Doable Renewables: 16 Alternative Energy Projects for Young Scientists

Doable Renewables: 16 Alternative Energy Projects for Young Scientists — page 3
events Renewable energy is generated from sources found in nature such as sunlight and wind It is renewable because it is not used up and will be available in the future The plans in this book allow you to construct and explore working models that generate renewable energy Most chapters include additional suggestions for creating science projects The projects employ several methods for converting energy into use ful forms Remember everything that moves makes noise warms up cools down or dries out requires the transfer of ener The plans in this book should be thought of as seeds they will get you out of the ground but they require innovation and work to grow into tall trees Most of these projects are in a sense solar powered They convert heat into motion or heat into electricity Because the cost of energy has been in the past relatively inexpensive many of the devices around us have not been designed with much attention to efficiency Wasted heat is common Refrigerators cool your food but warm the kitchen for example This may be good in the winter but in the summer your air conditioner must remove this extra heat from the house which expends more energy and costs you money You pay to heat the water in your shower but also to warm your drainpipe the water in the drain is almost as warm as the water coming from the showerhead so most of the energy is sent down the drain If you can find heat that is being thrown away and use it for a good purpose you will be making the world a better place With today's technology saving energy is more cost effective than generating clean alternatives so efficiency will be the focus of one chapter Thermodynamic limitations will be examined too For exam ple engineers will tell you You can't get something for noth ing and Low temperature heat engines are very inefficient That being said the energy that may be extracted overnight from 15 000 gallons of water a swimming pool can supply more