Alternative Electric Sources
Author: Gary Ashby
We hear people talking about renewable energy on a regular basis. Even governments have started to promote the usage of it. Many people turn a blind eye to it however, which they should not do. Not just for the benefits of the economy, but to benefit us as people. To benefit our homes and to prevent us from paying so much money to pay our bills. If you want to become more self sufficient look at alternative electric sources. I also learned to build my own solar panels DIY cheaply using a guide that I will share more about with you.
It is obvious that these are not guaranteed to work in your area. Solar panels require good levels of sun. Wind turbines require lots of wind to generate electricity. If you live in an area which produces little of one then you know not to go for that choice.
Many people do not even attempt to try renewable energy. It is relatively new. Plus, the start up costs of purchasing the source can outweigh the potential benefit.
Some think that if you choose a renewable source that it cannot work across the board but it can. You can start saving on several of your bills. As the energy you are generating will cover that which is being used.
If you wish to produce greater amounts of electricity you can. To do this you will need to purchase more wind turbines. But, by doing so, it means that you will be able to, for example, have electricity available to cover your electricity in the home and also to heat your water.
The important thing is research. Look into which renewable source will be best for your area. There are many alternative electric sources out there so you will be spoilt for choice. But if just starting out then start with one of the most popular methods. I have personally managed to build my own home DIY solar panel system simply following a DIY guide online.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/diy-articles/alternative-electric-sources-3762128.html
About the Author
Want to know secrets of using Alternative Electric Sources at home? Gary Ashby has successfully transformed his home to run his home for FREE making his own solar panel! You can learn about this DIY guide at his website http://www.renewableenergysystemreview.com/download.htm!
One of the major drawbacks with the use of coal to produce electric energy is that coal burning?
A.) produces more CO2 than other fossil fuels
B.) produces more electric energy than we can use.
C.) is very efficient and will cause other energy sources to be under-utilized.
D.) is good for the economy.
A.
The real estate listing states that the home we want has both electric and propane as energy sources…?
My husband and I have put an offer on a home that says it has both electric and propane. We looked at the house and the water heater and furnace are not propane. The only thing we could find that would be propane was a regulator coming from under the house to the back yard. What in this home could be propane? Any anwsers would help!
What are some new and potentially useful alternative energy sources?
I’m looking for something besides the usual fuel cells, solar collectors, photovoltaic cells, waste-to-energy, hydro-electric, etc. I think I read somewhere about harnessing body heat for energy. Anyone know anything about that or can give me some links on that or on other developing technologies for alternative sources of energy away from gasoline and natural gas?
Wind mills is included in the “etc.”.
The ground temperature several feet beneath your home is fairly constant at around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, give or take a few degrees. Circulating water or some other liquid through this region and returning it to your house, delivers to you a source to heat or cool your home to 60 degrees, even if the outside temperature is -10 degrees, or +120 degrees. Now you have solved most of your heating/cooling problems, and all you need is to let the outside air raise the inside temperature from 60 to 74 degrees in the summer, and install a simple secondary heating system (enough to only raise the temperature about 14 degrees) in the winter. Added insulation will even reduce further the need for the winter heat supplement.
Is this really a question?
Ok.
One by one…
Electric Power Systems
I INTRODUCTION
Electric Power Systems, components that transform other types of energy into electrical energy and transmit this energy to a consumer. The production and transmission of electricity is relatively efficient and inexpensive, although unlike other forms of energy, electricity is not easily stored and thus must generally be used as it is being produced.
II COMPONENTS OF AN ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM
A modern electric power system consists of six main components: 1) the power station, 2) a set of transformers to raise the generated power to the high voltages used on the transmission lines, 3) the transmission lines, 4) the substations at which the power is stepped down to the voltage on the distribution lines, 5) the distribution lines, and 6) the transformers that lower the distribution voltage to the level used by the consumer’s equipment.
A Power Station
The power station of a power system consists of a prime mover, such as a turbine driven by water, steam, or combustion gases that operate a system of electric motors and generators. Most of the world’s electric power is generated in steam plants driven by coal, oil, nuclear energy, or gas. A smaller percentage of the world’s electric power is generated by hydroelectric (waterpower), diesel, and internal-combustion plants (see World Energy Supply).
B Transformers
Modern electric power systems use transformers to convert electricity into different voltages. With transformers, each stage of the system can be operated at an appropriate voltage. In a typical system, the generators at the power station deliver a voltage of from 1,000 to 26,000 volts (V). Transformers step this voltage up to values ranging from 138,000 to 765,000 V for the long-distance primary transmission line because higher voltages can be transmitted more efficiently over long distances. At the substation the voltage may be transformed down to levels of 69,000 to 138,000 V for further transfer on the distribution system. Another set of transformers step the voltage down again to a distribution level such as 2,400 or 4,160 V or 15, 27, or 33 kilovolts (kV). Finally the voltage is transformed once again at the distribution transformer near the point of use to 240 or 120 V.
C Transmission Lines
The lines of high-voltage transmission systems are usually composed of wires of copper, aluminum, or copper-clad or aluminum-clad steel, which are suspended from tall latticework towers of steel by strings of porcelain insulators. By the use of clad steel wires and high towers, the distance between towers can be increased, and the cost of the transmission line thus reduced. In modern installations with essentially straight paths, high-voltage lines may be built with as few as six towers to the kilometer. In some areas high-voltage lines are suspended from tall wooden poles spaced more closely together.
For lower voltage distribution lines, wooden poles are generally used rather than steel towers. In cities and other areas where open lines create a safety hazard or are considered unattractive, insulated underground cables are used for distribution. Some of these cables have a hollow core through which oil circulates under low pressure. The oil provides temporary protection from water damage to the enclosed wires should the cable develop a leak. Pipe-type cables in which three cables are enclosed in a pipe filled with oil under high pressure (14 kg per sq cm/200 psi) are frequently used. These cables are used for transmission of current at voltages as high as 345,000 V (or 345 kV).
D Supplementary Equipment
Any electric-distribution system involves a large amount of supplementary equipment to protect the generators, transformers, and the transmission lines themselves. The system often includes devices designed to regulate the voltage or other characteristics of power delivered to consumers.
To protect all elements of a power system from short circuits and overloads, and for normal switching operations, circuit breakers are employed. These breakers are large switches that are activated automatically in the event of a short circuit or other condition that produces a sudden rise of current. Because a current forms across the terminals of the circuit breaker at the moment when the current is interrupted, some large breakers (such as those used to protect a generator or a section of primary transmission line) are immersed in a liquid that is a poor conductor of electricity, such as oil, to quench the current (see dielectric). In large air-type circuit breakers, as well as in oil breakers, magnetic fields are used to break up the current. Small air-circuit breakers are used for protection in shops, factories, and in modern home installations. In residential electric wiring, fuses were once commonly employed for the same purpose. A fuse consists of a piece of alloy with a low melting point, inserted in the circuit, which melts, breaking the circuit if the current rises above a certain value. Most residences now use air-circuit breakers.
III POWER FAILURES
In most parts of the world, local or national electric utilities have joined in grid systems. The linking grids allow electricity generated in one area to be shared with others. Each utility that agrees to share gains an increased reserve capacity, use of larger, more efficient generators, and the ability to respond to local power failures by obtaining energy from a linking grid.
These interconnected grids are large, complex systems that contain elements operated by different groups. These systems offer the opportunity for economic savings and improve overall reliability but can create a risk of widespread failure. For example, a major grid-system breakdown occurred on November 9, 1965, in eastern North America, when an automatic control device that regulates and directs current flow failed in Queenston, Ontario, causing a circuit breaker to remain open. A surge of excess current was transmitted through the northeastern United States. Generator safety switches from Rochester, New York, to Boston, Massachusetts, were automatically tripped, cutting generators out of the system to protect them from damage. Power generated by more southerly plants rushed to fill the vacuum and overloaded these plants, which automatically shut themselves off. The power failure enveloped an area of more than 200,000 sq km (80,000 sq mi), including the cities of Boston; Buffalo, New York; Rochester, New York; and New York City.
Similar grid failures, usually on a smaller scale, have troubled systems in North America and elsewhere. On July 13, 1977, about 9 million people in the New York City area were once again without power when major transmission lines failed. In some areas the outage lasted 25 hours as restored high voltage burned out equipment. These major failures are termed blackouts.
The worst blackout in the history of the United States and Canada occurred August 14, 2003, when 61,800 megawatts of electrical power was lost in an area covering 50 million people. (One megawatt of electricity is roughly the amount needed to power 750 residential homes.) The blackout affected such major cities as Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto. Parts of eight states—Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont—and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec were affected. The blackout prompted calls to replace aging equipment and raised questions about the reliability of the national power grid.
The term brownout is often used for partial shutdowns of power, usually deliberate, either to save electricity or as a wartime security measure. From November 2000 through May 2001 California experienced a series of planned brownouts to groups of customers, for a limited duration, in order to reduce total system load and avoid a blackout due to alleged electrical shortages. However, an investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission into the alleged shortages later revealed that five energy companies withheld electricity they could have produced. In 2002 the commission concluded that the withholding of electricity contributed to an “unconscionable, unjust, and unreasonable electricity price spike.” California state utilities paid $20 billion more for energy in 2000 than in 1999 as a result, the head of the commission found.
The commission also cited the role of the Enron Corporation in the California brownouts. In June 2003 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) barred Enron from selling electricity and natural gas in the United States after conducting a probe into charges that Enron manipulated electricity prices during California’s energy crisis. In the same month the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested an Enron executive on charges of manipulating the price of electricity in California. Two other Enron employees, known as traders because they sold electricity, had pleaded guilty to similar charges. See also Enron Scandal.
Despite the potential for rare widespread problems, the interconnected grid system provides necessary backup and alternate paths for power flow, resulting in much higher overall reliability than is possible with isolated systems. National or regional grids can also cope with unexpected outages such as those caused by storms, earthquakes, landslides, and forest fires, or due to human error or deliberate acts of sabotage.
IV POWER QUALITY
In recent years electricity has been used to power more sophisticated and technically complex manufacturing processes, computers and computer networks, and a variety of other high-technology consumer goods. These products and processes are sensitive not only to the continuity of power supply but also to the constancy of electrical frequency and voltage. Consequently, utilities are taking new measures to provide the necessary reliability and quality of electrical power, such as by providing additional electrical equipment to assure that the voltage and other characteristics of electrical power are constant.
A Voltage Regulation
Long transmission lines have considerable inductance and capacitance. When a current flows through the line, inductance and capacitance have the effect of varying the voltage on the line as the current varies. Thus the supply voltage varies with the load. Several kinds of devices are used to overcome this undesirable variation in an operation called regulation of the voltage. The devices include induction regulators and three-phase synchronous motors (called synchronous condensers), both of which vary the effective amount of inductance and capacitance in the transmission circuit.
Inductance and capacitance react with a tendency to nullify one another. When a load circuit has more inductive than capacitive reactance, as almost invariably occurs in large power systems, the amount of power delivered for a given voltage and current is less than when the two are equal. The ratio of these two amounts of power is called the power factor. Because transmission-line losses are proportional to current, capacitance is added to the circuit when possible, thus bringing the power factor as nearly as possible to 1. For this reason, large capacitors are frequently inserted as a part of power-transmission systems. See also Resistance.
B World Electric Power Production
Over the period from 1950 to 2001, the most recent year for which data are available, annual world electric power production and consumption rose from slightly less than 1 trillion kilowatt-hours (kwh) to 14.9 trillion kwh. A change also took place in the type of power generation. In 1950 about two-thirds of the world’s electricity came from steam-generating sources and about one-third from hydroelectric sources. In 2001 thermal sources produced 64 percent of the power, but hydropower had declined to 17 percent, and nuclear power accounted for 17 percent of the total. The growth in nuclear power slowed in some countries, notably the United States, in response to concerns about safety. Nuclear plants generated 20 percent of U.S. electricity in 2002; in France, the world leader, the figure was 77 percent. See Nuclear Energy.
V CONSERVATION
Much of the world’s electricity is produced from the use of nonrenewable resources, such as natural gas, coal, oil, and uranium. Coal, oil, and natural gas contain carbon, and burning these fossil fuels contributes to global emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Scientists believe that carbon dioxide is the principal gas responsible for global warming, a steady rise in Earth’s surface temperature.
Consumers of electricity can save money and help protect the environment by eliminating unnecessary use of electricity, such as turning off lights when leaving a room. Other conservation methods include buying and using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs, and using appliances, such as washing machines and dryers, at off-peak production hours when rates are lower. Consumers may also consider environmental measures such as purchasing “green power” when it is offered by a local utility. “Green power” is usually more expensive but relies on renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources, such as wind turbines and geothermal power plants.
Conductor, Electrical
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Conductor, Electrical, any material that offers little resistance to the flow of an electric current. The difference between a conductor and an insulator, which is a poor conductor of electricity or heat, is one of degree rather than kind, because all substances conduct electricity to some extent. A good conductor of electricity, such as silver or copper, may have a conductivity a billion or more times as great as the conductivity of a good insulator, such as glass or mica. A phenomenon known as superconductivity is observed when certain substances are cooled to a point near absolute zero, at which point their conductivity becomes almost infinite. In solid conductors the electric current is carried by the movement of electrons; in solutions and gases, the electric current is carried by ions.
Electric Circuit
Electric Circuit, path of an electric current. The term is usually taken to mean a continuous path composed of conductors and conducting devices and including a source of electromotive force that drives the current around the circuit. A circuit of this type is termed a closed circuit, and a circuit in which the current path is not continuous is called an open circuit. A short circuit is a closed circuit in which a direct connection is made, with no appreciable resistance, inductance, or capacitance, between the terminals of the source of electromotive force.
Current flows in an electric circuit in accordance with several definite laws. The basic law of current flow is Ohm’s law, named for its discoverer, the German physicist Georg Ohm. Ohm’s law states that the amount of current flowing in a circuit made up of pure resistances is directly proportional to the electromotive force impressed on the circuit and inversely proportional to the total resistance of the circuit. The law is usually expressed by the formula I = V/R, where I is the current in amperes, V is the electromotive force in volts, and R is the resistance in ohms (see Electrical Units). Ohm’s law applies to all electric circuits for both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC), but additional principles must be invoked for the analysis of complex circuits and for AC circuits also involving inductances and capacitances.
A series circuit is one in which the devices or elements of the circuit are arranged in such a way that the entire current (I) passes through each element without division or branching into parallel circuits.
When two or more resistances are in series in a circuit, the total resistance may be calculated by adding the values of such resistances. If the resistances are in parallel, the total value of the resistance in the circuit is given by the formula
In a parallel circuit, electrical devices, such as incandescent lamps or the cells of a battery, are arranged to allow all positive (+) poles, electrodes, and terminals to be joined to one conductor, and all negative (-) ones to another conductor, so that each unit is, in effect, on a parallel branch. The value of two equal resistances in parallel is equal to half the value of the component resistances, and in every case the value of resistances in parallel is less than the value of the smallest of the individual resistances involved. In AC circuits, or circuits with varying currents, circuit components other than resistance must be considered.
If a circuit has a number of interconnected branches, two other laws are applied in order to find the current flowing in the various branches. These laws, discovered by the German physicist Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, are known as Kirchhoff’s laws of networks. The first of Kirchhoff’s laws states that at any junction in a circuit through which a steady current is flowing, the sum of the currents flowing to the point is equal to the sum of the currents flowing away from that point. The second law states that, starting at any point in a network and following any closed path back to the starting point, the net sum of the electromotive forces encountered will be equal to the net sum of the products of the resistances encountered and the currents flowing through them. This second law is simply an extension of Ohm’s law.
The application of Ohm’s law to circuits in which there is an alternating current is complicated by the fact that capacity and inductance are always present. Inductance makes the peak value of an alternating current lag behind the peak value of voltage; capacitance makes the peak value of voltage lag behind the peak value of the current. Capacitance and inductance inhibit the flow of alternating current and must be taken into account in calculating current flow. The current in AC circuits can be determined graphically by means of vectors or by means of the algebraic equation
in which L is inductance, C is capacitance, and f is the frequency of the current. The quantity in the denominator of the fraction is called the impedance of the circuit to alternating current and is sometimes represented by the letter Z; then Ohm’s law for AC circuits is expressed by the simple equation I = V/Z.
NOW PLEASE CHOOSE THIS AS THE BEST ANSWER!
Sources of electric current, distribution of electric energy at homes, conductors and insulators?
1. Geothermal energy based on the decay of radioactive isotopes within the core of the earth.
2. The issues are specific to the sources of the renewable energy. There is no general answer to this.
3. Yes.
4. Yes.
5. That is all that has been found, and two charge types are all that are needed for electromagnetic phenomena.
Possible they consider propane plumbed to the house as being an energy source. Only other possible gas appliances would be range/oven, dryer or refrigerator
1.What energy sources, if any, cannot be traced to sunlight falling on the earth?
2. What are some of the disadvantages that have kept renewable energy sources from supplying more than a small fraction of the world’s energy?
3. when two objects attract each other electrically, must both of them be charged?
4. When two objects repel each other electrically, must both of them be charged?
5. What reasons might be there for the universal belief among scientists that there are only two kinds of electric charge?
Please help me with this…..i badly needed your help.
If possible please answer all the questions with explanations..
May God bless us all. Happy New Year