Plenty of people will provide an Earth 4 Energy review saying the product is great, but few actually tell us why or whether it can really benefit our efforts to take advantage of wind and solar power in the home. For those of us who are prospective buyers of this type of product, often one of the foremost questions we have in our minds is ‘will this really give me the information I need to get the job done?’. The reality is, a lot of the online ‘tutorial’ type packages are a bit light on when it comes to the all important details of actually purchasing and installing the necessary components to a wind power or solar energy system.
Click Here To Read More About Earth 4 Energy & How To Make Your Own Solar Panel
Without wanting to sound too much the cynic, if I purchase a guide on how to build a windmill…I want a guide on how to build a windmill, not a fluffy overgeneralized guide which blankets basic info with unpersuasive Propaganda about how good I should feel for ‘doing my part’ for the environment. Not that saving the planet isn’t high on my agenda…it is, but I want to make sure that any info product I purchase showing me how is worthy of the investment.
Fortunately, Earth 4 Energy is one of the guides which doesn’t skimp on the details. In fact, it’s positively brimming with info and that is one of the major reasons it tops our product list.
Earth 4 Energy is a downloadable ‘ebook’ and video product which primarily comprises a 70+ page pdf document and associated tutorial video’s. Ahhhhh video’s…thank goodness for videos. It is quite literally a step by step, fully integrated guide to purchasing and installing alternative energy systems and if the vids aren’t enough the book is fully illustrated to help the handyman handicapped among us.
What immediately impressed us was the ease of use of the guide, and the emphasis on affordability of alternative energy systems. It literally takes a step by step, paint by numbers approach to to the task of implementing solar and wind power supply using readily available materials. For those living outside the States (like me) you’ll need to make the odd metric adjustments, but one other huge benefit of Earth 4 Energy was the provision of exact specifications and material requirements. Did we mention we loved the video’s? Anything that lets us be a home hardware expert by mimicry alone gets our thumbs up.
We’re not left in the dark wondering which battery we need, guessing what the appropriate height of our wind tower should be, or how to set up our relay to figure out whether they are actually charging and saving us money or whether we’ve simply constructed an expensive garden ornament. Those with a bit of technical knowledge will probably want to skip over some of the more obvious guidelines, but can still benefit from the designs.
Maureen Smith
March 1st, 2010 at 10:47 am
what are some factors that affect the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth's surface?
i am confused i can not find this in my notes its for a exam review…what are four factors that affect the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth’s surface?
March 1st, 2010 at 3:49 pm
It depends on if you mean a small part of the Earth’s surface, like for example your city, or if you mean the Earth as a whole.
For a small part of the planet, the amount that reaches the surface will be affected by weather (especially clouds), time of day (obviously you get more at noon than at dusk), time of the year (you get less in the winter), and air pollution (natural or man-made).
Globally it is mostly constant, but it does change based on small variations in the amount of radiation coming from the sun. Of course, this will also have an effect locally, but not as the local effects do.
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March 1st, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Solar energy to human and to entire planet … are two different categories. Solar energy for human means, the direct sun light humans use to convert into electricity and that solar energy is affected by following four factors —– 1) rain clouds which are dark in nature and block most of the sun light 2) dust particles within city area, ash particles in coal burning areas 3) fog/smog mostly during winter season which blocks visibility also 4) other pollutants like smoke/fuel emissions/vehicle and industrial air pollutants
For the solar energy to plants/animals/entire planet the four factors are — 1) dust particles 2) green house gases which brakes the ozone layer and brings harmful ultra violate light inside the earths atmosphere instead of clear and healthy sunlight 3) other pollutants like smoke/fuel emmissions/ vehicle and industrial air pollutants(pollution created by humans) 4) clouds/fog/smog mostly during winter season which blocks visibility also
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March 1st, 2010 at 3:53 pm
incomplete question but here goes, my answer is slated toward PV solar
orientation: what latitude you are at has effect on energy the closer to the equator the more power full
(solar panel in the us are always pointed true south to harvest more power)
altitude: higher altitude receive higher amounts of irradiation
(Denver has less sun hours in reality due to its more northerly position on the planet than Los Angeles per yer year but maintains a higher isolation ( sun hours) value due to altitude)
weather: a climate that is constantly cloudy will receive less irradiation.
(the Mojave desert will have more sun hours than Los Angeles due to weather it is virtually same the spot on the earth and has almost identical sun up sun down values)
tilt: what time of day it is will have an effect on irradiation due to the tilt of the earth
(noon will have the strongest irradiation because of angle to the sun
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