Green Happens Now

Josh Stevens asked:


It’s been getting easier to make your home more green energy friendly. The technology has gotten so much better for using solar and wind for power that it has become much more easy to build your own systems.

In a green energy home you can use solar hot water heaters to heat all of hot water needs. It not only heats it, you can store it in a holding tank for later use. You would install solar collector panels with photovoltaic cells to convert the sun to energy. If you go with purchasing a system and having it installed for you it could be kind of pricey, but you would recoup your investment over a period of years. You could build and install it yourself if you have any mechanical ability and save some money.

If you are in the process of building your home you could have it take advantage of the sun by implementing a passive solar design using the south facing side of the house for heating and cooling. If you have highly efficient windows and heat retaining materials you could reduce your heating bill in the winter by using the suns energy.

Another use of green energy is to use windmills. This will allow you to take advantage of the wind to generate some electricity. Of course if you live in an area that does not have many windy days this may not be the route for you. Otherwise windmills are a very efficient way to supplement your power. You can buy windmills from retailers and have them installed or buy kits and build and install them yourself.

The ultimate scenario would be if you could take advantage of both of these methods of green energy to power your home. By using the wind and sun to generate electricity you are looking not only at huge savings with the possibility of profits from your electricity usage, but you would truly have a green home as each of these options will contribute little to global warming.

 

Frank Mikael asked:


Fortunately, we can change our ways and then shift our attention to green energy sources.But why green energy sources?

Well because there are lots of advantages to using them, which we will never be able to get if we don’t change our ways. This is also even if some will argue that the problem with green energy is that it is sometimes difficult to generate the power we need. While that may be true, that is why there are other green energy sources available and we just to know which ones are viable given the geographic location.

There are various green energy sources such as:

solar, wind, wave, hydropower and geothermal

These energy sources do not produce anything harmful which may have a negative effect on the environment. This is the exact opposite of what you get when you continue to operate a coal or nuclear power plant.

Coal: you have to remember releases carbon dioxide into the air. On its own, it may not cause that much damage but there are currently 50,000 coal plants around the world and that number is expected to grow.

Nuclear plants may not release anything harmful into the air. The issue is how we dispose of the spend rods and if another nuclear accident should occur. We remember Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. We have probably learned better ways to prevent another incident from happening. Through the years, a few minor accidents have occurred and although the leak was contained, just imagine if it wasn’t?

Green energy sources may not be maintenance free, but at least it does not require that much to maintain them compared to conventional means. In the end, we save money because such facilities don’t cost that much to operate.

The next advantage of using green energy sources is that we will never run out of them. For centuries, the sun’s rays have reached so has the wind which is blown from the sea. By using it, we decrease our dependence on oil which is a nonrenewable resource.

If you think about it, many of us have taken these green energy sources for granted. If we do the right thing now, future generations will not have to face the mess that we could have handled on our own years before.

In short, the power is in our hands. We now have the technology and we know what to do with it. The only thing we need is to do is to put our money where our mouth is because despite the number of conferences on global warming and climate change, little has happened.

It is easy to talk about how concerned we are about the environment but you have to ask yourself when will more solar panels or wind turbines will be erected? When will the number of coal or nuclear power plants be reduced?

Green energy sources is the solution to the environmental, political and social problems of this lifetime.