If you have any questions on solar or renewable energy projects, or suggestions to make the site better, or have an energy related idea, or have a project you have done or seen elsewhere -- lets hear about it. The Solar Space Heating section has solar water and air heating systems with and without storage -- some 87 projects.
The Solar Water Heating section provides many DIY builds for solar water heating systems including batch, thermosyphon, drain back, and closed loop systems, solar showers, solar stock tanks, kits, . 117 projects and ideas. The Energy Conservation Page provides ranging from free bubble wrap window insulation to complete redo's of homes.
Insulation, appliances, window treatments, lighting, drying, . This system is straight forward to install, and saved more than 50% compared to a commercially installed system. The PV section contains builds for off-grid, grid-tied, small standalone systems, DIY mounts, PV vehicles, PV tracking, . Plus PV Basics and DIY guides.
The Solar Water Heating section provides many DIY builds for solar water heating systems including batch, thermosyphon, drain back, and closed loop systems, solar showers, solar stock tanks, kits, . 117 projects and ideas. The Energy Conservation Page provides ranging from free bubble wrap window insulation to complete redo's of homes.
Insulation, appliances, window treatments, lighting, drying, . This system is straight forward to install, and saved more than 50% compared to a commercially installed system. The PV section contains builds for off-grid, grid-tied, small standalone systems, DIY mounts, PV vehicles, PV tracking, . Plus PV Basics and DIY guides.
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If you choose your renewable energy projects carefully, it will cost little money, and save a lot of money on energy bills. It will also save many tons of CO2 emissions. The idea is to make sure that the projects you choose are the ones that will give you best return for the time, effort and money that you put into them.
The first question depends on how cloudy your weather is. Within the US, almost all locations get enough sun to successfully use solar energy, but some are better than others. This one page solar resources map gives a rough idea of how good the solar resource is in your area. More detailed month by month information on the sun available at US cities.
DIY projects to save energy, money and greenhouse gas emissions through: insulating, weatherizing, window treatments, efficient appliances, efficient lighting, and many more innovative and cost effective schemes. I've include all of the basic "change your light bulbs" type areas, but have also included many off the beaten path ideas that appear to be practical and effective, but not well known.
I suppose that the only thing we waste more of than energy is water, and the consequences are probably just as bad -- maybe worse. Here are some practical ways to get started changing that. Nice, down-to-earth style. The authors have installed many systems, and appear to know the subject well. About the only down side is that the book only covers southern climates, and may need a bit of adjusting for other places.
Solar space heating can be 25 or more times more cost effective than solar electric (PV) systems, and the systems are excellent DIY projects. Payback for these low cost solar heating systems can be as little as one year. Information on pumps, heat exchangers, heat storage tanks, controllers, pipe insulation, backdraft dampers and other components for solar space heating systems here.
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