Converting Your Car From Gas to Electricity

There's a lot of talk out there about electric cars. However, they are not yet readily available, they are expensive, and most people are not ready to take the leap anyway.

There is an alternative to buying a new electric car, for those willing to invest a little "sweat equity" into the project. You can actually convert a gasoline powered car to an electric car.

Your three major questions will be:

1. How hard is it?

2. How much will it cost?

3. Why would I want to do it at all?

Well, if we take question #3 first, the answer is probably going to be that you want to do something about the environment, cut down on noise pollution, and you want to stop supporting "big oil". Some might also say that they want to save money.

I think that brings us to question #2.

It can actually cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to convert a gas powered car to an electric one. It is hard to come up with an exact estimate because so many factors, including the year, make, and model of the car you are converting come into play. This will influence the size of the battery pack you will need. Local availibility of parts, and your personal skill and knowledge come into play.

That's probably question #1.

Even if you are a skilled mechanic, which will make some aspects of the process easy, ou probably have little or no experience building an electric car. You will need a kit, a mentor, or at least a set of instructions. There are many suck instructional manuals around. I cannot say that one is "better" than another, but I do know that there is one at www.electricity4gas.com which seems to be fairly comprehensive, and, at a cost of only $32.95, it's a cheap way to get the info you need to decide whether or not to pursue the project. The site owner also claims that you can convert a gas car to an electric one for about $300 using his manual.

If you are interested in possibly converting a gasoline powered car to an electric one, but have no idea how to get started, it's worth a visit to www.electricity4gas.com to at least get some basic information about the project.

Heating Water using Solar Power

Once you have decided to convert your main power source over to solar power you will need to make some adjustments to the appliances that carry the power source. Your water heater is one of these appliances.

When you opt for alternative energy and choose to use solar power to heat your water you may find that you have to purchase a solar powered water heater specifically designed to do that. You might be able to make adjustments to your existing one but whatever steps you take to turn it into a solar powered appliance, it will be worth it.

There are several ways you can choose to heat your water using solar power.

You can even make your own solar power source.

The water entering your home runs through pipes before it actually comes into the home.

Heating water using solar power will generally occur before the water gets into your home as it passes by or through the solar source that attracted the light. You may also haveto have a tank to store the water in that can then heat the water up. In order to heat your water successfully you will need to have both a solar collector and a storage tank.

A flat plate collector is the most common collector used.

It is designed as a thin, flat rectangular box that has a see through cover and it can carry some sort of fluid to be heated. This fluid could be the water itself or it may be a solution, such as antifreeze, that will prevent the water from freezing. In the next step, the water moves through the tubes to an absorber plate. This plate is surfaced with black paint to attract and absorb the heat from the sun. Once the collector gets hot, it will heat the fluid that passes through the tubes. As the water passes through the tubes it goes into the storage tank. The storage tank holds the heated water. It is usually pretty well insulated so the water will stay warm longer.

Then the water flows into the home on demand.

Solar water heating systems are divided into two groups: Active and passive.

When the heating systems are active, that means that they rely on the pumps or other mechanical device that can move the water between the flat plate collector and the storage tank. Active is the most common because it is quicker and more efficient as it uses a mechanical means to tranport the water. The passive system relies on gravity to feed the water from the flat plate collector to the storage tank. This may be slow at times and may not be sufficient enough to keep up with the demand.

Both ways are logical and are a choice or preference for you to make. Another thing that you need to consider is that if your flat plate collector and your storage tank is not angled right it may be hard for the gravity to feed the liquid through.

Heating water using solar power is a very affordable and relatively cheap "off the grid" option, and most systems can be installed with minimal effort and expense.

Choosing to heat your water using solar power is a wise choice and a first step in making a choice to help preserve our environment. We know how easy it is to use solar power to do a lot of things, including heating our water.

New Alternative Energy Jobs

Poland, one of Europe's most coal-dependent nations has decided to make a big move into the green revolution. They are tranitioning from coal to green energy and are on line to create 350,000 new green jobs related to alternative energy by 2020.

Even better news for the country at large is that the number of these new green jobs is nearly double that of those currently in the coal-mining industries.

Poland presently relies on coal powered energy for 94% of its energy needs. This move towards the use of alternative energy is intended to eliminate as much as possible of Poland's nearly total dependence on fossil fuels as part of the EU's climate package limiting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.