Designing an indoor climate control

Energy saved is energy generated, which is a mantra agreed by everyone. So if we are able to design buildings which can save energy is also a good idea.

With indoor climate control there is limited need for ACs in summer and of heaters in winters.
Indoor climate control is a good way to save energy. In European nations, where the climate is mostly cold, the clomate control is the key to survival, otherwise they may burn the mother earth.

Akshay Urja Shops

Dear All,

recently i come across some important thing for entrepreneurs, Akshay Urja Shops. I am posting some important information which will be usefull for anyone interested.

Akshay Urja Shops are retail outlets which would sell and service all Renewable Energy Devices and Systems including Solar Energy Products. The network of Akshay Urja Shops would cover all the districts of the country. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) will provide support to the shops in terms of soft loans through banks and monthly recurring grant & incentive for first two years of operation. All Private Entrepreneurs, Reputed NGOs and Manufacturer’s Associations are eligible for opening AUSs. The applicant for opening a shop will contact the concerned State Nodal Agency (SNA) and submit proposal for Akshay Urja Shops in the prescribed format. Incentives would be available only after sanction of Akshay Urja Shop by MNRE/SNA.
Bank Of India(http://www.bankofindia.com/home/productsservices/akshayurja.asp) is offering loans maximum upto 85% of the cost of establishment of Akshay Urja Shop and the maximum loan amount goes upto Rs. 10.00 Lakh as Demand/Term Loan. The applicable Interest rate to beneficiaries is 7% per annum and the repayment period is maximum 5 years.
Further more you get financial support for new shops where monthly recurring grant of Rs.5,000/- per month towards manpower, electricity, telephone bills and other miscellaneous expenses. Eligibility for recurring grant or incentive will be worked out on the basis of the turnover for each six-month period. If the six-monthly turnover falls below Rs.1.5 lakh during the first year, or Rs.3 lakh during the second year, the shops will not be eligible for any grant or incentive. An incentive of Rs5,000/- per month based on minimum turnover of Rs.50,000/- per month during the first year and Rs.1,00,000/- per month during the second year of operation. The shops will not be eligible for any incentive for a particular month if the turnover is below the minimum amount.

Important: All these grants/incentives will be available to the new shops for a period of 2 years after their establishment.

Link to MNES website: http://mnes.nic.in/akshayshop.htm

solar geysers

The Sun is ultimate source of energy. If we use the energy effeciently then Up to 80% of your water heating needs can be sourced directly from the Sun. But how do we achieve this?

The Solar Thermal heating system is a good answer to these queries. A solar thermal system consists of; a solar collector, a pump, a solar controller and a hot water storage tank. The solar collector, located on the roof, collects the sun’s energy and transfers the heat to the storage tank. The storage tank allows the hot water to be stored until it is used at night or in the morning. Whatever investment has been done can be recovered in 2-3 years. These systems are easier to install and can be used for both domestic and commercial use.

Many banks are providing loans to buy such solar thermal heating systems. Though in my view the government should support and work more towards providing these systems at a lower price.

Solar Torch

As nikhil suggested i went through the article published in TOI which informs us about the solar torch by Mark Bent. I found the article very informative and soul searching. I just went to check Mark Bent's web site an found his work very encouraging. In the article Gurucharan Das also asks some NGOs in India who should distribute the solar torch.

As i had written in my previous post itself that we need to bring out compact products which serves interest of common people. When we search the internet we will find many manufacturers worldwide who are manufacturing such solar powered products and are selling on large scale. Infact we can find many products like solar torch, solar chargers, solar powered toys, solar powered FM radios, solar LED torch, solar mobile chargers, solar CFLs, etc which are available in market.

A point to take from here is that many products are available in world market which are powered from solar energy. If we start using those products it can reduce our dependency on domestic supply of electricity which intern will reduce a burden from coal fed power plants. But in India the awareness level is very low. There is no enough retail support to supply such products to common man. If these products start reaching a common household in India they will have a multi directional effect. People will realise the importance of saving power and will feel more confident with a small contribution which they are making.

Apart from solar powered products there are wind energy powered goods as well, but they are not compact in size. Also, we can see good developments in bio-diesel and bio-gas plants.

In this space I will try to bring out such products to our knowledge and their usage. It will help us to understand the utility and availability of the products, we will try to evaluate their usage and examine that in saving this earth to what extent we have been able to contribute a bit from our side.

Renewable Energy

This is my first post on this blog. I have created this space to share my views about the new wave which is going to sweep the world. It is going to be the next big thing after IT which has happened to this world. This wave is of Energy, energy which is not sourced from fossil fuel, but from Sun, Wind, Water, Bio degradable material and all natural resources which lies untapped.

This space is meant for like minded people who want to share there views on how the natural sources of energy can be used for generating power for usefull purposes, that saves our mother earth from this increasing pollution and promise the generations to live in a better world.

As a matter of fact there has been work going on in this direction for last 30 years, as far as i know, there are people who have been working in this direction constantly, but the effeciency of fossil fuel has been a big deterrent. Also the cost of generating & maintaining renewable energy has been very high which has always kept people away from the concept. But in recent years, since we have started feeling the real threat ourselves, the Governments of respective nations have taken some bold steps.

One major shift that i see today is the acceptibilty of renewable energy and energy effeciency among the urban masses is increasing. I think a big reason for this is media which is playing a big role in spreading the message that how fast our glaciers are melting and when the city of Mumbai will submerge.

Anyways, it is good that the awareness is increasing and we have started seeing big corporates showing interest in this area, where investment can be made with big bucks in return. We have seen Suzlon Energy which is making waves in Wind Energy, Videocon, Moserbaer and Tata-BP Solar are into Photo-Voltaic cells. These are a few examples of Indian corporate giants who are making big news in addition to likes of GE Power.

But this field has a lots of space for entrepreneurs where new ideas can make waves. There is need for good designs which can be popular in urban and semi-urban localities. There can be bio-gas plants, solar cookers, wind-power based generaters, etc There is a need for such compact and portable products which can be accepted in general. Currently there are no such products which can serve common people.

This space is an attempt to share and discuss such ideas only.