Save the Earth

There are many advantages in creating a greener workplace. By reducing and reusing, we can help our environment and save money for our organization.

However not everybody knows what to do when it comes to greening their workplace. Here are 5 simple tips you can share with your friends to get them on the right path:

1. Be smart about light and heating

Turn off the lights when you are not using them for 15 minutes or more. As often as you can, utilize natural light. When you leave the lights on without using them, you are wasting resources.

As little as this may seem, they add up. And by the end of the year, you’ll have wasted a considerable amount of energy.

Heating costs eats up your office budget more than you imagine. By leaving the heater on longer than necessary, you are draining up to 40% more electricity.

What you can do is paste notices at the door so the last person to get out of the office can remember to switch off the lights and heater (or air-conditioner).

If this doesn’t work, try installing a timer instead. This nifty device pays for itself many times over and is easy to install.

2. Maximize your computer efficiency

Do not leave your computer on throughout the night. You can save a lot of power simply by shutting down your computer before you leave the office.

If you can, switch off the power supply at the mains instead of putting your computers on standby. This is because even if your computer is turned off, it still draws power from the mains.

3. Printing and Going paperless

In every office, we tend to print more than we need. What we do not realize is we can reduce our paper consumption and recycle pieces of paper we intend to throw.

We can do this by printing on both sides of the paper and by printing on the back of old documents, faxes, scrap paper or drafts.

Ink is another resource we can easily save. As far as possible, avoid color printing and print in draft mode. Draft quality, in most cases, is not too faint for comfortable reading.

You can also unsubscribe from needless catalogs, newsletters and magazines. This alone can save lots of paper every year.

When choosing paper, insist on chlorine-free paper with a high post-consumer recycled content. You can also recycle toners and cartridges and buy remanufactured ones. They cost less and it takes less energy and materials to manufacture them.

4. Recycle more

Almost everything can be recycled. You just have to take a look at what you discard everyday and think of what else it can be used for. In the worst-case situation, your trash can be brought to the recycling bin.

5. Rethink Traveling

Traveling incurs costs (and time) and increases the amount of fossil fuel we burn. Burning also contributes to the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. By using technological advances like video-conferencing and the Internet, you can be talking as if you are meeting people face to face.

Ideas such as the above are simple to implement and goes a long way to help the environment…

…yet this can only be achieved when enough of us do it.

Therefore send this article to your colleagues and friends, and encourage them to do these little things that can help our environment in meaningful ways.

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Trying to build a photovoltaic panel without basic skills is akin to a man who tries to be a painter without knowing the basic techniques of handling a brush…or toddler trying to cycle without developing a sense of balance. It is bound to be difficult — at least initially.

There are 3 essential skills necessary to build your own DIY solar panels. They are (1) handling of tools, (2) soldering & (3) a practical knowledge of electrical circuits.

Knowing how to handle materials is important. Whether you build solar panels using wood or metal, you have to understand how to manipulate the materials to shape them into the design you want.

This implies you have to know how to handle simple hand (or power) tools. Then you can cut the material or bend them. You’ll also need to finish (polish) the surface and edges so the burrs and jagged edges can be removed.

Inside solar panels are row after rows of electrical connections that have to be made by soldering. Therefore you also need to learn how to use a soldering iron to bond metallic joints. Bad solder joints can cause unnecessary resistance in the electrical circuit, lowering the effectiveness of your energy production. Fortunately this is a skill that can be acquired easily – often within 15 minutes or less.

Having a good working knowledge of how electronics work can be helpful. You do not necesssarily need to design your solar panel from scratch, but you will need to know how to implement the circuit design recorded on paper. It will also be useful to know some elementary electronics formula so you can size your solar panel system. Again, this knowledge is easily acquired if you take some time to read up.

Basic formulae that are needed for building electronic circuits can be easily found on the Internet or in your local library. Moreover there are also many books on homemade solar panels in bookstores that can help you with these basics.

Equiped with the above DIY skills, you can be assured that building DIY solar panels can become a rewarding hobby.

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