Solar Power for the RV

Everyone likes to get away for the weekend and when you get a chance to there is a lot of fun in taking a recreational vehicle, or RV, to go camping in. Your RV could be a pull behind camper or a camper that you can drive. What ever you use RV’s usually run off of electricity from another source or they have battery powered lights. When you use electric hook up in a camper you may want to consider turning your RV into a solar powered RV and never worry about electric hook ups again. Enjoy your vacation anywhere without restrictions.

Once you hook up to a power source you are able to have the comforts of home by turning on and off the lights and using the bathroom. If you cannot access a power outlet you may use a generator to supply power to the camper. These generators are nice in a pinch but you have the problems of running out of fuel to keep it going not to mention the noise that it makes. If you want to turn your RV into a solar power RV it is simple to do and with little expense. There are a number of different products that you can buy to make camping fun and modern with little or no effort.

You can mount a solar panel to the RV camper in order to charge your energy in your RV. This is done by purchasing a solar panel mounting bracket that your solar panel will set on. You can buy RV solar panel kits that include both the mount and the panel. Once it is installed you can power your camper and batteries using the suns warmth that was already there and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg to do so. Run your solar panel wire to the battery compartment and you are ready to go. Each solar powered kit offers different wattages and sizes so you can select the right one for your RV size and what you will be using.

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Solar Power Efficient Appliances

Solar power is the latest in saving the planet and conserving our energy. Solar power is energy produced from the sun and has great results when you use both energy and conservation. With solar power becoming more popular there is also the need for solar power products. People are now building solar power houses to live in more efficiently. They also want appliances, lighting, heating, water pumps and water heaters to be solar power efficient as well. That is why we now have a way of purchasing solar power appliances to use in the kitchen. Appliances are usually the most costly appliance in a home as they usually run almost continuously and get used often.

Appliances Available

Now you don’t have to go through the time and effort of making your home solar power but using regular standard appliances. With solar power appliances it is easy to become solar power all the way.

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Passive Solar Power

It is a well known fact that the sun is the strongest from the south. People who want to conserve solar power uses this theory in order to get the most sun into their houses with minimal expense. If you are building a home that you want to be solar power, it is best to put the most windows facing the south side. Although it is not always true, depending on where you live, it is a general rule to go by. Passive technology turns sunlight into heat that can be used for several things, including ventilation and cooling. You can heat homes and businesses with passive solar. Passive solar systems depend on gravity fed and natural resources in order to make passive solar work. If it uses a pump or fan to force the liquid through, than it is an active solar.

Passive solar technology offers direct and indirect gain for heating spaces, water heating systems, use of thermal mass and also phase change materials which helps to regulate the temperature indoors. There is also the solar cooking equipment, the solar chimney which allows for ventilation and earth sheltering. Passive solar can also be found in a solar furnace and solar forge, although these are a little more complicated. Sun rooms are another example of passive solar power as it lets the sun come into the room without allowing it to escape. There is no mechanism or no engine to power just the clear panes of glass attracting the sun and trapping it within.

Solar gain is referring to the increase in temperature in an area, an object or a structure that is a result of solar radiation. The stronger the sun the more solar gain you have. A solar furnace is any huge object that is created in order to channel the heat directly to one place. The heat can be unbearable but it does produce a lot of electricity from it. Temperatures can reach up to 3,000 degrees. When you compare the expenses associated with passive solar you realize that the cost of passive solar is minimal when you compare it to active wear.

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Make Your Own Solar Power Source

Solar power can be found in several different places on the earth. You can find solar power in a parked car, in a building with no air circulating, in a home without windows opened or fans circulating the air. When you step into any of these places that have been in the sunlight for a while you soon become overpowered by the amount and the intensity of the heat. This kind of heat can be taken and converted into heat that can heat your home, your water, an outbuilding, or any other building you would like to have heat in.

Heating by solar power is a free way of heating. When you heat using solar power you use a source that will direct the heat from the sunlight during the daytime to your solar source. A solar source is a device that you use to attract and trap the heat from the sun. Just like a car out in the parking lot gets hot when it faces the midday sun and the windows are rolled up. The seats can become very hot, too hot to sit on. These seats are a solar source because they trapped the heat inside and didn’t want to let them go. When this happens the seats will still be warm long after the sun quits shining directly on that car.

Creating a solar source can be easy to do with a little thought put into it. With a solar source you need to think about all the things that attract the sun, such as metal, the color black, glass that is tinted or clear, mirrors and more. There is an endless supply of idea to signal the heat your way and trap it for your use. To get the heat to benefit your water system or even your heat, you need to come up with a way that you can circulate a liquid that when it passes by your solar source it will heat the water naturally because of the concentrated amount of heat that was trapped inside your solar source that day.

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Kids Can Learn About Solar Power

Kids today can learn about so many different things. We have a way to teach them about solar power. This resource will be their future and will depend on how we take care of it today. Solar power can be anywhere the sun shines and you can feel and see the warmth. Solar power can heat water, heat homes, schools, businesses, and it can produce energy. Teaching kids today how solar power works and how we can use it wisely will ensure that our future and theirs will be protected.

First of all, learning about the harmful affects of our energy usage today is important for them to understand why there should be another way to produce energy. Because the electricity that we use today comes from non-renewable resources we are setting ourselves up for a big fall. When that resource runs out we will rely on an alternative to supply our power. Scientist are working today to ensure that when we do run out of that resource we will be able to switch over to another way without missing a beat.

The problem with that is we shouldn’t wait until that resource is gone to switch over. We should be able to switch in the near future and preserve what we have left. Another problem with our energy production today is that it is harmful to the environment. It pollutes the air and will eventually make it impossible for us to use the sun as a natural resource. We can’t afford to lose that important alternative. In order to save our environment we need to teach the kids how we can all join together in order to save there solar power.

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How Do You Find Renewable Energy?

We already know that the use of electricity, gas and coal are all resources that we may eventually run out of. These are the non-renewable resources that we rely heavily on today. We use these non-renewable resources to do many things, including supplying us with power, heating our homes, businesses and schools and more. When we use all the non-renewable resources up and there are no more to gather, then what? How will we go without the convenience that we are so accustomed to? It’s nice to flip a switch to get power and it is even better when the latest technology allows us to press a button to do all the things that women and men had to work for hours to accomplish. We are fortunate to live in a world with so many modern gadgets. Unfortunately when we lose it we may be so accustomed to the modern perks that we will not know what to do when we don’t have them any longer.

What we have to rely on in the future is renewable resources. These resources are all resources that offer us an abundant supply and will never run out. They recharge and allow us to enjoy them again and again. The renewable resources consist of Solar, Wind, Biomass, Hydrogen, Geothermal, Ocean, and Hydropower We need all of these and right now we have access to each one of them. What do they do and how do they help us with solar power? Let’s find out.

Solar refers to the solar energy that we get everyday either directly or indirectly from the sun. Solar energy can be used for several things, such as heating, electricity to home, schools, businesses, or buildings, heating water, cooling and ventilation.

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Solar Power Home

Heating your Home with Solar Energy

It doesn’t matter if you are building your home or remodeling, you can turn it into a solar energy home by making a few simple changes to your plan. If electric and gas become hard to manage you may want to consider heating your home with the sun. Solar energy is the heat that comes from the sun down to the earth. When it reaches the earth it spreads evenly but you may need it to go to a certain area like your home. How do you get that much sunlight to heat a home? It’s easy to do and takes a few extra steps to help get it started.

Building or Remodeling your Home

If you are building your home you have several choices to choose from regarding your heating source. If you choose to heat from the sun you need to build your home facing in the direction that the sun rise’s. This allows your home to get the most sunshine during the hottest part of the day. Buying solar powered glass windows allow the sun to come through and stay in the home without escaping back out. After the sun goes down your home is kept warm by the sunlight that came into the home during the day. You need to keep the door shut in order to keep the heat in and you also need to use insulated curtains on the windows at night so that the heat will not escape at night while you sleep. Make sure you don’t allow too many windows on the side of the house that faces the evening sun as it may cause the home to cool down quickly.

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Heating Water Using Solar Power

When you decide to convert your main power source over to solar power you will need to make some adjustments to the appliances that carry the power source. When you use solar power to heat your water you may find that you will need to purchase a solar powered water heater in order to do that. You may be able to make adjustments to your existing one but what ever steps you take to turn it into solar power it will be worth it.

There are several different ways to heat your water using solar power. You can even make your own solar power source. The water runs through pipes before it enters your home. Heating water using solar power will occur before the water gets into your home as it passes by the solar source that attracted the light. You may also have a tank to store the water in that can heat the water up. In order to heat your water successfully you will need to have both a solar collector and a storage tank.

A flat plate collector is the most common collector. It is designed to be a thin, flat rectangular box that has a see through cover and it can carry fluid to be heated. This fluid could be the water or it may be a solution, such as antifreeze that will prevent the water from freezing. Next the water moves through the tubes to an absorber plate. This plate is painted black to attract and absorb the heat from the sun. When the collector gets hot, it will heat the fluid that passes through the tubes. As the water passes through the tubes it goes into the storage tank. The storage tank holds the heated water. It is usually well insulated so the water will stay warm longer. Then the water flows into the home on demand.

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Classic Wind Turbine Locations

Wind turbines are used for several reasons but the main reason is to generate energy from the wind. This may sound difficult but it is possible. You experience energy from the wind whenever someone runs past you quickly. A second after they pass you can feel the wind from them going by. This wind that you feel if produced in a great amount can be converted into energy. You may have seen the tall turbines standing in the fields when you drive by. There is the older classic model windmill that helped to crush grain when the windmill blades would turn, it would turn a mechanism inside which was attached to a device that would crush grain for flour. There are several different locations that are perfect for the wind power and depending on where they are as to how much energy they produce.

OffShore Turbines can be placed offshore in order to produce energy from wind in the air and from the water. They don’t bother the view as much when they are out on the water and the noise that they make cannot be heard on land. The average wind speed is higher on the water because the water has less surface roughness and can use every part of energy from the wind. There are several different locations today that you might see wind turbines offshore and there are more building in the future. The one main complaint with people and turbines is the noise they make. It is constant and annoying to some. The other complaint is that they are tall and not pleasant to look at.

While all of these are true the main reason for wind turbines is to find an alternative to using fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources to produce our power. When a tower is built offshore it may cost more money in the long run because the towers need to be higher so there will be no restrictions. Turbines access power through undersea cable which may use high voltage direct current. The sea salt may also cut down on the length of time these turbines stay in shape.

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Parabolic Systems - Concentrating Solar Power

If you have ever seen a field with several mirrors pointing toward the sun you may be looking at a solar power system. These systems work to concentrate the sunlight to one area and use the heat to heat up the liquid that flows along the pipes. This system is called Parabolic-trough system. This type of system heats oil that is flowing through the pipe. The oil is hot and that is why it is used to boil water to power a steam generator which in turns powers electricity.

The reason that this system works so well is because the U-shaped mirrors attracts and collects the suns heat which is then transferred onto the receiver. The receiver absorbs the heat and transfers into fluid which helps to power the engine. The heat causes the fluid to swell up against the piston and that produces mechanical power. This type of power can be used to run things like generators or even an alternator that will produce electricity. This system works great when because it uses molten salt that flows through the receiver. When the salt heats up it can generate electricity through the steam generator. The salt holds in the heat for several days before it has to be converted into electricity. Because this system uses so many panels it is mainly used for industrial solar power where acres of land can be donated to the Parabolic Trough. There can be enough power in the network that can create energy for several days or more. Because this system is so large that it allows the heat that it saves to be transferred days later.

Through this project and other solar power projects we can understand fully how solar power works. When we see how much solar power is conserved using these U shaped mirrors we can also understand how much energy is lost. Using concentrating solar power systems are beneficial to the businesses that use them because they won’t have so much time down when the power fails. Machinery is their only major concern and as long as their machines are taken care of there should be no problems. Industrial type of solar power can attract and trap a lot of heat from the sun during the day, especially using mirrors that will reflect the sunlight. It also helps to have this type of solar power out in an open field free of trees and vegetation that may grow around and at some point crowd the solar light out.

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