Starting a Worm Farm

Would you like to cut the amount of trash you send to the landfill by 50%? I did by starting a worm farm!

What is a Worm Farm?

Worm farming or vermi-composting uses worms to convert kitchen scraps; newspapers and junk mail into potent fertilizer. Since I started my vermicomposting I have reduced the amount of trash going to the landfill by 50%.

How Do I Get Started?

Starting a worm bin is easy. You can purchase a bin system or build your own. I ordered my worm bin and worms from WormCrusader.com where you will find many resources to help get you started. They even have videos that walk you through all aspects of worm farming.

Through research I discovered there are many different kinds of worms. Red wigglers are recommended widely for vermicomposting because of their voracious appetite. I placed my order for a Worm Factory 360 and 1 pound of worms. The Worm Factory 360 is a square shaped set of 5 stacking tray bins.

The bottoms of the trays are mesh so that the worms can move from bin to bin. The tray bins stack on a pedestal with a built in collection tray for the wonderful byproduct worm tea.

I set up the bin per the very detailed instructions using moistened shredded newspaper and coir brick, coffee grounds, crushed eggshells and veggie scraps.

Worms work best when the temperature is between 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit so I keep mine in the garage during the coldest and hottest months and in an attached enclosure the rest of the year.

Once my worms arrived in the mail all I had to do was add them to the prepared bin. Within days I began to notice them turning the contents of the bin into fertilizer! I keep several bins going at once and feed the worms once or twice a week.

What Do They Eat?

Worms like all kinds of paper products including magazines, cardboard, dryer lint, vacuum dust, coffee filters, cardboard egg cartons and junk mail. They also like fruit and baker’s yeast and veggies and limited amounts of breads or cereals. Worms do not like garlic, onion and citrus. These foods can harm your worms so it is important to keep these foods out of your kitchen scraps. Aim for a 50/50 mix of kitchen scraps and fiber materials.

At first you will have to get used to maintaining the right moisture level. Too wet and you can have smelly bin which is not a good sign. But you also do not want a bin that is too dry. Moisture is introduced with your kitchen scraps so it really depends on the types of foods and how moist they are as to how much extra water you might have to add. You get the hang of it pretty quick.

Here is a nearly finished bin!

When Not To Convert Your Engine To A Water Hybrid

Water is one of our world’s most powerful resources. It can help nourish a country or it can destroy it. Most people also don’t know that its’ power also can be harnessed to help improve a vehicle’s gas mileage and also to help create a more healthy environment because it emits less dangerous fumes.  While the technology of using water to help power vehicles has been around for nearly 100 years, it hasn’t been used very much at all.  This is because, until very recently and for a time in the 1980s, gasoline fuel was never too expensive, and so individuals who used water as fuel were looked at as weird because it wasn’t a necessity at the time.

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Great Information and Right on Time!

A fellow greenie has just launched his new ebook packed of valuable information on getting started with solar and several other energy saving avenues.  The best part about his information is that it shows you how to do it yourself.

All of the materials needed to start your own solar system, including solar cells and battery system are explained in great detail down to where to pick them up for cheap (or even free!).  He has also spent the time to explain in very easy to understand terms what you get from his package so I am going to lead you straight to it without repeating his thunder…

Read more about Earth 4 Energy

Is It Possible to Use Water As Fuel?

With gas prices being so expensive, individuals are looking for ways to decrease the amount of money that they have to pay at the pump.  Many people are taking heed to the popular gas saving tips that are often touted as being able to help individuals save money. They include consolidating trips, driving slower and minimizing stop and go traffic. 

While these tips do provide a measure of benefit, it’s really pretty minimal, and you will still find yourself having to spend a great deal of money every time you have to re-fuel your car, truck or SUV. Because of this, some people are looking for more significant measures to save money.

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Solar Water Heating

One of the easiest installs to perform to get an immediate cost savings is solar water heating. It also happens to be one of the simplest things to change out when migrating to a green home.

Most people think of solar power in terms of large, dark blue panels supplying electricity to a home or business. While this is a very popular application there are other ways to harness the energy of the sun. Solar heating is one, and its roots actually go back much further back than the use of photovoltaic arrays. The use of direct sunlight for heating water dates back thousands of years to ancient Greece where crude mirrors and lenses were used to harness the sun’s energy for heating water.

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Water and Gas to Increase Mileage?

We have read a lot of things in our time, but water and gas to increase your cars gas mileage?  It appears to be true.

I wouldn’t call myself a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to my car, but there seems to nothing to trivial here.  There are a multitude of books about this very topic as a possible new hybrid.  Car manufacturers are indeed looking into this and many auto enthusiasts are pushing the envelope themselves.

We came across this book, Water4Gas System, that definitely peeks one’s interest.  With parts totally less than $200, it appears a automotive handyman can tweak his ride to contain cells that utilize hydrogen, oxygen and Acetone to create additional combustion.  This in turn assists in the overall gas consumption as is the model for all hybrid cars.

If anyone has indeed implemented this system or one like it, please feel free to comment as we would love to hear how it turned out or if you blew up your car and need a ride to work!

Solar Power History

Human use of the sun’s energy may seem like a recent phenomenon but solar energy has been in use in various forms for thousands of years. The sun is necessary to the growth of the plants that we eat and there are also more technological uses of the sun’s energy that go back millennia.

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The Tools You Need to Go Solar

To implement solar heating and power for your home requires a number of relatively expensive items; which over the long run can be cost effective. Changing to effective solar systems requires the right technology and some planning. First, you need to estimate how much electricity you require to run your home. If all you want to do is supplement your power needs; that is fine just calculate the percentage you want to offset.

The cost should be offset against what you would pay for electricity from the power company over the lifetime of the system..

A glance at your electricity bill will make the task easier as most utility bills will show a chart of month by month usage throughout the year. You can average the total, or use the peak demand. If you plan to go ‘off grid’ i.e. stop using power from the utility company completely, then you need to focus on the peak. Those numbers will allow you to estimate how many and what size PV modules you need. PV is short for photovoltaic, the method almost all solar cells use to convert sunlight into electricity. Matching the area of your south-facing rooftop section to the number and size of modules needed is a matter of simple arithmetic.

Each module will generate a certain amount of power at a given cost, when connected the right way the modules add up, so finding the total output (and cost) is equally easy. For a modest-sized home, the cost of panels is about $10,000-$16,000 at current prices. But bear in mind when you are planning the expense that there are tax rebates and other programs that will help you offset the amount invested.

..uncontrollable factors reduce the amount of sunlight available this means that almost anyone going ‘off grid’ will want a battery storage system.

Modules alone will not do it, they have to connect to something. The connectors, clamps, wires and other components add to the total. These vary considerably and you will also need to add something for installation costs as most homeowners don’t have the skill to build the system themselves.

The sun doesn’t shine all day every day it is dark at night and rain and heavy cloud cover will reduce the amount of insulation, as it’s called. Other uncontrollable factors reduce the amount of sunlight available this means that almost anyone going ‘off grid’ will want a battery storage system. Those not taking the complete plunge can draw power from the local utility company during those times.

If your system generates more than you need at any given time, some utility companies will enter into an agreement to buy any excess you put into their system. This is usually done technically by running your meter backwards when you’re supplying the utility company – normally it runs forward as you draw power from their system.

The company will insist on inspecting your system before finalizing any agreement and most municipalities will require that you have your system inspected and approved even if you go entirely off grid. They need to ensure that it’s implemented to a standard that is safe for local lineman. During power outages they have to assume there is no power running through the lines – your system has to be installed in a way that guarantees that.

Between panels, batteries, installation costs and other expenses most modest-sized solar panel systems will cost around $32,000-$50,000 – some less, some more. The cost should be offset against what you would pay for electricity from the power company over the lifetime of the system, usually about 20 years without substantial replacements.

Costs are falling and efficiency is improving as time goes on while the price of electricity continues to rise. In the near future it may well be worth your while to have a solar powered electrical system for your home.

Solar Technology and Cost – An Overview

Solar power technology has been around in some form or another for thousands of years and even many so called modern solar devices and designs are now decades old. Yet, they have not fulfilled the promise that many hope due to their high cost and lower efficiency.

There are approximately 1,000 watts per square meter of sunlight power falling on the surface of the Earth (at the equator) but only a small portion can get converted into usable electricity. Part of the problem is the result of internal losses of all the photons that hit a solar panel, only some will knock loose an electron – and not all of these will travel down the module and into the device before being recaptured.

The latter effect is due to something called carrier lifetime. The longer the electrons wander around loose, the more likely they are to flow out of the module and down the wires to an outlet. Most modules can only achieve around 10-15% efficiency, although several companies have raised the efficiency of their devices to as much as 20% by extending that carrier lifetime.

Solar thermal devices, on the other hand, use sunlight-heated salt water panels to generate steam that can be turned into electricity. The efficiency is often as high as 30% but such devices are high risk and expensive – the high temperature and pressure of the water means that if it escapes it can do considerable damage. Efficiency considerations aside costs remain relatively high and most types of solar panel remain fairly expensive. A 30-watt module costs around $250, while a 195-watt panel will run to almost $1000. To install a solar panel power system for even a modest home will cost somewhere around $10,000-$16,000 for the panels add to these batteries and other components and the cost rises from around twenty to thirty thousand dollars.

Fortunately manufacturers have begun to respond to the rising costs of gas and oil. As the market matures for solar technology, research dollars have been directed at finding new ways of increasing efficiency and lowering costs. Even with the relatively high price of large application panels and accounting for inflation, the cost of this technology is still much lower than it used to be.

The cost of PV (photovoltaic) cells has fallen by about 15% per year for the past 10 years. The fact that these cells can last 20 years, householders can have clean power while recouping the initial investment. Improvements continue to be made and a major European chip maker, ST Microelectronics, now has prototype solar cells that are expected to be considerably cheaper than today’s panels.

Organic compound solar panels are now found in applications such as computer keyboards and monitors. These flexible plastics mean that a computer can be folded or rolled like a magazine – although these are still expensive, the costs are coming down as the technology matures. A French-Italian company estimates that it will soon be able to produce an organic cell soon that will produce electricity at around 20 cents per watt, compared with around $4-$8 per watt for ordinary solar power.

Solar powered water heating also has variable costs. In the 1920s some municipalities used large storage tanks for storing and solar heating water that was then supplied to homes. However, when the price of electricity and oil came down these were no longer cost-effective. However these methods may well become competitive again if current research pays off. If the price of oil and electricity from gas and coal fired plants continues along the upward trend of the last ten years just a small improvement could make new applications more economically viable.

Geothermal Energy for the Home

As with many renewable energies for the home, the cost can be a major setback to taking the leap toward green.  Geothermal isn’t really an exception, although some of the additional benefits can make it the easiest first step for your home.

Geothermal heating and cooling systems work by using the earth’s consistent temperature to provide a much more efficient system to keep your home cozy.  Besides the earth being heated from its core, approximately 50% of the sun’s heat is absorbed by the ground.  Making the earth a very sustainable, renewable energy resource.

There are a few different types of installations, but for most American homes, a closed vertical loop is the most common.

A vertical loop is the preferred method for homes with less than an acre of yard space.  It requires 2 (or sometimes more, but usually 2) holes to be drilled, on average 400 feet deep.  Some installations in specific areas can only require 100 feet, but up to 400 feet is common.  As you can imagine, the work and machinery required to coordinate can be a considerable cost component, usually ranging from $4000-$10000.

The way it works is this.  The earth keep a fairly consistent temperature beyond 6 feet under ground, usually around 55 degrees fahrenheit.  So rather than a traditional HVAC unit having to heat the outside, above ground air from 10 degrees on a cold winter night, it only has to heat it from 55 degrees.  Easily you can see how much less work your system would have to work to heat your home to a cozy 72 degrees.

Equally, cooling your home from a steamy 100 degree day, only having to push the cooler air from within your geothermal system into your home and circulate the hotter inside air out, the system can utilize about 1 energy unit that a traditional system would have used 5 to perform the same function.

This ultimately results in less electric or gas usage as well as providing a cleaner air into your home.  Without having to force the outside air through, and only recirculating the already contained air, a more pollutant free environment exists.  A second perk that doesnt allow for a equal comparison to traditional systems.

Also, if you opt for a water heater hook-in, any excess heat generated from the geothermal units will be shofted to your hot water heater so it also has to work much less.  During the summer months, when the system is cooling and has no use for the hot air generated from the system itself, shifting this to the hot water heater has shown to alleviate almost all of the electricity needed to heat the water.  This gives you plenty of hot water for free during these months.  Depending on where you live, it can be a good portion of the entire year.

Keep in mind that there are similar components to the system with one big exception, no outside units spinning fans and weathering the outside rain, snow and heat.  All of the components are either within your home or in the case of the loops, within the ground.  This extends the life of the system considerably, many quoting 20-50 years (20-25 for the inside components and 50 for the ground loops).  Yet another perk for low maintanence and better longevity of your system.

So how much does it cost?

Obviously it can very, and having not yet had one installed in my own home I do not have an exact price.  However, I have recently been given a quote for $40,000-$60,000 for a complete system with all of the bells and whistles for a 3500 sq foot home.  They also stated that it would most likely be at the $40,000 range but when drilling 400 feet into the earth you sometimes don’t know what you are going to bump into.

Considering the low maintanence, no outside units to contend with, less pollutants, energy savings and overall great feeling to have tapped into this renewable energy resource, it is a very strong possibility this homeowner will be making the switch.

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