The smoke in the air from the forest fires is still providing us with some spectacular sunsets. I took a couple of shots tonight with the sun going down over the mountains by West Vancouver, from my balcony in North Vancouver. Love the colours.

And a wider (and a bit brighter shot). You can see Lions Gate Bridge as well.

The news was saying there are 277 wildfires burning in BC at the moment, and there is no sign of rain until at least Thursday of this week. So I imagine we will be seeing these colourful, gorgeous sunsets for a while yet. The moon shows a lovely redish orange cast as well. I will try and get a picture of it as well tonight.

Making electrical energy at home?!! You feel it funny!!!? It is real – you can make your own electricity at your home. The most efficacious energy source in this world is the solar energy. Solar energy is copiously obtainable and will be available for many years to come. Due to scarcity of conventional energy, everyone understood the need for a green energy source. You can very well employ solar panel to power 80% of heat and electricity demand of your house. This is the fact that many are getting benefit from homemade solar power systems since long. Also, this number is increasing a year by year in many folds.

It has become very difficult for everyone to live without electricity. Human being is completely dependent on power generating companies and power distribution grids. Many do not want to live in places where there is no power grid connected to their area to supply electricity. But the present technology has given you feasibility to live off the grid. You can generate your own energy to meet your household energy requirements using solar energy. You can easily convert sun energy into electrical energy using build solar panels at home.

You can compare the cost of professional solar panels and the panels which you built at your home. It is apparent that the cost of solar panels will be more affordable if you built them at your home by investing a very few dollars as establishment investment. You can power your home for many years without any maintenance charges.

You can get all the required components to build solar panels from near by stores or through net. You can go through instruction manuals and proper guide for assembling solar panels at your home. You can live your life peacefully by using build solar panels at home and can avoid burden of paying more money for your utility bills.

Solar power is environmentally friendly. There are no byproducts or waste materials produced during the conversion of solar energy into electrical energy. Environment will be always clean and neat. You can give a clean environment to future generations. Moreover, maintenance cost of solar panels once installed is nil. You just need to have a simple daily physical verification and a single annual inspection will do more than sufficient. Installation of solar panel is very easy and you need not spend thousands of dollars on it. You can build solar panels at your home with minimum investment.

As we know electricity has become essential commodity to drive this world forward. The growing demand for energy is increasing as the population is rising every year by year. Without energy it is very difficult for industrial development of any country. Presently our energy production is mainly from coal, hydro and gas. Now a day these energy producers are becoming rare on the earth and the situation is warning for searching alternative energy resources. Scientists have found a way towards non-conventional energy sources like bio-gas, wind and solar energy. This article is mainly deals with solar energy.

The biggest achievement for mankind is conversion of sun light into useful energy form i.e., electricity. Sun light is abundant on earth and can be used as raw material for the production of electricity. Also you need not spend any dime for buying this raw material. More over unlike conventional energy sources, this solar energy will be long lasting in future for many years and your chief raw material is continuously available for without any additional cost. Now it is wise decision to utilize this free sun light energy to meet our daily energy requirements without depending on state electricity boards. But how can we achieve this and reduce the Nation’s worry for power demand. Yes, it is quite simple, you can produce electricity at your own place and glow your house using energy produced by you. You can build solar panels at home and conveniently utilize the power to your regular needs.

Solar panels are consisting of solar cells. The function of solar cells is simple. These are the photo voltaic cells that generate electricity when light energy is absorbed from a light source. The principle of photo electric effect is responsible for the generation of electricity. These entire cells are joined for charge transfer from one end to another. Depends up on the load requirement, you can install these solar panels for an individual house or for many houses in an apartment complex.

There are many advantages using solar panels. It is free and non-polluting and gives environmentally clean energy. It reduces dependency on oil, water and coal as these reserves are fast depleting. The basic raw material required for production of electricity using solar panels is abundantly available. Finally solar panel operation and maintenance costs are very less.

The only major disadvantage is that it is completely dependent on sun energy and if whether becomes cloudy, rainy and dim light conditions, it becomes very less intensive in the production of electricity. Of late lot of research has been done to off-set the dis-advantages of solar power for use in nights and monsoon conditions is to use dry-cell batteries, storing in the form of heat etc. You also can lit-up your house entirely by solar power by using build solar panels at home.

A glacier, known as the Trotting Glacier, melts more water in a day than NY City uses in a year and has receded 9 miles in 5 years. Proof can be found in the ice core records that provide CO2 and temperature levels as long ago as 650,000 years. Each fume from a smoke stack and combustion engine output contributes to the seventy million tons of CO2 that people release into the air every day. Reducing our CO2 levels is the only option for lowering the effect of releasing CO2 into our atmosphere.

About one third of a family’s energy budget is used for heating water for normal use.

The utility companies supply the gas or electricity to heat the water for baths, showers, washing clothing, and many other things. But the resources utilized in providing electricity and gas are non-renewable, and as more natural resources are consumed they are increasingly more difficult to find. This makes it hard for the typical household client with electric and water bills that keep on increasing at very high figures. As carbon-based fuels become more rare and difficult to extract, utility bills will continue to increase. For almost one hundred years, a solar panel has been used to heat water.

Solar electricity water heating is presumably the simplest application of solar energy that we have today. It is just a method of using the thermal rays from the sun and putting them in the water.

The solar panel is called the flat plate collector and batch collector systems. Flat plate collectors are just a chain of pipes that are positioned in an area of the house where they have access to direct daylight (often a southern exposure on the roof). Water is pushed through the pipes and heated by the warmth of the sun, which is different from the chain of chemical reaction. The pipes are constructed so that they can absorb most of the sun's heat.

A solar panel batch collector system is a water tank which has been modified to obtain the most from the sun's energy. Surfaces of black that absorb thermal energy are included. Close to the home, and in an area that receives a lot of direct sunlight, is where the tank is located. It is possible for the water obtained from either of these systems to be utilized in the house's regular plumbing system, for showers, dishwashing, cooking and watering the garden. Buying and installing each system will cost a lot of money but the upkeep cost is low and the system will last anywhere from ten to twenty-five years.

It could take 5 to 7 years for you to recoup your money on purchase and installation, depending upon the amount of hot water you use and how effective your house is in storing hot water. You would also be doing your part in the reduction of the amount of greenhouse gases sent into the atmosphere. Just to mention a few of the advantages and disadvantages of solar power.

Everybody knows that this coming summer would be a great time to spend a vacation, right? But you have changed your mind about going with your friends to a summer vacation like going swimming or camping out in the woods. So, what you are looking forward is to make your idle time productive. How about making your own DIY solar water heater? Bear in mind that winter is just right around the corner and it is the next in line with autumn and summer, right? Your family will certainly need all the hot water for that season and heating up water using electricity is a waste of money so, why not build your own solar water heater and heat all the water you want?