Rose Ariadne asked:


Since time immemorial, humankind has been wearing jewelry to symbolically represent Deity, to reflect spirituality and belief, to attract good fortune, to avert negative energies and to enhance worship. This age old pagan custom is still practiced across all cultures and religions today.

Most pagans make a clear distinction between jewelry for every day wear and those worn for ritual purposes only. As is the case with all ritual items, jewelry too is cleansed, consecrated and charged to serve a specific purpose or goal. These pieces gain power over time, a power that would be diminished if worn as a fashion accessory.

The traditional types of ritual jewelry worn by pagans are necklaces, bracelets, rings, garters, moon crowns and horned helmets.

Necklaces

Ancient Goddess statues frequently depict the Lady wearing a necklace. This association makes the necklace a very important ritual piece and wearing one during ritual is symbolic of the attachment to Her. The design of the necklaces can vary greatly, depending on the tradition, the coven or the group:

Single strand necklaces made up from natural materials such as crystals, seashells, acorns etc. Interestingly, fashioning a necklace from acorns is representative of both the God and the Goddess. The God’s tree is the Oak whilst the acorn, as the ancient symbol of fertility, belongs to the realm of the Goddess.

Symbols fashioned into pendants and suspended from neck chains, string or even thin leather strips are very popular. The metal used for the pendant could be silver, to represent the Goddess; Gold to represent the God; or a mixture of silver and gold to either represent the union of Goddess and God or the polarity of the Goddess and God.

Bracelets

Bracelets, like necklaces, can be fashioned from natural beads, silver or gold and could be adorned with symbols to serve as magickal amulets. In some traditions, female pagans wear copper bracelets to attune with the solar energies of the Lady or the Lord.

Rings

Rings, in the vast majority of traditions, are optional. The type of ring and the reason for wearing a ring remain personal to the wearer. A pagan working with moon energies during a full moon ritual may for example choose to wear a ring in which moonstone is set to attune with these energies. Some minority groups do not encourage the wearing of rings at all as they believe it interferes with the flow of energy through the hands.



Gloria

Tina Metcalf asked:


Kips Bay Towers in New York City isn’t a house, but it is home to about 4,000 people living in two residential high-rise buildings, each with 20 floors and about 1,120 units. Sitting on 7.5 acres nestled between 30th and 33rd Streets, Kips Bay Towers – located in the historic Kips Bay area of the city – is home to a diverse professional community encompassing singles, couples and families.

Originally, the architecture was what made it notable. Designed by world-renowned architect I.M. Pei, the building utilizes cast-in-place exposed concrete and offers a three-acre garden, playground, basketball courts and all the other amenities of a first-class apartment building. Now it also offers a 54.28 kilowatt DC solar photovoltaic (PV) system, the largest residential solar system in the city of New York or – as far as this writer could determine – in the entire United States.

The solar array, designed and installed by Solar Energy Systems, LLC, was fortunate in finding a rooftop code-compliant interconnection point rather than one in the basement. This, and the aging electrical infrastructure in many New York high-rises, may be the limiting factors in “greening” New York City roofs – a project first proposed by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The City’s largest commercial solar installation, also built by Solar Energy Systems but  equipped for net metering, was recently installed on a 180-year old building roof in Brooklyn, proving that old doesn’t automatically exclude solar. The system, at a modest 40 watts, is the first to send excess electricity back to the utility company for use by other customers.

Solar isn’t new to the City. In the summer of 2005, The City University of New York (CUNY) introduced its Million Solar Roofs Initiative (MSRI) under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy. The university originally set a target of 500 solar roofs in the City by 2010. The target has not been met, but private solar initiatives, like that of Cabrini Terrace – which powers elevators, laundry rooms and security lighting in the residential building – are helping reduce the burden for New York City electricity providers like Con Ed. Kips Bay Towers, however, remains the largest residential solar initiative, and the electrical connections in every unit were retrofitted with absolutely minimal disruption of service – a notable achievement in itself, and one that proves the feasibility of switching to solar, whether one lives in a coop apartment building, condo or private residence.

The Kips Bay project was completed under the auspices of the New York State Solar Electric Incentives Program, and qualified for a rebate that covered almost half the cost. Additional incentives, in the form of state and federal tax credits and a property tax abatement, made for a steal of a deal, and that’s not even factoring in the annual energy savings. We could argue the meaning of residential ’till the crows come home to roost, but the fact is that 4,000 New York City residents are now served by a form of truly “green” energy that won’t fail them the next time Con Ed and its aging infrastructure has to throttle power down, creating another brownout, to serve all of its territory.



Paula

Chad Brosius asked:


In this age of global warming, non-standard power sources, like the sun, wind or organic matter, to name a few, are becoming increasingly relevant. In this article, I discuss all these, and more.

Solar energy is a very environment friendly source of unconventional energy. These are no releases of greenhouse gases during solar power generation. This form of energy can be used in a variety of ways, in your daily life.

To illustrate, power from the sun can be used to generate electricity and boil water. It can also be employed to manufacture alternate fuel for your vehicles. Not only that,you can set aside some of the expenses incurred as a tax rebate.

In addition, you stand to benefit if your residence is put up for sale, as the solar panel will increase its worth.

Are you aware that you can use corn stalks, wheat, and similar plant matter to generate fuel for your vehicles or your home? For that matter, just about anything that burns and decomposes will suffice.

This source of energy is know as biomass, and some of the fuels which can be made are methane, ethanol and bio-diesel.Just think what it would be like to go in your car using these fuels , blissfully ignorant of the mushrooming cost of gas.

Do you live on a farm? If so, think of wind power first for your energy needs. This is a fairly popular option, although, it being location-sensitive, it may not suit every household.

What element is present the most in our cosmos? Hydrogen, what else? The promise of hydrogen power is so astounding that it would read like “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not”!

Ever thought of driving your car with water power? Possibly, when asleep! It’s actually feasible, in real life!

Apart from having an electrolysis unit in your automobile to create power from water to move around in your own automobile, your mileage will in fact improve. Your mileage could go up by between 20 and 50%.

And how much will the whole thing cost you? Not more than 100 dollars! Why isn’t this technology available to the general public if it is feasible?

Hydropower energy is yet another reserve you can utilize to produce electricity. You don’t have to build huge dams at home. You just need to use a micro hydro turbine, that can be left alone after being suitably installated.

The wonderful aspect of this power source is you need to have only little water to run it.

The area below the earth’s crust gives out much thermal energy. Utilizing this to produce energy is what geothermal energy focuses on.

If you assume advanced skills are required here, you can be sure you can fabricate your very own geothermal energy generator at home, provided you have a large garden.

This type of energy is most suited for people who reside in places with volcanic activity. Here, you only need to go six feet underground to reach high temperatures, throughout the year.



Adam

Kavar Peter asked:


The price of a barrel of oil has never been higher ($62.00+ in summer 2005 even before the chaos caused by Katrina). Some say this is a temporary spike, but more and more analysts are agreeing that this kind of pricing is here to stay. World consumption is at an all time high and given the new thirst for oil in China and India it is unlikely to diminish. According to International Energy Outlook, global demand is expected to continue to increase by as much as 59% in the next fifteen years.

Already, consumer energy bills have been increasing on average 6.5% per year for the last thirty years in the United States. Given the dramatic rise in the cost of producing energy using traditional non-renewable resources, this rate is bound to be overtaken by unheard of price increases in the very near future. And for consumers who are becoming more and more environmentally conscious, the thought of the millions and millions of tons of CO2 and other bi products being released into the atmosphere annually through the use of fossil fuels in creating energy is very alarming.

It is a no brainer that our reliance on oil to create energy leaves us very vulnerable. There are renewable technologies that produce energy, but the problem has been one of cost effectiveness. It has always been cheaper to supply energy using fossil fuels, and consequently, renewable sources such as solar or wind power have not taken off. But the situation now appears to be changing. More and more, our consumption of energy is outstripping supply. The grid can barely keep up with demand and rolling blackouts are no longer just a concept. No wonder governments are looking for alternatives. And no wonder everyone is talking solar once again.

In 1985 annual worldwide solar power system installation accounted for 21 megawatts of power. By 2004, this had multiplied to an incredible 927 megawatts in new installation power production alone. The demand for solar produced energy over the last several years has increased annually about 25%, although in 2004 sales were up a whopping 67% from the previous year.

There are several reasons for this increase in popularity for all things solar powered. Beyond the obvious environmental considerations and the privilege of not having to rely on power from a grid that is aging and stretched to capacity, solar is getting cost effective. While traditional energy production gets more expensive, technological advances are making solar power cheaper. In 1980 the cost of harvesting energy from the sun stood at about $100 per watt. Literally a hundred times more expensive than the going rate of electricity, these systems were not economically viable. By 1999 however, technology had reduced this to about $4 per watt and costs have continued to decline by about 5% per year since. The Return on Investment is becoming very attractive for many commercial organizations and consumers.

Efficiencies have been realized in several technologies. The inverters that transform the collected DC energy into usable AC energy used to deliver only about 65% efficiency. 35% of the collected energy was lost in the transformation process. Today’s transformers are so efficient they deliver up to 96% of collected energy into usable AC current.

Photovoltaic technology has also made solar collection far more efficient. Twenty years ago, only 5% of the sun’s energy hitting a solar charging panel was harvested. This figure is now in excess of 15% and will continue to climb as more efficient compounds are designed and introduced in the manufacture of these photovoltaic panels.

All levels of government are increasingly looking at solar to provide stable, cost effective and environmentally friendly power. 35 states now have some kind of rebate program for homeowners that install solar power systems. And this is not just the southern “sunny states”. While California is the clear leader in promoting solar powered energy solutions (a program introduced in 2003 is promoting the introduction of solar powered energy systems into a million homes over the next several years) New Jersey and New York are next in line for solar investment.

At the municipal level, many jurisdictions have introduced solar solutions for traffic and streetlights. 50% of the energy used to run the City of Sacremento’s water purification plant is solar. NASA uses solar powered energy systems in many of its buildings. And governments are not using solar just because it is good for the environment and sets an example for commercial entities and consumers (although these benefits cannot be lost on them!). They’ve concluded that opting for solar systems will save them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

With so many rebate programs today homeowners are coming to the same conclusions. Once the initial return on investment is recouped (as early as 4 to 6 years with the rebate programs in California for example), solar users don’t have any additional energy bills, almost no maintenance to worry about and are not slave to an electrical grid that is becoming more and more fragile as demand outstrips supply. No wonder solar power is getting attention!

Solar power is still more expensive than traditional energy production methods, but the gap is narrowing every year. Solar power applications are also multiplying at an amazing rate. House heating, solar pool lighting and heating, hot water tank heating, calculators, flashlights, solar garden lighting and on and on. Solar is clean, it’s efficient and it’s here to stay.



Catherine

J. Vadney asked:


In this day and age, the two most important things, which need proper attention are the environment and the economy. This is due to the fact that the environment seems to be powerless already because of the high-level of pollution nowadays and the economy is on its critical condition by now because of the increasing inflation rate every year. Thus, you have to act now and do your duty as a responsible human being. You have to do something which will benefit both the environment and the economy. As a matter of fact, one of the very best ways, which you can consider to help the two most important things here on earth is to try building your own solar and wind power systems.

It is quite undeniable that solar energy and wind energy are a renewable types of energy. When you say renewable energy, it simply refers to a type of energy which naturally comes from the environment. Such type of energy can be easily replaced as well as beneficial not only the human race but also to the environment. Hence, building your own solar and wind power systems is a very good thing for you to consider in these days. You just have to be aware on how to get started.

The following are the ways which you can consider in building your own solar and wind power systems:

1. Purchase a DIY solar and wind power system kit. There are so many DIY solar and wind power system kits available in the world market today. You simply have to carefully choose a kit which can be very helpful on your part. In addition, you also have to purchase a kit which is not too expensive but irrefutably effective. In doing so, you can surely save yourself from any regrets in the long run.

2. Carefully read all the instructions. All of the DIY kits on how to build a solar or wind power system include instructions on how you can do such task without the help of any experts. You just have to carefully read all those instructions in order to be truly successful in building your own solar and wind power systems.

3. Be patient and take your time in building your own power system. Patience is absolutely a virtue. Thus, you have to make sure to be very patient in constructing your homemade power system. You have to instill into your mind that you cannot construct your own power system in just a snap of your finger. This only means that you have to exert much of your effort so that you can come up with a very effective power system at the end of the day.

Indeed, building your own solar and wind power systems is not just a simple child’s play. Hence, you really have to bear in mind all the aforementioned ways in building or constructing your own homemade power systems. In this way, you can be sure that you can successfully construct your power system sooner or later, save the dying environment and somehow save a certain amount of money for your own sake.



Esther