Every one of us is called upon to reconsider how renewable energy can fit in our lives. If we could produce our own source of renewable energy, we wouldn’t have to pay electrical bills anymore or buy gasoline for our cars. While we can buy some of the equipment, there are parts that we will have to do ourselves. We already know how to harness solar and wind energy and use it to produce electricity. If you want to make your own energy supply, do some research online and then set up the system yourself.
To use solar energy, you will need to buy an inverter, a battery, a charge controller, some solar panels, some wires and support structure. In order to use wind energy you will need a fan. Once you have everything you need, you can put it all together. This kind of project is not for everyone and some may prefer to buy a pre-assembled unit. Some companies do sell entire ready to install systems. It is one way to ensure that your system will function without problems the moment your turn the switch on. You could even contract for installation by experts. I should have noted that there is one more thing you need before you can use one or these renewable energy sources. Before you acquire the materials or the system, make sure you have a flat area that is about a hundred square feet or so where to install your system, as it does occupy a fair amount of space. That is another reason why so many units are installed on roof tops. For those who don’t have the space or the budget to use these two energy sources, another option is to create your own biofuels.
Biofuels are produced from plants and used in many countries as they have a high energy value. Luckily, you don’t need a farm to produce it because you can also make your own using some recycled waste. Vegetable oil that we use in every day cooking is a good example of waste that can be used for biofuel. To turn used oil into a biofuel, wasted cooking oil must be collected and heated between 120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. It must then be filtered, to remove any large particles that might remain in the oil. There is a certain amount of lye present in vegetable oil and we need to know how much. This information is found by a process known as titration. Once this all done , sodium hydroxide is added to the heated oil to produce sodium methoxide. The process of converting used vegetable oil into biofuel takes time, and the oil must be heated the entire time, in order to produce a fuel that is pure. Only when purity is achieved do we allow the fuel to cool. The mixture is allowed to cool overnight and a by-product called glycerin will settle at the bottom of the container. The top layer is a vegetable based fuel, here referred to as biofuel, that is ready to use. The average cost per gallon of this fuel is 45 cents.
By making our own green energy sources, we make ourselves less dependent on gasoline in its various forms to power our heater, home or car. There are filtration devices to remove all contaminates, and many conversion kits available on the market and on line. With all the information available and the ease of production why don’t a lot of people do it? Simply because it is time consuming and many would rather rely on someone else to do it for them.
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