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Answer by zeltar01
The Seattle Times is running a short article every day this month with steps you can take. I’m sure you can look it up online.

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” How to start an organic garden ” – That’s what many people asked. If you are one of them. Here’s an advice; think simple and not complicated. This article will show you the 4 simple Steps to starting your beautiful organic garden. Basically on “How To Start An Organic Garden”.

Step #1: Planning Your Organic Garden

Planning Your Organic Garden is the most important step to start an organic garden and many people simply overlooked this one. If you don’t plan well, you will end up doing a lot of unnecessary stuffs. Always plan ahead.

During your planning, you must choose a location. Some guidelines in choosing a good location for your organic garden includes:

Having 6 hours of direct sunlightGood soil drainageGood air circulationNot too much strong winds

Next, you must plan what crops you want to plan and then follow that plan out, dutifully.

Step #2: Getting the Soil Ready

As an organic gardener, your soil is crucial to your success. Thus, you must test your soil with a home test kit to make sure it hits a pH value of 6.8.

Ensure your pile is fertile by adding a little compost for more nutrients. Only after your soil has reached a pH value of 6.8 and the fertile stage, then you can proceed to planting your plants. Otherwise, they will not receive the best treatment it can get.

As you are testing and clearing the soil, always check to see if there are weeds. If there are, remove them or otherwise, once it grows, you are gonna have a hard time removing them.

Step #3: Plant Your plants

Most people would save time and buy grown plants from gardening centers and transfer to organic garden. This might not be safe as you would not know what sort of chemical fertilizers had they used. Other methods includes planting your plants indoors and growing your seeds directly in your organic garden.

It all depends on individual preference but I would recommend growing it indoors first and then transfer to your organic garden. That way, you can save time, monitor your plants perfectly and transfer to the organic garden only when it is time.

Step #4: Controlling and Maintaining Your Garden

Here comes the most important Step that many will give up at this Step. Why? Simply because they can’t control their organic garden and it turns out to be a complete mess.

Firstly, you got to know and develop recipes to keep pests off your garden. Secondly, you must encourage beneficial bugs and animals into your organic garden. They will do most of the work of annihilating the pests for you. Of course, you still have to do most of the work, managing your organic garden.

Thirdly, many people find weeds a complete irritant. Many in fact, given up because their entire organic garden turned into an “organic weed garden”. Always minimize the weed growth right from the start. Otherwise, it will become disastrous.

These are the 4 simple steps that you can apply to start your organic garden. Always remember that the key to your organic success is your soil. Treat it well and they will serve you well.

Global warming is also a change that brings lots of negative consequences. It is said that main reason of global warming is the emission of greenhouse gases. Ranging from decades to hundreds and thousands of years, the green house gases can stay in the atmosphere for a number of years. No matter what we do for stopping the effects of global warming, some effects of climate warming will still remain there.

Spread of diseases, warmer weather and more hurricanes, increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves, economic consequences are some of the effects of climate warming. The people who are staying in the places which are already warmer in climate are suffering a lot from various kinds of diseases, such as: northern countries warm, disease carrying insects migrate north, bringing plague and disease with them. Moreover, due to the temperature rises of oceans, the probability of more frequent and stronger hurricanes gets increased. It is also said that due to the increase of temperature, people suffer from serious droughts and heat waves, especially in Africa and Europe is also expected to be the sufferer of this consequence. However, just talking about the consequences or effects of global warming will not help to solve these problems. Taking necessary steps to reduce these effects will help us in this regard.

Today if we were to think of a world without vehicles, electricity and a lot such facilities we would be feared. But in order to help Mother Nature it is time for us to act and act quickly.

One would say how we can help our earth and what should we do. A few of the simple steps recommended in this article can be followed by all of us in our day to day life to show your love towards earth.

But first we need to understand what the threats are which we are aiming to eliminate. Global warming means the increase in temperature of the atmosphere on earth. This increase in temperature is due to deforestation and many other reasons. The hole in ozone layer is the depletion of the ozone layer and reduction in its thickness. This hole in ozone layer is increasing due to increase in emissions of gases like carbon dioxide, CFC and other gases.

In order to curb deforestation we need to plant more trees and encourage increasing the forest areas in our locality. But as we need more and more space for development simple steps like planting of saplings in our gardens and house can help. Hence we can contribute a bit from our side to reduce deforestation and hence curb global warming.

Toxic gases which affect the ozone layer are mainly emitted from appliances. In order to reduce emission of these toxic gases we can try and find out alternate appliances which emit less toxic gases. Some suggestions are as follows: We can stop using the old refrigerators which emit a lot of CFC and start using the new ones which are CFC free and do not emit CFC at all. We can also start reducing the usage of air conditioners and heaters. If reducing the usage is not possible then we can at least change the settings and temperature that is set in order to ensure less consumption of electricity and less emission of gases like CFC. This also helps in reducing global warming.

In order to conserve the natural resources we can start avoiding usage of vehicles for a short distance trips. Instead prefer public transport or use bi cycles. By doing this we show that we love our earth. Start using other energy options where possible like, start using solar energy for your water heaters and other electronic appliances instead of electricity. This will reduce the consumption of coal which is needed for generation of electricity. Reduction in use of coal results in less emission of gases when coal is burnt. As a result global warming is reduced.

Just following these steps is not sufficient. We need to educate our friends, relatives and our neighbours about these steps.  We also need to try and convince them to follow these steps. In order to justify our idea we may need help of reasoning as to why should we start following these steps. A few of the justification which can be used by you are as follows: Educate them about dangers of U.V rays affecting their skin if ozone layer is not present. For those who love being healthy, inform them about how they will be healthy if they use a bi cycle for transportation and they will save time by avoiding separate work out session. For those who love saving money, tell them about how they can save their money by using solar energy which is absolutely free and safe to use instead of electricity.

Really this is a three step process, so let’s cover each step individually to help you go off grid and build your own solar energy system.

Living off Grid Step 1 – Determine Your Requirements.

Your first step can actually be divided into two separate steps. First, it’s worth taking the time to reduce your energy needs before converting to solar power. This is as simple as looking at what you currently have and replacing things with more energy efficient models.

As an example, a 100 Watt incandescent bulb uses 100 Watts of energy for every hour you have it on. A newer LCD bulb has cleaner light and uses only 4.5 Watts of energy to produce the same amount of light. Simple changes like this will reduce your energy requirements and in turn reduce the cost of your overall system.

If you need help with this step, Canada’s Energuide is an excellent resource to learn about the energy requirements of different items, and comparing them to reduce energy. Also, the implementation guide that comes with Green Power Easy details the steps needed here very well. Find a link to their site at the end of this article.

Once you’ve reduced your energy requirements, you need to take the time to calculate how much energy you use on a daily basis. This is as simple as looking at everything in your home that requires electricity and then calculating the Watt-Hour requirements.

For example if you look at your lightbulbs:

That LCD 4.5Watt Bulb is on for 4 hours a day. It then uses 4.5 x 4 = 18 Watt Hours of Electricity each day.

Your fridge that is rated at 400 Watts (runs about 1/3 of the time) uses 400 x 8 = 3200 Watt hours of electricity every day (or 3.2 kW Hours) .

Continue this with every electrical appliance in your house until you have a complete list of what’s needed.

Living off Grid Step 2 – Build Solar Panels to Suit

Your next step is to build enough solar panels to suit your home’s needs. If you were building 100 Watt panels, then each one is capable of producing about 1.2 kilo Watt Hours of electricity every day. If in step one you determined that you needed 10 kilo Watt hours per day to run your home, you would then need 8 panels to run your home.

In this case, you want to produce more power than you actually use so you should build more. Using the above example I might choose to build 11 panels to ensure I have energy to spare and that I never reduce my battery bank to 0.

Building your own solar panels is surprisingly simple. A DIY guide to alternative energy can teach you everything you need to know.

Living off Grid Step 3 – Assembly Your Solar Power System

The last step to living off grid is to put together your final system. This will entail getting a charge controller (can be built yourself for about ¼ of the cost), setting up a battery bank, and then getting a power inverter and wiring everything into your home.

As always, doing your research about any subject you are about to tackle will more than pay for itself.

1. Determine your historical energy use from your past electric bills. Pay attention to the difference between Summer and Winter power usage.

2. Determine your roof area available for Photovoltaic Panels. These Solar Panels mounted on your roof or ground contain the Photovoltaic (PV) cells which convert sunlight into DC power. South facing surface areas are best but seasonal variations in sun exposure allow for a variety of Solar Panel placements to be used. Also, new technology allows for sun “tracking” or programmed mechanical moving of the solar panels to maximize sun exposure during the day and across all seasons of the year.

3. Contact a licensed and aproved Solar Installation Contractor(s) in your area to perform an on-site consultation. Your contractors will know all the current solar technologies available and how to take advantage of all possible Federal, State, and possibly local solar tax rebates, grants, etc.

4. The Solar Installation Contractor will determine best location for your Photovoltaic Panels and best Inverters to use for the size of the Solar System. Location of solar panels may vary as well as type of panels. Inverters (which convert the solar panel current from DC to usable AC current) need to be chosen based on best size and type for the system as does the Production Meter (explained below). The power from the Solar Panels are sent to an Inverter (or power converter) which converts the DC electricity from the solar modules to AC power, which is the same type of power being sent from your utility company to your home or business. 5. Discuss all costs for various solar electric system options and installation timing with your Solar Installation Contractor to finalize all variables. Once all is decided upon it is the time to sign the contract with your Solar Installation Contractor.

6. Your Solar Installation Contractor will submit applications to your electric utility and begin paperwork with all possible Federal, State, and possibly local tax rebates, grants, etc., to save you the maximum money possible.

7. You will then sign a contract with your electric utility. This is called a Net Metering Agreement and states that the power utility will credit your account for the excess power you produce which flows to the power grid. Also an important consideration is the use of a Meter Monitor. This will allow you to be given credit for power you generate at different rates. These rates can be Peak and Off Peak Rates. These rates are dependent on time of day you produce power, day of the week, and month of the year. Peak Rates are often summer afternoon week days. If you send power to the grid during peak times, you will get credit at the higher, peak rate. When you gain credit and then draw on your credit at Off Peak periods your account will be debited at Off Peak rates. If all of the electricity being generated by your solar energy system is immediately being used, your meter will not “spin backwards”.

8. Your Solar Installation Contractor will generate design drawings and pull all permits needed and, when you are ready, will install your system. Once completely installed your County or City will inspect the system to insure compliance of your system and insure you are elligible for the Solar Tax Rebates and / or benefits you have applied for.

9. You Utility Company will be Sending you your Solar Rebate Check 6 to 8 Weeks after Inspection of System.

10. Enjoy decades of environmentally friendly and maintenance-free electricity solar power while adding value to your home! Give yourself a good pat on the back for saving money AND the planet.

You really need to be ready for a small, simple, large and sometimes complex challenge when wanting to construct a homemade wind generator. So many say its easy, but after completing a couple myself… They aren’t simple, but they are very rewarding. Get started by following these 5 simple steps!

Determine Wind Speed in your area to ensure you receive maximum results. This seems obvious, but there are many people who have set out to build a wind generator, only to complete their project and not produce near the amount of energy they imagined! Keep in mind, if wind speed is below 5 miles per hour building a homemade wind generator may not be the most economical choice. Do you have space? Wind generators require space for the tower and room for the blades. The ideal space would be free of trees and tall buildings. Keep in mind, wind generators vary in size. The space you will need will be determined on the scale of your project. To ensure you complete a homemade wind generator that works, you need to make sure you have an easy to follow set of plans. If not, you might just be taking a shot in the dark and end up with a pile of metal! Phew! We avoided a great catastrophe with tip number 3! Now that we have wind, space and plans we can move forward! Step #4 is really about making sure you have budgeted for your project. For many, a few hundred dollars is an investment. It will pay for itself in the long run, but please be realistic with the out of pocket expense. There are a few websites online (sites where you can bid on materials!) that always have great, high quality parts for low prices. Check them out, you will save yourself a pretty penny. What are you doing still reading this? Step #5 is about getting started! Oh yeah.. And please finish! Gotta love all the projects around my house that aren’t quite finished!

That’s all folks. 5 simple steps to help you build your homemade wind generator. I know, I didn’t quite walk you through step by step how to actually construct one, I have to leave that up to you. There are so many DIY homemade wind generator plans available that will help you.

Take the time to share this project with someone, if you have kids get them involved! This is our planet, and by deciding to create alternative energy you will be lending a helping hand in cleaning it up. Start making a change today, visit Home Made Wind Generator for a great DIY project!

Solar power energy systems are not inexpensive. That said it’s important to compare them within context of other types of home improvement projects. Home buyers and realtors view a solar photovoltaic or solar hot water heating system as a significant value-added improvement â?? similar to adding a deck or remodeling your kitchen. Plus unlike a deck or kitchen remodel, you also gain one-up on your power bills. Here are some foolproof ways to estimate the cost of a solar photovoltaic or solar thermal system and to figure out if a solar energy system makes sense for you.

Six Easy Steps To Estimate Cost of a Solar Power System

Solar power energy systems are not inexpensive. That said it’s important to compare them within context of other types of home improvement projects. Home buyers and realtors view a solar photovoltaic or solar hot water heating system as a significant value-added improvement â?? similar to adding a deck or remodeling your kitchen. Plus unlike a deck or kitchen remodel, you also gain one-up on your power bills.

Solar power systems often get an additional financial boost as well: many jurisdictions and utilities across the USA offer attractive financial incentives to drive down the upfront capital costs associated with a solar power system.

Here are some foolproof ways to estimate the cost of a solar photovoltaic or solar thermal system and to figure out if a solar energy system makes sense for you. Let’s start with a home photovoltaic (PV) system.

Step 1: Estimate your home’s electricity needs

To get started, it’s good to have a sense of how much electricity you use. You’ll have a better point for comparison if you find out how many kilowatt hours (kWh) you use per day, per month, per year. Your utility bill should include that information.

Of course, the utility bill will also display your costs and many utilities include a graph that displays how your monthly energy use/cost varies throughout the year. That helps you estimate where your highest energy use is and at what time of year.

New Home Construction

If you are constructing a new home, then you’ll need to estimate your demand based on the type of equipment you plan to install and your home’s square footage. The pross call this “your load”.

To figure out your anticipated load, create a table to record the watt use for each appliance. Each appliance â?? be it a water heater, electric light, computer, or refrigerator â?? should have a nameplate that lists its power rating in watts. Or you can get the information from the manufacturer’s website.

Some labels list amperage and voltage only; to obtain watts multiply the two together (amperage x voltage = watts). In another column, record the number of hours each appliance is expected to operate. Then multiple the watts and hours together to estimate watt-hours used per day. Since it’s hard to anticipate all electric loads (it may get tedious scouting out every toothbrush and mobile phone cell charger), you might want to add a multiplier of 1.5 to be safe.

Step 2: Anticipate the future

In 2005, average residential electricity rates across the USA ranged from about 6 to nearly 16 cents per kilowatt hour depending on where you lived. Average retail and commercial electricity rates have increased roughly 30% since 1999 and the upward trend will likely continue especially as costs for the coal and hydropower used to generate that electricity rise as well. So think about your home electricity needs and present and future cost in relation to one another.

Step 3: How much sun do you get?

The Florida Solar Energy Center has conducted a study to examine how a 2-kW photovoltaic system would perform if installed on a highly energy efficient home across the continental USA (http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/publications/html/FSEC-PF-380-04/).

The study accounted for all factors that impact a PV system’s performance such as the temperature effect on the photovoltaic cells, the amount of sun peak hours in various regions, and the efficiency of inverter to convert solar derived energy from DC to AC.

As the study implies, solar photovoltaic systems work just about anywhere in the US. Even in the Northeast or in “rainy Seattle”, a pv system can pencil out if designed and installed properly. In New York or New Jersey, a one kilowatt system should produce about 1270 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, in Seattle, a one kilowatt system should produce about 1200 kilowatt hours per year. In the Southwest, of course, those ratios will be much greater.

Solar contractors in your area can help determine the best size for your solar photovoltaic system.

Step 4: Size your system

In general, solar photovoltaic systems sized between 1 to 5 kilowatts are usually sufficient to meet the electricity needs of most homes. One advantage of grid-tied systems is that you can use solar PV to supplement or offset some of your electricity needs; therefore you can size your system to match your budget and always add to the system later if needed.

Also as a side note, here’s a rule of thumb to remember to help you estimate the physical space your PV system might need: one square foot yields 10 watts. So in bright sunlight, a square foot of a conventional photovoltaic panel will produce 10 watts of power. A 1000 watt system, for example, may need 100 â?? 200 square feet of area, depending on the type of PV module used.

Step 5: Know your rebates

Many states and local jurisdictions offer rebates, tax credits and other types of incentives to homeowners for installing residential photovoltaic and solar domestic water systems. To view a comprehensive database of the incentives available for renewable energy visit http://www.dsireusa.org.

At the Federal Level, you can take advantage of a 30% tax credit (of up to $2,000) for the purchase of a residential solar system at least until December 31, 2008.

Step 6: Run the numbers

Although the cost for a solar PV system will depend on the size of the system you intend to install, your electricity rate, the amount of kilowatt hours you expect to generate, and the state/local rebates/tax credits that may be available, the formulas for calculating the returns are pretty much the same.

For those who appreciate having the formulas, use the ones listed below to do a quick ballpark estimate of how much a solar photovoltaic system might cost you.

Retail Price for Solar Photovoltaic System

+ Building Permits

- $2,000 Federal Tax Credit

- State or Local Tax Credit or Rebate

- Utility Rebate or Other Incentive

= Net Investment

Kilowatts of electricity generated from PV per year

x Kilowatt hours used per year

= Annual Kilowatt energy from the PV system

Annual Kilowatt energy from the PV system

x Current Residential Electricity Rate

= Annual $$ Saved

Yearly Excess PV Energy Produced

x $$ credit applied per watt

= Annual Value from Net Metering

Of course, a more accurate assessment can be made by a pro. Work with a solar power contractor to size and price the right system for you. As is true with any major purchase, don’t hesitate to ask for several bids from different contractors.

Many solar power providers will provide you with a comprehensive estimate. Helpful information to know includes:

- Total cost to make the system operational (labor cost for design and installation and equipment costs)

- Equipment (Make and Model)

- Warranty info

- Permit costs, if needed

- Tax, where applicable

- Federal tax credits

- State or local jurisdiction tax credits or rebates

- Utility rebates

- Expected Renewable Energy Certificates or Net metering credits

- Expected operation and maintenance costs

- Projected savings

Solar Thermal (also called Solar Hot Water)

Solar thermal systems capture the sun’s energy to heat water and are one of the most cost-effective renewable energy systems. They are used to heat hot water tanks and/or a heating system. A solar pool heating system is another type of solar thermal system designed specifically to heat a pool or hot tub.

Generally it’s worth investigating the economic viability of installing a solar hot water system if you have an electric water heater with utility rates of at least 5 cents per kilowatt hour and have tax credits or rebates available. (It may even be worth changing out a gas-powered water heater if your costs are at least $8/million BTU).

The formulas for costing out a solar water heater system are similar to estimating the cost for installing solar PV system. Many solar energy professionals can help you determine what system might work best for you.

Heating Your Swimming Pool with Solar Power

Although few jurisdictions provide financial incentives for using solar energy to heat a swimming pool or hot tub, in general, using solar power to heat your pool is a “no-brainer” from a return on investment standpoint.

The electricity used to heat a pool during the swimming season often amounts to the same amount of energy that homes-without-pools consume over a year. Combining a solar thermal system to generate heat for the pool with a solar thermal pool cover to retain the heat generated can further maximize efficiencies and extend your swimming season.

Most installers recommend that a solar collector used to heat a pool is sized at roughly half the square footage of your pool surface area. Solar thermal panels typically last 10 â?? 20 years and come with a 10-year warranty.

How long it takes to break even on the cost of your solar power pool system depends on where you live. In California or other parts of the Southwest, you’ll break even in 1 to 3 years but places as “far north” as Canada, a solar pool heating system pencils out over a slightly longer period of time.