:00.000+01:00

How to make cheap, easy to build, PVC Wind Turbine Blades.

Most Renewable Energy enthusiasts have a good grasp of how to use a PMDC Motor as a generator to make a DIY Wind Turbine but the sticking point is usually how to make a set of good wind turbine blades.

Below we will show you how it is done with cheap, accessible materials, for little or nothing.
PVC Wind Turbine Blades are becoming more and more common for homemade wind turbines. The raw material, PVC pipe, is easy to find, cheap, easy to work with, and performance is more than acceptable for a small basic wind turbine generator.

PVC wind turbine blades can simply be bolted onto a Permanent Magnet DC Alternator or suitable Stepper Motor and you already have a basic wind turbine.One of the most difficult parts of making your own wind turbine is producing turbine blades. Wind turbine blades go through enormous stresses and must be made to quite exacting tolerances if they are to balance and not send destructive vibrations through your wind turbine resulting in a catastrophic failure of your wind turbine.

In strong winds the flexibility of the PVC blades is useful as it takes some of the energy out of the wind preventing the wind turbine generator from excessive spinning (Overrun) and being damaged. Obviously you need to take care to ensure that the blades cannot bend back far enough to hit the wind turbine mast.Individual wind turbine blades can be cut out of the pipe using a jigsaw or hacksaw blade, or a one piece pair of blades can be made.

Below is an example design of a one piece (two blade) PVC wind turbine propeller.This design may be adapted with more turbine blades to fit a 3 blade or even 5 blade turbine configuration setup.

Lister-CS-Stationary-Engines

2009-07-02T21:24:00.000+01:00

Lister CS Stationary Engines

Lister CS (Cold Start) stationary engines, or their Indian clones referred to as Listeroid stationary engines, are one of the most versatile long running stationary engines the world had ever seen. They are more than capable of running on almost any viscous oil including Peanut oil, Canola oil, Vegetable Oil, filtered waste vegetable oil, filtered waste motor oil, diesel oil, crude oil, gearbox oil, sunflower oil and many more. There are a number of enthusiasts out there who are experimenting with running them on a mixture of Fuel Oil and Wood Gas Fumes.

The Lister CS range of engines are Slow RPM (650RPM to 700RPM) 4 stroke single cylinder stationary engines. They are over engineered and have been known to run unattended for in excess of 200,000 hours.

They use the simplest of technology which lends them to less maintenance and breakdowns.

Below is a list of interesting websites that document their progress on Using the Lister CS (Listeroid) stationary engines to provide heating and power for domestic dwellings / Low impact homes.

Using a Lister CS / SOM (Start-O-Matic) Stationary engine to produce both power and heating is commonly referred to as a CHP (Combined Heat Power) CHAP (Combined Heat And Power) or MCHP (Micro Combined Heat And Power)

The Diesel Engine Basics

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine which operates using the diesel cycle (named after Dr. Rudolph Diesel). Diesel engines have the highest thermal efficiency compared to any internal or external combustion engine.The defining feature of the diesel engine is the use of compression ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber during the final stage of compression. This is in contrast to a petrol (gasoline) engine or gas engine, which uses the Otto cycle, in which a fuel/air mixture is ignited by a spark plug.
Diesel engines are manufactured in two stroke and four stroke versions. They were originally used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have been used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, large trucks and electric generating plants followed later. In the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of diesel engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the USA increased. As of 2007, about 50 percent of all new car sales in Europe are diesel.

For my complete system design on DVD Rom (Requires A PC To Use) please see my Generate Free Electricity page.

Ken Boak's Lister
Ken is producing electricity and heat from his Lister CS engine setup in Surrey - Kent.

Ken Boak's Lister Video
Here is a short documentary about Ken Boak's generating plant - Interesting & inspiring.

Robert Bodel's Listeroid
Robert Bodel retired to Texas and lives in a sea container. He uses a Listeroid for power.

David Edgington's CS Book
Covers in great detail the venerable Lister diesel produced between 1929 and the 1980s.

Lister CS Owners Group
Lister CS Yahoo Owners Group - Great place for technical know how.

F1 RocketBoy's Genset
Rocket Boy lives in Florida and has built a backup Listeroid Genset for his home

Lister CS CHP Genset
Another of Ken Boak's earlier venture into using a Lister CS for Power & Heating

UtterPower's Listeroid Page
Interesting Information on Listeroid / Lister CS Stationary engines

Lister Engine Forum
A free online forum dedicated to all things Lister, Lister CS, Listeroid, Start-O-Matic

Lister-Petter
The home of the famous Lister CS Stationary engine! R A Lister

LED-Lighting-Energy-Efficient-Lighting

2009-07-02T15:21:00.000+01:00

LED (Light Emitting Diode) Lighting are a fast emerging high efficient light source. The primary benefits of LED lighting is low maintenance, long life and pure vibrant colors they produce.

LED technology is now been used in Floodlighting, LED floor panels, LED Up lights, LED Wall Panels, LED Strip lights and LED Spot Lights.

Philips lighting are one of the worlds leaders in LED technology and have just released the LUXEON Rebel ES which boasts in excess of 100 Lumen's per watt.

See THIS LINK for more on the Philips LumiLEDS
Philips Luxeon Rebel ES Power LED

HERE is a very informative article posted on the N Y Times website about the latest emerging LED Lighting technology. I suggest readers read it and learn about the latest LED Technology

How-To-Make-Biodiesel-Bio-Diesel

2009-07-02T14:49:00.001+01:00

Learn more about how to make Biodiesel.

I have hand picked some information on the processes and techniques of producing your own 'Green Diesel Biodiesel'

Make Biodiesel At Home Article

How to make Biodiesel at Home

Before we go into the details of producing small amounts of Biodiesel at
home we must first stress the importance of safety. The chemicals used
in the process of making Biodiesel are dangerous and if used without
taking the correct measures to protect yourself can cause serious injury
or even death. Please, please be careful and make sure you are in a well
ventilated area with access to running clean water.

MATERIALS REQUIRED

1 litre of Vegetable Oil- new (SVO) or used (WVO)

NaOH (lye / caustic soda), at least 6g. This is often used as a drain
cleaner and can often be found in your local supermarket.

Methanol (at least 250ml).Used as an Antifreeze, can often we found in
Motor supplie shops

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED

1 to 2 litre Plastic Bottle - I often use an empty Vegetable oil
container

A measuring cup

A scale

OR

A teaspoon

A container to mix the methanol and NaOH (methoxide) Not plastic. Heavy
duty glass is recommended

A Funnel

OIL PREPERATION

If you are using waste oil (WVO), take one litre and heat to at least
120 deg c to remove all water. If water is present the oil will spit and
pop, when the water is removed this will stop. Be careful - this can be
quite a violent process. Then Allow to cool

If you are using new vegetable oil it should not contain any water so
just heat to 55deg c when you are ready.

MAKING THE METHOXIDE

WARNING Making Methoxide is dangerous. Methoxide is highly toxic. For
this reason, the safety of the design of equipment and workspace should
be carefully considered before use, and protective clothing and a
respirator should be worn during handling. Only as much as is intended
to be used immediately should be created.

'YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED'

Take 250ml of Methanol and add 4g (about half a Teaspoon) NaOH.

If you are using Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) just use 6g- 7g NaOH (about 1
level teaspoon)

Methanol and NaOH do not easily mix. Start with the methanol at body
temp (not warm). NOTE that as you mix the two chemicals the temperature
will increase. Do not panic... is normal. You will need to ensure all
the NaOH is disolved in the Methanol, this could take over ten minutes.

After **ALL** the NaOH has disolved you may need to top up with fresh
methanol as the process may cause some evaporation

MAKING THE BIODIESEL... the final step

When the Oil's temperature has dropped to 60 deg c or less, using your
funnel, pour the litre of oil into you dry plastic container. Take your
methanol/NaOH (Methoxide) and add to the oil. Ensure the container is
sealed securely then shake vigerously for about 15 seconds.

Leave your Biodiesel to "set". You will notice that after about 10
minutes the glycerine or "soap" will settle from your mixture. It will
take a day or two for the Biodiesel to completely separate. You will see
two defined layers - the Biodiesel and the glycerine.Typically the
glycerine layer is about the same or a bit more than the amount of
methanol used.

Now remove the Biodiesel from the container leaving the glycerine and
you are ready for the washing...

WASHING YOUR BIODIESEL

Although the glycerine or "soap" and water has separated from your
Biodiesel - it will still need washing. Please do not violently shake
your unwashed Biodiesel as it will form an emulsion that may take days
or evn weeks to fully seperate. The gentle approach is whats needed.

Wash One:

Pour 1 litre biodiesel into a a clean and dry plaric bottle.

Gently pour in 500ml water (body temp).

Replace bottle top.

Now GENTLY rotate the bottle end for end for about 30 seconds.

After 30 seconds place bottle upright.

Only If you have been GENTLE the water and Biodiesel will seperate
immediatly.

You will notice the water is not clear.

Remove top and using your thumb as a stopper, turn bottle upsidedown and
drain the water using your thumb as a valve.

You have finished wash one.

Wash Two:

Pour in another 500ml water and repeat wash one, except rotate GENTLY
for about 1 minute.

Drain as in wash one.

You have finished wash 2.

Wash Three:

Again pour in another 500ml water and GENTLY GENTLY GENTLY shake bottle
for a minute or so.

When water and biodiesel seperate discard water in same fashion as
before.

Wash Four:

Another 500ml water and a bit more aggitation for about 1 min.

After seperation of water and biodiesel Drain as above.

Wash Five:

You should now be able shake fairly vigerously.

If the washing has been completed sucessfully the water should be almost
clear. Be aware that in your later washes you should be able to shake
mre violently although it will take considerably longer to seperate
because the water forms tiny bubles in the biodiesel that take time to
settle out.

Your washed biodiesel will be VERY CLOUDY and much lighter in colour
than the unwashed biodiesel a. After a day or 2 settling and drying it
will clear

Your Biodiesel is now ready for use!

Saving-Planet-Earth

2009-07-01T18:25:00.001+01:00

Tips on saving our planet (Saving Planet Earth)

There are a number of things you may do for our planet. Let me try and give you some suitable answers to help you out a little.Fossil Fuels: You can 'Lower' your dependence on fossil fuels. I don't expect you to go run away and live in a cage or become a 'Tree Hugger' but you can, for example;

1. switch all your lights from incandescent filament lamps to high efficiency low energy compact fluorescent lamps.

2. Strip out the gas fire and install a wood burner (Wood is a carbon neutral source of heating fuel) They can come with a back boiler so you can feed the excess heat into the heating system to heat other rooms.

3. Cut back on the travel by (Car / Van / Bus / Train) and try cycling short routes. If your distances are large for commuting then why not set up a car sharing scheme with friends so you can all commute in the same vehicle and save burning excessive fossil fuels (Petrol and Diesel)

4. Buy your fresh vegetables from local farmers / farm stores, supermarkets fly / ship fruit and vegetables from all 4 corners of the globe and add to the excessive burning of fossil fuels. Why not support your local farmer and purchase his vegetables and fruit that were grown in the field next door and delivered by hand by the farmer himself?

5. Try educating others about turning lights off when they leave the room, why have the radiator in the lavatory on full when you are in there for 2 minutes 2 times a day? Try and see logic!

6. Swap your CRT (Cathode Ray Tube - The Big Glass fronted TV's) TV with a LCD flat screen one. They use much less Electricity (Which is mainly produced by burning fossil fuels Diesel & Gas)

7. Set your Laptop and or desktop PC to hibernate after a set amount of inactivity so it is not needlessly wasting Electricity.

8. When you go to bed for the night go around the house and switch off all non essential electrical equipment at the plug, putting TV's and Microwaves into standby does not shut them down but only puts them into a lower consuming mode.

9. Grow your own fruit and vegetables, it is so much fun and very satisfying, plus you get to know you are reducing your carbon footprint whilst getting free food!

10. Opt for as many bills as possible to be sent to you electronically, you save them printing them on paper, save the rain forests and save on the delivery van burning fossil fuels in the process!

Hope this helps you out a little.

Domestic-Wind-Turbines

2009-07-01T18:16:00.001+01:00

There are 2 main types of wind turbine that are suitable for use with a domestic house.

1. Grid-Tied Wind Turbine:

Grid-Tied, simply put, means your wind turbine is connected in line with your national grid electricity supply. When you are using less electricity than your wind turbine is producing then the excess power is pushed past your electricity meter and back into the nation grid. This enables your meter to run backwards and reduce your bill you have to pay to your electricity supplier.
The disadvantage with a grid tied wind turbine is that in the event of your electricity supply shutting down (Power Cut) then the wind turbine supply shuts down also meaning you will have no electricity supply until the grid supply is restored. This is a safety feature to prevent your supply back feeding the national grid in the event of a power cut.

2. Isolated Wind Turbine Feeding Batteries:

A system that supplies batteries is not as efficient as a grid tied wind turbine due to the losses in storing electricity in batteries instead of directly feeding the national grid but the plus side is that the electricity you produce can be stored for later use.
You require a wind turbine designed to charge your battery bank. You also require suitable, maintenance free batteries for power storage, if you require domestic AC (Alternating Current) power then you will need an inverter to convert the DC (Direct Current) back to 230V AC that can be used with mains powered domestic appliances.

DIY-Wind-Turbine

2009-07-01T18:08:00.001+01:00

Basics!I have read countless books, mails, how to guides and the rest on how to build a wind machine, in the end I ditched them all and did it my way!The guides where OK but did not really get to the point, which was insimple terms what do I need to obtain to make one!
My chimney mounted wind machine!

As you can see from the picture above, my wind machine is in motion and it is almost all of the time, so long as there is a breeze it is making free power to supply my battery bank, all day and all night!My wind machine specifications6 x Carbon fibre reinforced plastic blades 3ft long1 x Circular steel hub 3mm steel (Homemade) 150mm Diameter1 x 10Ft standard steel scaffolding pole1 x 4ft Angle Iron type steel for tail1 x Custom mounting swivel bracket (Homemade)12 x M6 roofing bolts, nuts and washers for blade mounting1 x Brooke Crompton 90VDC 3000W permanent magnet DC motor 1 x Length of 16MM 2 core copper twin wire for power transfer1 x 600MM x 300MM x 5MM Perspex clear Perspex for tail fin1 x Lucas blocking Diode to prevent batteries spinning wind machine!

A down to earth explanation of how it works!The reason I chose this particular motor is because when you spin a PMDCmotor then it produces DC, DC is what charges SLA batteries so PMDC motors are the ideal solution for a Homebrew wind machine, these can befound world over in surplus shops, look out for them!So if we spin up a PMDC motor then we produce a DC voltage, the fasteryou spin it the higher the voltage will get.

When you connect a PMDC motor to a battery then the motor spins, this is using power from the battery bank to produce motive force, now if youwhere to manually spin the motor at the same speed as it was trying to goconnected to the battery then effectively the motor would be producing thesame voltage the battery was supplying, so the battery would not be underany load i.e. 12V battery connected in parallel to a PMDC motor spinning ata rate to produce 12VDC produces an equal and opposite electric force.However, once you begin to spin the motor faster than the battery bank voltage then you are effectively charging the battery bank i.e. 12VDCbattery bank connected in parallel to a PMDC motor producing 13.5VDC ischarging the bank or in simple terms putting power into your batteries!

Now we could go into overcharging, regulating, desulfating, trickle charging and more but for now we have the basics in place and we are producingpower and storing it in a chemical form (Batteries) for later re use.

More information:

Blocking Diode Purpose is to allow the produced voltage to flow from the wind machine(PMDC Motor) into the batteries but not the other way, so in wind thebatteries will charge but in no wind the wind machine will NOT rotate.

SLA Batteries Purpose is to store electricity in a chemical form

PMDC Motor Purpose is to effectively use it in reverse to induce a current flow into the motor windings from magnets and provide us with a useful charging currentat the right voltage.

16MM Copper cable Purpose is transport our voltage from the wind machine to the battery bankwith the least amount of electrical resistance, copper is a good electrical conductor but of course it has a resistive value, the larger the cross sectionalarea of the copper conductor, the less resistance we have.

Big really is better when it comes to your cabling!

Solar-Cookers

2009-07-01T17:45:00.001+01:00

Solar Cookers or Solar Ovens are very simple, easy to build cookers that use the power of the sun to cook food.

Open fire wood cooking is a huge problem in developing and poor countries. Cooking in a poorly ventilated kitchen on an open fire can cause respiratory diseases and premature death over time. Many poor countries are in hot climates where the population receive many hours of bright daylight for much of the day. Solar cookers are a simple, clean, environmentally responsible way of cooking hot vegetables and meat.

The principle is simple enough. Create a box or enclosure with an open top that is well insulated and has a reflective / mirrored finish on the inside of the container. Inside you place a blackened / very dark, non reflective pot with your raw vegetables and meat in and finally place a clear (Glass / PVC) lid on the top and pop the box in bright sunshine until your food is thoroughly cooked.

More reflective shutters can be added to direct more sunshine into your solar cooker for better results. The preferred material for the reflected surface is Mylar or Melinex but can be substituted with tinfoil, turkey foil or polished stainless steel.

Notes on Mylar: DIY Solar Cooker enthusiasts usually utilize Mylar as it claims a 65% reflectivity.

Something I have recently come across is Diamond Reflective Mylar that claims a 99% reflectivity, how true this claim is I have no data on but I am going to be building and documenting 2 solar cookers and comparing the efficiencies to see what benefit there is using Diamond Mylar over traditional Reflective Mylar.

External Website Links

http://solarcookers.org/
Read and purchase Solar Cookers / Solar Ovens

http://solarcookers.org/basics/how.html
The basics on Solar Cookers / Solar Ovens

http://solarcooking.org/
Large website for Solar Cooking

http://www.sunspot.org.uk/ed/
Fresnel Lense Solar Cooking

http://journeytoforever.org/sc.html
Journey To Forever's slant on Solar Cooking

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooking/cooking.htm
Build It Solar provides some interesting information

DIY-Geothermal-Ground-Source-Heat-Pump-By-Rick-Faszold

2009-07-01T17:29:00.001+01:00

Rick Faszold decided to take on his very own geothermal ground source heat pump installation, A DIY project larger than anything he had previously attempted in his 20 years of marriage. His main objective was to complete the entire Geothermal ground source heat pump domestic system within a budget of $10,000.00 USD.

Considering he was in receipt of quotations in excess of $25,000.00 USD he has certainly set his targets high!

Richard Faszold's Geothermal DIY Website

Why is Richard Faszold taking on such a huge challenge? Below are his very own words....

The Short Answer - I want to save money, help the environment and have a project/hobby that I could work on at home.
The longer answer is….. a few years ago, I began to look at the solar power as way to reduce our energy bills. Our propane bill was going up (same usage), our local electric utility went up a smidge and we endured a few “longish” power outages. (Looking back over 4 years, our propane bill went up 40%!.)

I thought solar would be a way to pay one more time for power and be done with it forever. No more bills, power outages and wasted refrigerator items. As I looked down the road to retirement, it occurred to me that our current (2007) energy bill of $4,400, would probably double by the time I retired. (We live in a 2,100 sq/ft home.) Taking an estimate of $8,800 annually for energy costs at retirement, ten years of energy cost into retirement would be tough to deal with. Perhaps this amount is too much or not enough for you, this is merely a guess as to what could be. We felt that trying to compensate for this bill by saving more for retirement would have too much of a negative impact on our budget.

So, I started looking for ways to deal with this issue.I started with solar first. It seemed simple and it would be able to do everything we needed it to do. Just purchase a bunch of panels and no more electrical bills. Move to electric heating and a nice generator (for rainy days) and all is well. Unfortunately, part of the solar calculation is Peak Kilowatt Hours or what your peak energy demands are. From there you size the system to meet your peak needs. Along the way you increase capacity to compensate for winter (less hours of sun) and lost efficiencies. Meeting our peak needs would have costs us about $35,000 upfront. (2006 costs) This was far too expensive. The solar folks know that it is important to weather proof as much as possible, buy different appliances, and make some lifestyle changes in order to reduce the cost of a system. This is wise; but, not workable for our family. Again, it would be a budget issue or a lifestyle problem that we faced.As of July of 2007, solar was really ramping up to the point where there were world wide shortages of photovoltaic panels and prices increases.

Various countries have committed to utilizing this power and manufacturing facilities just did not see this type of demand coming. It will be well into 2009 before enough manufacturing comes online to meet demand and reduce prices. Also, there are some exciting new technologies that promise to increase the overall conversion efficiency by two fold.What I was really trying to do with solar was to never pay another utility bill again. Since solar was not working out financially, I took a harder look at our energy bill and broke it down into a few categories to see what I was really dealing with. I realized that our heating bill was roughly $2,200 annually (propane and going up very quickly) and our summer cooling bill was over $1,000, thus our heating and cooling alone were about 75% of our energy needs. I felt that if I could find a cost effective way to take care of heating and cooling, then I might be able to go back to solar.

In searching through the Internet, I stumbled upon Geothermal.Geothermal, “seemed” simple and cheap. (It is neither.) I jumped at wanting to get a geo system until I started getting bids that were north of $25,000. $25,000 is still too expensive plop down for 75% of our energy needs. Yes, it “seemed” to pay for itself over time (Nine year ROI); but, it really didn’t financially do everything I hoped it would do. It was cheaper than solar; but, not that much cheaper. So, this was very depressing.

I thought I would be stuck paying utility companies forever.As I was surfing around, I found a gentleman who said he did his geo system by himself AND did it for under $7,000! (That was in the later 90’s.) $7,000 is definitely budgetable and has a very nice ROI considering a current $3,200 a year heating and cooling bill. An interesting note is that a 1998 study by the EPA indicates that for every $1 reduction in energy cost, the value of the home rises by $20. It would be nice if they would update this study a bit in light of current energy costs and the sub-prime market melt down. This is 1998 dollars AND since the stock market is going nuts due to the sub-prime meltdown, I have no idea of what this means.

Note: As of February 2009, we decided to re-fi our home. Our appraiser gave NO added value to the house due to the Geo system. This began quite a while of searching and talking to folks about geo in order to get to a point where I felt comfortable doing this myself. Thus, I began my own geo project. The only thing that I can offer to you is… ask a LOT of questions and know that if you do this, you will still miss something… Hopefully, it will not be big.

Sunshine-To-Solar-Help

2009-06-29T22:33:00.001+01:00

Solar collectors (solar panels) mounted on a roof are connected to pipes containing a heating fluid mixture of water and antifreeze. When the sun heats up the solar collectors the hot fluid is pumped through the pipes to a heat exchange coil in the new solar hot water cylinder. Here the captured solar energy is transferred from the hot fluid in the coil to the household's hot water supply. The hot water in the cylinder is connected to the taps, shower, washing machine, etc in the usual way.

In order for the solar water heating system to run safely and efficiently, a range of valves are installed in the heating fluid circuit. A series of temperature sensors are connected to a digital solar controller to switch the system on or off according to the solar energy available.
On days of limited sunlight, solar energy alone may not be sufficient to heat the household's water to a usable temperature. In this case your conventional boiler or your immersion heater (if fitted) can be used to further boost the temperature of the solar heated water.
choosing the right system

As with all technologies there are good and not so good solar water heating systems. When choosing a solar water heating system there are a number of points to consider:

Hot water storage cylinder
The size of the hot water storage cylinder is generally determined by the amount of hot water your household uses in a day.

Typical daily hot water usage:

Volume In Litres (litres)

Standard sized bath
60
Corner bath
120
Shower / Power shower
15-60
Washing machine
50
Kitchen sink
15
Bathroom washbasin
5

A new solar hot water storage cylinder is usually fitted in the airing cupboard replacing your existing storage cylinder. If the space around your existing storage cylinder is limited an alternative position or design can normally be agreed.

Size and quantity of solar collectors
Allow around one square meter of collector surface area for every 45 - 50 litres of hot water to be stored.

Position of solar collector
Collectors in the UK work best when facing south and at an angle of around 35 degrees from the horizontal.
Durability
A well designed and constructed solar water heating system should provide many years of good service with little maintenance.

Cost
Assuming a life span in excess of 20 years, solar water heating offers good value for money when comparing the initial investment to the cost of a household's current heating fuels. The costs of conventional heating may increase over the years as existing oil and gas supplies diminish and 'pollution taxes' are levied.

It is also important to consider the cost of electricity to run the solar heating system (pump, controls etc). For a typical home this is less than £5 per year.
Solar water heating cannot be considered good value if the initial system cost is too expensive. For this reason it is important to shop around for a competitively priced system using high quality components.

Babington-Burner-Nozzles-For-Sale

2009-06-29T15:32:00.001+01:00

Babington Burner Atomizing Nozzles For Sale - Worldwide Postage.

Babington burner atomizing nozzles are used to atomize almost all combustible fuel sources. Fuels such as vegetable oil, WVO waste vegetable oil, WMO waste motor oil, waste gearbox oil, waste transmission oil, peanut oil, canola oil and paraffin oil can all be burned very cleanly.

The Babington Nozzle works on the same principle when a whale surfaces to breathe. It is not the whale spraying out water from it's blow hole but air blown out under high pressure and the water running over the whales skin creates surface tension (Thin film of sea water) when the air passes through the film of water the water is atomized.

***PRODUCTION UPDATE JUNE 2009***

We are proud to announce that our Babington Nozzles are now in full production and payments should be made to shop@homebrewpower.co.uk via Paypal for 39.99 GBP - Free P&P within the UK and + 5.00 GBP worldwide shipping.
We guarantee to send each individual Nozzle out within 5 working days of receipt of money.

Our Babington Burner Nozzles have the following specifications:

Ball Diameter
50MM
Ball Material
1MM Thick Spun Brass
Air Connection
15MM Copper Compression Gland
Brazing Metal
55% Sure Silver M25T Rods 680 Degrees Celsius Melting Point
Atomizing Hole Specification
0.0135" Diameter Hole - Pillar Drilled @ 20,000 RPM
Air Pressure Suggested Rating
15 - 80 PSI - Set To Suit Individual Application
Finish
Acid Dipped, Hand Wired & Polished
Notes On Finish
Oxidization will occur when exposed to air - This does not affect performance
Construction
Hand Made In The United Kingdom
Babington Ball Usage
Clean Atomization of combustible oils & fats - Various Heating Projects

The Babington burner nozzles are one off creations, hand made and designed for the complete combustion of oil and waste oil products.

Chug from Vegetable Oil Diesel has added a link to my Babington Burner Nozzles, you can read about it HERE
Here is a really informative website for people wishing to know more about the Babington's

Welcome-To-Renewable-Energy-UK-www.homebrewpower.co.uk

2009-06-29T10:14:00.001+01:00

HomeBrewPower Project Mission Statement:

HomeBrewPower is dedicated to providing interesting projects, reviews and case studies for Renewable Energy Projects. Many renewable energy projects can be applied to homes and businesses. Wind Turbines are a great DIY project to start off with for producing some of your electrical needs. Of course some may want to learn about Solar Hot Water, Micro-Hydro turbines, Geothermal Heating, Energy Saving or running your Diesel Car on 'Carbon Neutral' Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) We are constantly updating each and every page and adding new ones all the time here at HomeBrewPower, check back regularly to see what we are working on.

HomeBrewPower Installation Services:

Specializing in the design & installation of UK Off-Grid power for Remote homes, buildings & boats. Systems include Solar PV, Wind Turbines, Micro CHP & Solar Hot Water. 12, 24 36, 48 & 230V Systems tailored to suit the clients power requirements.

We like to work on bespoke / one off domestic living spaces such as: Woodland Low Impact Houses, Eco Houses, Boat Homes, Isolated Properties, Custom Built Homes, Yurts, Dome Houses, Straw Bail Homes, Reclaimed Building Material Homes. Anything that requires all the creature comforts of a traditionally built home but without the restraints of Grid-Tied Electricity.

If you are looking for either a complete package or just a helping hand. design or advice

then please contact us by clicking here

Our areas of expertise are listed below

Solar PV Installations
Wind Turbine Installations
12VDC Installations
Micro-Hydro Installations
230VAC Off Grid Installations
Energy Saving Lighting Installations
Carbon Neutral Energy Points (Small solar setup to provide power to 1 of more sockets at home)
Eco Product Reviews
Eco Evaluations

Americas Green Energy Industry About To Boom

2009-05-22T16:25:00.000+01:00

By Adam Aston
BW Magazine

As global financial markets melted down in October, Congress handed a gift to America's green energy industry: It renewed and broadened a set of tax credits for wind and solar power, geothermal, tidal energy, and more. The move did little to prop up eco-energy stocks, which have followed oil prices down. But the news did send a positive jolt to one of the economy's darkest sectors: homebuilding. Or, more specifically, solar-powered homes. Consumers recognize that green homes "save money month in, month out," says Rick Andreen, president of Shea Homes Active Lifestyles Communities in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Most of the sweeteners Congress conjured up will go to big projects such as wind farms. But aspiring buyers of green homes will benefit, too. The revised 30% one-time investment credit for solar means that a buyer who installs a typical $25,000 solar panel system on his roof will get $7,500 in income tax credits, up from $2,000 under the old standard. How long that investment takes to pay off will depend on local rules and utility rates. In markets with the most costly power, such as California, Connecticut, and New Jersey, the pretax compound rate of return on a typical home solar system will be better than 15% per year, says Andy Black, chief executive of OnGrid Solar, an industry research firm.

The fresh credits may mark a turning point for solar-powered homes. During the housing boom, when mortgages and energy were both cheap, green power was not a hot option; typical home buyers preferred granite countertops to solar panels. But even before the subprime crash, builders began to see rising interest in sun-powered dwellings. Ryness Co., which compiles sales data for homebuilders, found in a recent survey that homes with solar systems were outselling others by as much as 2:1 in 13 California communities.

Today there are about 40,000 solar homes in the U.S., but that number is set to spike. Shea is adding solar to communities planned for Arizona, California, Florida, and Washington State. And, responding to a shift in buyers' attitudes, big builders such as Centex (CTX), Lennar (LEN), Pulte Homes (PHM), and Woodside Homes are following suit. Consider Whitney Ranch, a development south of Sacramento. Sales there softened in the housing downturn, says Kathryn Boyce, an executive at Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. But when Standard Pacific Homes (SPF) put solar systems on a group of new models in the development, they sold out. The builder then decided to install panels on all 304 of the homes.

The appeal of solar homes could grow as the economic outlook worsens. The more utility bills cut into household reserves, "the more consumers recognize the value of efficiency," says Robert W. Hammon, principal of ConSol, a green building consulting firm. And there's growing consumer awareness that solar homes appreciate faster than ordinary dwellings. They also resell for a premium of up to 5%.

According to Ben Hoen, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who studies the effects of eco-features on real estate values, more homeowners now see solar panels as a long-term asset. Mortgage lenders, however, have been slow to make that link. The loan processes at Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) don't give special treatment to buyers who make improvements to lower utility bills, says Shea's Andreen. Builders wish lenders would start to take stock of eco-features. "Solar panels free up household cash flow," Andreen says. "Lenders should recognize that." End of article

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Renewable Energy UK | Visit Our Home Brew Power Website

Wind | Domestic Wind Turbines - Good Or Bad?

Solar | Solar Panels For Your Shed Or Summerhouse?

Carbon Neutral | Recent Posts Relating To 'Carbon Neutral'

Babington Burner | Purchase Our Hand Made WVO Burning Babington Nozzles

HomeBrewPower Yahoo Group On Carbon Neutral Power Generation

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Money-Saving-Tips-On-Building-An-Off-Grid-Homestead

2009-05-19T15:48:00.001+01:00

TIP #1: If you buy building materials in small quantity you will pay full retail price. Instead figure out exactly what materials you will need. Include everything from screws to appliances. Make your material list look professional and take it to any large construction supplier like home depot or lowes. Do not talk to a clerk but go straight to the contractor desk or speak to a manager and tell them you are building your own home and would like the contractor discount for buying all the materials from them.

Most building supply stores will give you anywhere from 5% to 15% discount if you buy all material at one time. They may even throw in free delivery if you live within a certain mileage.

If you have to buy in small quantities go to the mom and pop building suppliers with your list and ask the manager for a discount if you buy all your materials from them over time. You will still usually get a discount and be supporting your local dealers.

TIP #2: If you are using solar (I hope) try to buy your panels in bulk for a big discount. Most panel suppliers will give 30% or more for bulk sales of ten panels or more and a smaller discount if you buy more than one. Talk to the owner if possible as salesman rarely have power to discount. Get your power controller and necessary wiring and even batteries from the dealer and get an even bigger discount!

TIP #3: Recycle whenever possible. Good used Doors and windows can be had for free or cheap from most window installers. Get double pane and insulated doors for exterior. They may need painting and might be different sizes but the savings is worth a little extra work.

Good used appliances can be had for free or cheap. Check out your local freecycle website, garage sale, city dump, or look for homes being remodled and make an offer. Sinks, toilets, cabinets, tubs, showers are always being thrown away so do some scrounging and don't waste money on new ones.

New propane appliances can be expensive but if you have or can buy an old rv cheap salvage all your propane appliances to outfit your home.

TIP #4: Design your home for efficiency. Consider how big of a home you really need. Smaller homes are cheaper to build, cheaper to heat and cool, easier to clean and lower in property taxes. Because people are looking for smaller efficient homes they also raise in property value faster than big inefficient homes.

TIP #5: Use the sun and passive energy. Situate you house to take advantage of the sun for winter heating and solar panels. Plant trees for natural summer cooling. Use overhangs to block summer sun and porches for cool resting spots. Passive air turbines instead of expensive air conditioning.

TIP #6: Go solar! There is a fed rebate of 30% for any size solar electric system installed by a professional installer. You can get this rebate even if you do the work yourself if you will contact an installer and ask them to design your system and oversee your work. get them to sign off on the work as being installed professionally and you can get the rebate. Many installers will do this and I do it all the time for clients. If you buy your equipment from them they can get you a bigger discount and they will give you valuable advice for designing the right size system for your needs. It may be worth a few hundred dollars to have their professional experience and you will save a lot in the rebate and having a correctly designed system.

TIP #7: Do the work yourself! Even if you have no building experience you can save a lot by having a knowledgeable builder use you for labor on your own home. Take a construction class or volunteer with a habitats for humanity project or your neighbors construction to learn the skill you need. Home construction is not difficult and most people that have basic construction knowledge can do it themselves or with a little guidance from a knowledgeable builder.

LED Lighting - Efficient Lighting

2009-05-12T13:39:00.000+01:00

LED (Light Emitting Diode) Lighting are a fast emerging high efficient light source. The primary benefits of LED lighting is low maintenance, long life and pure vibrant colors they produce.

LED technology is now been used in Floodlighting, LED floor panels, LED Up lights, LED Wall Panels, LED Strip lights and LED Spot Lights.

Philips lighting are one of the worlds leaders in LED technology and have just released the LUXEON Rebel ES which boasts in excess of 100 Lumens per watt.

See THIS LINK for more on the Philips LumiLEDS

Philips Luxeon Rebel ES Power LED

Homebrewpower Website is dedicated to information and news on WVO, WMO, CHAP, CHP, Solar Power, Solar Panels, Solar Hot Water, Wind Generators, Wind Machines, Solar PV, Alternative Energy, Energy Saving, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Neutral, Sustainable Living plus much more.

For more on Renewable Energy please visit

http://www.homebrewpower.co.uk

EMAIL Questions

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Renewable Energy UK | Visit Our Home Brew Power Website

Wind | Domestic Wind Turbines - Good Or Bad?

Solar | Solar Panels For Your Shed Or Summerhouse?

Carbon Neutral | Recent Posts Relating To 'Carbon Neutral'

Babington Burner | Purchase Our Hand Made WVO Burning Babington Nozzles

HomeBrewPower Yahoo Group On Carbon Neutral Power Generation

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Lister-CS-Stationar-Engines-Power-Generation

2009-04-09T18:49:00.001+01:00

Lister CS (Cold Start) stationary engines, or their Indian clones referred to as Listeroid stationary engines, are one of the most versatile long running stationary engines the world had ever seen. They are more than capable of running on almost any viscous oil including Peanut oil, Canola oil, Vegetable Oil, filtered waste vegetable oil, filtered waste motor oil, diesel oil, crude oil, gearbox oil, sunflower oil and many more. There are a number of enthusiasts out there who are experimenting with running them on a mixture of Fuel Oil and Wood Gas Fumes.
The Lister CS range of engines are Slow RPM (650RPM to 700RPM) 4 stroke single cylinder stationary engines. They are over engineered and have been known to run unattended for in excess of 200,000 hours.
They use the simplest of technology which lends them to less maintenance and breakdowns.
Below is a list of interesting websites that document their progress on Using the Lister CS (Listeroid) stationary engines to provide heating and power for domestic dwellings / Low impact homes.
Using a Lister CS / SOM (Start-O-Matic) Stationary engine to produce both power and heating is commonly referred to as a CHP (Combined Heat Power) CHAP (Combined Heat And Power) or MCHP (Micro Combined Heat And Power)
The Diesel Engine Basics
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine which operates using the diesel cycle (named after Dr. Rudolph Diesel). Diesel engines have the highest thermal efficiency[citation needed] compared to any internal or external combustion engine.The defining feature of the diesel engine is the use of compression ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber during the final stage of compression. This is in contrast to a petrol (gasoline) engine or gas engine, which uses the Otto cycle, in which a fuel/air mixture is ignited by a spark plug.
Diesel engines are manufactured in two stroke and four stroke versions. They were originally used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have been used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, large trucks and electric generating plants followed later. In the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of diesel engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the USA increased. As of 2007, about 50 percent of all new car sales in Europe are diesel.
Ken Boak's Lister
Ken is producing electricity and heat from his Lister CS engine setup in Surrey - Kent.
Ken Boak's Lister Video
Here is a short documentary about Ken Boak's generating plant - Interesting & inspiring.
Robert Bodel's Listeroid
Robert Bodel retired to Texas and lives in a sea container. He uses a Listeroid for power.
David Edgington's CS Book
Covers in great detail the venerable Lister diesel produced between 1929 and the 1980s.
Lister CS Owners Group
Lister CS Yahoo Owners Group - Great place for technical know how.
F1 RocketBoy's Genset
Rocket Boy lives in Florida and has built a backup Listeroid Genset for his home
Lister CS CHP Genset
Another of Ken Boak's earlier venture into using a Lister CS for Power & Heating
UtterPower's Listeroid Page
Interesting Information on Listeroid / Lister CS Stationary engines
Lister Engine Forum
A free online forum dedicated to all things Lister, Lister CS, Listeroid, Start-O-Matic
Lister-Petter
The home of the famous Lister CS Stationary engine! R A Lister

Straw-Bail-Homes-Carol-Atkinson-Howden

2009-03-30T22:35:00.001+01:00

Straw Bales are the Way Forward in Construction

A study to research the potential for using straw in construction has led to a coveted Nuffield Farming Scholarship for a woman who firmly believes building with straw bales is the way forward.

Carol with Yorkshire Agricultural Society Chief Executive Nigel Pulling in front of one of Carol's straw bale buildings.

Carol Atkinson, who farms with her husband at Howden near Goole, already runs the Straw Bale Cabin, a one-bedroom holiday cottage. A second, larger cottage is currently under construction and is expected to be completed by May this year.

She is sponsored by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society following her successful application to the Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust. The Society, best known for organising the annual Great Yorkshire Show, is committed to promoting and assisting the developments in farming.

Nigel Pulling, the Society’s Chief Executive said Carol’s study was not only interesting but could lead to new business opportunities for farmers.

“Agriculture faces increasing challenges and her study should prove extremely valuable in highlighting a possible growth area. Straw bale building has the potential to provide farmers with a new income stream, as well as being good for the environment.”

Nuffield Farming Scholarships are prestigious agricultural awards recognised around the globe. They promote leadership and the implementation of innovative agricultural practices through worldwide study.

Carol will travel to the United States, Canada and Europe to look at how straw bales are used in construction and investigate how the idea could be more widely used in Britain.

“I’m passionate about the potential for building with straw,” explained Carol. “There are benefits for farmers too, such as adding value to their crops, and wider benefits for the environment. It also means there could be more low-cost rural housing, it would boost rural skills and there would be a natural, non-toxic indoor environment. It’s good news all round really.”

She said: “I’m really grateful to the Yorkshire Agricultural Society for sponsoring me – it wouldn’t have happened without their support. This is a fantastic opportunity and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Almost 200 people have stayed in the Straw Bale Cabin, which was the first of its kind in the UK, and has attracted widespread interest. But, says Carol, straw bale building is still little-understood in Britain, with less than 100 buildings nationwide.

“They are permanent buildings, with lime rendering on the outside and clay plaster on the inside, and we have sheep’s wool insulation in the roof,” said Carol. “They’re warm, comfortable places that are totally natural and use local resources where possible – for example the clay, hemp, timber and so on.

“There’s no reason why more straw bale buildings shouldn’t be constructed and my study will assist me in learning more about how this could happen. It’s more widespread in Canada and the US, which is why I want to visit, and seeing how using straw bales works in Europe will be interesting as their climate is closer to our own.”

Solar-Hot-Water-Panels-Installer-UK

2009-03-13T16:05:00.001Z

I am a solar hot water Installer In The UK. If you require a free quotation then please do ring me on 07504 505 089 or EMAIL me.

I CAN SAVE YOU MONEY!

Sell-Your-Own-Energy-Back-To-Your-Supplier-Renewable-Energy

2009-03-10T09:07:00.001Z

Did you know you could be making money from the electricity generated by your renewable technology installation?

If you have installed, or are thinking about installing, a renewable technology which produces electricity, such as a Solar Electricity (PV) system, you may be able to get paid for the electricity it produces. The most common way to do this is to sign up to a buy back scheme with an energy supplier. There are two main tariffs available to do this:
Export tariffs: You are only paid for the electricity that is exported back to the electricity network (you are not paid for any electricity you use). Generation tariffs: You are paid for all of the electricity that your system has generated even if you use it in your own home. There are also some Set Price Tariffs available where a fixed amount is paid by the energy supplier based on the type or capacity of the installation.
Use our buy back tariff search tool
To help you find the right tariff more easily we have developed a buy back tariff search tool. Using this tool will allow you to see details of all the tariffs currently being offered by the energy suppliers.
Click here to go straight to the buy back tariff search tool
Before you start your search you may wish to read the guidance below.
Choosing the right tariff
The answers to the following questions should help you choose the right buy buy back tariff for your situation:
Do you expect to use most of the electricity you generate at home?
If the answer is yes, it is likely that a Generation Tariff is likely to be a better option for you as you will get paid for all the electricity you generate rather than just the electricity that is exported.
If you will be using a small amount of the electricity your system generates then an Export Tariff may be a better option for you.
Will you need to install a new meter?
Total Generation Meter: Most tariffs will require you to have an Ofgem approved Total Generation Meter which should be installed with your system. Total Generation Meters give a running total of the electricity generated by the system in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Export Meter: Most export tariffs require you to have an export meter installed. Some companies will pay for the meter and its installation whereas others may charge you. It is important that you establish the costs before agreeing a contract. Will it affect your import supply?
Most buy back tariffs are dependent on the customer getting their import supply from the same energy supplier, and some suppliers limit the choice of available import tariffs that can be used.
You should check tariffs are on offer from the supplier purchasing your electricity generation and how much your annual bill will be. You will want to take these costs into consideration alongside the export/generation tariff payment.
What else should you consider?
Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) are certificates given to registered generators of renewable electricity produced and sold within the UK. You will be entitled to one certificate for each megawatt hour (or 1,000 kilowatt hours kWh) of electricity you produce.
Some tariffs include a price for ROCs whereby the energy supplier acts as the ROC agent, claiming ROCs from Ofgem on behalf of the customer. However, there are other tariffs where the customer retains the ROC entitlement and must claim these themselves. For ROCs to be able to be claimed you must have a Total Generation Meter installed. Information on which tariffs include a payment for ROCs can be viewed by looking at the tariff details on our buy back tariff search tool.
Some suppliers include the payment for ROCs within the tariff, this means the ROCs are claimed by the energy company on the customers' behalf. If the tariff does not include payment for ROCs then the customer can claim for them separately.

What-Can-I-Do-To-Help-The-Planet-Earth?

2009-03-09T18:46:00.001Z

There are a number of things you may do for our planet. Let me try and give you some suitable answers to help you out a little.

Fossil Fuels: You can 'Lower' your dependence on fossil fuels. I don't expect you to go run away and live in a cage or become a 'Tree Hugger' but you can, for example;

1. switch all your lights from incandescent filament lamps to high efficiency low energy compact fluorescent lamps.

2. Strip out the gas fire and install a wood burner (Wood is a carbon neutral source of heating fuel) They can come with a back boiler so you can feed the excess heat into the heating system to heat other rooms.

3. Cut back on the travel by (Car / Van / Bus / Train) and try cycling short routes. If your distances are large for commuting then why not set up a car sharing scheme with friends so you can all commute in the same vehicle and save burning excessive fossil fuels (Petrol and Diesel)

4. Buy your fresh vegetables from local farmers / farm stores, supermarkets fly / ship fruit and vegetables from all 4 corners of the globe and add to the excessive burning of fossil fuels. Why not support your local farmer and purchase his vegetables and fruit that were grown in the field next door and delivered by hand by the farmer himself?

5. Try educating others about turning lights off when they leave the room, why have the radiator in the lavatory on full when you are in there for 2 minutes 2 times a day? Try and see logic!

6. Swap your CRT (Cathode Ray Tube - The Big Glass fronted TV's) TV with a LCD flat screen one. They use much less Electricity (Which is mainly produced by burning fossil fuels Diesel & Gas)

7. Set your Laptop and or desktop PC to hibernate after a set amount of inactivity so it is not needlessly wasting Electricity.

8. When you go to bed for the night go around the house and switch off all non essential electrical equipment at the plug, putting TV's and Microwaves into standby does not shut them down but only puts them into a lower consuming mode.

9. Grow your own fruit and vegetables, it is so much fun and very satisfying, plus you get to know you are reducing your carbon footprint whilst getting free food!

10. Opt for as many bills as possible to be sent to you electronically, you save them printing them on paper, save the rain forests and save on the delivery van burning fossil fuels in the process!

Hope this helps you out a little.

Renewable Energy & Self Sufficiency

Generate-Free-Electricity-Magnetic-Generator

Radiator-Booster-MK2-As-Featured-In-Your-Sleaford-Lincs

How-To-Build-A-Wind-Turbine-On-The-Cheap

How-To-Connect-A-Battery-Bank

Generate-Electricity-From-Trees

Grow-Your-Own-Food | Organic-Gardening

Buy-A-Snow-Shovel-ABS-Plastic-Draper

Lister-CS-Stationary-Engine-For-Sale-UK-Ebay

OLED-Paint-By-Lomox-The-Most-Efficient-Form-Of-Lighting-Ever

Recycling-Websites-In-The-UK-Resources

Lets-Get-1-Million-People-To-Be-More-Sustainable-In-2010

Top-10-tips-for-living-more-sustainably-in-2010

Biodiesel-Sunshine-In-A-Jar

Track-Santa-Claus-2009-Via-Google-Earth

Protos-Plant-Oil-Stove-Breaking-News

An Innovative Cooker

Copenhagen-Climate-Summit-Absolute-Devastation

Global-Warming-Caused-By-Suns-Radiation

Free-Heating

Babington Burner Atomizing Nozzles For Sale

Our Babington nozzles are now on ebay and we have for the christmas period added a ‘Accept Best Offers’ so for anyone wanting a Babington Burner Nozzle but think the price of £39.00 to be a little bit over budget then why now make me an offer?

Babington Burner Link Via Ebay

Babington Burner Atomizing Nozzles For Sale

Complete-Catagories-Section-Added-To-Left-Column

How-To-Make-A-Wind-Turbine

UFO-Captured-On-Camera-At-The-Big-Green-Gathering-2007

Eco-Christmas-Ideas-For-Christmas-2009

Calculate-Power-Available-From-A-Given-Wind-Speed

Climate-Depot

Videos-From-The-Energy-Saving-Week-2009-Energy-Saving-Trust

Home Truths

Home Truths videos from Energy Saving Week 2009In 2009 we recruited up to 50 families across the UK to help us identify how we waste energy in the home. Capturing these wasteful acts were Undercover Reporters who created a video capturing their families wasteful habits.

The Barry family

The Sime family

The Arnold family

The McKeown family

The Manning family

Geothermal-Energy-Just-Add-Water

Solar-Electricity-Handbook-By-Michael-Boxwell-Book

Path-To-Freedom-Urban-Homestead

Electricity-Free-Fridge-2-Pot-Fridge

100-Ways-To-Save-Our-Planet

Think-Green-Be-Green

What-A-One-Kilowatt-PV-System-Does-In-Eco-Reductions

Sust-It.Net-Energy-Saving-Calculator

Christmas-Present-For-The-Eco-Minded

DIY-Solar-Air-Heater

HomeBrewPower-Magazine-On-Scribd.com

Renewable-Energy-Latest-News

Renewable Energy UK Website Forum

Renewable-Energy-Discussion-Forum

Babington-Burner-Balls-For-Sale-UK

Solar-Power-Powered-Shed-Help

Solar-Hot-Water-Wood-Stove-Hybrid-Installation-Schematic

Cross-Tied-Battery-Bank

Breaking-News-Eco-Friendly-Couple-Go-Shopping-On-Horseback

Breaking-News-UK-Government-Release-New-Microgeneration-Tarrif-For-Renewable-Energy

Grid-Tie-Inverter-G83-Certification

NanoSolar-Printed-Solar-Cells-Cheapest-In-The-World

Renewable-Energy-Website-UK

FreeLoader–Globetrotter-Pack–Review–Cheapest-UK-Price

Free-Loader-Product-Reviews

PowerMonkey-Product-Reviews

EcoZone-Product-Reviews

Horizon-Fuel-Cell-Technologies-Product-Reviews

Air-Free-Product-Reviews

Solio-Product-Reviews

Solar-Technology-International-Product-Reviews

Eton-Product-Reviews

Tefal-Product-Reviews

Trevor-Baylis-Brands-Product-Reviews

Moppel-Product-Reviews

Efergy-Product-Reviews

Radiator-Booster-Product-Reviews

HYMini-Product-Reviews

H2O-Power-Product-Reviews

Eco-Button-Product-Reviews

UniRoss-Product-Reviews

Pure-Product-Reviews

Home Truths videos from Energy Saving Week 2009
In 2009 we recruited up to 50 families across the UK to help us identify how we waste energy in the home. Capturing these wasteful acts were Undercover Reporters who created a video capturing their families wasteful habits.