Swimming Pool Solar Heaters

Keeping your pool nice and warm during the cooler months can mean all the difference between swimming in it and letting it sit there. After all, who wants to go swimming in a cold pool? Some old style pool heaters had to be plugged in or ran off of gas. However, there are two issues here: one, you never really want to have any electrical cables around your swimming pool, do you? And two, if you’ve got an indoor pool, it’s not a good idea to have anything that creates gas fumes unless you’ve got a door or window open. It can also be a pain to have to purchase fuel all the time.

However, there is one solution to keeping your pool warm and avoiding both electrical cables and gas. The answer: Swimming Pool Solar Heaters. By making use of solar heating, you can make your swimming area much safer. You can also reduce the amount of CO2 emissions you create since you won’t be using fossil fuels to heat your pool. You also don’t run the risk of any sort of accidental electrocution since you won’t have any power cords running to your electric pool heater.

Most kits that provide solar heating for pools include several commercial-grade solar panels. These panels can easily be installed near your pool or on the roof of your pool house, and they feature UV inhibitors and are reinforced to withstand storms. There’s nothing really complicated about installing them, and most people can have their solar heating solutions up and running within an afternoon. The instructions provided with each solar heating kit for pools make it very easy to install the system. These solar panels will even work with most other heating systems so you don’t have to install a new pool heater of any sort. If your pool requires a powerful heater or you don’t get that much sunlight, you can easily extend the solar cell grid with additional solar panels to increase the amount of energy you harvest. The basic set up costs around $370 at Real Good Solar.

Peak CO2 Emissions by 2020

While some people may wonder if the world can really peak its CO2 emissions by 2020 in order to, as ecological experts have said, avoid irreversible damage to the planet, those at the recent Major Economies Forum say it can be done. One of those saying this the loudest was Ed Miliband, the UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary.

The forum, which took place in Mexico, featured representatives from around the world in what was basically a follow-up meeting to the forum that was held last December in Copenhagen. These meetings are designed to put together the next set of Kyoto Accords, and the attending countries all have committed themselves to not just make the peak year but actually to beat it if at all possible.

According to scientists, if we delay the peak for another ten years, the overall temperature of the planet will rise a half degree. That may not seem like much, but it will be irreversible. Some models have shown, though, that developed countries may be able to reach their emission peak by 2015 if they work at it. This would be followed by at least a three percent per year decline in carbon emissions up to 2050.

As part of this initiative, Miliband and the UK ecological team have created the Act on Copenhagen website and movement. They hope to educate the public on how to limit their CO2 emissions and put pressure on various officials and companies to take the 2020 peak very seriously.

While 2020 is only 11 years away, many countries are already making good progress. Of course, this doesn’t mean people can stop working to reduce their emissions. In fact, there’s still a long way to go to meet the peak year, but things are looking good.

China Purchases Hummer

Nearly every environmentalist out there with a blog has at some point or another ranted about the GM Hummer and how horrible for the environment it is.  These boxes on wheels get about the worse fuel efficiency ever, but many people, especially Americans, continued to buy them up through 2008.  In 2009, sales have dropped more than 65%, but it looks like that won’t be the death of the Hummer.  Instead, GM, which is facing bankruptcy, has sold the brand to China.  Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. has purchased the brand and, in addition to bringing it to China, plans to sell the vehicles internationally and continue with the current U.S. marketing and sells plan.

Sichuan Tengzhong also plans on creating its own line of heavy trucks and other vehicles based on the Hummer’s off-road technology.  One of the things that the company has said it plans to do, however, is make the Hummer more fuel efficient and economical.  This is a great idea and certainly will meet with approval if it happens.

However, there are some tricky aspects to this deal.  Sichuan Tengzhong may actually end up facing that 40 percent tax that China places on all imported SUVs if it decides to import US-made Hummers.  Plus, they’re going to have to compete with Raser, another vehicle manufacturer that is working on a hybrid version of the Hummer that they say will be at least twice as efficient as the current model.

It’s very possible that Sichuan Tengzhong will achieve their goal of making a better, more efficient Hummer, but it’s also possible that they will simply increase China’s CO2 emissions.  However, China does have some very strict fuel economy laws and regulations, so the company will have to work within those regulations.