One form of alternative energy you can use to cool your home is geothermal energy. This might sound surprising, but you can actually use the energy found in your own backyard, by utilizing geothermal heat pumps. You can save as much as 70% on your cooling bills.

The bad news is that professionally installed geothermal systems are still expensive. The good news is that there are ways in which you can harness geothermal energy, to partially cool your house, without shelling out a fortune for it.

You might already be utilizing geothermal energy without realizing it. Homeowners in norther states often use this renewable energy without, their direct knowledge.

This article will teach you how to maximize the cool air that’s stored within your basement.

You need to have a basement, or at least some crawl space beneath your home, for this cooling method to work. You must be able to access the space from within the confines of your home. If the space has a small window or vent, this will help with the air flow. You will also need a small portable fan for this one.

The principle of geothermal cooling works in this way. During hot summer days, the basement is cooler than most parts of the house. The basement’s exterior walls are controlled by the constant heat trapped a few feet underground, right beside the house’s foundation. The temperature penetrates the basement walls and cools the air trapped inside. You must then distribute the cool from this musty and damp air, throughout the rest of home.

The most efficient way of doing so is to cover your windows with shades or curtains during sunrise, to minimize the natural heating by the sun. During nighttime when the outside temperature falls below 75 degrees, open your upstairs windows while leaving your fan on, to suck in the cool air.

But, once the temperature get higher than 75 degrees, you can turn on your geothermal cooling system by opening one of the windows in the basement. You don’t need to open it fully. A small opening is enough just to let some air through. Be sure to close all other windows in your house except for one. That way, air flows through the open windows. The open window should be the highest one in your house. This will vent out the most hot air.

Your small fan should be turned on and should point toward the window. This should make the air from the basement move up to the open window, and let the hot air go out. It usually takes between thirty minutes to one hour to circulate the cool air from the basement to the rest of the house.

This method of utilizing geothermal energy might seem to involve lots of work. But your family and your finances will benefit from it in the long run. You’ll see your dependency on your air conditioner decrease, resulting in lower energy bills.

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There are more ways to cool your homes without the need of plugging into the grid. For information on where to find complete and step-by-step instructions on how to install DIY Wind and Solar Power systems, along with pictures, videos, and diagrams, please visit Bestselling DIY Wind & Solar Power Guides.

You can also find more general information and solar power projects at Do-it-Yourself Solar Power.

Source Article: Cool Your Home with Geothermal Energy

When a solar cooling system is set up properly, the hotter the temperature gets, the cooler your home will be. Are you wondering how this works?

Solar heat can actually help cool your home. When a solar cooling system is set up properly, the hotter the temperature gets, the cooler your home will be. You might wonder how this works …

You can use heat to cool your home by using the forces of nature to pump air and drive the heat away.

Here are some DIY projects that you can consider, in the quest for a cooler home:

1. You can try building a thermal or solar chimney. This is a heated chimney that collects and ejects heat from the interior of the house. Once the chimney collects heat from the sun, it creates a vacuum effect which sucks in cool air, while hot air exits through the top vent. Your chimney can be in the form of a hole in the floor with ducts through the roof. You can cap the chimney with a turbine that will catch air, to help release hot air out of the structure. If you set it up in this way, your thermal chimney will function as a wind chimney as well. This solution will make your cooling system work during the day, when the sun is up, as well as during the night, when the wind is blowing.

2. You could also use an evaporative cooler. We all know that when water absorbs heat, it evaporates. Thus, when air travels over water, it cools down. This method should be used when the humidity level is low. And be sure to use preventive measures against health hazards that can be presented by stagnant water – such as malaria, mildew, and Legionnaire’s Disease. The size of you evaporative cooler would depend on the size of your home. It usually consists of a box containing the fan, and a wet pad. It can be mounted on your roof, or at the side of your house. You can use a windmill to circulate the water that keeps the pad wet. The fan will blow the air through the pad, and the air will eventually enter into the house through open windows or vents.

These are just some of the ways you can use solar and wind energy to cool your home. There are also kits you can buy – but, like most DIY projects you can purchase the things you need in a local hardware store. Commercially available kits are likely to cost more than what you would spend if you buy your parts separately, although they might also be faster and easier to set up.

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If you are looking for complete and step-by-step instructions on how to install DIY Wind and Solar Power systems, along with pictures, videos, and and diagrams, please see DIY Wind and Solar Cooling Methods.

For more basic information on solar cooling, see Solar Cooling

Source Article: DIY Wind and Solar Cooling Methods

Build Your Own Wind Generator – Reduce Your Electric Bill
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Bob_Nesheim]Bob Nesheim

Believe it or not, it is possible to build your own wind generator.  The truth is they are not that hard to build, they consume no fossil fuels, produce no air pollution and can reduce your electric bill dramatically.  As you can see, it’s a win, win situation.  You can help the environment and lower you monthly expenses at the same time.  When you consider that you can build your own wind generator for under $200, it’s no wonder many homeowners have opted for wind power.

You might wonder why you should even bother to build your own wind generator when you can go buy one.  The answer, of course, is that a commercial wind generating system will cost you thousands of dollars to purchase.  The parts you need to build one, however, can be found at a hardware store and an auto junkyard.  Even if you went out and bought the best quality materials available, it would still cost you far less than having a system professionally installed.  Plus, there is a sense of pride you get in building something with your own two hands.

Now wind power is not for everyone.  The wind doesn’t blow all the time so it’s not a constant power source.  You do have batteries which stores power for those windless days, but that won’t last very long.  Simply put, the average wind speed for your area should be over 10 mph.  If you live in a place where the wind speed is lower than that, then you should not build your own wind generator, it just won’t work very well.  To find out the wind speed in your area, you can Google ‘average wind speed’ to see a chart that will give you that data for many cities across the U.S.A.

If you live in a place that’s especially windy, you can generate a lot of electricity and reduce your electric bill substantially.  Even in a less windy area, you can still save money by supplementing the electric power in your home.  You might also want to consider building several wind turbines to reduce your electric bill even further.

It’s not very difficult to build your own wind generator. It takes some work but it’s not overly complicated. With the [http://www.newinfosite.com/]proper guide, you can start building wind turbines right away. Remember, you get what you pay for when it comes to instructions. Make sure you find a highly [http://www.newinfosite.com/]detailed manual that’s also easy to follow.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bob_Nesheim http://EzineArticles.com/?Build-Your-Own-Wind-Generator—Reduce-Your-Electric-Bill&id=2487066