Monthly Archives: June 2010

Whenever people think of green or clean energy they assume that the alternative energy being referred to are several rows of solar panels lined up on the roof area, or the gently spinning wind energy generators generating electric power from the wind. Although these are correct views of energy sources create clean energy, most people’s perception of clean energy systems fail to include one of the leading, efficient, and applicable of all alternative energy installations, —namely solar heating tubes. This kind of of clean energy technology is utilized to supply hot water.

The scientific and technical knowledge supporting this kind of clean energy are already so far advanced as to have industrial and commercial applications, as well as household ones. Millions of individual homes and apartment  buildings that depend on such alternative energy systems for their hot water supply are able to dramatically decrease their electricity expenses. In fact, the nation of China is the leading user of solar heating tubes, and it is estimated that a whopping 30 million residences (whether apartments or homes) are able to get heated water from their solar heating tubes, at least 60% of the time (or achieve 60% efficiency).

Why only 60 to 70% and not all of their heated water requirement? This is really the only “glitch” with clean energy that rely on solar power, and it happens because of the patterns of nature. Keep in mind that, the sun goes up and down everyday. As a result, solar heating tubes are only able to operate when sunlight is at its peak, which is generally from 9 to 5PM. However once the sun sets, it’s like someone turned-off the water heater. And yet, solar heating tubes still achieve around 60-70% efficiency because the large storage tanks it uses can stay hot for several hours after the sun has gone down. This is the reason why most alternative energy professionals estimate optimal energy savings of solar heating tubes at the sixty percent level.

So what does itmean in practical terms for the commercial or residential building owner or landlord? Mainly, it means that, they would still have to use some electric power from their utility company or oil, gas, electric supplier, in order to maintain a 24 hour supply of heated water. What does it mean financially? This will entail more discussion.

Bear in mind that you will have to buy the solar heating system and pay for its installation. It will involve a substantial cash outlay, and most building owners will utilize the equity in the property to put their purchase on a kind of installment payment agreement, like a second mortgage or business loan to cover costs. But the solar power system is going to start working shortly after it is installed, which means that energy expenses are going to decline significantly right from the start. This decrease in electric power expenditures creates financial savings that can be used towards repayment on the loan for installation. The good thing is, most systems can be repaid in a period of 2 to 5 years;and after this period the financial savings will go straight into the owner’s wallet. From then on, the building can be supplied with hot water at an incredibly lower price.

In addition to the reduction in costs and shorter period to receive your return on investment for the equipment, there is also a vast array of tax benefits to be enjoyed from investing in clean energy technologies. These financial incentives can assist the residential or commercial building owner to recover the cost of the solar technology quickly.

Craig Axelrod is VP of Business Development for Emmy Energy, a NY <A href=http://www.emmyenergy.com/index.cfm”>clean energy</a> operation installing <A href=”http://www.emmyenergy.com/green-energy-products/solar-heating-tubes.cfm”>solar heating tube systems</a> & solar panels in the Northeast.

How to Replace lots of your Store Bought Chemical cleansing products with White Vinegar. It kills Mould, Bacterium and Germs. It doesn’t give off any harmful chemical odours, it’s a lot cheaper and environmentally friendly as well .

White distilled vinegar is now thought of as a very popular household cleanser , efficient for killing most mould, bacteria, and germs , due to its level of acidity. Cleaning with white distilled vinegar is a sensible way to avoid using unkind chemicals.

Hardwood Floors .

Flooring professionals will tell you don’t put anything on your floors but vinegar and water. Mix 1 cup of white vinegar with 3 cups of water. You already know to make sure the floor has been swept first. Then use the vinegar and water mix on the mop head or, use a terry towel soaked in the water and vinegar . Wrap this around the head of a swiffer.

Mirrors and Glass  .

Add one cup vinegar to 3 cups of hot water. Clean the window or mirror well, then just before dry. Sprinkle some vinegar directly onto a clean dry cloth and polish, for a smear free shine. It works great on glasses too .

Dishwashers.

As a rinsing agent for removing scum and lime scale build up, vinegar can be rather useful. Run a cup of vinegar through the dish washing machine once a month to clean it and remove Soap scum. Set the empty dishwasher to a normal cycle, let it run for around 5 minutes, open the door and pour in the vinegar, then just let it run through . You will be very pleased with how clean your dishwasher is. This will save on buying de scaling tablets or using salt and vinegar works better all the time .

Coffee machines

Depending on how often you clean your coffee maker , you may need to run vinegar through it a few times to completely remove the stains and residue . When you are done don’t forget to run clean water through your coffee maker to remove any traces of vinegar . Use warm water and vinegar to clean your coffee pot. If the pot is especially coated in film or coffee has by accident been burned in it. Fill the pot with vinegar/water using half vinegar and half hot water, leave all night . the next morning wash the pot in hot soapy water.

Shower Head Blocked With Scale? 

Scaled up shower head . Make up a mixture of 2 cups vinegar and 2 cups warm water in a jug. Put the shower head into the jug of vinegar and water and leave for two hours . If the shower head is attached to the wall. Put the water and vinegar in a plastic bag and tape it around the shower head or use a rubber band. Let it soak for at least an hour. Spray some vinegar on the shower walls after a bath or shower to rinse off soap scum from the tiles. An old trigger bottle is great for this.

Washing Machines.

Replace your wasteful and enviromentally unfriendly fabric softener with clear distilled vinegar in your washing machine. It will soften the clothes every bit as well because, it is soap residue and scum that make clothes hard and vinegar removes soap scum and residue. Pour the distilled vinegar into detergent drawer where you normally pour fabric softener, ½ to 1 cup is fine, but don’t worry about pouring in too much . The vinegar is de scaling your washing machine anyway, so it would be hard to overdo it .

Cleaning copper.

Did you know you can Clean tainted copper with vinegar and salt? Use a paste made of salt and vinegar. Pour some salt into a bowl or container and add some vinegar a few drops at a time. You are aiming to make a paste. Stir up the mixture, if it is too runny then add more salt. Then rub the paste onto the dull or tarnished copper. Allow it to sit for a moment and polish off with a clean dry cloth.

Lime Scale On Toilets,Baths and basins .

Remove Lime scale on baths, basins, toilets. Just soak a cloth in pure vinegar and lay it on to the lime scale stain, leave overnight, rinse and repeat if required. Or, use a paste of 1 teaspoon white vinegar and 2 tablespoons salt. Apply the mixture to the lime build-up, let sit over night and rinse away.

Anti static for use with your Tumble Dryer.

Keep a trigger spray bottle with some vinegar in it, near your Tumble Dryer. Instead of using anti static sheets. Load your laundry into the dryer as normal and before closing the door/lid, spray a couple good squirts of vinegar on to the laundry . No more nasty static.

Dentures.

Here is a Tip from a Dental Technician . If you have any kind of dentures, placing them overnight in a weak vinegar and water solution keeps them disinfected and clean.

Dandruff Problems?

Pour clear distilled vinegar onto your hair at the outset of your shower. Massage in and rinse off when finishing your shower. Do this five minutes before you shower, then wash your hair as you normally would, while showering. You will start to notice a difference within a week or so. Let it sit on your scalp and then just wash your hair as normal.

Vinegar can be used to safely clean just about anything in your home. Vinegar is one of the oldest cleaning products. Simply pour full-strength white vinegar into a trigger spray bottle and you are ready to clean most soiled surfaces around your home . Hold the trigger spray bottle 15 – 20 cm (6 – 8″) away from the soiled surface, spray, and then wipe clean with a lint-free cloth or paper towel.

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Whether you plan on helping your local school or charity raise some cash, or just fancy a little extra spending money for yourself, you can earn  some extra pennies  collecting and recycling used ink cartridges. This is how to go about it .

Why recycle?

Apart from making some extra cash for your business, charity or whoever. Ink and toner cartridges can take up to 10,000 years to biodegrade in a landfill site which is not great for the environment.

 Who wants your old cartridges? 

Some recycling companies will collect your  empty  ink cartridges & toner cartridges—and will pay you for  each  cartridge you send in. Then they usually sell the cartridges to companies that recycle them and sell them as  cheaper remanufactured cartridges  .

Each of these companies work slightly differently . Sometimes, the charity gets all the profit from the sale of the used cartridges. Sometimes they get most, with a small amount passing to the company. Other companies will pay you directly—and then  pass on  the cartridges on their own. Some will even pay your postage via a freepost envelope—or collect them via courier at their expense.

Companies that do this kind of work can be found by searching for  “cartridge recycling ” on the internet or yellow pages in your area, and then  look at the options available .

You can also sell your cartridges directly to the companies who remanufacturer old cartridges to sell again online. Jet Tec (www.jettec.co.uk is one such company, but others are out there, again check out the internet to find a company that will give you decent money to make a profit for your organization or personal pocket. These companies usually pay more per cartridge than typical  middleman  companies.

 Time to make some cash 

 Once you have decided on a partner for your  cartridge  recycling and you know how much you can make for each cartridge you collect, you’re ready to start the fundraising drive.It is also worth collecting old mobile phones as many recycling companies will also pay you for them. Here are a few ideas for collecting old ink and toner cartridges for recycling.

Visit your local shops. popping down to your    local electrical stores and office supply stores that sell ink and toner cartridges. Some of them may be willing to allow you to  add  a collection  box   in  the shop for customers to deposit their used ink and toner cartridges. Charity shops welcome any extra cash and you can offer to place a collection  point  in the shop and pay them for each cartridge collected. Simply pop round once a fortnight or so to collect the cartridges and pay the charity some cash. Be warned though, that you may find your recycle bins may be full of epson ink cartridges  , so please check that the company you are selling the cartridges too, actually pay you for epson cartridges as many do not.

Visit businesses in your area. Most businesses these days use plenty of cartridges whether they be ink or toner, so it is worth visiting them to see if they can help your cause. Ask employers to perhaps put a note on the companies internal notice board and get employees involved by asking them to bring in empty cartridges from home. Recycling cartridges is a  environmentally friendly  for businesses—and can help build a green reputation which more and more people are seeking these days. Don’t forget your own place of work and your kids school, all of these  places  can be great for collecting used cartridges

Build a web page . If your business has a website,  you can make sure it includes information about your recycling  scheme  . Make sure you include information on where the proceeds  will go  and how  other like minded environmentally  friendly people can get involved  . If you write a press release or do any other promotion, make sure your website address is included as a place where people can get more information.

Do a mail shot. Send out letters to your  businesses  mailing list, making sure everyone in your are knows about the  options available to them  . Make sure your letter includes information  on where they can drop off their cartridges, the types of cartridges accepted, and how they can get involved—either by contributing money or time or by enlisting the help of their own  workplaces  .

Recycling used ink and toner cartridges is a great way to earn money for your  self  . Many cartridge recycling companies only accept cartridges in bulk—and if you can collect enough cartridges, you can take advantage of their recycling programs. Others will happily take a single cartridges via a freepost envelope service. Find a company that will pay for your used cartridges, set up collection points, and then let the public know—and you should be able to earn a decent amount of money.

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For residents , homemade wind turbine can come in kits as well as addition comes with all given accessories with well illustrated instruction manual on  video on how to put together and start producing your own electrical energy for your house . The best way to provide a root of clean and renewable energy for either business or home is by using DIY wind turbine.

These best wind turbines are a great resolve to in particular when we are present an energy crisis worldwide such as electricity prices soaring majorly and the continuous load peeling. Your wind turbine as an alternative renewable energy source gives us a natural source of energy that is green friendly and is  very inexpensive to run as wind is free is now used by more and more people globally.

The homemade wind turbine gives us electricity for the entire caravans , home base appliances, garages and campsite lighting with no use of electricity and charges just about all types of batteries and is very simple to install. These turbines do not let go of carbon dioxide emissions into the environment. They come in assorted sizes that can be used to generate power with affordable cost for most of the people and will provide with a considerable level of electricity.

The best part about this system is that you don’t require any galvanic cables, which alone is considered to be a great saving. They are definitely eco friendly and reduce the footprints of carbon. You will also be setting an example to others, when they see you are green and are environmentally friendly, your neighbors and friends  are more than probably will come after suit by installing this system .

DIY wind turbine systems are configured especially for customers that are gruelling to be happy. Home use is the very best element to have been combined to form these ideal wind turbines specifically. The DIY small systems of turbines are a wonderful way to educate and use for projects and training children the basics of renewable energy.

Green energy supply or be kind to the environment is the type of conversation to home wind turbines that are becoming plain worldwide. Now is a good time for enthusiast to get ahead start by generating your own electricity. By switching to the use of wind turbines we are ensuring a safer environment for futurity generations.

It is a good idea to take a look at the providers section on the web as this will help you to locate a wind energy system supplier in your area and also do some hunting and read up on the many disadvantages as well as advantages related to commercial and home developments. This will help in gaining a basic understanding of how it works.

An electric Tumble Dryer can use a great amount of  electricity to dry a load of washing ,  For most people the only maintenance we do on it , is to clean the lint filter every week or so. There are lots of things you can be doing to save on running costs and squeeze more life out of your Tumble Dryer .

The easiest thing to do, is Clean The lint Filter, every single Time You Use Your Dryer.

Why? Tumble Dryers work by blowing hot air through the drum and around the laundry in order to dry them. Every bit of air has to go through the lint filter. If it’s blocked , then that slows down the air flow. That slows down the drying process, uses more electricity and means the dryer needs to run for longer to dry a load of laundry.

More use, means it will wear out sooner. More use, means it will waste electricity . Clean The lint Filter Every Time .

Because I must be lazy, I keep an empty detergent box near my Dryer . So instead of having to go to the Dustbin every time. I just clean the into the empty detergent box. I empty it out a couple of times a month. That’s only 2 trips to the Dustbin a month, instead of 30 or 40 . If your Tumble Dryer is the “Vented” type. That’s the type that blows the warm damp air out through a flexible hose, or through a vent or tube in the wall. Here is some advice .

Vent pipes clog up over time with old wet fluff and lint . This has the same affect as a clogged filter. It harms the Dryer’s performance, is wasteful on electricity and because your Dryer needs to run for longer. It will wear itself out sooner Once or twice a year , remove the vent pipe and wash it out. A garden hose works fine, or put some water into the bath and swosh the vent pipe around till it’s clean. I have a customer who uses the shower to do the same job. Most important , is that the vent hose or pipe is clean and not clogged. Some Tumble Dryers are hooked up to “Through The Wall Vent Pipes” Same thing applies, these get clogged as well. A Tumble Dryer is not very heavy , so it’s not too hard to pull it out and disconnect the vent pipe. Clean it and refit it .

Lots of the Dryers attached to “Through The Wall Vent Kits” use an excessive amount of flexible vent pipe to connect to the wall. The result can in many cases  be that the flexible vent pipe kinks when the Dryer is pushed back into place. You might never know, as often you won’t be able to see it. A kinked hose is much worse than a clogged filter. A quick way to check. When your Dryer is working. Go outdoors and hold your hand in front of the vent cover . If you can feel a good amount of hot air blowing out, it should be ok. On the outside of “Through The Wall Vent Systems” There is often a wire mesh filter behind the cover . They are known to become blocked in a matter of months. This external filter just clicks off. Clean and refit it. If you have never cleaned it, you will be aghast at how dirty and blocked it is and how much quicker your Dryer will now dry a load of clothes

If you are washing light loads of laundry in your Washing Machine, these are around 2.5 kg. Turning the Tumble Dryer on for a small load is wasteful. Most family size Dryers will be rated at or above 5Kg. So why not wait and mix a couple of small loads into one load. This saves on running costs and running time. Saving you money and cuts down on the total Dryer running time over 2 separate loads. This is fine as long as you remember a golden rule. Don’t stuff your Dryer with too much Laundry or over load it. Which brings me to the next point. Over Loading your Tumble Dryer is false economy.

Tumble Dryers blow hot air through the laundry as it tumbles around. If it is over loaded, the hot air can’t get at all the clothes. You will end up with some damp clothes and some over dried clothes. It is also very hard on the drum drive belt and front and rear bearings. Don’t do it. It’s not smart and it’s costing you money. So to Recap.

Clean the Fluff filter every time you use your tumble dryer . Clean the vent pipe at least twice a year . Check the outside vent filter is not clogged . Don’t dry lots of separate small loads if you can avoid it. A large load (as long as it’s not an overload) is much cheaper. Don’t overload your Tumble Dryer.You will only end up spending more on Tumble Dryer repairs and it’s false economy.

In the next article. I will explain more ways to cut down on Dryer running costs and offer more advice on how to get the best from your Tumble Dryer.

The world will end 2012–that is according to the Mayan people what will happen in the year 2012. In the Mayan prophecy 2012 it is said that the Great Cycle ends and the world as we know it will stop being. A new age will begin.

The Great Cycle is composed of 25,625 years and is then further divided into 5 cycles that is composed of 5,125 years The world is nearing the end of the fifth and final cycle, according to the Mayan Long Count calendar.

The last day of the cycle and the end of the world is said to be December 21st 2012. The ending of a cycle and the beginning of a new age is something that is not quite understood by a lot of people and there is much debate as to whether this prophecy is believable or not.

There are so called Doomsday prophets which say that 21st december 2012 will indeed be the end of the world. They have said that a series of cataclysmic events will “cleanse” the world in order for the new age to begin.

The movie 2012 is one big supporter of the end of the world 2012 theory. However, Mayan experts have said that the coming of the new age is nothing more than a warning for the people to change their ways.

They have said that there is no hard evidence supporting any kind of doomsday scenario in any of the ancient Mayan text found.

The Mayan civilization, which had a highly developed culture, lived from the 6th to the 9th centuries A.D. in Central America

One thing that makes a lot of people nervous is that there are other prophecies like Nostradamus or the Bible that predict some form of apocalypse in the 21st century and several of them state that it is going to happen 2012..

Now that you know more about the Mayan calendar, 2012 and what the prophecy states and doesn’t, what do you think will happen in 2012?

No matter what you believe, whether you believe the 2012 prophecy to be true or false, what will really happen is yet to be seen.. Whether you believe that the Mayan calendar 2012 points to a real global disaster or not, it would be best if you will keep yourself informed.

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