Solar power is an alternative energy source with tremendous economic and environmental benefits. If youre considering it for your home, here are the basics.

Sunning Your Home

Put simply, solar power works by converting free sunlight into usable energy. This process involves using photovoltaic tiles or platforms to capture the energy inherent in sunlight. The photovoltaic materials consist of positive and negative slices of material, often silicone, that react to the sun. As the sunlight hits these cells, the energy slices off negatively charged ions. This creates a magnetic field, a form of energy. The energy is then captured in small wires, which forms an electric current. The wires are connected to an inverter. The inverter converts the energy into a usable power source.

The beauty of solar power is it is a free source of energy. Historically, the cost of capturing and maintaining solar power wasnt cheap, but this has changed dramatically in the last ten years. Systems are now much more efficient, with the total cost usually involved in the purchase and installation. Depending on the system, there is almost no maintenance cost and most systems have a 40 or 50 year life span. Not bad, eh?

Going solar is also more attractive now because of laws passed by numerous states. Initially, homeowners can get a tax rebate for installing solar. On top of this, more than half of the states now mandate a concept known as net metering.

Net metering is all about saving tons of money on your utilities. Essentially, you are now allowed to sell power back to the utility companies at the same price they charge you. With solar power, this means you can simply feed your system into the utility grid during the day and then use regular energy at night. Since your utility meter runs backwards, this effectively means you will dramatically reduce, if not eliminate, your electricity bills. This process alone can save you thousands of dollars a year and $40,000 to $100,000 over the life of the system, depending on your typical monthly bills. With such savings, you can see why solar power is becoming more attractive.

When it comes to solar power, the question isnt whether you should use it. The real question is why you arent using it already!

Thermal curtains are conventional looking window coverings that save energy

If you are living in a colder climate, makes you recognize how important thermal curtains can be used for insulating a house. A cost efficient option, to most additional heating solutions, curtains are a fairly nominal one-time deal. They can keep your house comfortable and warm all through the cruel winter months without sending your heating bill through the top.

Thermal curtains are in the middle of the more useful tools for keeping a home warm. Additional five times as efficient at insulating compared to a traditional curtain, they use thermodynamics to keep heat in. Windows are a main source of heat loss, since the panes conduct high-energy heat away from the home and in the direction of the low energy area of the outside.

This difficulty is enhanced, by weakening frames and window casings that allow pockets of cold air to leak in. Thermal curtain uses insulating fabric to create a fence intended to block this procedure. They can be made from scratch, but these days, it is just as simple to buy them online. The simplicity of the Internet makes it useful to look for professional-grade goods that will actually do the trick throughout the most horrible months of winter.

Using the sun to heat up a home is growing by leaps and bounds in popularity these days. To really save money with solar, the best way is to design your home or improvements with solar in mind.

Taking Solar Into Account When Designing Your Home Improvements

In this case, we are not talking about using active solar panels to heat your home. We are merely talking about orienting your home in a particular way as well as emphasizing certain features. While this may sound odd at first, it is an extremely popular and cost effective energy production method used throughout the world.

To pursue this strategy, you must pay careful attention to how you design your house or improvements. One of the biggest errors made by people is the failure to take in all aspects of home heating and cooling. This can lead to a situation where you are producing far too much solar heat and the house becomes an oven. Get it wrong in the other direction and you dont have nearly enough heat. Here are the key issues to consider.

The first issue, the site location, is almost always overlooked. Ideally, you want unobstructed sunlight to hit the south side of the home for at least six hours in the middle of the day. Contrary to popular opinion, it doesnt matter what part of the United States you live in. There is sufficient sun exposure everywhere, although areas heavy with fog and cloud cover may be problematic. Regardless, the home must receive the aforementioned amount of sunlight. If it doesnt, you are not going to be happy with the results.

The second issue many people miss out on is commonly known as the axis orientation. In the Northern Hemisphere, the south wall of structures will receive the most sun exposure. To efficiently use this energy, your home must be oriented to expose the longest wall of the structure to the south. The more surface area you have facing the sun, the more heat and light you will be able to generate in the home. On the other hand, if you orient a short side to the sun, it is going to produce less heat and be harder to circulate it through the length of the home.

The third issue ties in into axis orientation. To produce heat, you must have a vast majority of the windows on the south side of the home. Unless you are using a solar capture wall, it makes little sense to orient your home correctly without letting the sunlight in. Conversely, you need minimize windows on the north side of the home or at least use super energy efficient windows to keep heat from escaping. You dont want to create a wind tunnel from the south to north side of the structure as air temperatures try to balance out!

You may have some doubts about how much heat a properly planned structure will produce. Hyperbole aside, your home will cook. The sun is incredibly powerful. Imagine sitting in your car on a sunny day with the windows rolled up and no air conditioning. The same thing will happen with your home.

To combat excessive heat, you should include some mechanism for reducing the amount of sun coming into the home. The easiest answer is to put curtains or some such thing on the interior, but it doesnt always work for large bay windows. To resolve this problem, you should put some type of a retractable overhang on the exterior of the home. You can install the roller under the lip of the roof. They dont look nearly as cheesy as they used to and youll be happy you did so when summer rolls around.

Taking advantage of the sun for heating is not particularly complicated. If you keep the above issues in mind, youll be able to smile when your neighbors complain about their utility bills.

Teachers, parents and students have found a way to say goodbye to homework (at least to old homework): They recycle it.

In fact, students have helped to contribute to a new record in paper recycling. In 2005, 51.5 percent of paper used in the U.S.-51.3 million tons-was recovered for recycling.

To start a school recycling program, try these tips from the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) and Keep America Beautiful (KAB). The groups provide training and a variety of resources to help educators teach students about recycling. Together, they have helped to start school paper recycling programs across the U.S.

Recycling 101

• Determine the amount and types of recyclable material in your school, and how to collect and separate it. Enlist the support of school administrators and staff, and appoint a coordinator and support team. Make sure to involve a student leader.

• Hold a kickoff event to start your recycling program and involve as many students as possible. Use the event to educate teachers, students and staff about the importance of recycling. Hold contests and offer small incentives to keep students interested.

• Work with a recycling company to gather materials and collect monthly results for your program.

Students Making A Difference

School recycling programs can have big environmental and educational benefits. Programs such as the AF&PA Recycling Awards and KAB outreach efforts can help.

The AF&PA Recycling Awards recognize outstanding individual, school, business and community recycling efforts. KAB has raised awareness for the program, and also has tools and resources available to help implement school recycling programs.

Join both organizations in supporting increased paper recovery efforts in your school and community.

The way people clean their homes and what they use to clean them have changed for the better.

Spring cleaning-which no longer has to happen in the spring-is a good example. In the Victorian era, warmer weather meant you could stop burning coals and start cleaning the blackish coal dust off the furnishings. Today’s methods of heating are cleaner and don’t require such a dramatic seasonal cleanup.

Pungent cleaning chemicals were introduced in the 1940s for removing tough stains both on white textiles and in ovens. The experience of spring cleaning was harsh on noses, eyes and throats.

Now, more organic and environmentally-friendly cleaning solutions are emerging. For dust stains on cotton curtains and drapes, use white vinegar and water to remove discoloration. Shine chrome furniture with cider vinegar, which is also great at removing pet odors.

Pour half a cup each of baking soda and vinegar, followed two minutes later by two quarts of boiling water, down kitchen and bathroom drains to keep them clean. Pour vanilla on a cotton ball, simmer cinnamon in water or use an herbal bouquet for a spring-scented home.

One of the latest updates is in trash cans. Most Americans begrudgingly take out their trash more than twice a week. More than 50 percent would rather wash dirty, piled-high moldy dishes than take out the trash. Since trash is an inevitable fact of life, it may just be a good idea to invest in a new type of trash can that is durable and more sanitary. For example, a new type of trash can, developed by Magikan, comes with a gently yet unobtrusively scented continuous liner that puts an end to pulling heavy, messy trash bags out and, most importantly, from touching germy, repulsive old garbage.

This new trash can is made from industrial-strength plastic and features a self-sealing lid that eliminates odors and a spill-free rim that ensures that all trash and liquids fall into the garbage bag. This means never having to lift a garbage bag up and out of the trash can again.