If you install a mid-sized 25-square meter integrated solar hot water and space heating array in New York State for instance, you will collect about 54,812,780 btu per year with a low-cost 80% efficient system costing about $2,900. This will reduce you energy bills for heating and hot water by about 75%.

This may not seem like a lot compared to the energy use of the United States, which was approximately 97 quads, or 100,000,000,000,000,000 British Thermal Units (btu) in 2002 (1 btu is the energy which raises the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit). When someone talks about a number so large we often feel that anything that we do will be insignificant and will not matter. And indeed, the 9.45 barrels of oil that one householder might save in a year amounts to reducing the energy use of the nation by only 0.0000000548%.

But let us suppose that everyone in your town of 10,000 homes does the same. Now you and your neighbors will reduce the energy use of the entire nation by 0.000548% and we will not need to import 94,500 barrels of oil.

And if you and everyone in your state of 1 million homes adopted the same small, simple, low-technology solar initiative, you would reduce the overall energy use of the United States of America by 0.0548% and we would not need to import 94,500,000 barrels of oil.

Taking the idea one step further, if all 100 million homes in the nation adopted this simple solar initiative we would reduce the overall energy use of the nation by 5.48% and we could avoid the import of over 9,450,000,000 barrels of oil.

This is just the first in many small steps that we can each take as individuals to secure a better future for ourselves and our children. Act now. Make a difference.

Wayne Conrad

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Solar energy collection systems such as solar swimming pool heaters typically require a pump to operate. This pump is driven by electricity. Therefore, electrical power (energy) is needed to collect the solar energy. This electricity use must be factored into your considerations when determining the REAL payback of a solar energy capture system.

This does not mean that solar energy is not a good idea. It is a GREAT idea …

It does mean that you must clearly understand the overall costs of solar energy must include the capital and installation cost, and the energy used to operate the system versus the energy collected.

The Solar Energy Capture Efficiency is defined as the solar energy collected by a system divided by the energy that must be input to make the solar collector work. The larger this number is, the less energy is used to collect the solar energy which means that the operating costs are lower and it is better for the environment..

Example:

A solar collector in Southern Ontario, Canada could collect an average of 1,233 btu/sq ft/day (3.887 kWh/day/sq m) during the 6 month period from Mid April through Mid October assuming a 75% collector efficiency.

If a 1.5hp pump is used to pump the water from your pool through your solar collector and filter the energy use is calculated as follows:.

1.5 hp x 746W/hp = 1.119 kWh/hr.

If the swimming pool pump runs 8 hours per day, it will use 8.952 kWh /day, 1,612 kWh in 6 months of use.

At $0.10/kWh, this amounts to $0.90 per day, or about $162 for 6 months. The price of electricity will continue to rise.

The electricity used by the water pump is equivalent to 3,819 btu/hr, or 30,552 btu/day.

Therefore, a 4′ x 20′ solar collector could capture 4 x 20 x 1,233 btu/sq ft/day = 98,640 btu/day.

This means that you must put 30,552 btu/day of electrical power equivalent into your swimming pool filter and solar water heating system to collect 98,640 btu/day, which is a Solar Energy Capture Efficiency of 3.2:1. Many system provide a ratio of only between 3:1 and 6:1.

Solar energy systems are NOT created equal …
Omachron Technologies Inc. has developed more efficient solar collection systems wherein the Solar Energy Capture Efficiency (energy output to energy input ratio) is up to 40:1, which means that they would cost 10 times less to operate than many current products.

Consider the capital cost of your solar energy system and the cost of operating your solar collection system when comparing different technologies.

When you save money and energy, both you and the environment win.

Wayne Conrad

There are really only a few primary sources of energy available to mankind – the sun, the moon, the earth and nuclear power.

The sun provides us with heat (infra red radiation) which we can absorb, use, or store. The sun also provides visible and ultra violet light which we can convert to electricity and then store as chemical energy. Plants store various wavelengths of visible light and near IR to store in the form of chemical energy. The sun also provides the weather which provides us with water power, wind power and wave power. The sun also causes evaporation which causes powerful ocean currents. All of these secondary solar energy forms can be harnessed by man.

The moon provides us the power of the tides.

The hot molten core of the earth can provide us with geothermal energy.

Nuclear reactions can provide energy in the form of heat and in the future may be able to be converted into other more conventional forms of chemical or electrical energy or a combination thereof.

Oil, natural gas, and coal are all just solar energy which has been stored over millions of years which we are now exhausting within just a few centuries. Oil is the most convenient form of stored energy which we have found because it is an easily stored liquid that is simple to transport, has a high energy density, and is easily combustible yet will not readily explode. Oil is used to make many petrochemicals including gasoline, plastics, and hundreds of thousands of other items. Given the amazing flexibility of oil, should we really just be burning it when we could use the sun to provide many of our space heating, water heating, space cooling, and refrigeration needs?

Historically, it took about 50 years for the world to switch from wood to coal as the primary means of stored energy. It took another 50 years to switch from coal to oil.

The key challenge now is that we must quickly and decisively reduce our oil consumption as a simple energy source and preserve it for use in petrochemicals and other materials where oil cannot easily be replaced.

The first common sense thing to do is to look at how energy is used in the North America, the largest consumer of oil in the world. A quick review of the facts as presented by the U.S. Department of Energy shows the following:
Industrial Energy use – 33%
Residential Energy use – 21%
32% space heating
13% water heating
12% lighting
11% air conditioning
8% refrigeration
5% electronics
5% wet-clean (mostly clothes dryers)
Commercial Energy Use – 17%
25% lighting
13% heating
11% cooling
6% refrigeration
6% water heating
6% ventilation
6% electronics
Transportation Energy use – 28%

If we replace all incandescent light bulbs in America with non polluting long life LED light bulbs (www.omachronlighting.com) we can reduce US energy consumption by 6.77%!

If we replace our inefficient furnaces and hot water heaters with ultra high efficiency furnaces integrated with low cost simple solar space heating and water heating products such as the products developed by Omachron Technologies Inc which pay for themselves in only 1 to 3 years, we could reduce US energy consumption by 12.68%!

If we replace air conditioning, ventilation, and refrigeration systems with solar powered air conditioners such as the products developed by Omachron Technologies Inc which pay for themselves in only 2 to 4 years, we could reduce US energy consumption by 6.88%!

Wayne Conrad