Solar Power & Energy

Powering your home with solar energy is an ideal way to reduce or eliminate electricity bills and become more self-sufficient. Photovoltaic solar panels can be installed as a stand alone system so that you are not connected to any other power source or they can be designed to supplement the energy you receive from your local electric company. The first step in setting up a solar energy system for your home is determining how much power you need.

Energy Use
The amount of solar energy you need for your home depends entirely upon your rate of consumption. Your house can be the exact same size and design as your neighbor’s house, yet you may use much more or much less overall electricity than they do. One person may run his air conditioner at 68 degrees in the summer while another may run his at 75 instead. The difference in operating temperatures creates …

Dehydrating food is one way to preserve large amounts of it without taking up as much space, while retaining most of the flavor and nutrition. Dehydrating food removes as much moisture content as possible so that bacteria, germs and other harmful organisms cannot survive. Opinions on storage life differ but generally–When stored in a cool, dark environment in air tight containers–dehydrated foods can be kept for five to 25 years. Solar and electric food dehydrators can be built with inexpensive scrap materials, in just about any size you’d like.

Requirements:
- Plywood
- 2 inch by 4 inch boards
- 1 inch by 2 inch boards
- Steel wire or other food safe mesh material
- Screws, nails or staples
- Small door hinge
- Glass or plexiglass (optional)
- Lightbulbs (optional)
- Small fan (optional)

Step 1
Cut your plywood into five or six pieces with equal widths and heights. A solar dehydrator that is two feet wide by two feet …

Gary Reysa of BuildItSolar.com states that “Solar space heating can be 25 or more times more cost effective than solar electric (PV) systems…” There are several ways to build solar space heaters, and most of those follow very similar designs which are generally easy and inexpensive to create.

Passive or Active
Solar space heaters work by allowing sunlight in through glass. The sunlight heats up air in the space behind the glass, and the glass prevents the generated heat from escaping.

Passive solar heating systems require no moving parts or electricity, while active systems have small fans to help circulate the heater air.

Passive systems work on a thermosyphon–or convection–process. Because hot air naturally rises, a passive solar system allows cool air to enter at the bottom of a heater, and once it has been warmed by the sun it escapes into the home out the top of the heater.

An active solar …