Capture Your Own Solar Energy And Save Money

There are quite a few methods of capturing solar energy and some of them are very simple. A car with the windows up in the hot sun is a good example, the internal temperature of a closed up car is hotter than the external temperature - as is the temperature of a glass room with no ventilation. If you enter any of these places when in full sun you can be overwhelmed easily by the heat. Take the right steps and this energy can be put to good use, heating water and buildings, drying foods and clothes - making great inroads into the amount of fuels needed to burn to keep up the life styles we currently have.

Wind power is solar energy in another form as is fire wood and both have there place and are more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels as no extra carbon is released and don't carry any of the risks of nuclear power as we have just seen in Japan (God help Them).

Some people say that solar power is free power, now lets take a good look at that shall we? The apparatus to collect the power is not free and will need external power to build it. But once established and for the duration of it's working life (another good reason to build things that last) it should not need to burn fossil fuel, while ever there is enough sunlight. Not only is the saving here in the non burning of fuel, but also there is a saving in time and energy taken to dig and transport the fuels used, so I guess when compared to what is currently available - yes you could call it free - it certainly is more environmentally sound.

There are many methods in use now to trap and utilize solar power like photovoltaic cells which use a chemical activity to make electricity or hot water systems which use the hot car principle to heat water. There are also passive solar homes which use winter sun to warm houses - or heating water which is pumped through under floor piping.

An important element of capturing the suns energy can be as simple as what color is it? Solar hot water collectors are nearly always black, and it is easy to make a relatively efficient hot water system for you home, swimming pool or green house. All that's needed is a large flat to sloping area like a roof and a few hundred meters of black poly pipe, a heat sensor pump a few fittings and your in business.

Accordingly the opposite works equally well, if for instance the roof of your house is white it will reflect most of the suns energy away - if silly you, the roof on your house is a dark color, black being worst. Most of the suns energy will be absorbed and heat up your house - which is the middle of winter is a good thing, but the middle of summer is an expensive thing, because then you have to exert energy (buy power) to reverse this and cool your house back down again, fashion sure can be stupid sometimes.

I would go so far as to say that governments should ban certain colored roofs in some climate zones as being too environmentally unfriendly. Dark masonry floors on the other hand, with the right sized eve overhang (for your latitude) and correctly positioned windows can work together to give you a warm home in winter and a cool home in summer - good passive solar homes also uses the vegetation in the garden as part of their overall climate plan, e.g.. deciduous trees on the south if you live in the northern hemisphere and on the north if you live in the southern hemisphere. Large shade trees on the west, thick evergreen to cut down icy winds on the south if you live in the south, but on the north if you live in the northern hemisphere. This system will passively make your home temperature more inviting, if not for free then certainly much cheaper.

Solar devices work in a variety of ways but they all have one thing in common, and that is they capture and use the heat from the sun. Possibly the best solar technology for the future could be thermal solar power which uses mirrors to concentrate the suns energy and a clever way to use salt or molten salt as a solar heat reserve and a long with a steam turbine generator which allows power to be generated long after the sun has gone down. All this from non toxic salt reused water reused and the suns energy. This will make solar a real contender for backbone power supply - solar power is no longer the dream of hippies and greenies, but a real and commercial enterprise.

Solar energy is simple when you understand the principles and there are many techniques to put into practical use right now, look at your house and see how many of them you can use to save you money immediately, it may be as simple as adding eve overhang, moving a window or growing some fast growing shade trees in the right places.