To understand the difference between a conventional gas furnace and a condensing gas furnace, first we must understand gas combustion.

One of the products of gas combustion is water vapor. If this vapor is allowed to condense and mix with the other combustion gases it would form an acid which would quickly destroy your furnace or chimney. That is why conventional gas furnaces use metal pipes for venting the very hot gases.

A condensing gas furnace is built to withstand these corrosive by-products.

When we condense water vapor to liquid water it gives us 970 BTU’s per pound ( 1 cubic foot of natural gas is 1000 BTU’s) This heat is used to heat your home rather than the air outside your home.

These furnaces are vented to the outside with plastic pipes that you can touch with the furnace operating, don’t try to touch the vent of a conventional furnace — you will get burned.

By utilizing most of the heat produced by the combustion process condensing gas furaces achieve efficiencies as high as 98%.

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A windmill is a device that converts wind energy into other types of energy. It uses wind power to make mechanical energy for rotating its blades which in turn help produce electrical energy.

The windmill is a very useful machine in times of energy crisis. The windmill started producing electricity lately; it used to be a popular method for pumping water and towing boats.

In the current situation of extreme energy crisis across the globe, it only makes sense that we look for alternate power solutions. The windmill proves to be an economical option, especially in farms and in the countryside. A windmill may not be the optimum solution in a highly-populated area.

What are the prerequisites for setting up a windmill?
There are two important pre-requisites for a windmill:

• The place where the solution is to be implemented should have an area of at least one acre. It is not advisable to set up a windmill in a smaller area as the windmill blades will not be able to capture enough wind power for the windmill to work.

• The average speed of wind in the area should approximately be 11 miles per hour. It is not advisable to employ the windmill at a site where factors like high-rise buildings and tall towers block the wind. You also need to make sure that the wind speed is consistent at your site.

What are the components of a windmill?
You will need the following components to make a windmill:

• Blades: These blades are responsible for making use of the wind energy. Blades are typically made of wood or plastic.

• Tower: The tower is the pillar that holds the system high enough to be able to use the wind. They are made up of hard material such as poly-vinyl chloride.

• Shaft: The shaft is used to join the blades to the tower, at the same time allowing them to rotate smoothly.

• Base: The base of the windmill is what holds the tower and the blades.

How is a windmill set up?
You will find ready-to-install windmill kits in the market. Consult an expert to choose the one that best suits your place and needs. If you would like to choose the components personally and set the windmill on your own, make sure you seek professional help; a mismatch of size in the components will make your windmill useless.

Make power at home with solar and wind energy to eliminate your power bill. Get the complete guide at www.earth4energy.com

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The easiest way to save heating dollars is to lower the tem­perature setting on your house thermostat, when possible.

As a general rule, you will save 2 percent on your heating bill for every 2°F you turn down the thermostat overnight.

Programmable thermostats have  electronic timers that allow you to preset household temperatures for specific periods of the day and night. In a typical application, you could program the thermostat to reduce the temperature an hour before you go to bed and to increase it before you get up in the morning. You could also program it to reduce the temperature for any period during the day when the house is unoccupied and to restore the temperature shortly before you return.

For example, you could have the temperature set at 17°C (63°F) when you are sleeping or not at home and at 20°C (68°F) when you are awake and at home. Experiment with the unit until you find the most comfortable and economical routine for you and your family.

Programmable thermostats that are ENERGY STAR qualified are required to offer at least four possible daily temperature settings (e.g., wake, day, evening, sleep) for at least two different program periods (e.g., weekdays and weekends).

A hold feature allows you to temporarily override the program for a period such as a vacation.

The thermostat will include instructions for the installer to adjust the cycle to suit your heating/cooling equipment. It will come pre-programmed with recommended temperature settings, but you may readily change them to suit your comfort and daily schedule.

Check for  additional features that allow you to:

1. store and repeat additional daily settings that can be run and changed without affecting the regular settings
2. store more than four daily temperature settings
3. adjust heating and cooling turn-on times in response to o side temperature changes

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Power Factor is a measure of how efficiently electrical power is consumed.

The ideal Power Factor is unity or one. Resistive loads such as a toaster or baseboard electric heaters convert the electric power to heat. Here voltage and current are in phase. These loads do not affect Power Factor.

Most electrical equipment such as motors, compressors, transformers and even switch start fluorescent lighting, are what is known as inductive loads on the supply.  These loads convert electricity into magnetism which unfortunately is necessary for motors and other inductive loads to operate. The magnetic fields cause current to lag voltage, the extra current  drawn to overcome these magnetic fields is called Reactive Power. The more Reactive Power there is the lower the Power Factor.

Power Factor Correction is the term given to a technology  used to restore Power Factor to as close to 1 or  unity as is possible.

This is normally achieved by the addition of capacitors to the electrical network, which compensate for the Reactive Power demand of the inductive load and thus reduce the load on the supply.

The benefits of Power Factor Correction are

• Electricity Bills Reduced
• Motor and Transformer losses reduced
• Power Consumption Reduced
• Electrical energy efficiency improved
• Less voltage drop

I installed a Power Save 1200 to my panel. Installation is simple. You need to install a double pole 20amp breaker. The Power Save simply wires into the breaker. My power factor is now .98

Get Your Power Save PS1200

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Did you know that monitors, printers, scanners, DVD players, televisions, cable/satellite boxes, PVRs, stereo amplifiers and other electronic devices draw as much as 70% of their total power even when they are in stand-by mode or switched off?

Phantom loads are created by devices that continue to draw small amounts of power, even when they are off or in sleep/standby mode.

Smart Power Bars eliminate those loads by cutting the power off completely when they are not needed.

Simply plug the ‘master’ load into the Master receptacle on the power bar. Once that load drops (e.g. when the unit goes to ‘sleep’ or is put on stand-by), then power is cut to all the peripheral devices plugged into the Slave  receptacles.

If you have devices that cannot be shut off or that you don’t want to shut off, then plug these into the Always on receptacles as these remain live all the time.

We use and recommend Smart Strip power bars with surge protection.

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