MakeHeat

SEBRING – A year ago Roger St. Laurent decided he was going to make his carbon footprint smaller.He started off by adding two solar panels to heat his water. Soon his cost saving ambitions grew and he added 22 solar panels to power his entire house.His last electric bill was $6.47.”Its unbelievable,” said St. Laurent, a retired Sebring resident.”I told my wife was this a good idea or what.”His 2,800 square-foot Sebring home is an energy saving machine. In the family room, beside the solar panel circuit board, hangs St. Laurents first zero balance electric bill.

via Resident goes solar, electric bill drops to nothing.

” A new technique developed by engineers for producing power-conducting plastics could slash the cost of making solar panels, say researchers.

With mounting concerns about global warming and energy demand, plastics could represent a low-cost alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO), an expensive conducting material currently used in solar panels, according to the researchers.

‘Conductive polymers (plastics) have been around for a long time, but processing them to make something useful degraded their ability to conduct electricity,’ said Yueh-Lin Loo, associate professor of chemical engineering at Princeton University, who led the research team.

‘We have figured out how to avoid this trade-off. We can shape the plastics into a useful form while maintaining high conductivity,’ Yueh-Lin Loo added. …” Read full story at:
http://sify.com/news/plastic-electronics-can-slash-cost-of-solar-panels-news-international-kednkcidcjd.html

People have been making these for years, some have been making a living at it: recycling soda cans in a green way. CanSolair was made by a Canadian inventor, and his business is expanding. Seems the 270+ cans it would take to make your own are much easier to come by all pre-packaged in a nice solar air heater that you don’t have to make yourself. Of course, that’s why I buy prepackaged LED lights nowadays too, except for the expensive ones, which I still either wait for or build myself. See the story at:
http://cbs4denver.com/green/pop.cans.solar.2.912499.html and at http://cbs4denver.com/services/popoff.aspx?categoryId=143&videoId=52025@kcnc.dayport.com&videoPlayStatus=false&videoStoryIds=52025@kcnc.dayport.com&videoTime=&

My 5th grade teacher (Mr. Hart) told me of a similar method used in the army so they could cool their beer, where they’d soak their sock, put the can of beer inside and wait awhile. The water would evaporate, and cool the beer to a “drinkable temperature”. He had a lot of stories, after going through two world wars. Never thought of making a canister to do the same, but this young inventor has. via Inhabitat

A solar powered wetsuit?  Yes, and no need to worry about getting electrocuted when you hang ten in that oh so current-friendly water.  Hoping they come to the states, and that I can wrap my garage in this material.

Billabong SG5: Solar Powered Wetsuit – 5ones.

  By using Trombe Walls (southern facing walls made of solar absorbing material like stone, metal, concrete, adobe, water, etc.), computer modelling the airflow of the building’s inner space, as well as other technologies, the Blue Ridge Parkway’s Destination Center has gotten a “10″ for energy efficiency from the U.S. Green Building Council
    Trombe walls got their name from Felix Trombe, who, with Jaques Michel improved the basic principal and built a passive solar house in Odellio, France.  Many of the basic ideas are now incorporated into solar air heaters, including using a vent at the top to create a solar chimney for use during the summer*
  There are many variations of a Trombe Wall, including using the floor of a sunroom as the heat sink, and drawing the hot air into the house during the winter, and taking advantage of an extended overhang to shade the floor in the summer (solar house plans at hubpages.com has a good overview).

Read further at Destination Center gets a 10″