Off-Grid living, (not using a power company) is a requirement for some remote locations like a cabin at the lake, hunting lodge, campsite, barn, field station, mobile home or a yacht. To live Off-Grid you need to make your own electricity. Conventional ways could include a gas or diesel powered generator that costs $1,000 – $5,000. The fuel cost alone to make energy will be expensive as much as ten times what a Power Company charges. What if you could make free power? Consider the Sun, Wind and Magnetism as free energy sources.

Living Off-Grid can be a way to save money but that would require free energy. Making energy with solar panels, wind generators or magnetic generators is how you can make free energy to get Off-Grid. You need to know how to put these free energy generators together for a reliable system. Concern for reliability may still include a gas or diesel generator but need a much smaller size and cost.

Evaluating Your Power Load

Your primary electrical loads are appliances, cooking and lighting and in some cases hot water heater, heat and air-conditioning. Each has a calculation and a duty cycle. For example a refrigerator draws between 350 – 550 watts when the compressor is running. The compressor “ON” ratio to compressor “OFF” is the duty cycle. In 24 hours the 350 watts times the duty cycle of say 30% would calculate to 24 x 350 x 30% = 2520 watts per day or 105 watts per hour average. Your power source and energy storage would need to be large enough for this load. Repeat the calculation for all the loads and you will determine the size of the Off-Grid system.

Power Sources

If you have a lot of sun you should consider Solar Panels. These devices can produce 70 – 175 watts of free power per panel for a fraction of the day. By having more than one panel 1,000+ watts of free power is possible. Wind generators can produce 450 – 1,000 watts of power all day long. How much free power they make will vary with the wind patterns. Magnetic generators are much smaller devices in the range of 24 – 100 watts. Their advantage is making free power at a steady rate all day long, every day regardless of the weather. Multiple magnetic generators should be a consideration. A conventional gas or diesel powered electric generator can make power too but not free energy.

Energy Storage

All the above power sources need to store their energy production to get completely Off-Grid. Energy storage is in the form of deep cycle storage batteries. Deep cycle batteries are different than your car batteries. Car batteries deliver a lot of power for a few seconds then get recharged. Car battery’s chemistry will be damaged if they get heavily discharged. Deep cycle batteries can deliver power for hours by design an are not damage by heavy discharges. Deep cycle batteries approximate cost each is: $129 @ 33 Amp Hour to $200 @ 450 Amp Hour. The battery Amp Hour rating should be two times the expected load. The batteries last longer that way. To properly charge a battery from the above power sources you need a charge controller (regulator). The controller will take a variety of power source voltages from 14 volt to 48 volts and regulate it to charge the batteries safely. Over charging protection circuits are included. Charge controllers cost from $24 to $84 for 4 – 30 Amp models.

Energy Inverters

To use the free energy that you have stored you need to take the battery voltage and direct current up to household voltage and alternating current. Household voltage of 110 Vac or 220 Vac are electronically made with a device called an “Power Inverter”. Inverter power output range is important to consider. This power output needs to exceed your peak power load. Inverter cost range is at $36 @ 400 Watts to $852 @ 2,000 Watts. Having more than one inverter gives you built in backup.

Backup Systems

Backup systems are required for Off-Grid living. By definition you do not have access to the Power Company’s power. Your stored energy is your first line of backup. That should be designed for a 24-hour load. What do you do after that? If your solar, wind and magnetic power sources no longer work you will need a gas or diesel generator. Because you have energy storage, you only need to recharge the batteries and that will take a much smaller generator. A 400-watt gas generator will cost $102 and a 3,750-watt gas generator will cost $500. Don’t forget these generators have a fuel and maintenance cost and don’t provide free energy.

Conclusion

Off-Grid living is an exciting idea and can have free power. Live or play anywhere without a Power Company. If you purchase Solar Panels @ $5 per watt or Wind Generators @ $1 per watt you will be paying 3 to 10 times what it would take to make your own Solar Panel or Wind Generator. Magnetic Generators are near impossible to buy. To make your own power sources buy a guide. The guides will show you how to make these power sources at home. Free power is the way to go Off-Grid.

If you want my critical review of two of the best guides Go To: http://www.ResidentialEnergyKit.com

by Woody Wilson

Woody Wilson’s background: Marketing Major with honors; US Navy Electronics and Computer expert; Bio-Medical Field Engineer; Salesman; Applications Programmer; US Coast Guard Merchant Marine Captain and all around handyman.

Buying an infrared sauna cabin can be too expensive, especially if you’re not sure you’ll benefit from it. Infrared sauna blankets, bags or domes force you to lie on one place for half an hour and are not cheap too. However, another option exists – it is to do an infrared sauna yourself.

In this article I want to tell you about two ways to build a sauna completely with your own hands, without prefabricated kits. It can be a relatively cheap solution, so you can enjoy a sauna in your home environment for a reasonable price. You can build it to prove yourself that infrared will give some benefit to your health before buying an infrared sauna cabin, or it can be a convenient way to have a home sauna when you have not much free space at your home.

Before I go into explanations I want to warn you about safety. Building a sauna yourself may involve doing some electrical wiring. Infrared heaters used in a sauna usually have high power requirements – as much as 1000 Watt. Please, do not try to build sauna yourself if you don’t know what you’re doing. Better ask or hire someone who has experience with electricity to do it for you. If you’ll set up a sauna in a bathroom keep in mind that as a wet place it has strict requirements for electrical wiring safety.

Infrared sauna with two infrared heaters

First way to set up a home sauna is described by Jim Clements in his article The Bathroom for FIR Sauna, in which he explains how to use two infrared heaters placed in a relatively small room (5×11 feet suggested). He uses two 500 Watt 9 Amp infrared heaters from THMI, saying that these heaters give similar experience as in an infrared sauna cabin. He gives no specific information about this heaters aside from wattage and don’t know if any other brand of heaters will suit for this sauna set-up. I think it is important that heaters should not have too high wattage (not above 600 Watt).

These two heaters should be placed on the either sides of the room (5-6 feet apart). As they are 9 Amp you should either use 20 Amp outlet or use extension cord from some other outlet in your house to split current between two 15 Amp outlets. Make sure that extension cord can safely handle power requirements of an infrared heater.

At pre-heating stage Jim recommends to turn heaters to a door or to a wall for heating to occur faster. Don’t place heaters too close to the walls or other objects due to the risk of inflammation. The heating time is usually greater than with infrared sauna cabin and can be from 30 minutes to an hour. When the room is heated you can use it as a common infrared sauna, just go and sweat there. You may want to place a towel under the door and not to use ventilation as it will let air flow to lower temperature in a room. You don’t necessarily have to use a bathroom for a sauna; you can use any suitable place or make a special enclosure.

As an addition for two heaters Jim uses a 250 Watt infrared lamp hanged on the room ceiling (in his description he suggests to attach it to a shower curtain rod. He says he uses a light bulb from Sylvania but I think other manufacturers will be fine. Try to get a lamp with not focused but radiant infrared light.

Infrared sauna with infrared lamps

Another way to build an infrared sauna at your home is proposed by Dr. Lawrence Wilson. On his page about sauna therapy he describes how to use three 250 Watt infrared light bulbs to build an infrared sauna. You will need three 250 Watt infrared bulbs (not clear heat, as he writes that they have wrong spectrum). He recommends using Philips, General Electric or Sli lamps. Also you will need three ceramic or plastic lamp sockets for the bulbs, fifteen feet of heavy lamp cord, medium duty male wall plug and a switch, or better, timer-switch which is capable to handle seven amps current.

Socket should be mounted on a 46′’ high by 15′’ wide (or 12′’ high by 24′’ wide if you want to mount it on a wall) board made from wood, plywood or veneer. They should form a triangle with the middle socket on the top of it. The top socket should be at chest level when sitting. Sockets should be wired in parallel. Connect socket wire to a switch. After attaching sockets to the board with screws you need to make a cover form hardware cloth to prevent bulbs from touching anything.

Be very careful when using this sauna, always secure a board to a wall to ensure that it will not fall. Do not allow children to play with or use it without your supervision.

Dr. Wilson also describes how to build an enclosure for your sauna with a set of pipes. They form a frame which can be covered by blankets or other fabric to create a small room which can be used for sauna sessions.

Comparison of two methods

The first method described, by Jim Clements, is much easier to implement than the second, by Dr. Lawrence Wilson. And what is more important it uses prefabricated equipment so no additional wiring is needed so the risk of harm or malfunction is low. Heaters are covered so they cannot be touched by design and all wiring is made at factory. The minus is that infrared heaters cost more than infrared heat lamps.

From the other side, Dr. Wilson’s sauna, if made well and accurate is no worse that the first one, but costs significantly less. To build it one should know how to do electrical wiring or have someone who will do it for them. This sauna’s safety depends on a skill of the person who made it and can be dangerous if done improperly.

Once again, I want to warn anyone who wants to build a sauna that you must do it only if you are sure that you’re doing. You should be familiar with electrical wiring and should have skill and knowledge to do it right. Authors of the original articles or me can not be responsible for the misuse of a sauna or any problem with poor construction. Remember – safety first.

I hope this overview of the ways of building an infrared sauna yourself will be helpful. If you’re interested I recommend reading original instructions by the authors of these methods.

If you want more facts and independent opinions on a far infrared sauna, visit Paul Mernon’s infrared sauna web site. Series of articles about infrared sauna health benefits, comparison of different infrared sauna heater types are examples of information you will find there.

More and more homeowners are turning their eyes towards LED bulbs as a technique to save energy. But will you really get the best efficiency by buying this still expensive alternative right away? Or is it better to wait, or to buy other energy-efficient lighting, and use the savings that generates to buy LED house lights later?

You have most likely seen LEDs already: camping headlamps, LED Christmas tree lights, wind-up emergency flashlights. How about LED house lights? If LEDs use so little energy, why aren’t manufacturers scrambling to sell LED lights for the home, and why aren’t consumers scrambling to buy them?

I wouldn’t try to sell you on LED lights as a way to address high energy bills or as the most environmentally beneficial lighting solution around. In fact, I think LEDs have a stretch to go yet, in terms of light strength, durability, and price. There are some LED applications you should invest in now, such as LED Christmas lights. And you might enjoy testing out one or two LED lights, if you’re the energy-saving type. But you are going to do better keeping with your existing lighting, and moving over to fluorescent lighting in the short term. Compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs, will pay for themselves before LEDs have improved enough to make CFLs obsolete.

LEDs are more efficient than incandescent or fluorescent bulbs. But LEDs have very directed light. An incandescent bulb shines over a wide area quite evenly, while LED bulbs are very focused, so that the area they directly illuminate is very bright, while the further you go from the direct beam, the fainter the light. For LED Christmas lights, that isn’t an issue; you just want some bright points of light, which LEDs do very efficiently. But an incandescent or CFL will do a much better job of lighting your dining room than an LED bulb in the same fixture. The light will be more evenly and broadly spread, and with a warmer color temperature.

When you see LED merchant claims of LED light output, you should be suspicious. A rating in Lumens, which indicates brightness, is misleading for LEDs, because of their focused beam. Lumens levels are measured using a sensor placed immediately below the light source. A household LED bulb at 2 watts could have the same lumens rating as a 50 watt incandescent lamp, or as a 15 watt compact fluorescent, but the LED bulb may only send a focused light directly below it to the photo sensor, while the incandescent bulb and compact fluorescent will light up a much broader area, and still give that same lumens measurement for the area immediately beneath the bulb. This could be the source of a frequent negative comment among LED purchasers, such as: “The packaging claims this 2-watt LED light is equivalent to a 50-watt incandescent but it seems closer to a 30-watt incandescent bulb to me.”

When it comes to halogen lights, they are only as energy efficient as incandescent bulbs, so the same energy efficiency considerations apply here. But since halogen lights are generally much more focused than incandescent lights, LED house lights that are made to be swapped in to replace halogen lights are both more efficient than the halogens they replace, and work well for the direct lighting that halogen bulbs are known for. You can purchase LED replacements for the most common halogen bulbs such as GU10 and MR13, and here’s where you may want to start the switchover.

LED house light designers work around the problem of the narrow beam of a light emitting diode, by designing household LED bulbs that are a collection of individual LEDs, with each LED aimed at a different angle, so that a wider area is highly illuminated. This increases the angle of full light provided by an LED light. However very few such bulbs provide the breadth of area coverage of traditional incandescent bulbs or CFLs and at the same time match their total light output.

Where LED lights are an improvement over existing bulbs is as replacements for lighting that is (or should be) highly directed. For example, a light in a narrow hall, where the chief point of the light is to show people their way from one room to another, would be a good use of LEDs.

Task lighting is another area where LEDs are suitable. Why light up your entire workshop if all you need to see is the tools on the work bench right before your eyes? A couple of LED bulbs hanging above the work bench will do the job. But you can only cost-justify this in energy savings if you live half your life in the workroom.

LED lights are, in theory at least, very reliable, when compared to incandescent bulbs and CFLs. LED bulb life ranges from 35,000 to 200,000 hours, versus 1,000 hours for an incandescent light, and 8,000 hours for a CFL. But I have seen consumer reviews of LED lights that report burn-out within a few weeks of installation. So there are quality control issues still to be resolved – again, this is a good reason for holding off a year or two before a major conversion to LEDs.

Whether LEDs will really fulfill their long life expectancy remains to be seen – even the 35,000 hour ones would need to be left on 24×7 for 4 years before they come close to reaching their advertised range. And LED lights do dim with age – so while a bulb might have a lifetime of 35,000 hours, that doesn’t mean it will emit its starting light level for the full 35,000 hours – the older it gets, the less light it will emit. LED lights do slowly fade in brightness and therefore in efficiency, although they will remain more efficient than either CFLs or incandescent bulbs throughout their life.

The “color temperature” of a light, measured in ‘degrees Kelvin’, determines how we respond to its light. Most people are used to the yellowish glow of incandescents at around 2800 Kelvin (2800K), even though fluorescent lights are closer to the natural daylight temperature of 6000K. Any LED house light with a color temperature of 6000K or higher will seem to appear bluish, and any LED house light with a color temperature over about 4000K will appear whiter than an incandescent.

While people are typically worried about how fluorescent or LED lights can make their rooms look hospital- white instead of the comforting yellow hue given off by incandescent lamps, remember that a little compromise on color temperature will really help reduce your energy bill. Be a trend-setter, not a trend-follower – start converting your lights to true daylight colors, whether with fluorescent lights or LED house lights. You will make it easier for your neighbors to switch over, when they find out they won’t be the first people with a slightly bluer light tinge in their homes.

Whether you switch some of your lights to LED lights now, or wait for the technology and reliability to improve, you can be sure that LEDs will play a bigger part in lighting our houses in the years ahead. In my opinion it makes sense to wait, except in certain special lighting situations where the highly directed, focused light of LEDs is what you want, and where you have money to spare. If you just want to save money – or to cut your energy use for environmental reasons – the same amount of money spent on weather-stripping, or most other energy efficiency upgrades, will reduce your energy bills and CO2 emissions more than buying today’s LED lights.

Robin Green runs Green-Energy-Efficient-Homes.com, a website that helps people save energy in their homes. For more on energy efficient LED lights, see LED house lights on Green Energy Efficient Homes.