I would like to write about cost reduction and the environmental protection. Nowadays, thinking environment is very important. Seas are being contaminated and the air is being polluted. However it seems like that everybody is just using energy without thinking about the cost and impact on the environment. In Hungary utilities such as water, electricity, gas, etc. are very expensive. I know developments are always cost a lot of resources, but if we could convert to energy saving houses we could save a lot of money. There are lots of European Union Contests that can support sustainable developments and are accessible to the society. For example: My ingenious father once thought that, we should harvest the rainwater, because it rains a lot. We have a big water tank, we can collect the rainwater in it and we could use it to flush the toilet and for washing. In addition rainwater is perfect for irrigation and car washing. By harvesting the rainwater the cost of our water usage dropped by 60%. “Solar energy is the technology used to harness the sun's energy and make it useable. Today, the technology produces less than one tenth of one percent of global energy demand.” [1] People usually use the solar energy for heating water and it can helps to electric grids. That’s why the next step was to harvest the solar energy. It would be nice to use less energy to produce hot water. We are lucky because our house is south-facing. Thus the roof is perfect for collectors. We can try to minimize the consumption of electricity. Near the collectors there are a lot of places on the roof where we can set up solar panels too which are not only to help in the household machines energy supply but also help in heating of the house with a built-in air-water heat pump. If we have solar panels which produce electricity and we will be able to substitute heating from gas furnace to heat pump which doesn’t produce any emission. After these steps gas is only used for cooking which means much less consumptions and emissions. With the initiation of gas heating, the gas consumption declined by 80%. With the appliance of the solar panel our energy usage dropped down to 39%. If we calculate everything, before developments we had to pay ~ 206 € / month, and now it costs just ~71 €. This is the 34,4 % of previous cost. Moreover investment costs returns in 8-10 years, and if we have an EU or governmental aid, this will be less. All in all if we don’t regret the money for the development, we not only save money, but also we protect the environment. Less gas emission protect the air and we can save fossil fuels if we use renewable energy sources. by Eszter Vonyik References:
[1] http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/solar-power-profile/ [2] https://www.google.fi/search?q=solar+panel&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMIv-m_8tK4yAIVJHdyCh3g4Q5M&biw=1366&bih=631#tbm=isch&q=solar+collector&imgrc=649DBgTCfrPT-M%3A [3] drawn by Eszter Vonyik |
Want to be an author?Write for us and we will publish your writing right here on our blog! It can be about anything related to environmental engineering Archives
May 2019
Categories
All
|