TIP 1: If you buy building materials in small quantity you will pay full retail price. Instead figure out exactly what materials you will need. Include everything from screws to appliances. Make your material list look professional and take it to any large construction supplier like B&Q or Wickes. Do not talk to a clerk but go straight to the contractor desk or speak to a manager and tell them you are building your own home and would like the contractor discount for buying all the materials from them.Most building supply stores will give you anywhere from 5% to 15% discount if you buy all material at one time. They may even throw in free delivery if you live within a certain mileage.If you have to buy in small quantities go to the mom and pop building suppliers with your list and ask the manager for a discount if you buy all your materials from them over time. You will still usually get a discount and be supporting your local dealers.

TIP 2: If you are using solar (I hope) try to buy your panels in bulk for a big discount. Most panel suppliers will give 30% or more for bulk sales of ten panels or more and a smaller discount if you buy more than one. Talk to the owner if possible as salesman rarely have power to discount. Get your power controller and necessary wiring and even batteries from the dealer and get an even bigger discount!

TIP 3: Recycle whenever possible. Good used Doors and windows can be had for free or cheap from most window installers. Get double pane and insulated doors for exterior. They may need painting and might be different sizes but the savings is worth a little extra work.Good used appliances can be had for free or cheap. Check out your local freecycle website, garage sale, city dump, or look for homes being remodelled and make an offer. Sinks, toilets, cabinets, tubs, showers are always being thrown away so do some scrounging and don't waste money on new ones.New propane appliances can be expensive but if you have or can buy an old RV cheap salvage all your propane appliances to outfit your home.

TIP 4: Design your home for efficiency. Consider how big of a home you really need. Smaller homes are cheaper to build, cheaper to heat and cool, easier to clean and lower in property taxes. Because people are looking for smaller efficient homes they also raise in property value faster than big inefficient homes.

TIP 5: Use the sun and passive energy. Situate you house to take advantage of the sun for winter heating and solar panels. Plant trees for natural summer cooling. Use overhangs to block summer sun and porches for cool resting spots. Passive air turbines instead of expensive air conditioning.

TIP 6: Go solar! There is a fed rebate of 30% for any size solar electric system installed by a professional installer. You can get this rebate even if you do the work yourself if you will contact an installer and ask them to design your system and oversee your work. get them to sign off on the work as being installed professionally and you can get the rebate. Many installers will do this and I do it all the time for clients. If you buy your equipment from them they can get you a bigger discount and they will give you valuable advice for designing the right size system for your needs. It may be worth a few hundred dollars to have their professional experience and you will save a lot in the rebate and having a correctly designed system.

TIP 7: Do the work yourself! Even if you have no building experience you can save a lot by having a knowledgeable builder use you for labor on your own home. Take a construction class or volunteer with a habitats for humanity project or your neighbors construction to learn the skill you need. Home construction is not difficult and most people that have basic construction knowledge can do it themselves or with a little guidance from a knowledgeable builder.

Labels: Energy-Saving, Recycling, Renewable-Energy, Saving-Planet-Earth, Sustainable-Living

Renewable energy in your shed / workshop / out house / barn / stables or similar.

Below is what you need to know!

How much power do you require?

What you have to look at is how much power you want and for how long per day. Start off by listing everything electrical you are going to be using in your shed, for example:
1 x 600 Watt Power Drill
1 x 60 Watt Light Bulb
1 x 10 Watt Radio

Next thing to do is work out how long per day you are going to be in your shed per day, also whilst you are in your shed, how long are you going to be using each of your electrical appliances. Example below:

2 Hours per day in my shed on average. (Total time per day in Shed)
1 x 600 Watt Power Drill for 1 hour per day.
1 x 60 Watt Light Bulb for 2 Hours per day.
1 x 10 Watt Radio for 2 Hours per day.

Now for the simple math behind it all!

Drill - 600 Watts x 1 Hour = 600 Watt Hours or 0.6 KWA (Kilo Watt Hour)
Light - 60 Watts x 2 hours = 120 Watt Hours or 0.06 KWA (Kilo Watt Hour)
Radio - 10 Watts x 2 Hours = 20 Watt Hours or 0.02 KWA (Kilo Watt Hour)
Total use per day = (0.6 + 0.06 + 0.02) = 0.68 KWA Per Day

My rule of thumb is to double your estimate therefore 0.68 KWA x 2 = 1.36KWA

Calculating your Solar Panel size.

Lets assume that on average a typical location in the UK will receive 5 hours of bright sunshine per day (Wishful thinking I know!) Notice we are working with 2 known quantities now 1. Power (Watts) and time (Hours) this enables us to work out what we need easily.
Take our total load (1.36 KWA) and divide it by sunlight hours (5) = (0.272) This is the figure in KW that are panel will need to provide for 5 hours to enable us to place enough power in our battery bank to let us use our electrical equipment for designated time above (2 Hours per day) 0.272 KWA can be converted into Watts by x 1000 so: 0.272 KWA x 1000 = 272 Watts or a 272 Watt Solar Panel Is required!

Calculating your battery bank size.

We know from our calculation's above that our electricity demand is 1.36 KWA worst case, so our battery bank is required to put out a minimum of 1.36 KW for 1 hour (KWH) If we are going to use a 12 V (Volt) battery bank then we can start looking at the figures:
We know we need 1360 Watts for one hour.
We know we have 12 Volts DC from the battery bank.
Ohms Law states that P (Watts) = I (Current In Amps) x V (Volts)
So we have 1360 (Watts) = ? (I - Current In Amps) x 12 (Volts)
So without boring you too much if we divide 1360 by 12 We get 113.33 Amps!

Batteries are measured in AH (Ampere Hours) But note that the specified AH on a battery is normally measured over a 10 hour period so the drain on a measured AH is 1/10th over 10 hours!
Lets assume for our rule of thumb and to be sure we are going to double our needs so we require 113.33 * 2 = 226.66 AH (Amp Hour) at 12VDC. Easy!

Calculating Your Inverter Size.

(The thing that takes battery DC and makes domestic AC for use with household electrical equipment!
We know that we are going to be using a 12V DC battery bank to power the inverter so we know we require a 12V DC inverter!
We know we require a Max of 1360 Watts or 1.36 KW of power and lets factor in 100% to allow for losses and inefficiencies, this gives us 2.72KW.
So We would choose a 12V DC inverter at 3000 Watts or 3 KW.

Choosing a Solar Charge Controller.

There are many different kinds of solar charge controllers available in the current market, PWM controllers (Pulse Width Modulation Controllers) Electronic controllers and MPPT (Maximum Point Power Tracker) to keep this section simple you are best sending me an EMAIL with info on what you are wanting to do and I will suggest the best solution for your needs.

If you want more information please do EMAIL me and I will provide you with a free quotation for either supply only or supply & installation.

Labels: DIY-Projects, Shed-Power, Solar, Solar-Panels, Solar-Panels-For-Sheds

Types Of Feasible renewable energy for domestic homes.

Below are the types of renewable energy groups that can be implemented into a domestic home.

Solar Panels: Domestic Grid Tied.

Solar panels are NOT a cheap option but are a low maintenance option for anyone considering using renewable energy to supply part of their electricity needs at home. To give you an idea of costs associated with a solar PV installation then budget on £6.00 per watt of installed solar, considering you will need (for a three bed roomed typical family home) something like 3000 Watts of solar panels on the roof to give you electricity for free (Most of the time - On Average) then you are looking at an £18,000.00 investment with a typical payback time of 15 to 25 years!

Solar Panels: Remote Building / Shed / Workshop / Hobby Shop.

I would recommend Solar PV panels for a remote type building where you only require a small amount of electricity, i.e. Low energy CF lighting / domestic sockets for laptops / low energy appliances etc. The great thing about remote power is you have the solar panel connected to a battery bank via a charge controller which looks after the batteries and keeps them charged and ready for use. From the battery bank you have an inverter to convert the batteries power into domestic 230VAC (Volts Alternating Current)

Solar Hot Water Panels: Domestic Use.

There are 2 main types of solar hot water panels 1. Flat plate collectors 2.Evacuated tubes collectors. There is much debate over which technology is the best and I am not going to go into the 'for and against' argument here but in my opinion if you are here to look for the best way of reducing your gas or electricity bills then installing Solar Hot Water panels is the way to go. In the UK we could produce at least 70% of all our hot water requirements from the sun that shines on our house roofs! That is one big saving for the average UK home. If you think that you might pay £3,000.00 for a simple solar hot water installation and your hot water heating bill comes down by 70% then the payback time for the installation is not too far away!

Wind Turbines: Domestic Grid Tied.

Wind turbines mounted on the side of your house are one way to reduce your electricity bills considerably. When you hear the phrase 'Grid Tied' all it means is that the electricity the wind turbine produces is pushed back in to the electricity network grid, in effect if the wind turbine is producing electricity in excess of what you are using then your meter will run backwards lowering your electricity bill. This is one way to save money but when the grid goes down (In the event of a power cut) your grid tied wind turbine automatically disconnects from the grid so you have no power! Great for energy saving, no good at all if you want to keep on using power in the event of the national grid shutting down (Power Cut).

Wind Turbines: Off-Grid Power / Remote Power / Shed Power / Workshop Power.

If you require power away from the electricity supply then a wind turbine is a great option. They typically output 12VDC or 24VDC and can be used to charge a battery bank for later use via an inverter. They are much cheaper than Solar PV but you must remember that the wind does not blow all the time so you may want to consider combining a wind turbine with some solar panels.

Labels: Energy-Saving, Renewable-Energy, Solar, Wind-Turbines

So what is 'Low Impact Sustainable Living'?

In modern day society we have become accustomed to using a huge amount of energy (Mainly in the form of domestic electricity) and heating. We are living high impact lifestyles which unfortunately are extremely damaging to our planet.

So how do we go about living a 'Low Impact' and more sustainable existence? First thing to consider is reducing our 'Carbon Footprint' it sounds technical it's simple. Try switching your incandescent lamps to compact fluorescent (CF) lamps. The saving is instant and you will be reducing your electricity reliance. Turn off lights when you leave a room. Try fitting TRV radiator valves to all but one of your radiators. You can adjust each room to a comfortable heat setting and turn down the heat in the rooms your not frequenting as often, all these simple steps are minimizing your 'Carbon Foot Print'

Some people choose to do their little bit to help towards a more sustainable existence where as others take 'Low Impact Sustainable Living' to a whole new level.

Below are some examples with short descriptions.

Lamar's Off-Grid Solar Log Cabin
Lamar lives off-grid in a wooden cabin he built himself

Simondale Low Impact House
A low impact house hand built in Wales UK

Judy Of The Woods
A Lady of the Welsh woods

Labels: Low Impact Living, Simondale, Simondale-House, Sustainable-Living

How to make cheap, easy to build, PVC Wind Turbine Blades.

Most Renewable Energy enthusiasts have a good grasp of how to use a PMDC Motor as a generator to make a DIY Wind Turbine but the sticking point is usually how to make a set of good wind turbine blades.

Below we will show you how it is done with cheap, accessible materials, for little or nothing.
PVC Wind Turbine Blades are becoming more and more common for homemade wind turbines. The raw material, PVC pipe, is easy to find, cheap, easy to work with, and performance is more than acceptable for a small basic wind turbine generator.

PVC wind turbine blades can simply be bolted onto a Permanent Magnet DC Alternator or suitable Stepper Motor and you already have a basic wind turbine.One of the most difficult parts of making your own wind turbine is producing turbine blades. Wind turbine blades go through enormous stresses and must be made to quite exacting tolerances if they are to balance and not send destructive vibrations through your wind turbine resulting in a catastrophic failure of your wind turbine.

In strong winds the flexibility of the PVC blades is useful as it takes some of the energy out of the wind preventing the wind turbine generator from excessive spinning (Overrun) and being damaged. Obviously you need to take care to ensure that the blades cannot bend back far enough to hit the wind turbine mast.Individual wind turbine blades can be cut out of the pipe using a jigsaw or hacksaw blade, or a one piece pair of blades can be made.

Below is an example design of a one piece (two blade) PVC wind turbine propeller.This design may be adapted with more turbine blades to fit a 3 blade or even 5 blade turbine configuration setup.

Labels: DIY-Projects, DIY-Wind-Turbine, Domestic-Wind-Turbines, Energy-Saving, Wind, Wind-Turbines

Lister CS Stationary Engines

Lister CS (Cold Start) stationary engines, or their Indian clones referred to as Listeroid stationary engines, are one of the most versatile long running stationary engines the world had ever seen. They are more than capable of running on almost any viscous oil including Peanut oil, Canola oil, Vegetable Oil, filtered waste vegetable oil, filtered waste motor oil, diesel oil, crude oil, gearbox oil, sunflower oil and many more. There are a number of enthusiasts out there who are experimenting with running them on a mixture of Fuel Oil and Wood Gas Fumes.

The Lister CS range of engines are Slow RPM (650RPM to 700RPM) 4 stroke single cylinder stationary engines. They are over engineered and have been known to run unattended for in excess of 200,000 hours.

They use the simplest of technology which lends them to less maintenance and breakdowns.

Below is a list of interesting websites that document their progress on Using the Lister CS (Listeroid) stationary engines to provide heating and power for domestic dwellings / Low impact homes.

Using a Lister CS / SOM (Start-O-Matic) Stationary engine to produce both power and heating is commonly referred to as a CHP (Combined Heat Power) CHAP (Combined Heat And Power) or MCHP (Micro Combined Heat And Power)

The Diesel Engine Basics

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine which operates using the diesel cycle (named after Dr. Rudolph Diesel). Diesel engines have the highest thermal efficiency compared to any internal or external combustion engine.The defining feature of the diesel engine is the use of compression ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber during the final stage of compression. This is in contrast to a petrol (gasoline) engine or gas engine, which uses the Otto cycle, in which a fuel/air mixture is ignited by a spark plug.
Diesel engines are manufactured in two stroke and four stroke versions. They were originally used as a more efficient replacement for stationary steam engines. Since the 1910s they have been used in submarines and ships. Use in locomotives, large trucks and electric generating plants followed later. In the 1930s, they slowly began to be used in a few automobiles. Since the 1970s, the use of diesel engines in larger on-road and off-road vehicles in the USA increased. As of 2007, about 50 percent of all new car sales in Europe are diesel.

For my complete system design on DVD Rom (Requires A PC To Use) please see my Generate Free Electricity page.

Ken Boak's Lister
Ken is producing electricity and heat from his Lister CS engine setup in Surrey - Kent.

Ken Boak's Lister Video
Here is a short documentary about Ken Boak's generating plant - Interesting & inspiring.

Robert Bodel's Listeroid
Robert Bodel retired to Texas and lives in a sea container. He uses a Listeroid for power.

David Edgington's CS Book
Covers in great detail the venerable Lister diesel produced between 1929 and the 1980s.

Lister CS Owners Group
Lister CS Yahoo Owners Group - Great place for technical know how.

F1 RocketBoy's Genset
Rocket Boy lives in Florida and has built a backup Listeroid Genset for his home

Lister CS CHP Genset
Another of Ken Boak's earlier venture into using a Lister CS for Power & Heating

UtterPower's Listeroid Page
Interesting Information on Listeroid / Lister CS Stationary engines

Lister Engine Forum
A free online forum dedicated to all things Lister, Lister CS, Listeroid, Start-O-Matic

Lister-Petter
The home of the famous Lister CS Stationary engine! R A Lister

Labels: Bio-Diesel, Bio-Fuel, Lister-CS-Engine, Lister-CS-WVO

LED (Light Emitting Diode) Lighting are a fast emerging high efficient light source. The primary benefits of LED lighting is low maintenance, long life and pure vibrant colors they produce.

LED technology is now been used in Floodlighting, LED floor panels, LED Up lights, LED Wall Panels, LED Strip lights and LED Spot Lights.

Philips lighting are one of the worlds leaders in LED technology and have just released the LUXEON Rebel ES which boasts in excess of 100 Lumen's per watt.

See THIS LINK for more on the Philips LumiLEDS
Philips Luxeon Rebel ES Power LED

HERE is a very informative article posted on the N Y Times website about the latest emerging LED Lighting technology. I suggest readers read it and learn about the latest LED Technology

Labels: Energy-Saving, LED-Lighting, Saving-Planet-Earth