If you have a small shed or garage in your backyard, you may need a light source if you were to look for stuff in there. To affix a lighting fixture, you may need to pull a power cable from your house to your shed. That will require additional wiring and not to mention electricity cost.

A simpler solution is to use the L-949 LED lights. Since it is solar powered, there is no need for wiring works and no additional electricity cost.

Lights are emitted from the unit with 10 LEDs which will last for up to 100,000 hours. The LEDs are powered by a Photovoltaic (PV) panel with a 20 foot extension cable. Meaning the solar panel can be located simply on the roof of the shed.

On a full charge, with all 10 LEDs switched on, it will give you up to 2 hours of light. If you were to use only 5 LEDs, it will last up to 4 hours. The unit can be attached on the ceiling of your shed to provide maximum illumination. It has a pull chain which allow easy on and off.

The L-949 from Designers Edge offers you a simple and yet effective solution to brighten a backyard shed using the free energy from the sun. The L-949 is available from Amazon.com for only $24.46. To make your purchase, click here.

Guide To DIY Home Solar Power System

Do you want to know how to use solar energy for your home? If you do, check out Ben Ford’s Homemade Energy Guide e-book.

If comes with pdf files and step by step High Definition (HD) instruction videos. For more information, read the reviews of Homemade Energy Guide on this blog.

Being at the northern hemisphere, Canada has a long period of cold winter climate.

Can a residential solar power system be able to generate sufficient energy for people living in Canada?

If you are living in a cold climate location, solar energy will help you to reduce your home electricity consumption. But the challenge is putting more effort to make your home energy efficient.

During winter time, a lot of energy is used up to generate heat to keep your home warm. Some of the heat may be lost if your house is not properly insulated.

You may not be able to feel the small amount of heat escaping from your house, but your thermostat will. The thermostat will sense the drop in temperature and crank up the heater to run longer and harder. That in effect will hike up your electricity bill.

Even if you are using a home solar power system to supplement your energy usage, some of the power is still being wasted because your home is not well insulated.

Therefore, if you are living in the freezing areas of Canada and you want to use solar energy to reduce your home electricity consumption, put an effort to make your home well insulated.

Call up a contractor to get an estimate on how much it would cost to replace the old insulation. The amount will be a small sum compared to the money you will need to invest for a complete home solar power system.

Saving Cost With DIY Solar Power System

If you want to save cost on a residential solar power system, you can do so by building the system yourself. You can even make the solar panel via Do It Yourself (DIY) approach with inexpensive building material.

What you will need is a good step by step instructional guide. For a complete DIY solar guide, check out John Russel’s Power4Home e-book. He will show you how to make the solar system with minimal cost.

==> Click here to visit Power4Home now!

But when you are using a residential solar power system, power wastage can be a major issue. This is because you have limited power in the battery bank and you may have to wait until the sun comes out to recharge.

So how do you check your electrical appliance energy usage?

To do that, you can use the P3 International P4400 electricity usage monitor. It’s nick name is Kill A Watt!

This is my quick review of the Kill A Watt device.

Basically, the P4400 is a tool to measure how much electric energy your appliance consumes. You can also use it to find phantom loads. Phantoms loads are item that consume power even when are switched off.

To use the device, just plug it in line between any appliance and the wall power outlet. Begin by plugging the Kill A Watt directly to the wall outlet. If there’s power, you will notice the display lights up and show some information.

Then, plug in the appliance into the socket of the Kill A Watt.

At this point, you can already find out some information including:

1) The line voltage.

2) The amperage and wattage consumption of the appliance.

3) The line frequency.

4) Kilowatt hour consumption.

Leave the P4400 monitoring device for a day or a week and then come back to check the figures.

When you return to read the Kill A Watt meter, press the “Red button”. That will show you the total kilowatt consumption of the appliance since it was plugged in.

Press the button again and it will show the accumulated hour since that time. Write down all the figures.

When you’re done, remove the P4400 from the wall outlet. When you do this, the display will immediately go blank. This is because the Kill A Watt has no battery and no memory. That’s why writing down the information first is important.

What do you do with the information you’ve recorded from the Kill A Watt meter?

A few simple calculation with those numbers can teach you a lot about how your appliance uses energy. For example, dividing the Kill A Watt figure by the hour of use tells you the hourly energy consumption rate for that appliance.

The P3 International P4400 (Kill A Watt) device is a great tool to measure the power consumption of your electrical appliances. It will give you a number up to the exact hour rating.

Where you can get the P4400?

It’s available from Amazon.com with Free Super Saver Shipping.

During cold weather, you may not be able to feel the cold air coming in through the power outlets, but your thermostat will feel it.

In order to maintain the ambient temperature, the thermostat will make the heater run longer and harder thus costing you money.

When a house is built, throughout the power outlet electrical boxes, the insulation goes around it and there’s only about 2 inches thick. That is not enough to retain much heat.

How do you check for air leaks from power outlets?

You’ll need to get the TLD100 thermal detection device from Black & Decker.

Shine the TLD100 about 1 foot away from the power outlet to get a temperature reference. Go around the outlet cover and see where the light turns blue. That shows the area is colder due to cold air seeping in.

Note down what is the temperature difference. If it is more than 3 to 5 degree, you’ll need to seal it.

How do you prevent air from coming in through the power outlet?

You can solve that problem very easily and cheaply.

Get some of those baby safety plugs that you put into the outlet holes so babies won’t be able to put their fingers in and get electrocuted.

Believe it or not, putting the plugs into the outlet really do help to prevent air seepage. These safety plugs are very cheap. You can get them from Amazon.com.

When you’ve sealed the outlet, use the TLD100 again and check the temperature difference. There shouldn’t be much temperature variance now.

Where can you get the Black & Decker TLD100?

You can get it also from Amazon.com with free shipping.

Related web pages:

1) Earth4 Energy Scam – Is The Earth4Energy E-book A Fraud?

How could that happened?

During cold winter days, the warm air in the room is seeping out the vent. The worst thing is, cold air from the outside is being blown into the house through the vent!

To check whether your microwave is an air leak in your house is simple. Get the Black & Decker TLD100 and use it to check the temperature of the microwave and its surrounding area.

Most probably, you will find the surrounding area is much warmer that the microwave. If the temperature difference is very big, you’ll have a problem there. This basically means there is a big gaping hole where the hot air is escaping.

The microwave using a vent that is blowing off all the cooking smoke will come out off one of the vents by the side of your house. The problem is, the vent is not very well insulated. If you were to look closely, it is just a piece of flimsy tin cover.

When there is a strong gasp of wind, the cover will open and letting the cold air into your warm room.

Guess what? You may not be able to feel the cold air coming it, but the thermostat will sense it.

The thermostat will then keep the heater running harder and longer. That is how the wall microwave will cost you money even though it is switched off.

How do you fix this problem?

Sadly, there is not a lot you can do to fix this issue. What you can do is seal all the surrounding area around the microwave to make sure no hot air is getting out and no cold air is getting in.

When you’ve finished with the seal, use the Black & Decker TLD100 again to check the surface temperature.

There’s a very cool gadget I just got from Amazon.com, it is the Black & Decker TLD100. It is such a cool tool you’ll think it is a device from Star Trek!

It uses laser technology to detect temperature. Well, laser temperature detection gadgets have been around for quite awhile. So, what’s different about the Black & Decker TLD100? Check this out…

First, you point it at the area you are looking for the temperature. Let’s take a door as an example. You switch on the TLD100 and point it at the door. It will give you a reference temperature. You will see a green light on the door. The green light will indicate the reference temperature of the door.

In the front of the device, there is a “selector” to choose either a 1 degree hotter or colder, the light emitted by the device will change. A blue light will indicate the surface is 1 degree colder than the reference temperature. The red light indicates it is 1 degree hotter. It is that simple.

You can choose the selector to 1, 5 or 10 degree settings. At 1 degree, the device is already very sensitive which is great if you are checking for minute temperature differences.

How do you use the TLD100?

You start of by pointing it to the surface of the door and you will get the temperature. What we want to check are air leaks around the door. Move the light to the crack of the door and if you see the light turns blue, it means the temperature is lower because air is seeping in. The device will also indicate the exact temperature of the door crack area. Awesome!

Move the light all the way around the door jam and mark any area with a blue light shined on it. Cold air is seeping into your house and you have to seal it.

You may not be able to feel the cold air coming into the room through the door, but the thermostat will feel it and it will let the heater go on and spiking your electricity bill.

If you were to seal the sides of the door, it may cost you maybe $4 to $5 and it would definitely worth your while to put it in. The amount of money you save on the long run will be substantial.

What you can do now is take the TLD100 around your house and look for other air leaks. It is fun and it’ll save you money.

Where can you get the Black & Decker TLD100?

I got it from Amazon.com with free shipping included. Click on the link below for more information.

You will see a green light.

Next, scan the sill or openings around the window. If there’s air seeping through, you will see a blue light indicating a lower temperature. Apply some caulk to seal it.

The Black & Decker TLD100 is available from Amazon.com for only $49.99 with free shipping. Click on the button on the right to get it now!

To reduce energy consumption, many people are turning to renewable energy source such as solar power. Due to the high demand, the home solar industry has become a multi-billion dollar market in the United States.

Before you call a contractor to prep your house for a solar power system, why not make your home more energy efficient.

The device that consumes the most power at home is the air conditioning unit. During hot summer days, it may be running the whole time.

There is a simple way to reduce the electricity used by the air conditioner…make your home more efficient by sealing all the air leaks.

When there are air leaks, cool air is escaping from your living room therefore forcing the air conditioner to work harder and longer. If you can fix the air leaks, your home will stay cooler hence less electricity consumed and saving you money.

How do you find these air leaks?

The traditional way to do so is to close all the windows and doors and turn on the exhaust fan. If you don’t have an exhaust fan, you need to point a portable fan out one window.

The idea is to create a negative pressure in your home which will cause air to seep into the living area through the leaks. The next step is to dip your hand in water and run it through all the window and door sills.

When you feel a cool sensation on your hand, you found a leak!

I know it’s a tedious process. But there is an easier way to check for air leaks. I came across a handheld thermal leak detector on Amazon.com, it is the Black & Decker TLD100.

This device is pretty cool actually. All you need to do is set the device temperature tolerance and then scan the light on the area you want to inspect. The light will change to red for warmer spots and blue for cooler spots to detect air leaks in both warm and cool weather. Simply amazing!

It cost less than $50 and comes with free shipping from Amazon.com.

I have a drawer full of old rechargeable batteries. Some of the batteries have been in there for couple of years.

How to check if the batteries are still useable or dead?

I found out we can check the condition of the battery by using a voltmeter. However, this is not an absolute test. Using a voltmeter will only tell us if the battery is bad.

Okay, here’s how you test the battery. First, find the positive and negative terminal on the battery. This should be very easy.

Next, take the red lead of the voltmeter and place it on the positive terminal. Then, take the black lead and place it on the negative terminal of the battery. Take the DC reading of the battery and write it down.

If the reading is “zero”, this means the battery is dead. If there is less than 1 volt on the reading, this indicates the battery has been discharged too far and caused damage to its internal components.

We are not done yet.

Place the battery on a smart charger and let it run for 3 to 5 minutes. Take another reading of the battery. If the reading is not up to the nominal voltage of the battery, this means at least one of the cells or more are internally shorted. Without a current protection from the smart charger, the battery will turn hot until it melts the charger.

Sounds complicated?

It is quite simple actually. Let me give you an example so you’ll understand how to check a rechargeable battery with a voltmeter.

Let’s say you have an old 18 volts power tool battery. When you touch the lead of the voltmeter to the positive and negative terminal of the battery, it reads 10.7 volts. Next, put the battery on the charger for about 4 minutes for charging.

Remove the battery from the charger and take its voltage reading again. Let’s say it now reads 11.5 volts. This battery is dead because current is getting in but there may be a short. If you continue charging the battery, it will heat up and burn the charger.

Using a voltmeter is a quick and dirty way to check the condition of a rechargeable battery.

Can the dead battery be reconditioned?

It depends on the stage of damage of the battery. If the battery is still in good condition, you can bring it back to life with a proper reconditioning procedure.

If you want to know how to bring a dead rechargeable battery back to life, check out the “How To Recondition Batteries At Home” e-book. You can find them at www.reconditionbattery.com.

Since then, I was wondering if there are any ways to extend the life of a rechargeable battery.

As I was doing my reading, I got a very good tip from an e-book that I bought. The title of the book is “How To Recondition Batteries At Home”. In one chapter of the manual, it talks about getting a good smart charger.

The idea of using a smart charger is not to overcharge the battery. Overcharging a battery will kill its lifespan very fast.

So what is so special about a smart charger?

Apparently, a smart charger will sense when a battery is fully charged. It has a feature known as “trickle charging” that keeps the battery tops off. The trickle charging process charges the battery at a lower power rating and usually it will last for another 15 to 30 minutes.

What if we bought a cheap “dumb” charger?

Firstly, a dumb charger will take a longer time to charge a battery because it has a lower charge current. A dumb charger would not have the feature to revert into trickle charging. This means, the charger will keep on charging the battery at the same power rate even though the battery is full.

The result of overcharging is reduced battery life or in some cases fire or explosion due to excessive heat.

I use a lot of AA rechargeable batteries at home. Most of the time when I recharge them, I will leave them on the charger overnight.

Is the charger overcharging and killing the batteries?

I hope not, or I’ll be wasting a lot of money.

If you are keen to learn more on how to extend the life of reusable battery, check out the “How To Recondition Batteries At Home” e-book. You can find them at www.reconditionbattery.com.

Related blog post:

1) Battery storage for solar panels – 3 useful battery bank tips

2) 5 tips on maintaining deep cycle battery for home solar power system.