You can make your own portable solar water heater for very little money. Take it with you when you go camping, or place it in the garden to use for hand washing when you are outside. You will have free hot water wherever you are, as long as the sun shines.

What you need:

You will need, a car or truck inner tube, these are available quite cheaply from a car parts store, or you can pick one up for free from a breakers yard. This is where your water is going to be stored, so the bigger it is the more hot water your heater will make. You will also need, a length of garden hose, some rubber sealing compound, a hose pipe coupler to connect your hose to the water reservoir, and a nozzle to act as a tap, or a sprinkler if you want to use your hot water as a shower.

Building your heater:

Check your inner tube for leaks by partially inflating it, and then submerging it in water. Check for bubbles, if you see any rising it will show where the hole is. Repair any holes using a puncture repair kit. Once your tube is airtight cut a hole in the tube opposite the valve. Make this hole just big enough to accept the end of your hose coupler. Insert the coupler into this hole, and cover with rubber solution to seal it in place. Connect your hose, and nozzle to the coupler, and there you have it, your solar water heater is complete.

Filling your heater:

To fill your water heater you can use a funnel, and poor water down the hose. The other method is, if you close the hose nozzle and inflate the tire. then place the end of the hose into a body of water, possibly a lake if you are camping, or a rain water-butt if you are in the garden, and let the air out of the tire, it will **** up water as he air exits the tube.

Using your heater:

Once filled simply leave it out in the sun to heat. Placing it on the roof, or hood of a car, or roof of a camper, will heat the quickest. If it is in the garden then placing it on a shed or outhouse roof is ideal. To use you can either hang over a tree branch, or raise it up some other way.

Storing your heater:

To store simply empty the inner tube, and roll it up. It will easily ft in a backpack, or small case. Your heater can be set up and used in no time. You can now use your portable solar water heater anywhere you go. Enjoy your free hot water.

2009 and 2010 were great years for the solar energy industry. This is rather odd when you think about it. Why? Well, nearly everything else was a complete disaster. So, will the good times continue in 2011 or will the solar energy industry start to reflect what is happening in the real economy? Let’s get to our predictions for 2011.

2011 is going to be a bumpy year for solar energy. There is no other way to view it and manufacturers are already more than a bit nervous. Is solar going out of favor with consumer? Are we going back to oil and coal? Has President Obama turned his back on alternative energy? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do know they are not at the heart of the problems for solar in 2011.

The problem is simple – oversupply. Solar energy has had so much momentum the last few years that every Tom, **** and Harry has moved into the field. We now are looking at a supply rate that is forecast to be twice the demand level in 2011. This is a classic formula for price drops and the contraction of the industry.

As if things weren’t going to be rough enough, additional developments are pointing to an even slacker demand. Much of the solar panel sales explosion has occurred because state and federal government provides financial incentives to help people deal with the initial cost of panel systems. The economic collapse has slashed tax revenues, so governments are now slashing these incentives. That will weaken demand even further, a real shock to the system.

What about consumers? Solar will be a mixed bag in 2011 for us as well. There will not be nearly as many incentives to help us with purchases. That being said, the good news is a glut of panel systems should lead to some incredibly low prices on home systems. This will be particularly true as manufacturers fail, merge and try to get rid of inventory.

The solar energy industry got off lightly through the years of the Great Recession. That is about to change in 2011.

We simply need to think back of the last time we lost power when we had to light some candles and wash ourselves with cold water. Luckily for us the power came back but what if it didn’t come back? We take for granted that these conveniences will be there for us forever.

We have to stop thinking that everything lasts forever because nothing does and the sooner we realize that, the better we will be. It is time to start thinking outside the box and look up high above into the sky and realize that solar energy is here for us to use. The sun shines 24 hours a day, 7 days a week non-stop around the world, it is here now and for a long time to come. The sun is a very intense ball of fire or gas way up in the atmosphere. We only see it when we are awake but on the other side of the globe others also get the daytime when we get the night.

Did you know that some people use a great deal of the heat generated from the sun in order to heat their homes, power electricity and provide hot water to their love ones and businesses. Thinking about all the machinery that runs with electricity, it is hard to imagine running it by rerouting the sun to the machinery. Scientists have started to make this possible by utilizing this free energy to power everything from, home heaters to heating water, from powering home appliances to electronic devices and even the space shuttle is using solar power.

This solar power energy can be redirected and concentrated using special boxes (solar panels) that attract the light during the day to heat water and homes throughout the night. Solar power is becoming very common, extremely important and provides a natural way to heat, collect electricity and heat water with just a little more effort. We live in changing times; in the future we may have no other choice but to look at natural resources in order to have these necessities and conveniences. To have a home solar power system installed or have one made yourself can save you a huge amount of money and the investment you made to modify you house to implement a solar system can pay itself off many times in a short period of time. Solar power is important now and in the future.

The ever-increasing need for energy resources has urged scientists to research new ideas and resources that can aide in producing energy in cleaner ways. In ways that will help preserve our planet. Renewable energy is clean, green and comes in a limitless supply. Unlike fossil fuels, which are non-renewable and are very harmful to the environment due to the greenhouse gasses they emit. Putting research and effort into converting to green energy is very necessary because it supplies us with energy that will power our planet today and also in the future.

Currently, renewable energy sources like solar energy are being put to a variety of beneficial uses; they power businesses, homes, cottages and a variety of other buildings and industries. With technology ever increasing, improving, and changing, updated devices and technologies are being used to harness power in the most effective and efficient ways currently possible to help power the world. While at the same time preserving our environment and reducing our dependency on fossil fuels.

Solar energy is is probably the most widely used and popular form of renewable energies available at this time in our life. It is readily available, and cannot be monopolized, and it is free. Scientists spend a lot of time and effort updating and improving the current devices used to collect and convert solar energy to usable energy, and to make it more affordable and more efficient. The most popular invention was the solar cell, which was actually invented in 1839, but constant improvements and modifications are still being made on it to this day. Solar cells convert the light energy collected from the sun into electricity.

Since the sun produces enough energy in one day to power the world for an entire year, the solar energy system has great room for advancements and could ultimately define the future of the power production. The one major drawback of implementing solar systems in homes and other buildings is the cost. Although prices have declined a lot in the last ten years, the cost is still high enough to discourage most people from trying it. That is why resources such as ‘Green Power Easy’ have been made available to the public. They are fantastic, easy to understand, step by step guides that supply you with all the information, diagrams and instructions you will need to build your own solar panels and make fully functional solar energy systems that will power your home. Doing it yourself will cost you cents on the dollar.

Renewable energy really is the key to the future. There is always more awareness being raised, more effort being put into evolving the systems into very efficient means of generating power, and more emphasis being put on preserving our planet by going green. It is a worthwhile cause, and totally within our reach.

Solar energy is the energy provided by the sun through his radiation and that is disseminated, directly or so diffuse, in the atmosphere.

On Earth, home of humankind and the third planet in the solar system, it is the source of water and wind. The plant on which the animal kingdom, also uses the energy transforming it into chemical energy through photosynthesis. With the exception of nuclear energy, geothermal energy and tidal energy (from the movement of water created by the tide), It is the source of all energy on Earth.

Through various processes, solar power can be transformed into another useful form of energy for human activity in heat into electrical energy or biomass. Hence the term “solar energy” is often used to describe electricity or heat produced from it.

Techniques to directly capture a part of this energy are available and are being improved continuously. One can distinguish three types of energies:

* Solar photovoltaic: This refers to electricity produced by converting a portion of solar radiation with a photocell (which is an electronic component, exposed to light (photons), generates a voltage). Several cells are connected in a solar photovoltaic module. And then, more modules are grouped to form a solar system for individual use or a solar photovoltaic power plant, which supplies an electrical distribution network. The term “photovoltaic” refers to the physical phenomenon – the photovoltaic effect – or the related technology.

* Solar thermal is to use heat from solar radiation. It comes in different forms: thermodynamic solar power, hot water and heating, cooling, solar cookers and dryers. Solar energy is a thermodynamic technique that uses solar energy to generate electricity.

* Passive Solar Power: The oldest use of solar power is to benefit the direct input of solar radiation and is called passive solar Power. For a building that benefits from good sunlight, it must take into account the solar energy in the architectural design: double facades, orientation towards the south and glass surfaces, among others. The thermal insulation plays an important role to optimize the proportion of the available passive solar heating and lighting. A house or a building which will have passive solar energy contributing to a significant saving energy. Batteries, fans, lamps garden pumps. Today, almost everything can run on solar energy. Since many people carry in their bag a GPS equipped with a solar charger and solar photovoltaic panels on some roofs.

Essential for life on Earth, the sun can offer many other services: heating our homes, powering the most remote, and so on.