Smart Energy Tips

It has become a very common reality for the majority of household owners to spend huge amounts of money on monthly utilities. Most of the time, the most expensive things we all have to pay for are related to heating and cooling the house, but, however, the use of home appliances can also make a difference in the overall cost of living for a common family.

In order to prevent spending unnecessary amounts of money, for a quality of life that we can obtain cheaper, it is always good to keep in mind a series of simple energy saving techniques, which eventually are going to make a consistent difference in the overall utility cost. These techniques or tips can be easily put into practice and moreover, they can be adapted to the necessities of each household, in order to maximize the percentage of energy saved.

Thus, the living room, for example, can be heated during the warm season by simply keeping the shades on the south-facing windows open during the day and closed during the night, instead of using artificial form of heating. In addition, to avoid undesired chilling of the room, make sure the fireplace damper is closed, when the fire is not burning. Moreover, if you never use your fireplace, it is recommended to plug and seal the chimney flue.

As far as the kitchen energy tips go, it is advisable to keep the preheating time of the oven to a minimum and try to open the oven door as few times as possible, because you actually loose heat with every single opening. When cooking, make sure you cover the pots and pans with lids, so that you keep the temperature high and reduce cooking time.

Thinking about minor details, such as switching off the light when you go out of a room and saving water when you brush your teeth, will eventually result into an important difference, as far as the amount of money you have to spend on your utilities bills.

The Pros and Cons In The Work Of A Cultivator

A cultivator is a person who is involved in the cultivation and supervision of a land, whether he may own the land or not.

They play a vital role to the development of agriculture all throughout the world. Since agriculture is one of the most important of all existing industries, these cultivators provide the world with the most basic necessity which is food.

If these all of the world's cultivators decided to stop plowing their crop, majority of the world's population would be stuck of panic and a world-wide hunger would occur. In the end, their country and the world depends mostly upon their services.

There are many benefits and disadvantages on working as a cultivator.

Since the beginning of time, the cultivator does their own tilling of the soil, planting and after a while, harvesting of the crops.

Many of the traditional cultivators still use this process. But, because of recent scientific discoveries on agriculture, studies on soil, high-tech machinery, and modern fertilizers, the cultivators' job becomes more stress-free.

Because of these up to date discoveries, further learning on machineries and knowledge on their soil and fertilizers should be taken into consideration for all cultivators. They have to know how to take care of the machines to be able to go to work instantly.

The efforts of a cultivator may be very disappointing when the forces of nature are beyond the cultivators' control. Because agriculture depends on the weather conditions, extreme rain, sunshine, or frost may cause the entire crops of the farmer to get ruined. The total year-round work wasted with a few days of weather calamity.

Other factors like plant diseases and insect pests are another factor for the downfall of a cultivators' work. These factors could be dealt with the advice of experts from the government which updates these cultivators on what to do.

For the cultivator to start his own farm, a considerable amount of money is needed for the business capital. Not anybody could afford buying a large area to be planted on, so the farmers resort to taking care of other landlord's farm.

Plus, the market of the products is unstable depending on the location of your farm. If the transportation costs exceed the returns he gets from his harvest, the work is not worth it.

A farmer is independent in his work. The cultivators' boss is his own. He has the control of his daily routine, whether he prefers heavy or light work for the day. He will decide the modernization of his own land if it needs innovations.

He could try anything he likes on his farm. If he has studied on a modern variety of tomatoes, he could experiment on his own and grab success or fall on his own mistake. His farm is always a work on progress.

The best advantage of all cultivators is his work cannot be studied on books and research alone. The more experience one farmer has on the field, the knowledgeable he becomes on the end product of his crop.

But, it wouldn't harm the farmer to study about new technologies that could help raise his profession into a new level. This would make his job a lot easier and a better opportunity for market.

Many professions and trades are available in the competitive working force. But one trade stands out, which is agriculture, because nothing can replace food than food itself. The cultivator, who produces the world's food, is a worker whom the world couldn't manage without.

Author Resource:- James Monahan is the owner and Senior Editor of
CultivatorBase.com and writes expert
articles about cultivator.

Here Comes The Sun!

By : India Cooper
Life is easy. On chilly days we turn up the heating, boil the kettle and settle in front of the TV, feeling nice and cosy. But at the back of our minds we all know that our children and grandchildren may end up paying the price for our comforts. We need to start implementing alternative sources of energy in our homes, and we need to start now.

For the last 100 years or so we have been relying on fossil fuels to power our lifestyles, but this is now recognised as damaging to the environment and anyway, resources are limited. If we want to carry on enjoying our creature comforts then renewable energy is the way to do it.

Renewable energy is continually replenished by nature. Sources such as the sun, wind, water and thermal (underground) heat are harnessed rather than used up. The sun's energy can be converted using solar panels that can be placed on buildings or on posts, facing the sun.

The good news is they can be retro fitted onto the existing roof. If the roof is very old it may be worth hiring a structural engineer to confirm the load bearing capacity of your roof. Next find out how much electricity you use (your current electricity supplier will be able to let you know) and then decide what percentage of this you want your solar energy to replace. This will be a balancing trick. The price of solar panels will depend not only on efficiency but also on their capacity - also find out whether you can get any financial help from the Government or your local authority. This may depend on the system you choose.

Of course, once you know how much electricity you are currently using you can also look at ways of cutting that figure. Improving insulation in the roof and around windows and doors is always worthwhile and simply cutting down on energy use by switching off lights and half filling kettles all do their bit to cut your energy consumption.

In countries such as the UK where sunshine can be limited, it's a good idea to get a system that includes a battery. The battery will store electricity in times of increased sunlight, so that you have a supply on cloudy and short winter days and of course in the evening. A battery is of course vital if you're aiming for 100% solar power. But here's another balancing trick you'll need to consider - solar batteries are lead-acid batteries and their manufacture and use isn't particularly environmentally friendly. However it may be better than using fossil fuel generated electricity from the national grid...

Positioning your solar panel will be crucial for maximising the electricity it generates. Solar panels only work if the sun is shining directly on them. So you will need to work out the best spot on your roof - clearly south or south west facing is a good start. Also if you live in an urban area or in a low level house make sure you don't pick a spot on the roof that is shaded by trees or other buildings.

One of the major advantages of a solar power system is that it's made up of interconnecting components and is modular. So components can be added as your needs grow. Typical components are the solar panel, which converts sunlight into electric energy; the battery which can store electricity for later use; a charge controller which ensures the batteries are recharged by the solar panel and also prevents overcharging; and an inverter converts DC power from the solar panel into AC power which is needed by most household appliances.

Beyond these basic components you could fit a motor so that the solar panel can move and track the sun as it moves across the sky. You could also have a meter - this is essential if you are selling excess energy on to the national grid.

As you are installing an electrical system it's essential to get an electrician who is an expert in the field to do the work. This is not a DIY job! But once installed, you should quickly start reaping the rewards and paying back the cost of the hardware and installation. Best of all, you can free yourself from those monthly energy bills and guilt trips about the planet's future.

Author Resource:- Expert electrician India Cooper advises the public to seek the assistance of a professinal electrician when harnassing the power of solar energy. To find out more please visit http://www.ratedpeople.com/find/electrician

Global Warming - Does Global Warming Lead To A High Death Rate

By : Chris Marshall
Global Warming is one of the things people search a lot for on the Internet. People often search for articles with questions like does global warming lead to a high death rate and whilst there is information around a lot of it will not be useful if you do not word your search well. It is also important to remember that the Internet is full of websites written with agenda and that the information on some websites may not be factual or correct, this is especially important in the case of websites about Global Warming.

Climate change can affect everything and it could eventually affect the death rate of our population if things do continue to get worse over the next few years. Climate change will affect everything and that includes global warming affecting ocean life. The truth about climate change is that no matter how people deny or ignore it the Worlds temperature is increasing and with that rise the sea levels in the world are rising so the global warming affecting ocean life will happen and make things different in the World.

If you are wanting to know about the human causes global warming then there is not only plenty of information available online but also plenty that you can do to help prevent global warming from getting worse.

People often want to know about the effects of global warming in Singapore and the places like this that are at major risk and there are websites on the Internet that can offer you accurate advice about what exactly climate change will do and what areas will be most affect by Global Warming.

One of the biggest worries about the planet is that global warming can't be reversed and it will eventually destroy our planet if we do not take action against the rising temperature and the problems that it will cause for future generations. If you do ignore the problems then they may go away for you but will not in the long term and we are all accountable and could do more to ensure that our planet is save for many years to come. If you are interested then there are plenty of things you can do and you can start to make a difference straight away even with little things like turning appliances off and making sure that you wash clothes on a lower temperature. They may seem trivial things but if everybody in the world starts to do them then it will start to make a big difference.

Author Resource:- Global Warming Website explores the issue of climate change and the environment so that you can find out more information about the effect you have on the environment and the effect it has on your life. For more information please visit http://www.globalwarmingwebsite.com

The Greatest Product Design Of All Time

By : Catherine Harvey
When it comes to product design, there can be little doubt that plastic is the one time biggest invention that has helped make billions of items affordable and readily available to everybody.

Plastic, coming from the Greek word Plastikos meaning to mould or shape, is the product design of Alexander Parkes and was first publicly demonstrated at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London. This is an organic material made from cellulose that can be heated and moulded to any shape, retaining this new shape on cooling.

The invention of plastic has opened the doors to a myriad of new product designs that otherwise would either not have been possible, or at best would have still been invented but at vastly inflated prices as to those that plastic brings about.

Plastic has increasingly been used in product design throughout the years with varying popularity. Warehouses were full to the rafters with plastic furniture in the sixties but some people saw the products as 'cheap' as in cheap quality as well as cheap prices. And this was looked down upon for a time.

But that is the whole beauty of this product design. It is cheap. It is flexible, mouldable, resilient and very strong. It means that anything from furniture to food and drink containers, from toys to paints, from cameras and phones to radios - all have plastic elements.

Plastic can be coloured in whatever way you want it to stand out or blend in, to look natural or completely manufactured.

The invention of plastic itself has opened doors to product design in every single area of life. And this itself brings about another problem. Plastic does not simply rot away. It can give off toxic fumes if burnt and will overwhelm landfill sites the world over.

However, there really is no reason to be throwing plastic items away in landfill sites as it can all be recycled. The problem arises in trying to encourage people to do the right thinking when plastic products are finished with. Water bottles are one derivative of plastic product design and with today's emphasis on health and well being many people have taken to constantly carrying water bottles with them and sipping regularly.

It seems crazy that they want a healthier body so they drink more water but care little about their environment to the point where they are quite happy to pollute it by not recycling in a responsible manner. In 2002, a staggering 15 billion plastic water bottles were produced and of this total, a mere 12 per cent were recycled. This compares with thirty per cent of soft juice drinks bottles but is still nowhere near enough.

It is relatively easy to recycle plastics and they can simply be reformed into something else. Take a look at the blonde woman from Texas. One minute she was normal but after some reforming with plastic surgery she turned into Pamela Anderson. All very well but what happens after death? In years to come will the ground be littered with plastic body parts that used to be implants?

On a more serious note, plastic surgery is one area that has hardly been touched by actual plastic and the name is slightly misleading. Plastic surgeons concentrate on remodelling bones, cartilage, muscle and skin using various products and are sometimes mistakenly called cosmetic surgeons.

One way or another, it has to be said that plastic is one of the greatest product design results the world has ever seen and has opened the floodgates for so many more possibilities. All we need to do is dispose of it responsibly and it will see us through many more generations.

A Great Bubbling: Economics Of Oil Prices

By : Daniel Yergin
The world will never be quite the same. High oil prices are not only changing the political and economic landscapes but they could also change energy itself, because they are stimulating the most widespread drive for technological innovation this sector has ever seen.

The political shifts are striking, wherever you look. Russia was so flat on its back at the end of the 1990s that Western banks and companies competed to see who could close its Moscow offices faster. Today, even though Vladimir Putin says he does not like the term, Russia certainly appears to be an energy superpower, using oil and gas to restore its position in the world.

Balances of political power are shifting in other ways. In 2006, after his nonstate lunch with President Bush in Washington, China's President Hu Jintao took off directly for state visits to Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.

Meanwhile, that other balance, in supply and demand, has been extremely tight. Even without actual disruptions, possible threats to supply from the war in Lebanon and from rising tensions over Iran's nuclear program were enough last summer to push oil prices above $78 a barrel, accompanied by forecasts of $100 a barrel.

But then a slowing U.S. economy and growing inventories, and the prospect of rising non-OPEC production, sent prices down. That was enough to alarm OPEC into cutting production in order to stem the downward trend and keep prices above $50 to $55 a barrel. That's not exactly a low price; it's still double the OPEC price band of just a few years ago.

The flow of funds illuminates how much has changed. OPEC's revenue has tripled over the past four years, from $199 billion in 2002 to about $600 billion in 2006. The Mideast's trade surplus is 50 percent greater than that of emerging Asia.

While oil states are recycling a good deal of this resurgent wealth back into the United States and Europe as they did in the 1970s this time much more is going into investments in Asia and local and regional financial markets and development. What used to be said of Shanghai that it employed up to a quarter of all the world's building cranes is now being said of Dubai.

Petrodollars are also fueling political assertiveness in countries such as Iran (where oil revenue rose from $19 billion in 2002 to $60 billion in 2006) and Venezuela (from $21 billion to almost $50 billion over the same period).

But there are two big economic questions. What do high prices mean for the economy? And what do they mean for the future of world energy?

The risks from high oil prices are clear and manifold: loss of purchasing power on the part of consumers who drive the world economy; a blow both to business and to stock-market confidence and thus to investment; and a painful shock to the balance of payments of non-oil-developing countries.

Most fundamental of all is the possibility that high oil prices will start to drive up inflation, forcing central bankers to jam on the interest-rate brakes. But at what level of price?

A few months ago one of the key OPEC decision makers, harking back to that not-so-long-ago $22 to $28 band, observed, "We thought that the world economy would collapse at $40 a barrel." But economic growth sailed right on through $40, then $50, then $60 a barrel.

Part of the reason is that the major economies are much less oil-intensive than they were in the 1970s. What this means is that less oil is required for every unit of GDP. For instance, the U.S. economy has grown by more than 150 percent since the 1970s, but oil consumption by only about 25 percent.

The other major explanation is that this time, prices have been rising in response to a "demand shock" (epitomized by 10 percent economic growth in China) and not a "supply shock" (a disruption such as the 1973 embargo or the 1979 revolution in Iran). This is largely true, although not completely. For there has been an "aggregate disruption" a supply cut when you add up the loss of supply from Nigeria because of an insurgency in its delta region, the reduced levels of production in Iraq and Venezuela and the (now mostly healed) loss of supply from the 2005 hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Yet there was some point at which prices would begin to bite. That appears to have been in the $60 to $70 range. And those effects can be seen, along with the housing decline, in the slowing U.S. economy, with implications for all countries that export to it.

But the most lasting impact of the shift in the energy market may well be measured in energy itself. There is a bubbling and brewing of technological innovation along the entire energy spectrum from conventional supplies and renewables and alternatives, to efficiency and demand management.

Oil and gas companies continue to innovate. Last September, Chevron announced a find in the Gulf of Mexico oilfield at 6,890 feet, and an additional 19,685 feet under the seabed an extraordinary technological achievement.

Around the world, the "digital oilfield of the future" is becoming the digital oilfield of the present. The large-scale conversion of natural gas into high-quality diesellike fuel is getting closer.

Renewables have captured the public's imagination and are coming into their own. Wind power is the one that is closest to becoming conventional. This is not just the result of market forces. The development of renewable resources is being driven by mandates and subsidies of the European Union and of the federal and state governments in the United States, and by similar programs in countries like India and China. But it is working.

In fact, renewables are growing so fast that they are straining capacity in people and materials. Right now there is a shortage of turbines and blades for windmills. Renewables are a sizable business these days; the worldwide investment in wind and solar sales for 2006 is estimated at $40 billion.

But sometimes the enthusiasm for wind and solar discounts the huge scale of the energy system and the lead times needed to develop any form of energy, as well as the fact that these sources have to eventually establish themselves as economically competitive without government help. Even with all the advances, they are still a very small part of the overall energy mix. But they will continue to grow.

What is also rising is the funding and fervor that are going into innovation. A decade ago, I chaired a task force on energy research and development for the U.S. Department of Energy. It was a quiet period in energy, supplies were ample and interest was subdued.

That would not be the case today. Prices, anxiety about supply and the quest to reduce carbon emissions because of climate-change concerns have turned energy into a major focus for technology investment. Governments and businesses continue to be big players. But they now have company: venture capitalists.

The embodiment of the old model was the centralized Synthetic Fuels Corp., a U.S. government company that was chartered in 1980 with $17 billion to promote such options as shale oil and the conversion of coal into liquid fuels. It was very much in the spirit of the oft-invoked "three M's" Manhattan Project, Marshall Plan and Man in Space. But when prices went south in the 1980s it was wound down, and by 1986 it had disappeared.

Governments and companies are stepping up their investment in energy R&D, and will remain critical to the development of new technologies. Research-and-development spending by the U.S. Department of Energy is $1.8 billion and is slated to grow 25 percent in 2007.

Now the people who brought you Silicon Valley are also stepping into energy. Venture-capital investment in energy reached $1.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2006, almost five times what it was in the same period in 2004, according to the Cleantech Venture Network. "When we started investing in this area, it was like investing in the Internet in the early 1990s before anyone had ever heard of the Internet," says Ira Ehrenpreis of Technology Partners, an early clean-tech investor. "Now there has been an awakening in the VC community that clean tech offers as large an opportunity as information technology and life sciences, both of which were revolutionized by venture capital."

This means growing amounts of money going into energy businesses, operating under the discipline of venture capital. Some of the results are already there. One of the biggest recent tech IPOs, Suntech, made its founder, Zhengrong Shi, the richest man in China.
Of course, many of the new initiatives will not succeed. With this rapid growth comes a degree of hype that has some echoes of the Internet frenzy.

But that cycle of boom and bust left a set of technologies that are transforming business and society. And one clear difference is that in the Internet boom the business plans focused on eyeballs and didn't worry so much about how to make money. Here the market opportunity is clearer.

This diverse but intense focus on energy technology will likely have wide effects. There will be new ways to find or develop conventional energy. The competitive position of alternatives will be enhanced. The boom in conventional, corn-based ethanol, with its overwhelming political support, will nevertheless run into limits of land and food-versus-fuel competition. The current holy grail in liquid fuels is the search for economically competitive cellulosic ethanol, made from crop waste or specially designed energy crops.

Overall, some of the most intriguing possibilities will come from applying biology and genetic engineering to energy problems.

Much else is now on the energy-technology agenda from fuel cells and solar energy to advances, on the demand side, in how we use energy and the ways in which our cars are powered. Technological advances, along with regulations, enabled the United States and Japan to double their energy efficiency in the 1970s. That could happen again. When it is all added up, there has never been so much activity in new energy technologies. If it stays at this pace, expect dramatic results.