Ruth asks…
NEED HELP IN QUESTIONS FOR ENERGY/POWER?
3. Are there Solar power plants in Illinois? If so, how many and where?
4. Explain how Solar Panels work.
5. How long does it take for the sunlight to reach the earth?
6. What is the largest form of energy use in the US? How long can the country sustain using this form? What would be our best alternative to this form? Why?
7. What is an active solar collector?
8. What is a passive solar collector?
9. How can solar energy be used to reduce the current use of fossil fuels?
10. Explain how solar energy creates heat.
Find a solar cooker/collector you would like to build at home. Draw a basic example. Are you going to have a partner? If so, who?
Michael answers:
3) none that I know of, I’m sure some people have PV panels at their houses
4) Photovoltaic Energy panels are what you want to know, light from the sun hits semiconducting area of the PV panel (usually Silicon based) and this knocks lose an electron from its shell, which them falls back to its shell releasing some energy, thus light is transformed into electricity, very infefficient…maybe 7%
5) 8 minutes or so
6) For electrical energy most is produced from Coal, next is hydro, next is nuclear with natural gas and oil very small parts. For how long, estimates of coal at 500 years or more, hyrdo is infinite, nuclear is nearly infinite, gas an oil don’t really mattter, we could do without them
7) Active solar collector is a PV panel, takes light and makes electrity
Passive solar are things like big brick walls that soak up heat in the day and radiate it out at night to heat your house. They all rely on heat produced from solar energy
9) Lots of ways, PV panels, solar water heating, solar home heating….all would reduce need to consume fossil fuels to make electricity
10) Light photons from sun strike object and are absorbed, the energy is transformed into heat. Energy is neither created nor destroyed, only changed form.
Not sure what you mean for the last one, I’m contemplating solar on my next house I’m buying in the next couple of months
Thomas asks…
How much does it cost to build this?
I’ve recently inhereted some land up north in Maine, What Im wondering is, How much would a 800sq foot cabin.I would like to heat the home with Wood, Im thinking a woodstove however Im wondering if a woodstove could heat such an area, and if it can. I was hoping to see if I could get a Basement as well, how much is a foundation for a 800 sq foot house? Now for electricity I am looking at a possible solar panel setup. For water how would I gain acess to a nearby lake or pond? Would I need a pump of somesort? How would I get rid of sewage? would I need a septic tank ?
Im really in need of help and I just dont want this land to go to waste, its on a nice small lake. It used to be a lake house but it was torn down, so now I have open land to build on and just need help.
Michael answers:
You need to look for a few things. Is the old foundation still there and in good shape? If it is you can use that. If it had a basement, did they just fill it in? One of the reasons that folks up North use basements is that you have to go down at least 3 feet 6 inches to get below frost line so the foundation will not heave. It may be more in Maine you need to check. If the home is two blocks or 16 inches above ground you already have 4 foot 10 inches of the basement done all you need is another 3 foot 2 inches. Next how is the land situated and how much sun does the site get. If it has a slope to the lake drainage will not be a problem. If it is in a valley solar may be a problem.
For the septic system, check with local officials of what is required by a lake. A standard septic system or is a fancy one required that will not leach into the lake.
Normal houses cost about 100 to 110 per square foot. You could surely get this done for 80,000 dollars or less if no extenuating circumstances are present. The assumption is that the lot is accessible from a road and that you can get trucks and heavy equipment there to excavate for the basement.
Did the old lake house have power and water? If so the cheapest thing to do is to reinstall them. If not you can start with a generator, but you still need a well of some sort. After a bit look at wind and solar for lights, refrigeration, and whatever other power is required. Make an allowance in the build for these things.
Another question to ask yourself is how much do you intend to use this cabin? If only for a few weeks, use the generator.
Helen asks…
Can the following idea work to save the United States & Re-Invent Itself? R U Reading this Brun the Leader?
I tried to Answer Brun the Leader but Yahoo can’t handle the size of my answer. But it’s a GREAT idea on how to neuter the banks and break us out of this recession, pay off our national debt, and bring unemployment in the USA down to 0. My question is … IS THIS FEASIBLE?
I voted for Chuck Baldwin. Chuck wants to eliminate the Fed. THAT is the only way that I can see of stopping the bankers. Chuck wants to remove the power of money creation from the Fed & return it to Congress.
When the Fed “created” that $700 billion out of NOTHING they then gave it to the banks to HELP them. The banks then LOANED the money back to people, govt, etc WITH INTEREST. It cost nothing to make it and cost the banks nothing to get it but we have to pay them back? What a crock!
If you eliminate the FED … you cut off their FREE money. The Fed is all the Ruling Families & they charge the govt interest on the $700 billion when they make it. So the FED is making interest on it AND the banks are making interest on it. The Fed has this country on lock down in that we can NEVER pay back what we owe. We can barely cover the interest on the money we owe already.
I just published the answer to this whole mess on Triond yesterday. It involves another bail-out but this time it would give the money to GM on condition that they rebuild DEtroit, build NEW homes and build a NEW auto plant that is the MOST advanced of ANY auto plant in the world. Robots & all. They would produce ONLY electric cars and hybrids capable of getting 300 mpg or better. ( see Aptera.com … they are already making them in Carlsbad, Calif. ) They would design these cars to be the best in the world. We have the technology, we have the expertise, we have the resources, GM just needs a boost of cash AND A NEW DIRECTION! WE need to incorporate the ideals of A. Edward Deming (deceased) who rebuilt the Japanese economy after WWII and Ford in 1980. GM needs to focus on cars that will go 300 miles for $3.25. Rebuilding Detroit will bring thousands of new jobs. Giving a lump of money to GE for windmill design and production will make us the global leader in windmills AND solar panels. GERMANY is the current leader in solar. WE NEED THAT and we can TAKE it from them. This is an industry that is new and fresh and needs inexpensive alternative to the expensive panels that are available now.
Dream with me here for a second. Imagine Detroit all rebuilt with thousands of new homes, and refurbished old ones. Take Brad PItt’s idea for New Orleans and use that for Detroit. New homes, thousands of new jobs, new industries. Happy employed people making a product they can be proud of and supplying the world with the best product for the lowest price. No greed, just MASS production. Solar cars, electric cars. I have a friend who is patenting a magnetic motor that will generate enough power (35 amps) to re-charge a bank of 25 batteries in an electric car. These magnet motors can run 24/7 for 20 years with NO cost. You could put one or two in a car and drive up to 200 miles to work. The batteries are re-charged while you are at work for 8 hours. You drive up to 200 miles home and the batteries charge up while you sleep. You take the family to the beach on SAturday and while your kids play on the beach the batteries are re-charged. You go to work … go to the beach … go anywhere you want … and there is NO cost for fuel. Gasoline prices drop to 25c / gallon like in 1960 and Exxon BEGS people to use fuel. Exxon finally gives up and starts making solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells or they make compressed air engines from the designs that are currently being studied in India.
The United STates Re-Invents itself. We bring all the jobs HOME. We bring FORD AND GM plants from overseas HOME. What if we could make a transport ship that runs on solar power. Use solar paint and solar panels all over the surface of the ship. Have a back up of a nuclear powered engine for when there is fog. These cargo ships could deliver our products all over the world at NO FUEL COST! We would employ thousands making these ships. Other countries would create a waiting list for these ships. Think we CAN’T design and build these? Nonsense. WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY. WE are the most advanced country in the world when we WANT to be. If we diverted our WAR MACHINE and converted all those factories to producing INEXPENSIVE solar panels and electric cars we would be the WORLD SOURCE and the country would prosper. Hell, we would do MORE than prosper. We could pay OFF our national debt, eliminate the Fed, close the IRS, and convert the IRS buildings into billing departments for the world’s corporations. WE could become the information hub of the world. We already control the computer industry and could solidify that in a heartbeat if we wanted to.
BUt the govt would have to CREATE a few Trillion dollars in cash and GIVE it to the corporations that SHOW that they can TAKE OVER A WORLD MARKET! The money could ONLY be
Michael answers:
Roth-child owens 60 sum estates and the idea of cutting off the bread line to the Rothschild’s life it self .They employ thousands if not millions of people Look at John Turmel who is up and in their face protesting usury John and me and you will never stop the family of the Golden Rule .You got the gold you Rule ! And again their God is and always will be Gold, Oil,& Drugs GOD ! What hurts is that we live on the same planet and have the rights as everything that has taken birth
and One family that could Save the World would rather exploit the very people that gave them the power of Control So how many years will we face this abuse and slavery by the few And what would we do with the game of MONOPOLY maybe a game of BARTER AND
EXCHANGE I can sense your frustration to all of this Crap and to know now that where just Slaves and can`t do a thing about it, just grow old and die in and the name of DEBT “God help the Children ;
David asks…
paper questions. is it good?
Count how many electronic devices you own. Now count how many of those you use on a daily bases. Now think about where all of the power to run those items comes from. As simple as it is, many Americans never think about where the power to run their personal gadgets, there only worry is about how big the bill is going to be at the end of the month. The truth is, Americans are the ones who need to think about energy consumption the most, because America uses far more energy per capita than any other nation in the world. This is because we have more money to burn, and we are completely energy dependent. If we want out world to continue to thrive, we as Americans are going to have to start using less energy as a whole and building more ways to reduce dependencies on oil and other unrenewable, dirty resources. The purpose of this paper is to inform the public about the salvations and pitfalls of different sources of renewable energy and the dangerous we will face if we don’t switch to it.
•Wind
Wind is great renewable resource; in this section of my paper I will outline the pros and cons of wind energy.
Wind is energy is completely clean, inexpensive to build, and produces a reasonable power output. However, wind energy can only work efficiently in areas where there is a more or less constant wind. Wind energy works the best in places like California where there is mountain ranges where valleys get constant wind blowing through them. Wind energy does work in Iowa though, mostly you will see wind farms on hills, but if you’ve ever seen an old farm it is most likely that they had wind energy! Wind energy is very old; it in the 18th century to pump water.
•Solar
Solar energy is one of my favorite sources of energy. It can be mounted on a roof to create clean power all through the day. Solar energy has several dehabilitating pitfalls though. Solar energy creates enough power to easily run a home, but it creates most of the energy when the occupants aren’t actually home. So a solar panel will run your appliances such as your fridge for free, but in the evening when you get home, turn on all the lights, and the sun is down, solar panels aren’t going to do you any good. So in order to combat this problem, solar panels would have to have batteries, this is completely possible, but unfortunately the batteries would have to be quite big, and very costly to replace once they stopped holding a charge. Solar energy would be great for the Midwest and other less populated areas but in order for solar energy to power places like New York City, you’re going to have to convince Montana to give up half their land for sole solar panel use for the “greater good”.
•Water Power and hydrogen power.
Water power is another very old renewable resource; it was use thousands of years ago to turn big wheels that were dipped in rivers to grind things up. Water power today is more tuned towards dams; dams make good energy, but they harm the environment more than any other renewable resource. Building dams causes the area in front of the dam to flood, resulting in loss of habitat for many an animal. Hydrogen power would be absolutely awesome if we had a source of pure hydrogen closer than the sun to harvest from. The only practical use for hydrogen energy is to use excess energy from solar panels to transform water into hydrogen; this may be a substitute for batteries for solar panels.
•Nuclear energy
In my mind this is the energy that has the potential to save humanity. Nuclear energy puts out tremendous amounts of power and has only a little waste. The main problem with nuclear energy is idiots who are terrified of being saved by it because it might “blow up”. Other problems include: the storage of the small amount of byproduct, eventually we will run out of Uranium (not a pressing problem), and nuclear plants take a long time to build even if they were to pushed through to build immediately, which never happens. German is currently 80% dependent on Nuclear energy and I think we need to follow their lead.
In conclusion, we as people have a responsibility to protect the world and to protect ourselves. In order to accomplish this we need to move forward and invest heavily in completely renewable resources, and stop popping out kids. As previously stated, I believe nuclear power will be our salvation, but we need to invest in all renewable resources; wind energy for California, solar for the Midwest, hydro for places with large rivers, and nuclear for the New Yorkers.
Michael answers:
Generally speaking, when writing a formal essay or research paper, you want to avoid phrases like “I think,” and “In my opinion.” State your facts as facts and leave out anything that isn’t a fact. Unless you’ve been specifically instructed to share your personal opinion about your topic, then you shouldn’t express it in a paper.
Donald asks…
Would you support this type of stimulus package?
Retrofit US homes with solar panels. Insist they must be American Made.
If the Government can spend money to build a dam, why not this as well?
For sake of this example, let’s assume the government would retrofit 18 million homes (1/4 of the 72 million homes in the US) in the Southern US (where the sun shines) at an average cost of $20K per solar panel retrofit.
The above “example” would cost $360 billion (at a constant price) to convert them all to solar.
Some of the things this would do:
1. Thousands, if not 100′s of thousands of permanent jobs would be created making, installing, and maintaining solar panels.
2. A new manufacturing base would be created in the US.
3. Exports of solar panels would be made, reducing the trade deficit.
4. Economies of Scale would lower the cost of solar panels.
5. The use of fossil fuels to produce electricity would be reduced, so less money would be sent to people in Arab countries, so it is a security issue as well.
6. Greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced.
7. Excess generated energy could be sold back to Power Companies, which could distribute it over the grid, lowering their costs as well. .
8. There would be no doubt as to where the money was spent.
“A robust solar electric system will cost about $20,000″.
http://www.thesolarguide.com/solar-power-uses/cost-faq.aspx
“How many owner occupied units are there in the United States? Approximately 72 million”.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_single_family_homes_are_there_in_the_United_States
(Please don’t cite the numbers in my example, it is the general principal I am suggesting. If you say it would not be fair to do this with private homes, fine: use government office buildings instead).
Michael answers:
Absolutely.
The whole idea of a stimulus in a recession is that it will used unused factors that are currently idle – for example are capacity utilization rates are all quite low now, as is investment and unemployment is high.
Thus, we get all this stuff for little cost.
The economies of scale argument still holds, since the government won’t be manufacturing the panels themselves (as if economies of scale don’t hold regardless!).
I think you way overestimating the cost. That is assuming an installed cost of 10-12 dollar a watt. But you can buy panels right now for $1.00 a watt, and I don’t know why installation should be ten times cost. If the government doesn’t need to make a substantial profit, I think $5.00 a watt is more likely. That means an overall cost of 180 billion – somewhat more than the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars per year. We could solarize the nation in a few years.
Also, there would be many places where solar was unfeasible.
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