Posts Tagged homes

Canada, Green Energy And Economy

The dwindling fossil fuel supply and the possible end of energy systems reliant upon them is of great concern to the world community. And in the midst of the global recession, the economies of individual nations as well as that of the global system are of paramount importance. That these two issues are of moment at this same time invites nations and businesses to to find ways for solutions to one to also provide solutions to the other. As a major global economic player, Canada also plays a role in this crisis of combining green energy and economy.

The combined world investment in natural gas, nuclear and coal powered electricity in 2008 was still smaller than the total investment the world’s nations and multinational corporations and organizations made in renewable energy. In fact, initiatives in green energy solutions attract nearly 148 billion US dollars per year. The largest shares of this money will end up with those nations who invest in and create renewable energy technology and thus nations that commit to green energy will have the advantage in the world economy. Canada is adjacent to one of the world’s economic powerhouses, the United States, and if it decides not to bring in investments in renewable energy, the US will.

The United States Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 invests nearly fourteen times as much in renewable energy than Canada’s Federal Budget of that same year.

Another cause for concern and research and development in renewable energy is the need to reduce carbon emissions in order to halt or slow climate change. The International Energy Agency calculates that the nations of the Major Economies Forum need to spend three to six times more per year than they are currently if they wish to reach their goal of fifty percent reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2050.

One notable R&D investment is that of carbon capture and storage. Canada claims to be strongly in favor of this and to be providing robust investment. However, nations who have not evinced a strong commitment to climate change such as the United States and Australia are still outspending Canada’s 19 million by hundreds of millions.

If Canada wishes to enter fully into the renewable energy economy, it already has a strong base from which to develop this capacity. Hydroelectric dams already produce most of Canada’s electricity. Quebec, Manitoba, Labrador, and Yukon produce over 90% of their electricity this way.

It is noted that Ontario, Quebec and the Prairies region of Canada are regions with strong potential for solar power. Canada does not yet use much solar energy to produce electricity, though its government has produced studies showing this could change by 2025, with solar power providing 5 percent of electricity by then. Canada does use solar power more regularly for heating buildings and water as well as drying lumber and crops.

Many areas of Canada are hard to reach and/or sparsely populated. Thus, they do not have easy access to the nation’s energy grid. Here solar power is already put to use through photovoltaic cells. PV cells, when exposed to light, use semiconductor materials to generate directly electric power. In the northern provinces and territory, they have are used as standalone units to distribute electricity, particularly for remote homes, telecommunications equipment and navigational devices. Because they replace the costly diesel fuel systems that used to provide this energy, they also benefit the economy of these areas.

Canada is beginning to increase its reliance on wind power. There are already ninety-nine wind farms generating a little over one percent of Canadian electricity. According to the Canadian Wind Energy Association, the building of new wind farms could allow the country to reach 55,000 MW by 2025. That is twenty percent of Canada’s energy requirements.

Ontario is a demonstrative case of how new energy initiatives in Canada can enhance the economy. They recently passed the Green Energy and Green Economy Act of 2009. One of the provisions of the act is to offer low- or no-interest loans to homeowners in order to pay for the cost of using renewable alternative energy generators and to make their homes more energy efficient.

British Columbia is turning toward a green economy the creation of which has already produced 117,000 full time jobs and makes up over fifteen billion dollars of the province’s GDP. GLOBE Foundation of Canada has estimated British Columbia’s development of a renewable resource economy will make the province worth over twenty-seven billion dollars in ten years.

Canada already has the resources and the systems in place for renewable alternative energy. It remains for the nation to decide how fully it wishes to develop and integrate them into the global green market and economy grid.

Solar Power devices, green energy sources like the field of science is around every day. The children learn with fun optical equipment, telescopes and science lab equipment.

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Slash Your Heating Costs And Appeal To Green Tenants

If you’re a landlord solar energy can help you slash your heating costs and attract responsible tenants to your buildings. Using the most up-to-date advances in renewable energy will give you the ability to dramatically reduce your use of fuel oil and electricity for your heating needs. Solar heating tubes can help you achieve this. Building owners who use environmentally friendly, climate conscious heating technology will find themselves attracting an a new type of tenant, who are worried about their ecological impact, for either practical or ideological reasons. As government regulations regarding energy usage becomes stricter, industrial tenants are under increasing pressure operate from facilities which minimize their impact on the environment. Residential tenants are also becoming interested in homes which employ alternative energy supplies.

What Rewards Will Solar Heating Tubes Deliver?

The extent of the benefits you can receive by installing solar heating tubes depends chiefly on what kind of heating system your building uses. The majority of buildings can receive the benefits of using the solar heating tubes to heat your building’s water. Owners of buildings that employ radiant heat can see further benefits by using solar energy to heat the building itself. In any case, you could save a large amount of money, especially when factored over a long time period.

For all landlords heating costs are an issue, particularly if your properties are in a colder climate, but solar heating tubes can help you cut these costs whether you are in a warm climate or not. The tubes, cylindrical in shape, are a fairly new development, and represent a remarkable improvement over the flat solar panels which have been with us for fifty years. The way the tubes are shaped allows them to be positioned so as to be in constant contact with the sun’s rays, thus absorbing energy throughout the day. Vacuum tubes are also used to ensure optimal insulation, making sure that very little of the harvested energy is wasted before being used to heat the building’s water supply. The less energy is lost the less electricity or gas you have to use, saving you money on your heating costs.

Start Saving Today with Solar Heating Tubes

Although solar technology has been around for several decades, and environmentally conscious tenants have long encouraged building owners to seek more energy efficient, renewable power sources for providing heat and electricity, solar panels prices have come down recently. If you want to cut your energy expenses and attract eco-friendly tenants, you should consider installing the newest solar heating tubes as soon as you can. With many of the world’s governments on side with the battle against climate change, and many of them providing sizable incentives for landlords green energy is really hot right now. Why wait?

One last word: even if it were not for the fact that installing solar heating tubes will save you a lot of money, and despite the fact that demonstrating that you are an ethical, environmentally conscious business person will help you attract a new breed of tenants, it would still be the right thing to do. All steps away from our dependence upon fossil fuels not only save you money, but help save the planet; and that, simply put, is just the right thing to do.

Craig Axelrod is a partner for Emmy Energy, a NY solar energy system business installing solar heating tubes solar energy systems & green systems throughout the North East.

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Solar Heating Tubes: Generate Your Own Heat

Today’s rental market is extremely competitive and earning profits through the lease of building space is often fraught with difficulty. As we all know, there are only two ways to keep yourself ahead in the real-estate game. One is to increase your profits, which generally involves increasing the rent; the second is to cut your operating costs. In today’s competitive business, increasing your tenants’ rent could cost you more income than it brings in, causing your tenants to go elsewhere. The market being what it is, it would be easy for them to find landlords that are willing to cut their rental prices. As a result, if you want to stay ahead, the best option is to cut your costs. Solar heating tubes are inexpensive and easy to install, and can reduce your heating costs significantly.

Irrespective of whom your tenants are, regardless of whether you are leasing an apartment building, industrial, commercial, or any other kind of property, your tenants will use hot water. It’s likely that your heating system is one of your larger expenses. If you want to lower your costs this would be a great way to go about it. Installing solar heating tubes will help you reduce heating costs by heating some of your building’s water for free using nothing but sunshine. Unlike solar panels, solar heating tubes will continue to be effective whatever the weather so you can keep on saving money throughout every season.

Solar heating tubes are cylinder shaped tubes which take in natural light and store its energy in the form of heat. This cylindrical shape makes them more efficient than standard solar panels. A portion of the tubes’ surface is constantly in contact with the sun allowing them to absorb energy all day, whereas solar panels require direct sunlight to work.

The solar heating tubes produce energy within the cylinder, transferring that energy to an inner blade and inside that, a tube of fluid. The liquid super-heats to one hundred seventy degrees Fahrenheit and is then brought into your heating system. What that means, to put it in the most straightforward terms, is that the sun’s heat is used to heat your building’s water. If your building employs a radiant heating source, you might even be able to cut into your actual building heating costs with your solar heating tubes.

The most important thing is that solar heating tubes will reduce heating costs. This will give you an advantage over the competition. Many San Diego new homes offer solar energy as an optional feature. As many of the world’s governments call for more companies and individuals to convert from carbon based fossil fuels to green energy, you should give some serious thought to installing solar heating rods to reduce heating costs. Look out for government programs that will defer some of the expense associated with installing solar heating tubes and other eco-friendly sources of energy production.

Of all the benefits to your own costs and the environment, perhaps the best benefit to installing solar heating tubes to your building comes from the satisfaction your tenants have in knowing that you are doing everything you can to lower costs for yourself and for them. If you are looking for new tenants you may also find that tenants are willing to pay more to rent buildings that will save them money in the long run and help the environment.

Craig Axelrod is VP of Business Development for Emmy Energy, a Long Island solar power business installing solar heating tube systems solar power systems & clean energy products in the North East.

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Why Is Wind Energy So Important?

Unless you have been completely out of touch from the world for the past decade, they will realize all too well about the debate over global warming as well as the constantly changing costs of oil in recent years. These are simply two of the reasons why wind power has become such an important topic of discussion when discussing the future of energy sources.

Wind energy is almost totally clean and regularly renewable. After all, has there ever been a time that someone has ever known the wind to simply cease to exist forever? Certain environments, or areas of the country are much better than others to harness wind power, but just about anywhere that experiences generally sustained winds, especially in mountain passes and canyons, can support the notion of wind energy.

Why do so many people advocate for wind power? Depending on the individual that you talk to, you will receive a different emphasis on this answer. For the countless individuals who believe that global warming is being driven by human consumption and more specifically by the carbon emissions commonly associated with burning oil, then the benefits of wind power can be easily recognized.

Wind puts out no emissions that can harm the atmosphere that contributes to global warming. These malicious emissions also cause smog around many metropolitan cities, most notably Los Angeles which endures a continuous haze. Wind power is never-ending; when one day ends, you shouldn’t worry about how much wind remains. There will always be enough tomorrow.

Of course, there will be days that have more wind that others, and some days may not create any wind whatsoever, but that is minor. The energy that is harnessed by wind turbines -those large modern-style windmills- on what are known as wind farms, is sent along power lines to a location that holds that energy for distribution. At present, wind power doesn’t power any towns or cities completely, but rather supplements the usual forms of electricity.

So what precisely can you gain by using wind power? If you own or rent a home and are responsible for the utilities in your home, then by having a portion of the energy supplied to your home created by wind power, then you will be able to minimize the annual cost of your electric bill. The more power that is generated by wind power, the greater the savings.

So, in effect, wind power is important to many people for the fact that it can save money, rather than the benefits it can offer to the global climate. Perhaps the best benefit that wind power can be of to people is that wind won’t cost more as the supply diminishes, as is the case with oil or coal. Since it is a replenishing source of power, then any rate increase using wind power would have to be justified for the rate of inflation, not because it is becoming a scarce commodity.

Wind power is crucial for anyone who worries about the environment, or who wishes to save money over the long-term.

Craig Axelrod is VP of Business Development for EmmyEnergy.com, a New York solar energy operation offering solar heating tube systems solar electric systems & clean products in the Northeast.

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The Energy Ball And The Move For Green Energy

From the Netherlands, the origin of trapping wind energy, hails the new Energy Ball v100. This wonderfully designed small unit will offer anyone hoping to save money on their next electric bill the ability to do just that.

Wind has for many years been a crucial source of power, even long before electricity was discovered. Windmills and sailboats are some of the strongest examples of wind powered equipment and they have existed for thousands of years. A few people could find it tough to understand how the wind can actually carry energy that can be changed into electricity since it is an invisible force.

The idea of converting wind power into electricity isn’t about trapping hidden electrical impulses in the air, but the use of friction that is created when the wind passes through sails or objects that turn. The Energy Ball v100 is comprised of rotor blades, similar to the idea of helicopters, and the air sliding through turns these rotor blades. Inside the unit, a motor traps this power through friction and turns it into electrical power and then funnels it on the home or building.

The design of the Energy Ball v100 creates the opportunity for it to accelerate even when there is little wind. It is almost silent unit due to its amazing smooth design. This device can produce 120 volts of power and up to 500 watts whenever there is wind available. It requires as little as 4.5 miles per hour of wind to turn the blades and will handle winds as excessive as 90 miles per hour.

Our modern era of conservationism has led millions of people on a journey to seek out ways to save money as well as our environment. The Energy Ball v100 is a small device that can be built just about anywhere, whether it’s in the front yard, back lawn, garden, or even on top of the roof. The design looks like a work of art rather than a tool.

By creating a large amount of power, depending on the amount and consistency of the wind in a given region, any business can reduce the amount of kilowatt hours they rely on the electric company for. When you cut your dependence on them, you begin to keep money for yourself, but you also remove cut the level of electricity you need on the power plant to provide extra power.

And you don’t need to have just one Energy Ball v100; due to their compact size and appealing styling, you can own several in your yard to produce even more energy. The federal government also provides many tax incentives for homeowners who convert a portion of their energy into renewable sources, such as wind power.

Wind is the product of currents and storm systems and rarely will a region endure long periods of stagnant air. The wind is almost as constant as the sunshine, reliant only on particular weather patterns. Whether you’re a conservationist or simply hoping to keep your income on your next electric bill, the Energy Ball v100 can help.

Craig Axelrod is a partner for Emmy Energy, a Long Island solar energy business delivering solar heating tubes solar electric panels & clean energy products throughout the Northeast.

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Great Sources Of Electricity In The Energy Ball V200

If you are the type of person who has considered whether you could have another choice and renewable energy source, rather than always relying on the power company and paying high rates for power, then the Energy Ball v200 could be the solution. A sleek and artistic design offers any homeowner the chance to harness the vast strength of the wind and convert it into electricity in their home.

The Energy Ball v200 is the stronger cousin of the v100 and manufacture up to 2,500 watts of power and can function on as little as 6.7 miles per hour of wind to operate and start producing power. If you are unfamiliar with the levels of wind in your location, this is a mild breeze and most regions of the world see at least this much wind on any given day.

The oblong shape and unique appearance of the Energy Ball v200’s rotating blades capture the wind not just in one dimension, like most windmills and wind turbines, but as it passes through, creating more rotation and thus more energy. The idea behind this is to produce more electrical power with less wind.

Because of the nature of volatile energy prices and battles in Congress over the building of nuclear power plants, offshore oil drilling, producing ethanol from crops, and other topics of future energy sources, renewable energy is still the ideal situation for homeowners. By making your own electricity with the use of wind power, or even solar power, you can reduce your dependence on the power from the electric companies.

The Energy Ball v200 will consistently manufacture electrical power, regardless of what the weather is doing, just so long as a breeze is blowing. Of course, for many people, this won’t reduce your reliance completely on external power, but it will get you a long way to reducing your consumption on your next bill. By assisting your power consumption with the Energy Ball v200, you also free up power for other parts of the region, or even reduce the need for the power company to manufacture it.

The Energy Ball turbine doesn’t look anything like a piece of machinery, so that it can be put just about anywhere in your property that has a good amount of wind. Of course, you don’t want to place it near any part the house or under massive trees. You want to place this unit in the open where the wind can hit it from any direction.

The turbine turns just like a regular windmill or wind turbine so that wherever the wind is approaching from, it will turn the unit to face the wind and thus capture as much as possible. By creating as much as 2,500 watts of power, this can power any number of electrical devices in the home, including computer systems, refrigerators, air conditioning units, and much more.

Most of these units will be incorporated into the power input of the home so that when you need more power, you still receive from the main power company.

Craig Axelrod is a partner for Emmy Energy, a LI solar energy system business offering solar heating tubes solar power systems & green systems throughout the Northeast.

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