Energy Policy for Future Generations

I am firmly entrenched in the renewable energy mindset. I look at the way that our nation lives and how we abuse energy in oh so many ways. We bitch and moan about the cost of gasoline and yet we continue to buy vehicles that get less gas mileage than the cars built in the early seventies. We bitch and moan about our dependence on other nations for our energy needs and yet refuse to look at the vast resources right here in the United States that are renewable. It seems to be ironic that we have an energy policy in this country that isn't about how we can sustain it or reduce it but how we can get more out of it by doing nothing.

President Obama was on topic in Miami recently when he spoke of the need for new sources of renewable energy that are right here in the good old USA....




You know there are no quick fixes to this problem. You know we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices. If we’re going to take control of our energy future and can start avoiding these annual gas price spikes that happen every year -- when the economy starts getting better, world demand starts increasing, turmoil in the Middle East or some other parts of the world -- if we’re going to avoid being at the mercy of these world events, we’ve got to have a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy. Yes, oil and gas, but also wind and solar and nuclear and biofuels, and more.

As President Obama pointed out, that's a vision toward which we are making progress:

In 2010, our dependence on foreign oil was under 50 percent for the first time in over a decade. We were less reliant on foreign oil than we had been. In 2011, the United States relied less on foreign oil than in any of the last 16 years. That's the good news. And because of the investments we’ve made, the use of clean, renewable energy in this country has nearly doubled -– and thousands of American jobs have been created as a consequence. - The White House

As the president said, we can bitch and moan about the forever cost of our energy needs or we can ask the people to act on it. Get your ass out in your garage and find the next best solution to heating your home or water. Find a new way to power your lawn mower other than gasoline. Discover some new solution from your garden that can convert compost into high grade fuel for your car. A wise man once said that there is nothing that the mind can think of that is not achievable. It would be a wise president of the United States of America to put that thought to good use when speaking to the people.

The funny thing about leaders like the president is that sometimes they are talking to the wrong people. He went to Miami and its great University to give a speech on renewable energy but needed to talk to all of the people that tinker in their garages and basements with every conceivable possibility of making something better if not a totally new concept. The greatest resource that America has is the ability of its people to see that there is always a better solution. The president should tap that renewable resource right away.

I am and have been designing Solar Boxes that can heat your home during the winter. The same boxes can heat your hot water year round when the sun is shining. What are you doing?

As the president said... "A bumper sticker is not an energy strategy to solve our energy challenge."

Papamoka

Solar Air Heater

UPDATE 11/24/12
Check the video and pictures out HERE

I’m a solar heater junkie. My prototype looks like crap but the science and data makes it a winner when it comes to solar heating. You can find lots of videos on the subject on You Tube regarding soda can solar heaters and such and I have to give the inventors of that theory on gaining free heat from the sun credit for a great idea. I don’t go to meetings for my solar heater addiction but I love the idea of free heat from the sun. My addiction is making the theory better and more accessible to the masses. Thus, I have been working on a box geared more towards the elderly and people on fixed incomes that can move a heating unit from one window in the morning to the next in the afternoon depending on where the sun is coming into their home. Having a fixed unit that just faces south has never been something I have ever been fond of. Permanent installation either. Why not move the unit as the sun moves if you are at home anyway? Why not have a system built into the solar heater that stores the heat longer when cloud cover comes in? Why not build a box that can not only be placed in a window but just moved to a sunny spot of sun that is already coming into your home? Place it by a slider door, on a living room coffee table, wherever the sun is shining into the house. If it is getting full sun then our heater will give free heat! Free Solar powered heat for you home that will supplement your existing heating system.

As Emeril says, can we kick it up a notch? My box is a simple two foot by two foot wooden box with a bunch of systems inside that retain heat and amplify heat when the sun is partly clouded. Testing on my unit and tweeking of the unit have been going on for weeks and it still is in the testing phases but I think it is a marketable solar heater design. I’m trying to keep the cost to consumers below $400 retail but the parts needed to make it totally renewable energy are high with metal pricing fluctuating daily.

Testing today in the early hours between nine AM and eleven AM facing the morning sun (East) resulted in significant results that I am very pleased with. High atmospheric clouds came and went and the unit worked like I thought it would. The backup systems of the solar heater with no moving parts or outside source of energy other than the sun to retain heat cycled in and out was amazing. Results below are after the unit was heated just by the sun for twenty minutes with high atmospheric clouds intermittently.

Testing results for 4/30/2011 Between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM CST

Average ambient air temperature: 65.83 F
Average Air Exhaust Heat after reaching 110F Temperature: 125.99 F
Average Heat Retention System Temperature after Reaching 100 F: 113.6F
Average Heat Gain After reaching 110F ambient air temperature: 60.18F
Maximum heat gain from ambient air to heat exhaust: 70.2F

What does this mean to you? The average temperature of the heated air coming out once the unit is heated is 125.99 degrees F based on today's testing results and that is free heat from a two foot by two foot box that can be moved from room to room. Give the unit one half hour to heat up in full sun and it is pumping out the heat for free.

What I find very interesting is the cycles of the air to heat retention systems cycling plus and minus of one another in opposite directions. One goes up and the other goes down in temperature. New science results with the data for me to experiment with. I’m having a blast with it. The applications beyond just heating air are enormous! Pick a topic that relates to providing heat to a home and it works in a simple little box.

Check back soon to see when we are actually selling my toy. Free heat is good. Email us if you would like more information. Papamoka (at) hotmail (dot)(com).

Legal disclaimer: This unit will not heat your entire home but it is a kick ass supplement to whatever heating system you have when the sun is hitting the unit directly.

Papamoka