* RodWarnock.com *

Hi,

           The UK Government has plans to build a number of Eco Towns throughout the country over the coming years. This of course is commendable, but it is dogged by controversy. How for instance are transport links to these town to be established.

The concept of these towns is that everything in them should be green, but that will prove hard to achieve. If you live in an eco town you will be expected to have a battery car. I for one do not accept that. There are many ways to reduce emissions from existing cars by running them on alternative fuels such as hydrogen, or methane.

On the other hand I would very much like to have an eco house. That can be achieved by building one from scratch or converting an existing house to an eco house. I think that the least expensive option is to convert an existing house by using solar panels to generate electricity and to heat water and by using a wood burning stove to heat the house.

What the Government seem to have forgotten is that by their own estimates the UK will have electricity blackouts by 2017 due to the increased demand for  electricity. What use will an electric car be then?

I believe we must all do everything we can to protect the environment by improving the efficiency of  our homes. In doing so we will be saving not only the planet but ourselves a lot of money,since power bills are expected to rise by as much as 60% over the coming years.

Why not find out now how to build your own solar electricity system or solar hot water system 

Hi,

          Apparently leading gas-producing nations are meeting this week in Algeria to vote on cutting supplies of gas. It seems that they wish to double the price of natural gas. They have been deliberating on reducing supplies for years but this is the first time they have agreed to have a vote.

Whilst it is unlikely that they will agree to cut supplies this time around, it is nevertheless an ominous sign. It is bad enough that the oil cartel have been holding us all to ransome for years without the gas cartel following suit.

To my mind it is yet another reason to start using natural resources of energy like wind power and the power of the sun. Now is the time to find out what particular source of energy suits your home. You may be able to heat your house with a wood burning stove which is carbon neutral.

Use either wind power if you have sufficient wind speed and or solar panels with photovoltaic cells to generate electricity, and solar panels to heat your water.

Hi,

          If you live in the UK then you may well have been encouraged by one of the power companies to switch to green electricity. However there is now some controversy about this due to the fact that you do not really know how much of electricity you are getting is generated from renewable resources.

The present law is that 9% of energy generated by any power company in 2008/2009 must come from renewables. For each unit of renewable electricity power companies are issued with a “Renewable Obligation Certificate”.  However the controversy comes because power companies who generate in excess of 9% renewable energy can sell their excess certificaters to those who have not yet reached the 9% level. Sounds highly suspicious to me.

It is no wonder the regulator is now looking into this matter. If you choose a green tarif from your power company I suppose at least you may be getting some of your electricity from renewable resources, but the very best way to get green electricity is to generate it yourself from the power of the sun in your own home using solar panels. Not only will you be using green energy but you will be saving yourself anything from 30% to 80% on your electricity bill.

Hi,

         The UK Government announced yesterday that it hoped to introduce Green Loans to enable consumers to install insulation and solar panels in their homes without cost. The idea apparently is to fund the solar green energy with private sector funding. In other words consumers would pay for the green energy through their power bills. The saving they would make on their energy bills would be offset against loan payments to the energy company.

It has been stated that since it would take some time to pay off the £9,000 or so cost of solar panels, the loan will be attached to the house rather than the house owner. This would mean that if the owners sold the house the loan would remain with the house. Estate agents however think this might make houses more difficult to sell. Forgive me for being sceptical but in view of the forthcoming UK General election I wonder just how much of this is just election posturing.

Fear not however the answer is build your own solar panels. In this way you can have the benefit of a significantly reduced power bill but without having to pay off a loan. Furthermore if you do sell your house the value will be increased and will be more attractive to buyers since there is no loan to pay off.

Building your own solar panels will cost you just a fraction of the £9,000 or so mentioned above. You can obtain a detailed illustrated instruction manual online for less than £35 ($50) and you can obtain the components from your local hardware store for less than £140 ($200). This represents the sort of cost for building solar panels (using photovoltaic cells) to generate electricity. You can also build solar panels (Evacuated tubes or flat panel collectors) to heat your water, and this will cost even less, around £90 ($135).   

 One other factor that has not been mentioned is the huge investment in renewable energy resources by the government over the coming 10 -15 years. This has to be paid for some how and guess who will pay? All of us in rising energy bills.

Build your own solar panels to generate electricity
Build your own solar hot water system

Hi
Prior to the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen a group of British scientists made claims about climate change which they subsequently admitted were inaccurate. The consequence of this has been that the results of a survey announced last week indicates that the number of people in the UK who are now sceptical about climate change has risen.

Obviously this was a worry to the authorities since most of the world accepts that climate change is a reality. However surely the most important fact is that Governments throughout the world are now committed to reducing their carbon emissions. Whether or not you believe that the climate is changing, the fact is that the UK Government have announced plans to build further nuclear power stations as well as offshore wind farms. The reality is that they cannot afford to decommission the old nuclear plants never mind build new ones.

There is a real possibility that the UK may be plunged into darkness before the new energy resources come into operation. We of course do not have to wait for this to happen, we can as individuals generate our own electricity at home using solar panels and wind turbines where appropriate. This will protect us to a large degree from ever increasing power bills and give us some independance from the national grid.

Hi,
I am sure that many of us are reeling form the high energy bills we have received following the recent artic spell of weather. Many of you like me probably had to turn up your heating to keep warm with the resulting higher energy bills.

hopefully some people will have decided that they have had enough of paying through the nose for energy and will have resolved to do something about it. What should we do and where do we start?
Well the sensible first step is to try to reduce the energy we waste in our homes. This does not mean doing without things or spending any money, but rather developing good habits.

We should close doors behind us, turn off lights when we leave a room, turn off equipment such as TV’s at the socket rather than leave on standby, make sure we have a full load before operating washing machines or spin dryers. If we have any appliances that need replacing we should do so with energy efficient appliances.

Having completed the no cost measures we can then consider low cost measures like replacing our light bulbs with energy efficient ones. They cost a little more but they do last longer and will reduce your electricity bill and your carbon footprint.

Another important area to look at is insulation. Is your roof space properly insulated? The current UK recommendation is for 270mm of insulation. You should check to see that your doors and windows are insulated. If any of your appliances need replacing make sure to replace them with energy efficient appliances.

Once you have taken care of these low cost measures to improve the energy efficiency of your home, you can then consider how you might generate your own energy at home. How do you decide on what approach to take? Much will depend on the location of your home. Solar panels to generate electricity can be used almost anywhere provided that there is sufficient exposure to the sun with out obstructions such as tall buildings or trees.

Wind turbines however require a wind speed of 5-6metres per second in order to be viable. Solar panels only need daylight to generate electricity and are normally erected on the roof of your house.
Why not check now how you can generate your own electricity and save 50% or more on your electricity bill.

Hi,

the UK government has just announced that it has granted licences for energy companies to build up to 6,400 giant wind turbines around the coast of Britain. This of course is great news for jobs as it will create thousands of new jobs, however it will be paid for by increased energy bills for consumers as the cost is likely to be £75 billion.

This is part of the agreement for Britain to produce 15% of its energy on renewables by 2020. There are those that are sceptical as to whether there will be enough wind during a big freeze when wind speed is really low to turn the blades of these giant wind turbines.

The key point here for consumers is that energy bills are going to continue to rise. However there are ways in which we can protect ourselves from rising energy bills. Firstly by reducing waste of energy in our homes, like not leaving appliances on standby, switching off lights and other inexpensive measures as indicated in my FREE report to the right of this post.

What else can we do? Well you can generate your own electricity with a micro wind turbine that you build yourself. Just check the wind speed in your location ( it needs to be 4-6metres per second). You can also build your own solar panels to generate electricity, and remember you only need daylight to generate electricity with solar panels.

The choices are to pay for installation of solar panels or windmills, which will be thousands of dollars, or you can build solar panels yourself for less than $100 and a wind turbine for less than $150. If you employ energy efficiency in your home and also build one of these natural energy generating devices you will make a signigficant reduction on those ever increasing energy bills.

Learn how to build your own solar and wind power systems

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year! Whatever you may think about global warming climate change is a reality. I happen to believe that we missed an opportunity at the recent Copenhagen Climate change summit to change things for the better for our children and grand children by not agreeing to binding figures on emissions.

All reports suggest that this year of 2010 is going to be another difficult one for most economies throughout the world. Many countries are still in recession or only just emerging from recession, so surely it is time for each of us not just to help save the environemt as individuals, but to save ourselves some money and protect ourselves from rising energy costs.

I am not just talking about things like building our own solar panels or wind turbines or even magnetic power generators, but about the simple inexpensive things we can do to save money on energy costs. Simple things like not leaving electrical equipment on standby, closing doors behind us, turning off lights in rooms when we leave them.  We could also start to change our light bulbs for energy efficient ones, replace any domestic appliances that have expired with eco-friendly appliances.

We can also draught proof our doors and windows, and generally improve insulation in our properties. Why not make it a new years resolution to reduce your electricity bill by conserving energy in your home. There are many simple things you can do . Have a look at my free report on energy saving in the home to the right of this post. I wish you all a happy, healthy, prosperous and money saving 2010.

Hi,

       Happy Christmas to everyone! As we celebrate today the birth of Christ I hope that Christian leaders around the world and even non-Christians will reflect on the wasted opportunity and their selfish self interest demonstrated at the recent conclusion to the Climate change summit in Copenhagen in not agreeing to any binding action to curb global warming.

One wonders if they will only begin to take global warming seriously and be prepared to take decisive action when a disaster happens due to climate change. I am of course talking about for instance some low lying countries which will just disappear as sea levels rise. I am sure we all hope that it will never happen.

There are things that we can do individually however small to reduce our own carbon footprints. It may be as simple as changing a few of our light bulbs to lower energy light bulbs. Or we may decide to generate our own energy at home by building solatr panels to heat water or generate electricity, or perhaps build a wind turbine or magnetic power generator to generate free electricity. In doing any of these things at least we can make a contribution to climate change even if our leaders are not prepared to do so.

Learn how to build a solar or wind power generator solar and wind power systems
Information on how to build a magnetic power generator

Hi,

There is lots of talk these days about “Green Energy Resources” and renewable resources. I am sure that for some it is sometimes confusing to understand exactly what they are and indeed if they are applicable to us. There are probably at least seven green energy resources in existence at present.

Many other sources are under examination. The Green resources that most of us are familiar with are Solar energy and wind energy. Solar panels are now widely used to generate electricity and heat water. Wind energy is also well established in the form of wind turbines. More recently it has been demonstrated that magnetic power generators can produce electricity.

Large scale green energy Resources are now being adopted by Governments to generate electricity in the form of wind turbines. They talk also of using wave power to generate electricity, but so far little progress has been made. However some initiatives have been started such as the scheme in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland where there is a giant underwater windmill which uses the power of an eight knot tide to turn a turbine to generate electricity.

Hydro electricity has been established for a long time, and Biomass is now beginning to attract more interest in the form of wood burning. Then there is Geothermal energy which extracts heat from the earth. Some of these Green Resources are only suitable for largescale operations, so what can we use in the home?

We can build our own solar panels to generate electricity and to heat our water. We can build a magnetic generator to produce electricity, and where there is sufficient wind speed we can build out own wind turbines to generate electricity. If you are in an area where there are forests, or a wood chip depot then you can and really should use a wood burning stove for water and space heating as it is carbon neutral. Geothermal heat pumps can be used to heat a domestic dwelling, but whilst the heat from the earth is free, the electricity required to operate the system makes it not completely green.

I have lived in a house with a wood burning stove and it was excellent and economical for space heating and water heating. I have solar panels to heat the water in my present house and enjoy hot water all day long from the sun from April to September. I have not yet tried solar panerls to generate electricity, or indeed magnetic power to generate electricity, but I will try one of these in the future to make a saving on electricity bills.

Learn how to build your own solar and wind power systems
Information on how to build a magnetic power generator