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Rain is the great blessing of God. When it rains it is said that God is showering all his love and blessings on mother nature. However when it is acid rain, God is cursing the cruel manner in which man is exploiting the nature. Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, i.e. elevated levels of hydrogen ions. This can occur due to volcanoes and lightning strikes but the major cause of acid rain is the release of high levels of harmful gases by vehicles and factories. Acid rain is caused by emissions of compounds of ammonium, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids.

The damaging effects of acid rain are seen on the forests, soil, and flora fauna and on human health. It is also one of the main reasons of extinction of certain life forms. There are two forms of acid disposition

1. Wet deposition: It occurs when any form of precipitation i-e rain, snow, etc. removes acids from the atmosphere and transfers it to the Earth’s surface. This can result from the deposition of acids produced in the raindrops or by the precipitation removing the acids either in clouds or below clouds.
2. Dry deposition: It occurs through dry deposition in the absence of precipitation.This can be responsible for as much as 20 to 60% of total acid deposition. This occurs when particles and gases stick to the ground, plants or other surfaces.

Harmful effects of acid rain are as follows:

• Acid rain corrodes the protective covering of leaves of the plants, which affects the photosynthesis of the plants. Due to lack of nutrition, plants become vulnerable to diseases.

• Lack of nutrition for trees may be due to acid rain getting absorbed by the soil. The harmful acids can have hazardous effects on the roots of the trees.

• Soil has abundant amount of various metals and minerals, when these metals come in contact with acid rain there can be some harmful chemical reactions and leads to soil erosion.

• Acid rains affect the pH level of the water which reduces the absorption capacity of essential nutrients of the aquatic life. This also hampers the reproduction process in fish leading to weak or brittle eggs.

• Acid rains can pollute the drinking water which leads to various health hazards. The release of various gases in the atmosphere leads to lung problems. Some scientists have related the cause of premature death to environmental pollution.

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We all know that Washington is good at avoiding crises until they boil over, and sometimes even that’s not reason enough. Nevertheless, as we continue to push Congress to pass an energy bill—please!—before adjourning for the elections, we would like to add one more reason for action now: water.

As pointed out recently in an [url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-grossman/in-the-west-climate-and-e_b_651186.html]article[/url] by Dan Grossman of Environmental Defense and Bart Miller, the Western states are still suffering from a decade-long drought, with major storage reservoirs only 55% full.

This matters for energy because using traditional fuels to generate electricity uses huge amounts of water, while wind and solar use virtually none. Plus, wind and solar resources are plentiful in the Western U.S.

If Congress passes a strong renewable electricity standard, with hard targets, it will eventually free up some water that is now being used in traditional power plants.

Grossman and Miller noted,
[quote]Water is the essential ingredient of life in the West, where we depend on scarce supplies for drinking water, to grow food that feeds our communities, to support a large and growing recreational economy, sustain the environment, and maintain our quality of life.

At the Western Governor’s Association meeting last month, Montana’s Governor Schweitzer said, “the demand for water across the West is beginning to outstrip supplies, and states have no time to waste in averting a potential crisis.” His sentiment is shared by water managers, engineers, irrigators, and millions of others all across the West.
[/quote]
So if Congress passes a strong RES this year, it will be a down payment on both easing water scarcity in the West and rolling back climate change—using renewable energy rather than fossil fuels to produce electricity will reduce carbon emissions even absent without cap-and-trade legislation.

If that makes sense to you, consider calling your [url=http://www.powerofwind.com/]Senator and urging action[/url] now on a strong energy bill.

A “hydro powered vehicle” is an automobile that putatively derives its energy directly from water. Hydro powered cars have been the subject of numerous international patents, newspaper and popular science magazine articles, local television news coverage, and the internet. Gas prices are at an all time high, and with world oil prices at the same record levels, and showing no sign of coming down any time soon. You may know about conversion kits i-e, convert your car to run on water.

We can split the water into its component elements, Oxygen and Hydrogen, and feed these into your engine along with the regular gas. A mixture is created that is more effective, and in tests has achieved fuel consumption savings of 45% – 65% on standard vehicles.

When we separate the element parts out of the water they form a mixed gas called HHO, or Brown’s Gas. Both the gases in the mixture help combustion – most people know that Oxygen is an essential element for combustion, and Hydrogen itself is highly flammable, and will increase the efficiency of the gas burn.

Brown Gas has been recognized as a production of “oxyhydrogen gas” in a common-ducted electrolyzer. Oxyhydrogen is a combination of oxygen and hydrogen gases, in a 2:1 molar ratio. When oxyhydrogen gas is ignited, oxygen and hydrogen atoms bond and discharge energy.

Utilizing water to power a car is definitely an amazing piece of news to the world. In Japan, water technology has been tested to power vehicle. By using hydrogen energy to power your car, you are able to save on fuel costs, at the same time you are also protecting the environment due to the removal of carbon deposits from the exhaust. Through this technology you can not only extend the lifespan of your engine, but also double your car mileage.

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In this world of high consumption, all nations depend upon heavy, toxic energy for electrical energy and other kinds of energy. Coal, oil, fossil fuels and gas are highly toxic forms of energy that we all are using. These are derived from underground finite resources that could with time diminish. On the other hand they are also not renewable, plus they are damaging our planet at an alarming rate.

It is because the Earth is facing severe global warming due to these substances that scientists are now looking for alternatives to these forms of energy. There are three main natural, infinite source of energy that has emerged. The sun’s powerful energy known as SOLAR ENERGY, the Earth’s internal heat known as GEOTHERMAL ENERGY and finally the power generated from the mighty seas and oceans of the earth known as TIDAL/OCEAN ENERGY. We will discuss and elaborate of these briefly.

Solar Energy

Solar Energy doesn’t need much of an introduction as everyone by now probably knows what is is and what are its excellent usage benefits. However what most people would not be knowing is that solar energy is used to derive another energy known as wind energy. This energy is captured with wind turbines and the water is evaporated through the heat of the sun. When the water is evaporated it turns into rain and this water is stored for use or for hydroelectric  power ( power gained from water).

When this water flows downhill it causes organic matters to grow under sunlight and the energy stored in these plants are known as bio energy. Bio energy when extracted can be used to produce electricity, transportation fuel etc. So with one single power of the sun, many other renewable energies are derived, which could make our Earth a more beautiful place to live in.

Geothermal Energy

One latest advancement in renewable energy is that of geothermal energy; the energy derived from the internal heat of the Earth. This energy is clean, sustainable, infinite and ofcourse renewable. The Earth’s surface maintains a constant temperature between 50° and 60°F (10° and 16°C). Geothermal devices are tapped into the surface to extract this energy and used with other systems, the energy can be used to heat or cool buildings. In winter the heat that is pumped removes heat from the heat exchanger and pumps it into the indoor air delivery system, for summer the process is reversed and the heat pump moves heat from the indoor air into the heat exchanger. Wells are drilled into underground reservoirs for the generation of electricity. This being the case, geothermal energy is another area that needs to be probed into and use on a large scale basis.

Ocean Energy

The ocean covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface and being directly exposed to the sun, they are also the most efficient solar collectors. The sun’s heat warms the surface of the water and in this way the waves could be used to trap in solar energy. There are three systems of ocean energy, which includes closed-cycle, open-cycle and hybrid. Closed cycle systems use the ocean’s warm surface water to vaporize a working fluid. The vapor from that working fluid which has a low boiling point is used to turn a turbine. The turbine in turn activates a generator to produce electricity.  Open cycle systems boil seawater at low temperatures and this produces a steam that passes through a turbine, which is again used to produce electricity. Finally a hybrid system is a combination of both the closed and open cycle systems.

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Solar energy can be converted into three types of energy, which are mainly used for residential purposes. The three main types of converted energies are Solar Thermal Energy, Photovoltaic Solar Power, Concentrating Solar Power. Each one of them will be briefly described below.

Solar Thermal Energy

Solar thermal energy is the process of converting solar energy into solar heat and it has various applications that could be utilized in a home. Solar space heating, solar water heating, solar pool heating and solar thermal cooling are the main applications.

During the cold days of winters, instead of using a heater, solar heating process could be utilized to provide your home with warm heat, especially at empty spaces.

This process is done in two ways either through passive solar energy or through active solar energy. Passive means the natural way of letting heat in, that is architecturally designing your home to let heat flow into empty spaces. Active requires specific devices called solar collectors, which captures the sun’s energy for this purpose.

Solar water heating heats up water of the house. All that is required to do is to install a solar heating system that could be used for at most 40 years and you can get warm, hot water free of cost. This process too requires a solar collector and the transfer of heat to the water supply which will store the heated water.

Solar pool heating works in approximately the same way as that of solar water heating and solar thermal cooling is the process of converting heat to cool energy. How is that possible? Simply through the use of solar heated water, and an air conditioner. The air conditioner has a liquid that disintegrates an absorbent and a refrigerant. The refrigerant then gets compressed and evaporated to provide cooling for the home, thus eliminating the need of an electric air conditioner.

Photovoltaic Solar Power

This is the process of converting solar energy into electricity using specially designed solar cells. This process requires devices and equipments which changes heat to electricity and battery chargers are the best example of this process. The whole process itself is quite complicated to be discussed briefly. Photovoltaic is again branched out into photovoltaic cooling and photovoltaic solar lightning, the process of providing natural outdoor lightning.

Concentrating Solar Power

Concentrated solar power is mostly related to high degree of conversion to electricity and is mostly used at heavy plants and units rather than at a home. However it is the process that generates solar power electricity that is meant for commercial purposes.

Considering all these options, one can say that its not so hard to make full use of solar power and thus be able to reduce on fuel consumption as electricity.

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They say that happy cows produce the best milk. Well, if the milk-making bovines at an organic dairy farm near Greenville, South Carolina knew anything about energy production, they’d be the happiest cows ever. While that possibility is a bit of a stretch, the Happy Cow Creamery, being the first dairy in the nation to utilize a solar hot water system to heat their water, is not.

Tom Trantham owns the farm, which has already won awards for green organic farming. The super efficient thermosiphon solar water heater he installed on the roof of his dairy heats 50-degree well water up to at least 160 degrees — the temperature he must achieve for his operation to work smoothly.

The system passively channels a fluid (water or an anti-freeze solution) between glass tubes and an integrated storage tank at the top of the system. Gravity and thermal convection does all the work in a thermosiphon system.

Water is contained at the top in a long, insulated tank. Because hot water has a tendency to rise and cool water to fall, the cooler water is drawn down into the glazed tubing to be solar-heated, at which point it rises back into the tank. This creates a sort of natural pumping system that efficiently heats water without the need for any electrical devices. Cold water can be naturally pulled up from the Happy Cow’s well to one end of the system and pushed out the other as hot water for the dairy’s operations.

Because solar thermal systems can utilize infrared rays of solar energy, they work even when it’s cloudy. And Tom Trantham’s system is incredibly efficient. According to Larry Jordan, owner of American Micro Solar and installer of Happy Cow’s system, “This unit will actually boil water, which is just unheard of. It’s just that efficient.”

Trantham speculates that nearly all of his hot water needs could be supplied by the new system.

As mentioned, the Happy Cow Creamery is an organic dairy farm, using chemical-free pasturing and harvesting milk from only grass-fed cows.

See the local source for this post, WSPA News, for a video of Tom Trantham, his cows and his new thermosyphon solar hot water system.

More »

Making your water hotter is perhaps the biggest contributors to having high gas and electric bills. And you maybe even thought about using an electric solar hot water heating system. But did making a homemade solar hot water heaters come to your mind?

The average homeowner can put together a homemade solar water heater system because it is so simple. The cost of making one it around 100 to 200 dollars, most of the time under 100 dollars. The return on investment will come back within weeks once you have it installed. However, the solar hot water heating system might not meet all your household needs for hot water, but lower how much you pay considerably.

Why Build a DIY Solar Hot Water Heating System Over Other Options?

Building a do-it-yourself solar hot water heating system is perhaps one the the cheapest and simplest way in which to lower your electric bill. Around 1/3 of total household energy goes to heating up water.

How much do you think it will cost you to build a homemade solar water heater? 500, 600 dollars? Not even close, you will be spending 200 dollars, usually less.

You could have a professionally installed solar hot water heating system, but you will have to pay more and they return on investment will be longer compared to making your own.

Solar electric water heaters are known for having low efficiencies, the reason being is they are still int the developing stage which leaves a lot of room for improvement.

The efficiency of a solar water heater is up to five times greater than the solar electric ones. It is also cheap to have on installed too, especially if you construct a homemade solar hot water heating system.

You may not be able to remove your bill completely, but building a solar hot water heating system will give you dramatic power savings. And a solar water heater will preheat and extend the live of your current water heater by lower its water load.
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You are and will be seeing more and more people looking for way to make their home greener. I’m sure that you know some of the obvious option that work great: Using power saving light bulb throughout your house, recycle all of your plastic and glass bottle instead of throwing them away, or even making a compost pile for all your organic left over food instead of putting it in a landfill.

Go visit build your own solar water heater to find out more information about how you can make your own.

Those are some of the most common ways to make your home more eco-friendly. But you can take it even further, what about making heating up your water with solar power? Have you ever thought you can do that? You can build your own solar water heater which doesn’t cost much and will not take long at all.

I’m sure that you have seen all the commercials and every the new about solar technology. And as you can tell the solar hot water heater which you will be building uses this great technology to make hot water for your house. The best part of this is that the sun will last for a very long time, so you might not need to have to use any electricity to heat up your water again.

So what you will you be benefiting from building your own solar hot water heater? You will be helping to save more valuable natural gas, stop wasting electricity, and the best part is that you will be saving money on you power bills. As you should be aware of now the hot water heaters are using solar technology. And you might be thinking that the solar panel will just be used to power your hot water heater, but there are different methods that can heat water with the sun.

The first one that you can build is the traditional solar panel, and the other two are called Integral Collector-Storage systems and Evacuated Tube Solar Collectors. The one that you want to make will depend on what the climate of your homes location is, plus other environmental factors will also have a roll.

The best part is that you can build your own solar water heater system no matter where you live in the world. Since all the heating system work and any environment. You just need to know that type of hot water system will work the best for your climate.

You might be thinking that you will have to make a dramatic change when you decide to start using a solar hot water heating system. You see the solar hot water heating systems have larger tanks that the standard ones, which means you will be consuming less, and you won’t have hot water cut outs when you are taking a shower. Since you will be lowering your power bill and helping to save the planet, there is no reason why you won’t build your own solar water heater for under 200 dollars.

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As you can tell there is no reason why you can build your own solar water heater to save saving on electricity. But to also help save the planet as well. The investment you will be making is around 200 dollars, but the savings will come back fast.

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Often when referring to solar fuel and solar power, the reference is to photovoltaic or PV panels to generate electricity, however actually solar thermal panels are much better at capturing fuel. Therefore more along with more people are interested in building their own solar thermal unit and are looking for solar water heater plans to build their own version of a solar heater. Firstly, unlike many supplementary do it your self projects, building a solar water heater is completely realistic, plus can be carried out by way of anyone with a even only a basic grasp of hot water heating systems. The appeal of capturing solar heat is clear, as once the cost of installation is met, the fuel is then essentially free. This warmth can be captured into the water, plus be used for quite a lot of applications. The water could be used for washing, in sinks as well as baths. The water could also be used to warmth swimming pools, which can play a major role in reducing running costs. The water can also be used for heating applications via radiators or by way of under floor heating systems. Depending on the climate, the heat generated via the solar water heater will either meet all your requirements or component of your requirements. What ever the scenario, it can lessen your current energy costs.

Learn more about Solar Water Heater Plans and Facts

The main workings of a solar water heater are the solar thermal collector, flow in addition to return heating pipes, a pump and a hot water storage vessel. The hot water can then be used on demand when required. There are a range of locations the solar thermal units can be placed. The key requirement obviously is to be in direct sunlight for the majority of the day. In many cases solar water heaters are installed on the roof of the property. The reward are that it is taking advantage of a space that cannot really be used for any extra application extra than solar electric panels. There are considerations that must be considered by means of roof mounted solar water heating systems. Firstly is if wind speed is an issue, positioning a solar water heater on your roof may not be practical. Also, many of the solar water heater designs are not very aesthetic. The supplementary option is base the unit on the ground, which does have quite a few reward. Firstly the solar water heater is visibly easier to construct and put in, as well as aesthetics is no longer so much of an issue. A underground water storage vessel can also be installed below the solar collector, taking advantage of the insulating properties of placing the tank below ground. The plans for constructing a ground based solar water heater are also much simpler to build.

Read more about Solar Water Heater Plans and DIY

The greatest design to build your self is a passive system, specifically the integrated collector storage. This is where the hot water tank also acts as the solar collector. The design of this system is very uncomplicated. Firstly a tank is required, the size of the tank will reflect your hot water requirements, the tank must be black to capture as much solar fuel as possible. Connected via flow in addition to return pipes to the property, the tank is then placed in a insulated collector box.

More information on Solar Water Heater Plans and Facts

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