Alternate Power DIY

Nowadays, it will be hard to find houses without a single electrical appliance, gadget, or machine. Though all appliances use up electricity, there are some that need more energy to function properly, thus, bringing about an increase in the household’s power bills. If you aim to receive lower electric bills every month, better follow these electricity saving tips and also find out which appliances should be used less as a response to the concern of how to conserve energy:

Tip A: Turn off entertainment appliances and devices when not in use.

One of the most important ways to save electricity at home is to completely turn off TVs, home theater systems, and so on, when they’re not in use, or when you’re done using them. Leaving them in stand by mode is not enough, especially because appliances that are in standby mode still use up power, thus, if you want lower electric bills, turn electrical units off totally. In the event that you and your household members frequently forget to do this, you may opt to purchase a device that cuts off energy to all machines and appliances that are in stand-by mode.

Tip B: Prefer CFL bulbs over incandescent bulbs.

Part of electricity saving tips that is a recommended solution to the dilemma of how to conserve electricity is this: use CFLs instead of incandescent light bulbs. This is because CFLs are definitely more energy efficient than the incandescent ones. You’ll be able to save a big energy consumption percentage when you replace all incandescent with CFLs.

Tip C: Use non electrical stuff as much as possible.
Included in the list of ways to save electricity is for you to refrain from using electrical devices such as electric stoves, electric kettles, etc. They have non electric counterparts that work well after all, so if you yearn to have lower electric bills, why not use non-electric stuff more often? One of the vital electricity saving tips that you should follow, for example, is this: heat water in a normal kettle, rather than in an electric water kettle. When heating food, instead of using a microwave which uses up a lot of energy, why not heat food in a cooking pan on a gas stove?

Tip D: Air dry clothes as much as possible.

Another good answer to the question of how to conserve electricity is to avoid using the spin dryer or the tumble dryer for drying clothes. When the weather is good and the sun is shining, you’ll get lower electric bills when you hang the clothes outside to dry. There’s nothing wrong with using electric dryers during rainy season, but during the spring and summer months, you’ll be able to conserve electricity and see a decrease in power bills when you dry clothes by natural air and under the sun’s warmth.

Tip E: Invest in energy efficient appliances.

Right now there are so many appliances and electrical devices that have the Energy Star label on them, which means that they are energy-efficient. Of course, included in the list of electricity saving tips is for people to sell their old appliances and start purchasing energy-efficient ones that are sure to bring significantly lower electric bills compared to when they used appliances that have no Energy star ratings.

There are so many ways to save electricity. The challenge is if you and your household members will be disciplined enough to stick to them regularly, without lapse. Learning how to conserve electricity is no use if you don’t really apply what you’ve learned. Aside from following these electricity saving tips, people can also choose to rely on solar energy to power up their home. This e-book: Understanding And Installing Your Own Solar Electric System, will not only share energy conservation tips to readers, but will also guide them through the process of building solar electric systems for the home.

’How to make a solar oven?’, and ‘Why?’ We live in a society that uses fossil fuel to accomplish many of its functions. Transportation of goods, materials and men, most of the time, is accomplished with the help of vehicles using some form of fossil fuel. The gas we use in the house to cook food is also a type fossil fuel. What happens when all the fuel oil on the earth gets exhausted. How we are going to cook our food? Are we going to eat it raw? Scientists are exploring alternative energy sources such as wind energy, tidal wave energy, solar energy, etc., to fulfill our future energy needs. In fact, you can also check if these energy sources of any use by making small scale models of a windmill or a solar oven. The following paragraph gives information on how to make a solar oven out of a box, which I am sure kids will love to do.

How to Make a Solar Oven for Kids

It is easy for kids to make a solar oven and understand how solar power can be used to accomplish our purposes such as cooking. Solar ovens work by absorbing and retaining, i.e. storing the energy in sunrays. If we put something inside them then that object absorbs this energy. If it is a raw food material, then it gets cooked just as if it is cooked using cooking gas. To start this project one needs two cardboard boxes. Their dimensions must differ by at least 5 inches. Follow the tips given below to build something which you can also use to participate in a solar oven science fair.

• Open the big box and keep the top aside and line its bottom with crumpled waste paper. You can also use newspaper to serve the purpose. The reason for this will be given later on. Let us, first, make the oven ready.
• Let’s prepare the smaller one by lining its inner sides with aluminum foil. You can do so by sticking it to the sides or by using a stapler to fix it to the sides of this box. Make sure that you leave the inside bottom of the box free of the aluminum foil.
• Stick a black cardboard to the inside bottom of the small box.
• Place the smaller one in the center of the big box and fill in the space between the sides of the two boxes with the crumpled waste paper.
• Take a thick cardboard paper which can easily cover the large box easily. Stick or staple aluminum foil to it so that it can be used as a reflector.
• Staple or glue this homemade reflector to the large box such that it will reflect the sunlight on to the interior of the box. The reflected sunlight should cover the smaller box completely.
• The smaller box works as a container for the food to cook. Let us demonstrate the use of this solar oven. Select the food to cook and place it in the smaller box.
• Place the the solar oven on the terrace or in an open place where it will get unobstructed sunlight. Adjust the reflector as discussed before. Support it with a thin stick if it is flapping to and away from the box, or if it is not holding the angle with the sun.
• Cover the whole structure with a sheet of clear plastic or glass, if you can handle that without breaking it.
• The food will take some time to cook depending on its type, so leave it alone.
• Find something else to do and don’t forget to keep an eye on your new oven from time to time. If you don’t have two boxes then it is possible to make a solar oven out of a shoe box, although the instructions for it will differ to some extent from those presented above. You can search for such instructions on the Internet.

The crumpled paper that you used according to instructions in ‘how to make a solar oven’, increases the surface area inside the big box and it also creates numerous tiny air pockets inside the box. When the sunlight falls on the solar oven it gets warm and the heat is absorbed by the air pockets. The hot air moves upward in side the big box and comes in contact with the small box. The black surfaces attract more heat and as the food material is in contact with the bottom of the small box, it gets heated and eventually cooked. Of course a solar oven takes more than twice the time as compared to conventional means to cook food. However, the renewable energy it uses is free and even if all the fossil fuel such as cooking gas gets exhausted, your solar oven will ensure that you go to sleep with warm and cooked food inside you.