Do-it-yourself Geothermal Cooling

One form of alternative energy you can use in cooling your home is geothermal energy. This might sound surprising, but you can use the energy found in your own backyard by utilizing geothermal heat pumps. You can save up to 70% on cooling bills.

The bad news is that professionally installed geothermal systems are too expensive. The good news is that there are ways in which you can harness geothermal energy, to partially cool your house, without shelling out a fortune for it.

You might already be utilizing geothermal energy without realizing it. Northern state homeowners often use this renewable energy without their direct knowledge.

This article will teach you how to maximize the cool air that’s stored within your basement.

You need to have a basement, or at least some crawl space beneath your house, for this cooling method to work. You must be able to access the space from within the confines of your home. If the space has a small window or vent, this will help with the air flow. You’ll also need a small portable fan for this one.

The principle of geothermal cooling works this way. During hot summer days, the basement is cooler than most parts of the house. The basement’s exterior walls are controlled by the constant heat trapped a few feet underground, right next to the house’s foundation. The temperature penetrates the basement walls and cools the air trapped inside. You must then distribute the cool from this musty and damp air, throughout the rest of home.

The most efficient way of doing so is to cover your windows with shades or curtains during sunrise, to minimize the natural heating by the sun. During nighttime when the outside temperature falls below 75 degrees, open your upstairs windows while leaving your fan on, to suck in the cool air.

But, once the temperature get higher than 75 degrees, you can turn on your geothermal cooling system by opening one of the windows in the basement. You don’t need to fully open it. A small opening is enough just to let some air through. Be sure to close all other windows in your house except for one. That way, air flows through the open windows. The open window should be the highest one in your house. This will vent out the most hot air.

Your small fan should be turned on and pointed toward the window. This should make the air from the basement move up to the open window, and let the hot air go out. It usually takes between thirty minutes to one hour to circulate the cool air from the basement to the rest of the house.

This method of utilizing geothermal energy might seem to involve lots of work, but your family will benefit from it in the long run. You’ll see your dependency on your air conditioner decrease, resulting in lower energy bills.

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There are more ways to cool your homes without the need of plugging into the grid. For information on where to find complete and step-by-step instructions on how to install DIY Wind and Solar Power systems, along with pictures, videos, and diagrams, please visit Popular DIY Wind and Solar Power Guides.

You can also find more general information and solar power projects at Do-it-Yourself Solar Power.

Source Article: [uc]DIY[/uc] Geothermal Cooling

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Renewable Energy Sources

Traditional, fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas are a limited resource. With time, it will become harder to find and remove these resources out of the ground and this cost will be passed onto the consumers. There will be no change in this trend as more of these resources get used up. And this is not the only cost of using fossil fuels. Many people feel that they have caused many of the environmental problems that we are beginning to witness today and ultimately will be paid for by future generations. So what are the alternatives to these traditional sources of energy. This article will cover a few of the alternative energy sources that are being touted as practical solutions both commercially and for the individual homeowner.

The first alternative energy source to be covered is solar energy. Many people are quite familiar with solar power and it is not uncommon to see many a neighbors house with a solar panel on the roof. To this extent, mankind has always known about the Sun’s energy and used it is one way or another since the first civilizations where established, however it is only fairly recently that it has advanced to the stage that we are at now.

Currently we use the Sun’s heat and light to get usable energy.

Heat energy provided by the sun is used for many things like heating water, heating a room or cooking food. As the Sun’s heat was tangible, the inspiration for using it as an energy resource was not a great leap of the imagination. Indeed, it was probably used in many ancient civilizations as an energy resource and might explain why so many of these civilizations worshiped it as a god.

Using light energy is still a fairly new innovation by comparison. The photo voltaic cell (PV cell) is the technology that makes this happen. The concept was first demonstrated in Victorian times but it was only first produced on a commercial basis in the 1970’s.

The principle behind it is that photons in sunlight hit the PV cell causing an electron to be displaced from the atom. Many cells and more sunlight cause more electrons to flow. This is the principle of direct current (DC). Direct current can be used to power appliances (that run on DC), stored in a battery or converted to alternating current (AC).

Another popular renewable energy option is wind power. I think this is because it is fairly well understood by most people as a concept. It may also be because plenty of wind turbines are popping up all over the countryside.

A wind turbine is a towering structure that uses the power of the wind to turn a number blades. The kinetic energy is utilized by the generator to create electricity. Many developed and developing countires are increasing their production of wind turbines each year. They promise to deliver clean and cheaper ways to create energy.

Wind turbines or mills are an option even in the suburban home and can be constructed quite cheaply. It is quite simple to build a windmill or turbine from scratch or a pre-built variety can be purchased. Before this is done, it is important to ascertain the amount of wind you get and have a clear unobstructed place for the turbine to go. You may also want to notify your neighbors that you are erecting a turbine as it could be an issue with some people.

Other systems use water as the primary source of energy, utilizing the kinetic energy to create electricity. This is hydro-power and a dam is an obvious example of this process in action. Geothermal energy can also be used to some extent. The principle behind this is that the molten core of the earth can heat up water which can be used as is or to create electricity.

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