The winner of this years $74,000 FT Climate Change Challenge is Jon Bohmer.

Jon Bohmer is the creator of a cheap solar power oven that costs about $5 to make.

The solar oven can bake break, cook casseroles, and even boil water.

It is made from two boxes, one inside the other with an acrylic cover, which lets the sun's power in and traps it.

Black paint on the inner box and silver foil on the outer help concentrate the heat while a layer of straw or newspaper between the two provides insulation.

The oven is targeted at the three billion people who use firewood to cook in developing countries.

Mr Bohmer said: "We're saving lives and saving trees. I doubt if there is any other technology that can make so much impact for so little money."

He plans to use the $74,000 prize money to conduct mass trials in 10 countries, including South Africa, India and Indonesia and gather data to back an application for carbon credits.

The box aims to save some of the millions of children who die each year from food cooked with unclean drinking water.

He believes it will also halve the need for firewood, saving an estimated two tonnes of carbon per family per year.

He has now developed a more robust, longer-lasting cooker in corrugated plastic, which he says can be mass-produced as cheaply as the cardboard version.

Technorati Tags: black paint, bohmer, cardboard version, developing countries, saving trees, silver foil, solar, solar oven, solar power, south africa

No related posts.

How hard is it to convert your home to solar energy? Can it be accomplished without ruining the outside appearance of your house? Most of the solar homes I have seen are covered with ugly panels that make it look trashy. Is there any way around this?

Also, how much money does one need in order to transform their home to solar?

Check out the HGTV channel. They keep re-running a show that has solar panels be installed in a home. Doing it the way they do it on HGTV looks expensive.

On the show, the put plumbing in the walls throughout the home to pump water through to keep the walls and floors warm. They had to insulate all the plumbing.

The installed special glass panes that brought warmth into the house during the winter.

During the summer, the glass panes are covered to keep the house cool and the water pumped through the walls and floor is also cooled.

I have seen the builders put in these big boxes that convert all your wires and plumbing to meet the needs of the house. They have all kinds of buttons on them for setting special heat and cooling in different rooms.

The HGTV solution will not work for me because I live in a manufactured home that has only thin walls made of wood.

Technorati Tags: glass panes, how much money, plumbing, solar check, solar energy, solar home, solar panels, warmth

No related posts.

The project is a solar panel to heat the air. What I want to do is use all recycled materials. My monthly bill is about $438 a month and so I want to see if I can get that down.

This is a solar panel that I built from recycled materials (2x6 DF frame and glass). The 7/16" OSB on the back, 3" ABS pipe, fittings, glue and thermometer and screws where purchased for around $90.00. The panel took two weekends to complete. During the one hour testing period, the panel produced between a 42 to 49 degree increase of temp at the return port of the panel. This temp increase includes the 7 degree increase of temp from the 6.25 hp Shop Vac used in the test.

Duration : 0:9:55

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: diy project, Free, furnace, green, heater, home built, panel, plans, solar, solar panel diy

No related posts.

Walk into your shed and turn the light on without having to connect to the power grid. This low power pulling LED shed light has 10 bright LED's. The LED's get their power from a solar panel. The solar panel charges the 3 AA rechargeable batteries during the day.

It comes with a 20-foot extension cord so that you can position the shed light where you want. You can mount the light on the wall, ceiling, or just use as a work bench utility light.

A pull chain on the solar panel light allows quick and easy on and off.

A switch on the light lets you select between 10 LED's that last 2 hours, or 5 LED's that last 4 hours. If you're like me, you don't use the shed that much and so the few times I do go in it at night to grab something, I want it as bright as possible. So I keep mine on the 10 LED's setting. But if you plan on being in your shed for more than 2 hours at a time, you can use the 5 LED setting that lasts for 4 hours.

The solar panel shed light has an average rated life of 100,000 hours which means it will run for many years without problems.

Includes three AA rechargeable batteries and all mounting hardware.

Technorati Tags: power grid, shed light, solar panel, work bench

No related posts.

A solar panel on a car that will actually keep your car cool while it sits parked.

Those of us who live in hot temperatures know that it is miserable getting in a car. No matter how well your air conditioner works, you bake for the first few minutes.

Toyota aims to change all that with the 2010 Prius.

A solar panel will be used to power an air conditioner that will keep your car cool even though it's completely turned off and parked.

It is an amazing technological jump forward in that the sun, which is responsible for heating your car in the first place, can now be used to keep it cool.

Duration : 0:0:51

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: air conditioner, Car, prius, solar panel, sun, toyota

No related posts.

Off my last electricity bill, I can see that I use 22.1kWh per day of energy. How do I use this number to calculate how many solar panels I need to power my house?

The size you need for your solar array depends not only on your typical electrical usage (which you already know), but on the climate (days of sunshine per year), roof angle, shade trees that may block some of the sun at certain times of day, and other factors.

Fortunate a dirty method was developed that lets you guestimate the size of the solar array you need. The calculation is surprisingly accurate.

To approximate the size of array you need, multiple your average daily electrical demain in kilowatt hours by 0.25

The result is the approximate size of solar array, in kilowatts, that you need to meet your electricity demands.

So in your case, take 22.1 x 0.25 = 5.525 so we round up to 6. This means you need 6, 1 kilowatt solar panels to power your home.

Technorati Tags: days of sunshine per year, electrical usage, electricity bill, electricity demands, how many solar panels do i need for my house, kilowatt hours, kilowatts, roof angle, solar array, solar panels

No related posts.