Posts Tagged Living Off The Grid

Harnessing and Using New Green Energy Sources For Your Home

Posted by outside_voices on Saturday, 26 December, 2009

Power usage around the globe has increased incredibly for the past many years. The our energy needs increase, power firms are forced burn masses of tons of fossil fuel everyday to meet out energy wishes. The downcast part of it actually is that when we burn carbon-based fuels, we release a large amount of contaminants into the environment and cause a large amount of destructions. Fortunately, we will help curve the quantity of pollutants that we release into the environment by trying new green energy rather than the traditional power source. Using new green energy may seem to be a bit dear initially but the price of using new green energy tapers off so we end up spending less cash in the long haul. Many people who invested in new green energy technologies now enjoy the advantages of their investments. You can also save a bunch of cash and at the same time make a contribution to the good of the environment by harnessing and using new green sources of energy to power up your house appliances.

Tapping Into Nature

There are many ways of tapping into the renewable energy offered by Mother Nature. If you wish to turn your place into a green energy home, you can easily do so by using the natural energies of the sun, wind, water and other elements of nature. To generate new green energy for your home, you may start by using the sunlight. Solar power is one of the most popular new green energy sources these days. A good number of people are now living off the grid because of solar power. Harnessing the power of the sun is not a complicated thing. All you need are some solar panels to capture the heat and batteries where you can store the energy you harvested from the sun. During the summer, you may be able to live off on solar energy almost everyday. However, during the winter, your solar power generator may not generate enough solar power to heat your home.

What if you haven’t any cash to buy solar panels and batteries, what do you have to do? Because you can’t afford to buy solar energy panels and batteries that don’t mean that you can’t use new green energy at home. People all around the planet have been seen to use natural daylight to lighten up their houses in the day. Easy stuff like that already qualify as use of natural energy.

For those who want to know more about solar power inverters, you had better visit DIY Solar Power Guide.

Evans D. Smith

How To Live Off The Grid In The City

Posted by outside_voices on Sunday, 29 November, 2009

The shortage of power, the ever-increasing demand for power supply, the rapid consumption of non-renewable energy, the daily warnings about our environment should tell us we need to do something. So, what can we do? To start with, what about living off the grid? If I have startled you with that proposition, let me tell you that living off the grid not only cuts down our electricity bill substantially, but it also helps the environment. Now, that’s a tangible benefit apart from all the good you will do to the world. You will feel good if you participate.

Let us first study the advantages of living off the grid.
• Reduced dependability on exhausting resources: Forget about depending on public utilities for your power needs? Living off the grid helps you rely only on your resources and not the ones supplied by governments or corporations. How often have you cursed when faced with a power outage in the midst of some important work or a party? It would be nice to have some control in this area of your life, where you are not at the mercy of your energy suppliers all the time? With alternate power solutions, you should.
• Freedom of usage of naturally available resources: How would you feel when you don’t have to pay for the power you use? Wouldn’t it be delightful to use as much power as you want without worrying about the electricity meter? You can make use of the free abundant power in nature in order to make your food or light up your home and. The wind power solutions and the solar power solutions and are literally the answers to your power quest!).
• Reduced power costs, helping save your money: Wouldn’t it feel great not getting an electric bill in your mail box every month? The alternate power solutions give you a return on investment very soon, thus making the power supply to your home eventually free!
• Making way for a healthier environment: Don’t you bless the people who planted trees years ago not expecting them to miraculously grow? They planted those trees for the future generations. Make the future of your future generations secure by giving them a greener, healthier world. Cut down on the usage of non-renewable sources of energy. Try to use water minimally. There is not much drinking water left for the next generations.

If you are thinking it is not very feasible to live off the grid, look for alternate power solutions and you will be surprised to learn that they are not only cost-effective but also extremely feasible.

Learn more about solar power generator here.  To find other essential survival gear and food storage idea, go to http://essentialsurvivalgearcatalog.com/

Build A Wind Generator Right Now

Posted by outside_voices on Friday, 27 November, 2009

It is possible for someone to discover on creating a wind generator without difficulty simply just by buying a proposed manual on the web.

Earth4Energy Review Top selling and recommended Solar & Wind power diy guide on the net.

The money you get to save from your power bills, makes the  minimal cost of the parts for the wind generator project worth it.
The moment you have enough renewable energy sources available to power your home, you can start living off the grid totally or partly and will be pro green too.

How to build a wind generator on DiySolarZone.com

making the home generator’s blades and hub from scratch is generally the most difficult part of the entire project, whereas if you opt to purchase a ready-made one, you can do so from one of the stores indicated in the manual.

There are some materials or parts for this project that you can acquire free of charge. Check not only salvage yards but many other places that make use of the particular materials needed for the wind generator. The recommended and top selling guide Earth4energy shows you exactly where to obtain all of the materials needed at the best price.

In forming the tail and body of your wind generator, both used and new materials can be utilized. A pipe – any sturdy pipe, can be utilized in forming the body; such as chimney pipes, or perhaps contacting with those who install home fireplaces may get you a brand new one.  Places similar to this may have spare piping that they are getting rid of at a cheap price.

The wind generator’s tower can be bought, or you can create one by yourself. Once again, looking around your city for methods on getting cheaper materials, and build your own tower or perhaps find someone who needs to have a tower taken down, and do it free of charge, so you can have the tower is another alternative. Decide on the height of tower you are planning too, and don’t forget that your tower should at least be 15 feet tall.

The next thing you will be needing are batteries to store the power that the wind generator created. The batteries will be connected to power your AC outlets in your home. Keeping the batteries safe and secure can be done by placing them inside the box you have built. The batteries are extremely the most important fact of the wind generator.

It may even occur to you “Why would I even want building a wind generator?”. Well, the obvious reason is for the cash that you will save on your power bills.
It can add up into quite a lot of money at the end of the year, and comparing the savings and the production to solar power, wind is more favorable.

In a comparison where solar power would generate around 100 watts of power per entry level panel, the wind turbine could generate 500 watts. However, given the upside and downside for each, most people go for having both the wind and solar power.

Buying a wind generator is always an option, however, when you look at the cost you can very easily see that you can save thousands of dollars when you build a wind generator of your own.
Actually, if you are in luck you may obtain your materials free of charge, all you will pay for are the actual guides that show you how to make them!.

A very good method to help you save money, and is simple to do. Stop procrastinating!. Get your blueprints and build a wind generator today.

Wind Turbine Costs on DiySolarzone.com

Living Off the Grid?

Posted by outside_voices on Friday, 6 November, 2009

Can you Live Off the Grid?

Living off the grid should become our motto in today’s world. With the high rate of consumption of available non-renewable energy, it becomes more important for us to find out a cost effective as well as determined alternative energy which will never be worn out. The sun is one such source of energy and since we derive life from the sun then why not the power to run our homes?

Solar energy is easily available and that too in huge abundance. Consequently we can very well harness solar energy and bestow it for running our houses at the least. Likewise, this energy will not cause impurity and therefore everyone starting from the environmentalists to us, the wearisome people, will be cheerful. We live off the grid and the environment stands safe at the same time.

Nonetheless, most people think that appliances like AC and fridges do not and cannot run on the mere power of the sun that we will be applying. Many are of the assumption that if you can strip your essentials down to the bare minimum then only you can use solar energy completely. This is not true but you have to have to want to live off the grid to make it bogus.

The magic of renewable sources of energy like the wind or the water or the sun is that no matter what befalls these will always stay till the earth deceases. Likewise you can always produce electricity from these sources in one way or the other. Waterfalls and windmills tackle the power of water and the wind to produce electricity so do not think that you can not live off the grid, nature is more mighty that we think. Basically the energy is stored in batteries and at night these batteries supply the necessary amount of electricity required.

The best part about solar energy is that during the day, you are storing the energy and directly using the sun’s energy. At night when the sun is down you use these batteries which have harnessed the power. This means that you have a double discharge of the power, which is effective and at the same time, cost effective.

Living off the grid is possible; you just have to know how you want to do it and how you will exercise your solar power. Besides, be careful about the storage and livelihood of your power batteries because they are your electricity. Use them well and be sure that you do not demand more than you can be equipped with.

So, use solar power and get rid of those provoking electricity bills. Abandon of energy is a big thing but you should know which alternative energy source will conform you according to your geographical whereabouts. So employ the power of energy efficiently and be spirited of living off the grid.

You can learn more about how to become an independent energy producer at Solar Power Lights visit us now!

Start taking positive steps today fronting your economy and planet and you will be flabbergasted just how things can be bettered and developed.

A. Arvizu

Living Grid Free, and Enjoying it

Posted by outside_voices on Monday, 26 October, 2009

Isn’t living off-the-grid every man’s dream? Rely on Yourself! Don’t pay for electricity anymore! Have power all the time, 24/7/365, no matter what is happening in the big wide world! It’s all so grandiose, and for most people, so completely out of reach.

But don’t get discourged; there are options available. Even someone in an apartment complex can do things that decrease their reliance on the grid. But first, let’s break the issue down into manageable pieces, with help from the experts at Evergreen Mountain Labs and http://www.EvergreenGasLabs.com, and look very briefly at each puzzle piece in turn.

There are basically five items to address in order to live completely grid free. You can explore as many of these ideas as you want to, but the secret is that you have to start somewhere.

  1. Cooking
  2. Heating, Cooling
  3. Electricity
  4. Food
  5. Water, Sewer, Laundry

1.     Cooking Needs. It all boils down, no pun intended, to how you use what energy you have. Find the cheapest way possible to cook your food. For some people, this means investing in a wood stove. For some people it means getting a little propane camp stove and then stocking up on propane. For some, assuming that you get lots of sun, it means getting a solar oven. And for everybody, it means consuming more dried goods and fresh fruits and vegetables, and cooking less often, or only cooking one pot of stew or something in the morning, and then serving from it all day. Electric stoves aren’t really even an option since they just plain use too much electricity.

2.      Space Heating/Cooling.For living space heating and cooling, you need two or three things. If you can track down a wood stove someplace, and enough firewood to keep it running, do so. If you can be happy with a swamp cooler instead of an energy guzzling air conditioner, do it. And thickly insulate everything, with as much insluation as you can snag. It takes less energy to keep well-insulated stuff either hot or cold, than uninsulated stuff.

3.      Electricity. You simply have to have electricity to survive in today’s world. So the thing that we have to do is to minimize our usage wherever and whenever possible (heating, cooling, cooking, entertainment, laundry, etc).  And the first thing to remember is this, CONSERVE electricity however possible with energy efficient everything (including lights). The second thing to keep in mind is to NEVER use electricity to warm or heat anything up; it’s too wasteful. Explore other ways to do it. As for generating your own electricity (including you city dwellers), get at least one 12volt, deep cycle battery, one solar panel you can place in a window to keep it charged (or one of the small, pollution free generators being developed by Evergreen Mountain Labs), and a 300Watt AC inverter to power your clocks, radios, computers, and etc. If an item uses more than 3 or 400 Watts, you could probably live without it – with the one possible exception of your washer. You can find a small 3. If you buy a diesel generator, you can even run it on biodiesel that you make yourself or likely get for free from restaurants nearby.

4.      Food is a bit of a trick sometimes, but even in an apartment building, there are still ways that you can raise enough food for yourself to survive on. Unless you like mouse, meat is pretty much not an option in a city dwelling, so focus on vegetable plants instead. You might consider starting with tomato plants, grown upside down, out thru holes in the bottom of hanging pots. They grow like crazy if everything is right, and will cover many of your daily vitamin needs. The idea here is to focus on plants that produce a fruit or vegetable on an ongoing basis, without needing lots of space to do it in.

5.     Drinking water and sewer disposal can also be an issue sometimes, but there’s still hope, even for someone living in an apartment complex. Rain, melted snow, and even brook or pond water can all be boiled or filtered for use. So start by getting a drinking water filter and replacement cartridges (since distillers take power). As for your sewer needs, consider getting an indoor, odor free composting toilet, and you suddenly have plant fertilizer as well. Laundry, since it uses so much water, can sometimes be an issue. The only thing I can offer there is learn to do it by hand if the need arises, because your washing machine simply takes too much power

 By addressing all five areas of grid dependence in our lives, and by learning to conserve, live simply, and find other options, anyone, including people in apartments, can learn to live off the grid and be energy independent and grid free.

 Some of the products mentioned in this article are, or soon will be, available at http://www.SurvivalOffTheGrid.com, along with more info, ebooks, and more.