Selecting the type of stove for your home can also be a difficult task especially if you have never had one before.
The stoves differ on the type of fuel they use: wood, wood pellets, natural gas, propane gas, coal, fuel oil or electricity.
On stoves-only.com website I found very good comparison of different types of stoves based on fuel type and cost of fuel used to produce 1,000,000 BTU. This information can help any homeowner to make the best decision while choosing the best cost-effective or environmentally friendly stove.
I will give you only part of information which is posted on their website so you can see which type of stove is the best for your home and your needs.
Fuel Type~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cost to Produce
______________________________ 1,000,000 Btu
Electricity................................... $29.31
Propane Gas................................ $27.00
Natural Gas................................. $18.75
Fuel Oil...................................... $18.00
Wood Pellets............................... $17.60
Wood........................................ $14.40
Coal......................................... $10.00
From this table you can easily see that the cheapest fuel is coal. Still, the coal makes the biggest impact on environment, and requires most maintenance.
The next least expensive fuel is wood and wood pellets. This website is recommending the wood pellets as the most optimal type of fuel because they are affordable enough and very efficient.
The most expensive fuel types are propane, natural gas and electricity. The electric stove is the most convenient one that is clean and doesn't require buying fuel and delivering it home. Whether electric stove is environmentally friendly or not depends on how that electricity is produced: using coal, hydro dam, nuclear reactor, solar panels or wind turbines.
In case of emergency, wood, wood pellets or coal stoves would be the best choice.
My friend has natural gas stove down in his basement and he used it during two day power outage last winter.
To read the whole article about different stoves comparison you can go to:
http://www.stoves-only.com/fuel-comparison-table
-Peter Y.
Hydrokinetic Power Turbine is Successfully Installed
Posted by Labels: alternative electricty, clean energy, environmentally-friendly
I read a Reuters article about the first Hydrokinetic Power Turbine, that was successfully installed in January of 2009 at the existing hydropower plant on the Mississippi River in Hastings, Minnesota.
It was the nation's first-ever commercial hydrokinetic power project.
The City of Hastings, MN now owns and operates a 4.4 MW hydropower project at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Lock & Dam No.2.
Hydrokinetic Power Turbine is a special turbine that is submerged or partially submerged into the river and is connected to a floating barge. This turbine is generating electricity by using river currents without the harmful impacts associated with dams.
The article says that the hydrokinetic turbine will send clean, environmentally-friendly, renewable electricity to the Minnesota electric power grid.
"With the successful installation of our first turbine, Hydro Green Energy has taken another historic step and has strengthened its status as the industry leader," said Wayne F. Krouse, Chairman and CEO of Hydro Green Energy.
Once the project is operational, extensive water quality and fish survival studies and monitoring will be performed by Hydro Green Energy.
To read more about the project you can go to:
http://hgenergy.com/hastings.html
To read the Reuters article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS142130+05-Jan-2009+PRN20090105
-Peter Y.