It’s not easy going green as they say but there are plenty of books to help you on your journey. We have listed four great books that contain detailed information from wind power to chickens.

Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) transfer heat from the ground into a building to provide space heating and, in some cases, pre-heating domestic hot water. For every unit of electricity used to pump the heat, 3-4 units of heat are produced. As well as ground source heat pumps, air source and water source heat pumps are also possible.

The main elements of a GSHP are:

Ground loop - comprises lengths of pipe buried in the ground, either in a borehole or a horizontal trench. The pipe is usually a closed circuit and is filled with a mixture of water and antifreeze, which is pumped round the pipe absorbing heat from the ground.

Heat pump - although we may not know it heat pumps are very familiar to us - fridges and air conditioners are both examples. A heat pump has three main components:

1. Evaporator - (e.g. the squiggly thing in the cold part of your fridge) takes the heat from the water in the ground loop;

2. Compressor - (this is what makes the noise in a fridge) moves the refrigerant round the heat pump and compresses the gaseous refrigerant to the temperature needed for the heat distribution circuit. Condenser, (the hot thing at the back of your fridge) gives up heat to a hot water tank that feeds the distribution system;

3. Heat distribution system - consists of under floor heating or radiators for space heating and in some cases water storage for hot water supply.

Three options are available for the ground loop: borehole, straight horizontal and spiral horizontal (or ’slinky’). Each has different characteristics allowing you to choose the most suitable for your property. Horizontal trenches can cost less than boreholes, but require greater land area. For slinky coil, a trench of about 10m in length will provide for about 1kW of heating load.

The installed cost of a typical 8kW system varies between £6,000 and £10,000 plus the cost of the distribution system. Naturally costs are dependent on property and location so the cost for a system for your home may different to the estimate above.

The efficiency of a GSHP system is measured by the Coefficient of Performance (CoP). This is the ratio of the number of units of heat output for each unit of electricity input used to drive the compressor and pump for the ground loop. Typical CoPs range between 2.5 to 4. The higher end of this range is for under floor heating, because it works at a lower temperature (30-35C) than conventional radiators.

Based on current fuel prices, assuming a CoP of 3-4, a GSHP can be a cheaper form of space heating than oil, LPG and electric storage heaters. It is however more expensive than mains gas. If grid electricity is used for the compressor and pump, then an economy 7 tariff usually gives the lowest running costs.

You should consider the following issues if you are considering a ground source heat pump. An accredited installer will be able to provide more detailed advice regarding suitability.

· The type of heat distribution system. GSHPs can be combined with radiators but under floor heating is better as it works at a lower temperature.
· Is there space available for a trench or borehole to accommodate a ground loop?
· Is the ground material suitable for digging a trench or borehole?
· What fuel is being replaced? If it is electricity, oil, LPG or any other conventional fossil fuel the payback will be more favourable. This makes heat pumps a good option for off gas grid areas.
· Do you want to be 100% renewable? If so, purchase green electricity, or install solar PV or some other form of renewable electricity generating system to power the compressor and pump.
· Do you require a back up heating system?
· Is there also a cooling requirement?
· Is the system for a new building development? Combining the installation with other building works can reduce costs.
· Can you incorporate insulation measures? Including wall, floor and loft insulation will reduce your heat demand.

Visit the energybook marketplace to find great wind power products, books and more. Place you products on the marketplace.

http://www.wxtrade.com

Below are some of the best Green videos of the week, collected by the Ecolive.TV community.

Can’t Close Our Eyes

Narrated by Harrison Ford, “Can’t Close Our Eyes” outlines the threats we face from destroying the world’s natural life support system and the reasons we still have for optimism.

Storm Chase

A tornado chaser shows a newbie how to follow tornadoes, but gets too close.

 Delivering Your Mother’s Day Murals to Congress

Over Mother’s Day weekend you created hundreds of murals calling for climate action. These murals express an urgent call to action and in the aftermath of the Lieberman-Warner bill’s failure, 1Sky delivered your message to Congress.

More Green videos: Global Warming, Nature Protection , Animal Protection, Green living, Green Technology, Disaster relief, Activism, Advocacy, Funny and Extreme

Linkedin.com is a great site. When made redundant a year ago I used the site to keep in touch with my old work colleagues and also make new links and contacts. I was referred to a headhunter and picked up a new job with a blue-chip company in only a couple of months. Do I use it every week no, but it is there when I need it. What’s more unlike Facebook and Plaxo I can use the website at work as it has not been banned yet.

Which bring s me to what I believe is a clear disadvantage - you cannot link it through to Facebook the great social networking site that helps bring people to life on the internet. Linkedin is pretty conservative without even photographs let alone details about what you might be doing at the weekend. But it is a dynamic community; try asking the community a question. The answers are usually of a high quality and posted in good time. Try one today and see what you get back. But don’t just take have a look at the questions other people are posting and see if you can help. If you think that the question is just blatant attempt to promote or advertise then you can vote to have it removed. All to often sites are swamped by get rich quick’ offers and links to dubious sites. Yes, Linkedin has kept itself clean and long may that continue.

Will I continue using the site? Definitely as you never know when you might need those contacts or when you might be able to help someone out in their hour of need.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/923/037 - to see my linkedin profile

Here in he UK lots of people either burn wood or have the potential to burn wood to heat their homes. As oil and gas prices rise I expect the demand for wood to increase and if the laws of economics apply then the price will start to rise. This will be a great shame. What would be worse is if the price for biomass starts to rise just because oil and gas prices are rising - a quick buck to be earnt.

Interestingly unlike gas and oil that so many people heat their homes with wood is easy to store and transport. There are many sources from old pallets to logs in bags at the local DIY store. Will we see more sources of supply coming to the market. Will we once again see smoke rising from the chimneys of houses across Britain?

I would welcome peoples’ views on this.

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Biomass fuel briquette production, environmental conservation and income generation for sustainable development.

Chopping, threshing and mashing of the materials for briquetting has always been limited to either a laborious hand pounding or very expensive 5 or 10 Kw hammer milling machines. Legacy has developed over the past year, a unique combination machine, the TMC-1, which threshes, mashes and chops a wide variety of materials efficiently. It is further detailed in the products Services and Pricing section, accessed here. Legacy has also been developing new mechanised and semi-mechanical pressing equipment that are anticipated to be out on the market within the next nine months, with adequate support. Great fuel for sustainable living.

Manuals are available as ebooks for instant download in the OneToRemember biomass click here>>

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Are we getting back to the 1970s when the high energy prices started the alternative energy movement? I think it was then that people started making their own energy devices again - wind, solar and biomass. The innovation was wonderful. Too often we see high priced products that just won’t pay and are difficult to maintain. (In my opinion sustainable living is not just about buying an expensive piece of equipment off of the shelf….but then again anything that helps is welcome. )With a low cost DIY project you can get the energy you need at a low cots, recycle parts around you, and have some great fun too!!

This is the wind speed at which the wind generator begins producing. For all practical purposes, wind speeds below about 6 to 7 mph (3 m/s) provide little or no usable energy, even though the blades may be spinning. At best, this minimal output only overcomes the power losses caused by a long wire run or the voltage drop due to diodes. We are beginning to see high-tech controllers that are able to “store” the small amount of energy available at low wind speeds in the alternator windings. This energy is then pulsed to the batteries in a manner similar to a pulse width modulated charge controller.

One of the first scales to estimate wind speeds and the effects was created by Britain’s Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857). He developed the scale in 1805 to help sailors estimate the winds via visual observations. The scale starts with 0 and goes to a force of 12. The Beaufort scale is still used today to estimate wind strengths.

Here is a link to more information and the complete scale >>

We should enourage this type of thinking. So it sounds crazy  - but then we know how many other things sounded crazy when they were first voiced. If there were not ideas like this earoplanes would still have propellers, cars would have solid tyers, potatoes would have been left in South America and computers would still be main frames. 

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/06/04/agustin-otegui-nano-vent-skin/

Equality in a political sense in terms of human rights, political rights, pay and opportunity, to name but a few, has to be the goal that we all seek. It seems strange to most of us in Western cultures that women had to fight for the vote and equal pay in our recent history. What were we thinking of? Why should men me the sole custodian of our political direction?

In looking at organisations for example a religion, a club or a society - a fundamental question for me is whether men and women have the same rights. Indeed I will also look further at race, colour and sexuality. This means that I could not, even if wanted to, join certain religions or churches within those religions, for example. So this leaves me a number of questions. Why do some men and women think that women should be, for example, ruled by men? What are the advantages to women? Has this always been the case? Are there good examples of truly equal societies throughout history?

One conclusion for me is that true equality seems to be delivered by developed and confident societies and cultures. The more we foster and support equality the better our lives become. In conclusion we do not need to ask the question it is the only true and equitable path to follow.

Poodles are great dogs. We own a lovely standard year old black bitch called Bobbie. She is everything that we want in a dog. Indeed Poodles offer so much as they are affectionate, clever, great family dogs, athletic, trainable, etc., etc. And as they don’t shed their fur they go anywhere in the house.

So what’s with the need to cross Poodles with other dogs? What else are people looking for? Is it just that Poodles have a bad name? Crossbreeds don’t naturally take the best parts of their respective parents. So if you believe that a Labrador Poodle cross for example is going to be the prefect dog be careful. You may well end up with a food driven dog that chews everything, gets over excited and sheds hair.

No, my advice is to stick with a pure bred Poodle and enjoy a fantastic dog that has been around since the Middle Ages. Get to know the breed enjoy their characteristics and be proud to walk your poodle along the street. You don’t need to give your dog a fancy haircut just a nice even cut makes them look great. When people see what a great dog you have people will stop to talk to you and admire. And when someone asks what type of dog you have say proudly - my dog is a pure Poodle and is absolutely wonderful’

Not for the home generator but the energy contained in ocean waves can potentially provide an unlimited source of renewable energy.

Wind generated waves on the ocean surface of the world have a total (estimated) power of 90 million GW. Because of the direction of the prevailing winds and the size of the Atlantic Ocean, the UK has wave power levels that are amongst the highest in the world. The wave energy industry, like the tidal one, sees itself as having the potential of the wind industry but is currently around 10 years behind it. In 2003 the total capacity was 0.5 MW.

The connection of wave machines to the electricity grid system can pose a number of technical challenges, which can make the connection requirements more complex than connections for conventional generating plant.

In the UK we are only ever 70 miles away from the coast. So with all this energy available why not now?