Installing A Solar Power Water Heater - Will You Save Money
by Adrian Fletcher Solar power water heater systems are a way to save money on your utility bills (heating water is usually one of the most costly uses of electricity or gas) so should you install a system or not. This article will ask if it makes sense economically for the home owner to install a solar water heating system. Solar power water heater systems are usually used in conjunction with the existing hot water system. They consist of a method of collecting thermal rays from the sun. They use a solar collector that can simply be a water container that has added features to absorb the sun’s heat or a length of tubing that also has sun absorbing features added to it. Water is circulated through the tank or tubing based on it’s temperature. As it passes through the tank or tubing it is heated up and is then passed to the regular boiler or plumbing system in the home. So the saving on energy bills comes when the boiler does not have to use as much electricity or gas to heat the water up to an adequate temperature for the home. But does this cost saving justify the hassle of putting in a solar water heating system and the associated cost ? To start with, you should look into your existing hot water system. Saving money is not only about looking at free sources of energy but making your use of energy as efficient as possible. You should consider installing the latest energy saving boiler and get proper lagging to insulate the tank. The boiler should be the right size for your hot water needs. An over sized boiler will cost more over time. Once

Prototype Solar Power-Assist for Buses
Sunpods Inc. is California-based manufacturing company. They produce modular, fully integrated and tested solar power generation systems. Recently they have come out with an idea of the first solar power-assist system for buses. They should be applauded for developing it in a mere six weeks. Their partner is Bauer Intelligent Transportation. The system developed [...]
Posted in: Public Transit, Solar Power, Transportation]]>
Google Plans New Solar Mirror Technology
Google’s Bill Weihl expresses his opinion, “We see a chance to make a difference in the field of renewable energy and energy information that can help bring the world to a lower carbon and more efficient economy.” Google is known for its Internet search engine. Now they want to make inroads into green technology [...]
Posted in: Ethanol]]>
Energy-Recycling Artificial Foot
It should come as no great surprise that walking with a prosthetic limb is difficult. According to a newly published paper on prosthesis, walking with a prosthetic foot requires 23 percent more energy than walking naturally. This is because a natural gait returns and recycles energy in an efficient way, but a prosthetic limb [...]
Posted in: Human Power, Inventions]]>
World?s Largest Solar Boat Prepares for World Tour
PlanetSolar enjoys the distinction of being the largest solar-powered boat in the world, and it’s ready to take on the world. This beauty?s vital stats are: weight: 60-ton, a 470-square-meter are covered by 38,000 solar cells to generate 103.4 kW of energy. 18 million euro ($24.4 million) was spent to adorn this beauty in [...]
Posted in: Solar Power, Transportation]]>
Nanotechnology Lights Up Batteries and Clothing
Yi Cui, an engineer at Stanford University, leads a team that may take nanotechnology to the next level by creating paper batteries and fabrics that can conduct energy. At a recent demonstration, Cui took pieces of fabric and regular paper and soaked them in an ink that contains nanoparticles. The infusion of these particles [...]
Posted in: Batteries, Future Energy, Inventions]]>
Norwegian Company Develops World?s Largest Wind Turbine
As fossil fuels continue to diminish and climate change poses an ever-increasing threat, scientists around the world are searching for new and more efficient methods of generating energy. Wind energy is one of the more promising alternative energy sources and Norwegian scientists are currently in the development stages of what promises to be [...]
Posted in: Industry, Wind Power, Wind Turbines]]>
New Solar-Powered Sensor Could Literally Change the World
Science continues to amaze and one of the latest discoveries may literally change the world as we know it. This tiny solar-powered sensor can fit on the face of a penny and barely cover up the date. How this little wonder, developed at the University of Michigan, is able to create the power of [...]
Posted in: Inventions, PhotoVoltaics, Solar Power]]>
Kia Crashes the Green Car Party with the Kia Hybrid Car
Remember when Kia first hit the market and other car manufacturers were laughing at them? Well, they haven?t been laughing in quite some time as Kia continues to put out attractive looking vehicles for far less money than anyone else. They have now unleashed their latest entry into the hybrid market at the new [...]
Posted in: Hybrid Cars, Industry, Transportation]]>
Honda Solar Hydrogen Station Introduced to Green Car Market
Honda finally unveiled their new solar hydrogen solar station and all signs point to a dramatic success. The station is smaller than previous models and enables an electric car owner to refill their fuel cell overnight. The unit should easily fit into a homeowners? garage taking up significantly less space than previous models. The [...]
Posted in: Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Fuel, Solar Power]]>
Waste to Energy Continues to Gain Steam
While new energy solutions are being discovered, refined and brought further and further into the public light, something that does not get a lot of headlines is waste to energy. How something like this continues to not be used in the United States is incredible as countries like Japan have been using it for [...]
Posted in: Biofuels, Industry, Waste Energy]]>
Germanium Laser is the Latest Light Technology to be Unveiled
The materials in lasers can be expensive and difficult to work with. A discovery at MIT may be changing all of that much sooner than we think as germanium laser technology is here and it is very real. The beauty of this latest technology is that there isn?t even a large call to change [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Inventions]]>
The Future is Now with Light-Powered Circuitry
The brain of any electronic device is the circuitry that operated the machine. Without the circuitry, the device is not even worth the cost of the plastic that it is made of. Any electronics device requires some kind of battery or it is nothing more than a paperweight. Recently, some new technology was created [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Inventions, Solar Power]]>
New Battery Technology Could Lead to Self-Powered Devices
The advancements that are being made in battery technology are pretty mind boggling. We are seeing devices that are drawing power from just about every source that is imaginable, and now there is battery technology from researchers at Imperial College London that may actually have devices that create their own power. From cell phones [...]
Posted in: Batteries, Future Energy, Inventions]]>
Forget Solar Power, Human Power is the Future
That may be a little aggressive, but Princeton University engineers have developed a device that may change the way that we power many of our smaller gadgets and devices. By using out natural body movement, they have created a small chip that will actually capture and harness that natural energy to create enough energy [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Human Power, Inventions]]>
Hybrid Just Got Sexy: BMW Hybrid Sports Car
We all know that sooner or later all automobiles are going to be either hybrid, electric or hydrogen powered. The one drawback that many of us look at is the overall appeal of the cars. Very few models that are being put out are really all that attractive. For those of us that like [...]
Posted in: Hybrid Cars, Industry, Transportation]]>
Battery Free is Possible with the Ene Pocket
Parents everywhere probably just sat up in their chairs reading that. Regardless of whether they are buying rechargeable batteries or getting Duracell batteries when they go on sale at Staples, batteries of any kind put a hurting on the wallet and to landfills. This is especially true around Christmas when toys demand that they [...]
Posted in: Batteries, Biofuels, Inventions]]>
A Rose Wind Turbine by Any Other Name?
The one knock on wind energy is that it is not portable. Until recently, there were few if any portable devices that were available to literally take wind power on the go. That is changing quick as there are several ?back-pack? style devices that are on the market. The Rose Wind Turbine is the [...]
Posted in: Inventions, Wind Power, Wind Turbines]]>
The East Coast is About to Become the Hydrogen Highway
Everyone is excited about hydrogen cars, but there is always the challenge of how they are going to fill up. Most cars are restricted by the distance that they can travel on a full tank and nothing more. Few places, especially on the East Coast, offer a refueling station to allow the cars to [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Hydrogen Fuel, Industry]]>
Aquamarine Power Makes Riding the Waves More Interesting
Every time we turn around we are seeing something new and exciting in renewable energy forms and Aquamarine Power is the latest in a long line of energy sources to be pumped up about. Aquamarine Power is a company that is developing wave energy. This is a source of energy that has barely been [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Industry, Wave Power]]>
Solar Cells from Tobacco Plants May Be a Reality Soon
As the world continues its quest to use less fossil fuels, the latest possible solution comes from the most unlikely of sources: the tobacco plant. This latest news comes from the University of California, Berkeley. It will be nice to see tobacco used for something other than lung cancer. This new discovery is based [...]
Posted in: Biofuels, PhotoVoltaics, Solar Power]]>

you have worked this out, there a 5 things to think about when it comes to the viability of a solar power water heater. These are : The annual amount of hot water used by your family - Take an average over a few months or record a whole year if you have the time. If you are taking an average remember that usage may increase in colder seasons and factor this into the total. When the hot water is used - You will get more benefit form the heated water at the peak of the sun’s thermal energy (midday) than at night, however you are more likely to use it at night. What the current heating system is and it’s compatibility with the solar system. How much the solar water system will cost - this depends on the size of the system which depends on your usage of hot water. With this said, the future should see solar systems drop in price as people become more interested in then. The cost of the energy that your current hot water system uses - this will undoubtedly rise in the future as most of these fuels are finite. The price to find, extract and transport the raw materials will increase and this will be past onto the consumer. So it seems clear that in the future it will make sense to get a solar water system but it cannot really be quantified. But what about the here and now ? when you investigate possible systems you will be given indications of the saving you can make. You can factor this into the predicted annual usage of your home and get a figure on how much savings can be made. Again it is not rigorous but it will give you an idea.