Friday, December 16, 2011

Hot Water Options For Off Grid Living

!±8± Hot Water Options For Off Grid Living

If you live off grid, you are still going to want hot water for showering, bathing, and cleaning around the home. There are quite a few different options for hot water that you can consider using if you want to do this type of project.

I remember the longest hike I ever took, 13 days alone in the wilds in New Zealand without a shower or bath. I'm sure I smelled a bit as I returned towards civilization, and a farmer at a ranch the last night before I reached the nearest town invited me to spend the night under a roof instead of in my tent. I didn't understand at first why he started building a large fire as it wasn't that cold. It was to warm well water so that I could take a warm bath and clean up.

First of all, you need a clean water supply. Many use well water as I did in New Zealand, rain water, or other options like a local pond or creek to get water. This water will need to be run to your hot water heater which can be a variety of things.

The most common option is a commercial hot water heater. There are heaters like this that run independent of the electrical system with their own solar panels that will collect the energy needed to heat the water. This is the most expensive option but gives you the most control over the temperature of the water.

Some choose to have passive solar hot water systems. The most primitive method is to leave out a few hundred feet of black hose exposed to the sun. The water inside the hose will heat up during the day and become extremely hot. Hook this up to the hot water portion of your shower to mix with the cool water. Whatever you do, do not take a shower just from this hose as it will be too hot most of the time.

Some build passive solar systems that are in a box. This can be made with hose or even copper tubing. Some run these around a radiator or use the same mechanics. These will capture the sun's heat and heat the water. There are a variety of plans for these online that you can lookup and duplicate.

What is nice about each of these options is that you are using the sun as opposed to hooked up utilities to take care of your hot water needs.


Hot Water Options For Off Grid Living

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

How Do You Declutter Your Computer?

!±8± How Do You Declutter Your Computer?

Most people have a computer that is somewhat cluttered. There are missing files, applications that aren't used anymore, and things on the machine that are completely disorganized. There is a better way! There are ways of decluttering your computer so that it's cleaned up again.

The first thing that you need to do for your computer's safety is to get proper spyware and antivirus software. These two should be on your machine at all times, be updated, and run automatically on a regular basis. This will protect your machine from a variety of problems and help keep it cleaner. Your machine probably already has thee but verify this.

Do what you can to clean up and organize your email. Get rid of old attachments that you don't need, organize your email into logical folders, and back it all up so that you can clean everything up. Remove programs and applications on your machine that you aren't using anywhere. This will clean up shortcuts on your computer and make it simpler to use.

Try to clean up all your icons on your desktop and start menu. If there are things you aren't using here, remove them. Also consider optimizing your shortcuts so that the programs you use the most are easy to get to. Organize your computer's files into a logical system. Get certain types of files together like pictures, songs, videos, and other things into their own folders.

Backup your machine. This is very important regardless of how organized you are or not. Consider having some sort of scheduled backup to do on a regular basis just in case.

As an alternative to doing the above, you can also make a choice to completely reload your operating system. This will take of any problems that your machine is having on a software level and clean up your entire system. Restore your programs and files onto the machine when done for a completely decluttered machine


How Do You Declutter Your Computer?

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