Attic and Ceiling Insulation in your Home
If the attic lacks an appropriate vapor barrier, the most efficient way of insulating it is blowing in 18 inches of fiberglass or cellulose.
Green Homes
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How to Insulate an Older Home
A home that is over ten years old is unlikely to incorporate many energy-saving features in its original design. Nevertheless, there is no need to despair, to tear down and rebuild or to move out of your home. Rather, the home can be reviewed systematically in its entirety before determining how to stretch those renovation dollars for some good energy savings upgrades.
Understanding Battery Capacity
As you cannot see electricity, it is hard to confirm the exact amount of energy available in a battery bank.
Wind Turbine Power Output
The output of smaller turbines is 12V, 24V or 48V direct current, with larger units outputting alternating current in 3-phase supply through a remote controller box. To get power from the tower there must be a connecting terminal to the turbine of "flying leads." This is a direct current system with two wires: positive and negative. It outputs 3-phase alternating current with three wires but no polarity or connection issues.
Understanding Power Curves for Wind Turbines
The power curve describes a unit's behavior with different wind speeds. Some important points revealed by the curve are:
Urban Wind Turbines
There are more and more wind turbines filling the rural skyline today. Urban turbines or "urbines" face limitations that rural installations do not.
Wind Turbine Towers
Self-Supporting Towers
There are many possible foundations for a free-standing tower. The exact setup is affected by multiple factors such as tower weight and height, soil type and wind load.
Check with your turbine manufacturer for the right foundation for your soil condition.
Large Hot Water Storage Tanks
If you're planning a solar thermal installation for a large building or a communal property such as apartments, you may need to consider a very large water storage tank. This is also true if your project is solar space heating – both of these installations require outsized tanks. Think big: we're talking between 300 and 500 gallons, here.
How to calculate Solar PV Requirements?
Working out how many PV panels you need to cover your electricity requirements is not a simple matter. Here's an example walkthrough so you can get a handle on your own calculations.
Step 1 – List your plug loads
Walking around our imaginary house, we list every appliance, gadget and other plug load that uses electricity. Next to them, we write down the power use and the estimated number of hours they're switched on in summer and winter.
Our table looks a bit like this (though a lot longer):
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