Category — Energy Efficient

Ceiling fans can help alleviate both the heat and the climbing energy bill. By circulating the air ceiling fans move warm air toward the ceiling and into attic vents while creating a “wind-chill” effect, which adds to the cooling sensation.

Air conditioners are not known to be very energy efficient. Even the most advanced units use more power than other appliances in most homes. Annually air conditioners use almost 20% of the kilowatt-hours produced in the United States. In other words, air conditioners alone in the United States are responsible for the consumption of 207,0692,000 tons of coal, 23,074,000 barrels of oil, and over 137,924,800,000 cubic feet of natural gas (based on 2006 national statistics). That staggering figure translates directly to an increased energy bill and money out of your pocket.

Most ceiling fans use the same amount of power as a 75-100 watt light bulb. For such a small power usage a fan can make a home or office feel 8-10F degrees cooler. According to Florida Power and Light, ceiling fans throughout a home can reduce energy bills by up to 40%.

While serving an energy saving function, fans can also accentuate the style and decor in your home or office. Ceiling fan innovation and style have come a long way.

What to look for when buying a Ceiling Fan:

At first glance it may be hard to see why one fan costs $50 and another costs $600. Part if it may have to do with style and appearance, but beyond that the quality of the higher priced fans are generally superior. Quality fans pay attention to blade angle, use higher quality internal components and are better engineered. Cheaper fans will probably function reasonably well at first, but they can quickly begin to generate noise, and wobble. Wobbling in a fan further speeds up the wear and tear on a fan.

Higher quality fans also move more air than a low quality fan of the same size. Ideal blade angle for a traditional ceiling fan is 12-16 degrees. Most cheap fans have a blade angle of 10 degrees or less. On the same size fan this small difference can make a difference of the cheaper fan moving 40% less air. In other words, a cheap fan with 10 degree blades designed to cool a room effectively cools a room roughly half as large.

Fan Sizes and Location:

Traditional fans should be hung in the center of a room. Fan blades should be 7-8 feet from the floor for optimum air circulation. Low profile fans, for lower ceilings, and lengthening stems, for higher ceilings are generally available with fans to ensure they are mounted at their ideal height.

Below a chart shows the approximate size fans should be based on room size

Room Size————————-Fan Size

64 square-feet or smaller———32-inch or smaller

100 square-feet or smaller——–34-inch or 36-inch

144 square-feet or smaller——–38-inch to 42-inch

225 square-feet——————-44-inch to 46-inch

400 square-feet——————-48-inch to 54-inch

485 square-feet——————-56-inch

600 square-feet——————-58-inch to 60-inch

Nontraditional Fans:

Directional fans, as the name implies, are stationary fans designed to cool a specific location or area. Some directional fans swivel to cool a greater area. Generally directional fans have stronger motors and sharper blade angles to move air more aggressively, but otherwise follow the same general quality guidelines as the traditional fans. Directional fans can be great to further cool a room that already has a traditional fan or on it’s own.

Rotational Fans are a hybrid of Traditional and Directional fans. The fan is ceiling mounted like a traditional fan, but in place of fan blades a horizontal stem is attached to directional fans on either end. These directional fans rotate around the ceiling mount and are adjustable to different angles as desired. It has been claimed that rotational fans move the air most effectively, however the movement of air is the objective and which fan is the right fan is a matter of personal choice.

Lastly, an often-overlooked benefit to ceiling fans is they also help with heating. Most fans have a switch that will change the direction of the blade rotation from pulling air from below toward the ceiling (usually clockwise rotation) to moving the warm air from the ceiling toward the rest of the room (usually counterclockwise direction). Generally the fan will be set to a slower setting to accomplish this without any “wind chill” effect, but it is a proven and undeniable benefit.

Changing out one traditional incandescent bulb for a compact fluorescent bulb will save a home or business approximately $30 in power over the course of the bulb’s life. This savings does not take into account that you would need to replace the iridescent bulb TEN TIMES before the CFL bulb burns out.

If everyone in America changed out just one Incandescent light bulb for an compact fluorescent bulb it would annually save over $600 million in power costs, reduce greenhouse emissions by the equivalent of 800,000 vehicle emissions and would lessen the amount of power currently used enough to light 3 million additional homes without adding any additional power plants, or even turning on any additional generators.

The average incandescent bulb lasts for 750-1000 hours. CFL bulbs last 7500-10,000 hours with some lasting upward of 20,000.

CFL bulbs produce much less heat than incandescent bulbs. As a result they use 25% of the power of incandescent bulbs to output the same amount of light. This is because a lot of the power used by and incandescent bulb is used up in heat generation while creating light.

CFL wattage————Equivalent

8-10——————-40 watt

11-17——————60 watt

18-22——————75 watt

23-28——————100 watt

34-42——————150 watt

CFL manufacturers also now print on the packaging what the incandescent equivalent is since it is commonly understood what amount of light an incandescent bulb will put out at a given wattage and CFL wattage is much lower.

CFL technology has been in widespread use since the early 1990s. The early bulbs produced a whiter and “colder” light than incandescent bulbs and produced less light output. The bulbs also cost upwards of $5-7 each. In the long run a cost savings would have been realized over the purchase of 10 incandescent bulbs, but it was hard for anyone to pay that much up front for an inferior bulb that might last 10 times as long.

Today compact fluorescent bulbs can match and exceed the quality of incandescent bulbs in every way and only cost roughly the same to double the price. In and independent double-blind lab test using a light-meter and 4 lighting and interior design experts the CFL bulbs actually produced a better and more appealing light.

CFL bulbs have also come a long way in form. At first CFL bulbs were only available in a long tube or coiled. This made it impossible to connect a shade onto the bulb as many older light fixtures do. This has also changed and CFL bulbs come in as many shapes and forms as traditional bulbs including standard form, flood light, globe and candelabra.
Additionally most manufacturers are guaranteeing the CFL bulbs for at least 5 years. Home Depot is even accepting burned out CFL bulbs with no receipt to be exchanged for a good bulb since Home Depot receipts only have and expected 2-year lifespan.

Opponents of CFL lighting have cited that CFL bulbs contain mercury as one of the major downsides and an environmental concern. CFL light bulbs do contain mercury. Most of them have 5 milligrams or less, and amount equal to the size to the tip of a pen. 100 CFL bulbs contain the same amount of mercury as a standard mercury thermometer. Such a small amount of mercury is not considered a significant environmental concern; however the EPA still recommends that CFL bulbs be recycled. If they can not be recycled because there is no glass recycling program in the area, it is then recommended that they be disposed of in a landfill type disposal and never incinerated.

When you consider that 1 CFL bulb will last as long as 10 incandescent bulbs and each CFL bulb produces the same amount of recycling material or garbage as 1 traditional bulb 5 milligrams of mercury seems a small consequence.

CFL bulbs are such a positive upgrade from incandescent bulbs that in 2007 a bill was proposed in California to ban the sale of incandescent bulbs in the entire state. The bill was not passed, but just the fact it was proposed shows how positive the change is.

On the horizon is Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology, which requires less than 10% the amount of power as incandescent lighting and last even longer than CFL, however those bulbs cost more than $75 at the moment and are not readily interchangeable with incandescent bulbs like CFL bulbs are.

So you are considering either by necessity or for whatever reason becoming power self reliant with home made electrical power. Let us look at some things you need to do so that you have a chance of getting something that will work for you.

1. Perform an energy audit

What is an energy audit? Put in a nutshell it is determining how much power you use and what specific items are using it. What you want to determine is how many watt hours or kilowatt hours per day are you using. The power bill if you have one can help. Purchasing an energy monitor can help to get some real data.

2. Rationalise your power use

How can you reduce your power usage? I don’t mean changing habits or lifestyle but looking at the efficiency of the appliances. Power systems that utilise battery power for home store the power DC. Did you know that with many items, particularly lighting and refrigeration that the DC equivalent items, although initially more expensive are much leaner and efficient than the normal AC versions. DC powered items also don’t have the extra overhead of the inverter that the AC equivalents. Eliminating dummy loads by turning off or unplugging the TV, DVD and VCR at the wall socket when not in use will also save power. You should also scrutinise items including the washing machine as to its efficiency and consider replacing it. Spending money to reduce your power usage may seen silly but can save you lots when building a home made electrical power system, particularly if you build your own solar power system.

3. Eliminate heating uses of electricity

Unless your budget is huge it is unlikely you will be able to cook, have hot water and heat your home with a home made electrical power system. Consider other forms of heating and cooking. Obviously the main alternatives items are those fuelled by bottled gas, natural gas and wood. Unless you do this even just the battery power for home that you will require will be VERY expensive.

4. Decide how you are going to provide the power

Now you have a good idea on how much power you really need how are you going to give yourself that power? Are you going to store the power in batteries? I suggest you do. If so how are you going to charge the batteries? The main alternatives would be evergreen solar power and windmill home power. Other things you may consider depending on suitability is home steam power generation and home hydro power. Another technology emerging is thermo-electric power (electricity directly from heat). Make sure you research any special requirements of each type of diy power generator and the initial costs as well as any ongoing cost and maintenance.

5. Design the system

This is where you look at the details of sizes of the individual components of the power system. The individual components can be grouped into three types: power charge sources, power storage, power users. Usually the power user components location and size is already set (you worked this out in the previous steps). So working out the size and location of your battery system, your number and size of solar panels, your windmill home power generator and what ever else you are going to give a try. Note I said size AND location, for windmill home power generators and home solar generator panels, location is everything.

Being power self-reliant with home made electrical power is very rewarding. Whether you build your own solar power system, use windmill home power, have home steam power generation, install home hydro power or a combination of any these, you will be satisfied with knowing you are in control of your own power destiny and energy footprint. By following the steps above the process of becoming self-reliant for power can become a more planned, less painful process.

Copyright 2008 Kevin Day. Please feel free to pass this article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or newsletter. It’s a shareware article.