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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Energy Star Appliances

Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products. It was first created as a United States government program in 1992, but Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and the European Union have also adopted the program. Devices carrying the Energy Star logo, such as computer products and peripherals, kitchen appliances, buildings and other products, generally use 20%–30% less energy than required by federal standards. However, many European-targeted products are labeled using a different standard, TCO Certification, a combined energy usage and ergonomics rating from the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (TCO) instead of Energy Star."

Energy efficient products are those products that reduce the amount of energy consumed in comparison to other products in the industry.

The average home in the United States spends about $2,200 on their energy bill every year. Those homes who use Energy Star Appliances save an average of $75 dollars a year in energy costs. In addition to this using energy star appliances, switching your lightbulbs to energy saving bulbs

Save Energy, Save Money

"When buying an appliance, remember that it has two price tags: what you pay to take it home and what you pay for the energy and water it uses. ENERGY STAR qualified appliances incorporate advanced technologies that use 10–50% less energy and water than standard models. The money you save on your utility bills can more than make up for the cost of a more expensive but more efficient ENERGY STAR model."

For top performance, premium features, and energy savings, look for energy-efficient clothes washers, refrigerators, dishwashers, room air conditioners and dehumidifiers that have earned the ENERGY STAR. This mark may appear on the appliance, the packaging or the Energy Guide Label."

Monday, October 26, 2009

Generators - Portable

Home Energy Station is the name of Honda's upcoming heat and electricity generator for the home. HES IV is able to supply a sufficient amount of hydrogen to power a fuel cell vehicle, while providing electricity for an average-sized household.

The Home Energy Station is also able to function as a backup power generation system during power outages by using the hydrogen in the storage tank to power the internal fuel cell, providing as much as 5 kilowatts of electrical power and up to 3 normal cubic meters per hour (Nm3/hr) of hydrogen to the home in normal and emergency conditions.

Engine-generators are available in a wide range of power ratings. These include small, hand-portable units that can supply several hundred watts of power, hand-cart mounted units, that can supply several thousand watts and stationary or trailer-mounted units that can supply over a million watts. Regardless of the size, generators may run on gasoline, diesel, natural gas, propane, sewage gas or hydrogen.

Most of the smaller units are usually built to use gasoline (petrol) as a fuel, and the larger ones have various fuel types, including diesel, natural gas and propane (liquid or gas). Some engines may also operate on diesel and gas simultaneously.

Portable engine-generators may require an external power conditioner to safely operate some types of electronic equipment. Small portable generators may use an inverter. Inverter models can run at slower RPMs to generate the power that is necessary, thus reducing the noise of the engine and making it more fuel-efficient. Inverter generators are best to power sensitive electronic devices such as computers and lights that use a ballast.

Click here to purchase your Portable Home Generator today!

Generators - Welder

A welding power supply is a device that provides an electric current to perform welding.

Welding usually requires high current (over 80 amperes) and it can need above 12,000 amps in spot welding. Low current can also be used. A welding power supply can be as simple as a car battery and as sophisticated as a modern machine based on silicon controlled rectifier technology with additional logic to assist in the welding process.

Welding machines are usually classified as constant current (CC) or constant voltage (CV); a constant current machine varies its output voltage to maintain a steady current while a constant voltage machine will fluctuate its output current to maintain a set voltage.

The nature of the CV machine is required by gas metal arc welding and flux-cored arc welding because the welder is not able to control the arc length manually. If a welder attempted to use a CV machine to weld with shielded metal arc welding the small fluctuations in the arc distance would cause wide fluctuations in the machine's output. With a CC machine the welder can count on a fixed number of amps reaching the material to be welded regardless of the arc distance but too much distance will cause poor welding.

Welding machines may also use generators or alternators to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Modern machines of this type are usually driven by an internal combustion enginen but some older machines may also use an electric motor to drive the alternator or generator. In this configuration the utility power is converted first into mechanical energy then back into electrical energy to achieve the step-down effect similar to a transformer. Because the output of the generator can be direct current, these older machines can produce DC from AC without any need for rectifiers of any type.

Click here to purchase your Welder Generator today!

Generators - Diesel


A diesel generator is the combination of a diesel engine with an alternator to generate electric energy.

Diesel generating sets are used in places without connection to the power grid or as emergency power-supply if the grid fails. Small portable diesel generators range from about 1 kVA to 10 kVA may be used as power supplies on construction sites, or as auxiliary power for vehicles such as mobile homes.

Diesel generators, sometimes as small as 250 kVA are widely used not only for emergency power, but also many have a secondary function of feeding power to utility grids either during peak periods, or periods when there is a shortage of large power generators.


Generating sets are selected based on the load they are intended to supply power for, taking into account the type of load, ie emergency or for continuous power, and the size of the load, and size of any motors to be started which is normally the critical parameter.

Click here to purchase your Diesel Generator today!