Showing posts with label Home Energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Energy. Show all posts

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Energy Bars Taken at Home: Will They Work?

Energy Bars Taken at Home: Will They Work?

What makes your body endure the day-to-day activities you engage in? Don’t you feel pressured at all combining all the responsibilities that you need to fulfill? The body is like a machine. When a machine is not fueled, its tendency is to be subject to breakdown. The same case goes with the human body. Without the energy that is supplemented by the food that is taken in, the human body will also become very susceptible to weakness and worst, illness. The role of energy bars cannot at all be bypassed. Apart from the food that is eaten on a regular basis, these energy bars provide more power and endurance for the body.

These days, several varieties of energy bars come in the form of different brands. They are sold everywhere. The protein bars are among the mostly bought energy bars. They have thus ranked as the most well-liked meal snack for most active individuals so that they will earn enough calories to keep going through the day. There are chiefly two kinds of energy bars sold in the market these days. The first is the energy bar that includes protein, fat, and carbohydrates rolled into one. There is also the one which only contain little carbohydrates but plenty of fat and protein. Most active people prefer taking the energy bar that includes the balanced mixture of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. The energy bars that contain little carbohydrate and mostly of fat and protein only are mostly sought-after by individuals who tend to lose weight and are strictly following a diet with low carbohydrate intake.

More so, what are the advantages and disadvantages of these energy bars when taken at home? How can they be fitted into the regular diet scheme so as to arrive at a healthy diet practice?

The Advantages of the Energy Bars Taken at Home

Above all, the energy bars when taken at home or outside the borders of the home prove to be very convenient. Some people prefer to take these energy bars as a major replacement for their regular meals because there is no need to prepare them. Talk about convenience! Look into the real score of energy bars—they are indeed small so they are handy. They can be fitted into the pocket or inside the bag as they will not be occupying too much space. Secondly, they can be taken in anywhere you are and whatever time of the day it is.

Moreover, the energy bars are filled with great amount of protein less the saturated fat and high cholesterol. Vitamins and minerals are also employed in these energy bars therefore making them a good option for a healthy choice of diet rather than any food bought from the fast food or any convenient store out there.

The Disadvantages that Come Along with the Energy Bars

They may be considered healthy meals but then there are still those drawbacks that come along with them. Scientific studies would disapprove of the belief that these energy bars replace a balanced diet. Balanced diet needs to be nutritious as they must be comprised of the grow, go, and glow foods. Although several of these energy bars are endowed with the vitamins and minerals which are commonly contained in the vegetables and fruits, they do not possess those bioflavonoids, phytochemicals, and the fiber found in the vegetables and fruits. Also, the energy bars include partially hydrogenated or fully hydrogenated palm oil therefore making them possess as much as 50% of fat content.

Some Vital Concerns to Bear in Mind

Energy bars may be convenient to take in and much better to eat than when you need to line up in fast food outlets. But you must never take it as a replacement for a balanced and nutritious meal. They do not contain exactly the same amount of health benefits reaped out from the fresh vegetables, fruits, and whole foods. If you cannot get rid of these energy bars though, you may simply have them as part of your daily healthy diet instead of making the energy bar a substitute for an entire meal. They are in no way bad for the body but they are better off as snack rather than a meal in itself.

When out for shopping for energy bars, look closely for the labels and get the energy bars that precisely contain low saturated fat and zero or little palm oil. If from time to time you prefer to skip complete meals and instead settle for these energy bars, get those that are filled with minerals and vitamins so as to keep the health benefits at least intact.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Brick Stone Home Energy Efficient

Brick Stone Home Energy Efficient

How Can Brick Stone Make Your Home Energy Efficient

A home that’s energy-efficient is actually healthier and cost effective. Energy efficiency modifications in your home can eliminate or at least lessen the poor quality of air that’s brought in by various weather conditions. One way to make your home energy efficient is to pay attention to the building materials and to the house design.

In Australia, bricks have long been recognized as commonly chosen building materials. In fact, nearly 90% of the built houses in the said place are constructed using bricks. Because of the campaign to decrease energy consumption in its entire forms, there are building regulations these days that require the newly built houses to be more energy efficient. Well there are some things you need to know in order to come up with an informed choice.

Think about the amount of energy that’s usually consumed in your home. Maybe, you’ll be surprised to find out that a large part of the home energy is used up in cooling and heating. Cooking and lighting, even when put together, comprise only a few percent. Hence, anything which can help lessen the cooling and heating bills of your home will be a good investment, right? But the question is, do you think it is possible to cut down cooling and heating energy consumption while keeping up a practical thermal comfort inside your home?  It is in this case that passive design comes into play.

Passive design handles the energy coming from the sun to improve the house’s cooling and heating in a natural way. There are actually four major principles in passive design. These are orientation, insulation and thermal mass.

·  Orientation. The huge glass portion in the north part allows the low winter sun in. And to block the high summer sun, simple shading like eaves is applied.

·  Ventilation.  When the crest of summer time has already passed, air is permitted to get in and go out of the house in order to make it cool in a natural manner. To optimize cross ventilation, the either side of the building or the house have generous openings with almost negligible internal obstructions.

·  Insulation. The insulation in the wall and ceiling serves as the obstacle to heat transportation. Insulation efficiency can be calculated by means of its R-value but it doesn’t present the whole issue. Various walls may have the same R-value but may not work the same.

·  Thermal Mass. Wall materials that are dense and heavy, like bricks, suck up heat and hamper its conveyance through the walls. Through these, temperature changes become moderate and the heat absorption during summer is significantly hampered. Compared to brick walls, the lightweight materials have very low thermal mass. And because of this thermal mass, brick walls turn out to be more capable of moderating home temperature even if they have similar R-values.

Now come to think of thermal mass and consider brick stone. The first two techniques in the passive design, which are orientation and ventilation, need to be set up into the house. And your home material preference has a major effect on the quantity of thermal mass in a house or a building. One of the simplest and most economical ways to put up thermal mass is through bricks. Those bricks that are made from clay contain very high thermal mass. They are available to make your home well ventilated, comfortable and more energy efficient.

There is a research proving the idea that Brick stone homes are energy efficient. The said research has revealed that a large part of the heat is bounced back to the outside environment via the brick’s exterior panel.  Another conclusion that came out is that in summertime, the temperature inside a home that’s constructed from bricks remained favorable and comfortable in spite of the changing temperature outside.

The US Department of Energy stated that thermal mass stores up heat by means of converting its temperature. It can be achieved by storing heat coming from a warm room or by means or transforming direct solar radiation into heat. And since brick stone has more thermal mass than other building lightweight materials, it is a very useful element that can be used up in making your home more energy efficient.

To sum up, brick is a very simple and inexpensive technique in putting up thermal mass in your next home. Therefore a brick stone home is more energy efficient than those that are made from other materials.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Backup Power Home Energy Generator and Sustainable

Backup Power Home Energy Generator and Sustainable

How Well Do You Know Your Generator?

Back up power is important not only in business establishments but also in homes. This is especially so if people are experiencing man-made or natural calamities and have no way of preventing power shortage.

During these unfortunate times, people need a source of energy to power up appliances or furniture that is important in running their household. Examples of these are heaters to warm the home in winter times, air conditioning for summer times and of course, oven and other cooking appliances for food support.

Generators are important because people have no way of determining how long the power will be down. If you want to make sure that your home will remain in a good and stable condition, you should have back up energy in order and ready to use at any time.

What are the two types of back up generators?

1. Portable generators.

This is the most economical generator that is capable of supplying back up energy. Portable generators are the most commonly used in homes or household. Appliances that needed power supply are plugged directly into this generator. This is done using wires and other cords that are applicable to the appliances.

Many of these type of generator already has advance features like the stop or start button which people can use to be able to save up on the energy they might be needing for some time.

Portable generators also have different types depending on the volt specification that you are using in your home. You will be able to choose from 120 up to 240 volts capability.

One of the widely used portable generators is the one that is gasoline-powered. People choose this type of generator because it costs less compared to the other type. There are even those that run on diesel or a combination of both.

One of the downside to this is that it cannot be used for longer time. People need to refill and refuel this generator often to be able to extend its power support. In addition, diesel powered generators are much more expensive. Although it is more efficient and with supplies that are easy to find, you may find it hard to start in cold seasons.

2. Permanent generators.

Permanent generators are programmed to be turned on automatically within the specified time after power loss. These generators are connected to the wiring system inside the house. This is why it will start on its own whether there is nobody present in the house during black out. It also has the capacity to shut down on its own once power is restored.

This type of generator is powered by natural gases. The kind of gas that you are using to power some of the appliances at your home can also be used to power this generator.

The choice of permanent generator will depend upon how the homeowners plan to use it. If you need to power up more than the required appliances, then you can opt for permanent generators that have more than 17,000 watts capability.

These types tend to be more expensive than portable generators. But with all its capacity, the initial money spent will be worth it once you see the kind of back up energy it will provide when you need it the most.

Are generators hazardous?

Portable generators are more hazardous than permanent generators. This is because they are making use of gasoline and diesel and is more capable of burning up when overheated.

This kind of generator is like your car. They tend to overheat when used extremely for a long period of time. This is why you need to check regularly and rest it for a while to prevent any damage to you, to the generator and the appliances that it is powering.

Poisoning is also another hazard caused by portable generators. Since it is running on gas, carbon monoxide is being released into the air. According to studies, many people die of carbon monoxide poisoning. One of the reasons for this is that they are not aware that they are inhaling carbon monoxide.

To prevent this from happening, the generator should be placed in locations where it is properly ventilated. Consider placing them outside your home where there are no chances of people to be suffocated from the carbon monoxide it gives off.

Consider these things when you are in the process of buying a back up power for your home. Together with the necessary power supply is the need to make sure that you will encounter no health problems when you are using them already.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Alternative Home Energy

Alternative Home Energy

Types of Alternative Home Energy

Home energy consumption is one of the main problems of people today. The fact is, we all need electricity to power our lives. We need the level of civilization that can be provided by electricity. However, most people think that the price they pay is just too much for the amount of electricity they get to consume.

In the true spirit of humanity, people did what they always do whenever there’s something that does not completely satisfy them about life: they innovated.

Alternative home energy has been on the roll ever since people have made designs efficient enough to make them feasible. People may think that alternative energy is just a recent development, but in fact, alternative home energy has been around even before electricity was discovered.

Consider these types of alternative home energy:

1) Wind energy – Nowadays, windmills are used in homes to run small generators. These generators produce and store electricity to be used in running small home appliances. However, windmills have been around for a long time. If you take a look at the word “windmill” you will realize that this type of alternative home energy device was used for a purpose other than producing electricity.

Yes, the windmill was indeed, used to mill grain. As you may well know, grinding grain my hand is very hard work. So in order to make life more convenient and the production of flour more efficient, windmills were used to turn the large grinders.

Seeing as how this was so effective, it was inevitable that the windmill evolve into the 21st century in order to be used as a power source.

2) Solar energy – Many people think of this type of alternative home energy as something that’s technologically advanced. In a sense, harnessing the power of the sun to produce electricity is. But this alternative home energy has already been in use for a long, long time.

Think about this word for a second: clothesline. Aha, you get it now, don’t you? Yes, we have been using solar energy to dry our clothes for God knows how long. Think about that spin dryer or hair dryer you have and think about how much electricity it uses to do a task that the sun has been able to do for years, albeit at a slower pace.

This alternative home energy is harnessed nowadays for a variety of tasks. Some use it to heat their homes, others use solar power to heat water, and other people use solar cells to power small appliances and save a little on that electricity bill. The efficiency by which we are now able to convert solar power into electricity is of such a degree that it is very possible to power a whole house! Now, isn’t that amazing?

3) Hydropower – This type of alternative home energy makes use of water currents in order to turn turbines to run generators. Once again, this is not really a new technology. Like windmills, waterwheels were often used to harness the power of a nearby river in order to grind grain into flour.

4) Biogas – This is another alternative home energy source. Biogas is produced naturally via the decomposition of different biological material. By using biogas instead of the common LPG, home owners can cut back on their heating bills.

As you can see, there are a lot of different types of alternative home energy. What you need to do is explore these options and discover which type is the best for you to use. You have also been informed as to how we have used these energy sources in the past and how they are being used today.

Unfortunately, some of the methods of harnessing these different alternative home energy types may yet seem impractical to the common homeowner. However, as technology continues to evolve, you can be sure that the use of alternative energy will be more efficient.

By using alternative home energy, you accomplish two things: you save on your expenses and you help create a better world. You see, alternative home energy sources do not produce any harmful effects to the environment. By using these sources, you harness relatively free energy. Some people may say that the devices used to harness these sources may be too expensive, but in the long run, you’ll end up saving so much more than you spend.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

2005 House Energy

2005 House Energy

Finding Information About 2005 House Energy Ll hr6 on the Internet

If you want to search for information about the 2005 house energy ll hr6, you might as well look in the internet.

Because of the level of technology we have today, the internet can provide you with practically every type of information you need, including data on the 2005 house energy ll hr6.

 By looking on the internet, you not only get the appropriate information you need about the 2005 house energy ll hr6 bill, you also get to access people’s thoughts about the piece of legislation. In order to become more effective in using the information, you might need to know about what people think. This would give you a general idea of whether the bill is actually the best thing for energy, or is it just another piece of propaganda designed to make the government popular with the people.

This bill addresses different issues regarding energy. It is said to be the most comprehensive piece of legislation addressing the energy issue in a long, long time.

The committee in charge of the 2005 house energy ll hr6 says that the bill addresses the following issues:

1) The rising prices of gasoline and the US dependency on foreign countries for oil. - The bill offers incentives in order to increase the domestic oil production. Hopefully, this is one step closer to energy independence. The bill also increases funding for energy efficiency research and encourages people to make use of hydrogen fuel cells.

2) The current state of electricity transmission. - The bill offers different incentives in order to promote the capability of energy transmission. This will help make blackouts a thing of the past. Other incentives are offered to improve the power grid and transmission lines.

3) Alternative energy – The bill promotes the development and use of clean and renewable sources of energy. This includes incentives for the development of clean coal, solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy, and biomass.

4) Energy efficiency – The bill addresses the issue of energy efficiency by setting new energy efficiency standards for federal buildings. The bill also addresses the issue of improving energy efficiency standards for household appliances.

5) Daylight Savings Time – The bill proposes to extend daylight savings time by four weeks. This, of course, would lower energy consumption. It has also been shown by a study that such a move would also lower crime rates.

6) Foreign competition – This bill also aims to deter unfair foreign competition that would put US energy at the hands of foreigners. This would involve closer inspections of any mergers of energy companies.

7) Natural gas – The bill makes way to boost the production of clean natural gas. This means that the bill actually gets rid of any bureaucratic hindrances that slow down the production of clean burning natural gas.

8) Electricity – The bill encourages the production of electricity by accelerating development of nuclear and hydropower production. This means that electric production will get a much-needed boost from the government sector.
All in all, the 2005 house energy ll hr6 is meant to bring energy legislation to a whole new level. In a nutshell, it intends to make laws that would benefit the country’s energy consumers. This piece of legislation has earned many different reactions from various sectors of the community.

Some people call the bill as brilliant and as a revolutionary step towards improving energy conditions in the country. Skeptics, however, feel that the bill is all hype and actually does very little to address environmental issues.

These people feel that the 2005 house energy ll hr6 bill may have some noble intentions behind it but the effort is too little to make any significant difference to the nation.

All in all, these small bits of information have hopefully let you gain a bit of insight as to the nature of the 2005 house energy ll hr6 bill. What you need to do is to take this insight and form it into an opinion. Let your voice be heard. For if anyone is going to feel the real effects of this bill, it’s going to be you.

So, there you go, all you need to do now is to stand up, and learn more. With your voice joining a million others, you can let this bill be something that improves your life.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Improving Your Home Energy Efficiency

Improving Your Home Energy Efficiency

Home Energy: Why is there a need to improve it?

The home is expected to provide us shelter. Indeed, the home functions as a shield against the rain, sun, snow, and wind. In fact, our homes are our solace so they must be comfortable and warm. They should become a place that we will all love to go home to and find solitude in. But apart from all these things, the basic must come at hand—the home should be entirely durable and sturdy. They say there is no place like home so we better make the best out of our own homes! These factors and requirements may be met if only all the elements comprising the home will work hand in hand. The inside and outside environments, the entirety of the building shell itself, the occupants, and the mechanical system must all together function as one united factors.

The building envelope is said to be the shell of the entire house that shields us from weather elements. The things that comprise it are the windows, doors, above-grade walls, the roof, the floor, and the basement walls. The building envelope must be capable of providing the structural support for all of the roofs and walls, shield the overall structure from complete deterioration, permit the flow of natural lighting in the interior, and must serve as the medium of getting in and out of the structure. Furthermore, the building envelope should mark a line between the indoor and outdoor environment plus the weather that exists outside of the structure.

For a satisfying stay in the home, there is a need for the home energy to work out just fine. Imagine your home to be very warm. For sure you will be unable to get a good sleep and complete rest. Most people are faced with tremendously high electrical bills. When you want nothing but comfort and convenience, you must invest on home appliances that will serve the purpose. Air conditioning units for one are very common to use. But then the excessive use of these equipment subjects the electric consumption to be soaring up high.

What will make you save your hard-earned money? Cutting back your expenses will be very practical in these hard times. You can very well start with the conservation of energy consumption. The times are too hard. The rate of unemployment is increasing. You must be thankful that you are part of the fortunate percentage of employed citizens of your country. But you must not abuse your resources. If there is a possible way of saving the money you’ve worked hard for, then, better do it. Do not let your earnings fly out of the door just like a piece of paper blown by the wind.

Employing into your system some kind of home energy saving ideas will prompt you to save tons of dollars in your very own pocket. Why pay for such a tremendous amount when in fact you can think of and apply some practical home energy-saving ideas and habits? Among the commonly practiced home energy saving ideas include the turning off of the lights and unplugging of the appliances when they are not in use, air-sealing tight the borders of the home, placing screens on the doors and windows so that proper ventilation will come in without the risk of inviting in the mosquitoes that may threaten the health of the family members, and of course by making use of the home energy saving devices that can be bought from several hardware and stores.

It helps a lot to make a checklist of these home energy saving tips so that you will be able to go over it as you get confronted with the problem of too much electrical consumption to be cut back. Your home energy is a very basic need. No one can exactly survive a day without making use of home energy. As much as its vitality for survival is concerned, so is the price that tags along with it.

Home energy saving tips are great ways of improving your home. You can always be comfortable and convenient without risking the money you’ve earned so hard. Saving for the rainy days will always be practical and will make you always ready for the security of your family and your own self. If there is a way to save on your home energy consumption, do it!