TAKE YOUR EXISTING HOT WATER SYSTEM, make a few relatively simple pipe connections, and hook on Solar Power Corporation's TK 101 Collector. According to the manufacturer, that's about all there is to converting your home to solar-heated hot water. The product is said to be relatively inexpensive and its main panel is guaranteed for twenty years! For more information, contact Solar Power Corporation, 930 Clock tower Parkway, New Port Richey, Fla. 33552.
PLANS TO HARNESS TIDAL POWER off the coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia may eventually mean ocean-produced electricity for all of New England. A proposed five-mile-long dam at the Bay of Fundy would store incoming water at high tide, then direct the impounded liquid into turbine generators at low tide. Similar projects are being studied in Russia, Britain, and France.
INEXPENSIVE SOLAR CELLS may become a reality thanks to Dr. A.I. Mlavsky of Tyco Laboratories in Waltham, Massachusetts. Dr. Mlavsky's new technique for making silicon solar cells requires no handwork, etching, or polishing. Mobil Oil Corporation has joined Tyco Labs in efforts to adapt the process to factory production. It's believed that-in about five years-you'll be able to buy a 1,000-watt solar cell array for about $330 at your local solar energy store.
AN ENGINE POWERED BY TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCES? Yep! Described simply, a wheel-spoked with thin strands of a high expansion/contraction alloy called 55-Nitinol-rotates over baths of solar-warmed and cold water. During the cold half of the cycle, the "spokes" become limp and as they pass into the hot water, the strands attempt to straighten themselves back into their original shape. The resulting spring-like action against the throw of a fixed crankshaft sets the engine in motion. Ridgeway Banks, the inventor, is now working on a model expected to be capable of powering an electrical generator!
THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE'S OFFICE OF ENERGY PROGRAMS says that if current energy consumption trends continue for the next ten years we'll all be mighty hard put to meet the demand. How hard? Well, according to the Office, we'd have to dig the equivalent of 150 Panama Canals to meet the need for coal production. Or-if we were to choose nuclear power as our energy "savior"- we'd have to put at least one 1,000-megawatt nuclear power station into operation each week between now and 1985.
FRED McARVER'S HOMEMADE GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMP is-the inventor says-three times as efficient as conventional heat pumps and a whole lot cheaper to operate, too. The Gastonia, North Carolina inventor says the apparatus is relatively simple and uses only the earth's own sub-terrestrial temperatures to keep his 3,158-square-foot home, toasty-warm.
AN EIGHTY-SQUARE-MILE "FUEL FARM" is being proposed by two Tampa area scientists. Glen Huppke and Dr. Conard Fernelius say that enough woody plants (sunflowers, sugar cane, cornstalks, etc.) could be greenhouse-grown, burned clean, and reprocessed in a continuous cycle to provide all the electrical power used by the entire Tampa Bay area. According to the two men, the system would be pollution-free, self-sustaining, and less expensive than today's coal-fired system.
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE SOLAR-HEATED STRUCTURES are-once again-precisely and comprehensively covered in W.A. Shurcliff's newly released 7th edition of Solar Heated Buildings: A Brief Survey. The updated booklet lists and briefly describes nearly every existing or planned house, school, and commercial building utilizing ole sol for heat. The price is $7.00 (and well worth it) send your money to Solar Energy Digest, P.O. Box 17776, San Diego, Calif. 92117.
WHEN COMPLETED, THE SCIENCE MUSEUM OF VIRGINIA in Richmond will be the largest solar-heated (and cooled) public building in the world. The huge facility-located on a 45-acre site-will employ 28,000 square feet of roof-mounted black aluminum collector panels.
"ALTERNATIVE" ENERGY SOURCES will soon be our only energy sources according to predictions made by Professor Arvid Herzenberg of Yale University. The good professor says that if present consumption rates continue, oil supplies will be used up by 1988, gas by 1989, and coal by 2032.
CONTRARY TO PREVIOUS REPORTS, the Independent Battery Manufacturers Association, Inc. (100 Larchwood Drive, Largo, Fla, 3354( does not offer a directory of electric vehicles. The organization does, however, sell a Buyer's Guide to starting, lighting, ignition, and generating systems. The booklet costs $3.50 (payable on order) and should prove valuable if you're looking for good battery sources.
THEY'RE CALLING PEAT "BROWN GOLD" IN IRELAND these days and for good reason. The fuel-once considered a lowly symbol of poverty-is now being used to fire one-fourth of the country's electric power stations and "briquettes" of the material for home use are in such demand that they're being rationed. The Irish Peat Board has embarked on a five-year $66.5 million expansion program, and estimates that use of the low-cost natural resource will save the nation $100 million annually.
THE SEARCH FOR THE "ICY-BALL". Does anyone know of an old portable absorption-type refrigerator known as the "Icy-Ball"? The device was apparently manufactured by the Crosley Corporation during the 20's and/or 30's. If you own such an apparatus-and don't mind the idea of parting with it-contact The International Solar Power Co. Ltd. (22 B, Rosenkaeret, DK-2860, Sdborg, Denmark). They'd like to make you an offer! DON AND JUDY
MOSER'S METHANE-POWERED BUS- the first of its kind in this country-is virtually a demonstration-on wheels of alternative energy sources. Affectionately named "Uncle Ben", the vehicle/home travels up to 700 miles on a tankful of methane, uses solar power for heat and hot showers, and recycles the Mosers' own waste to run a refrigerator. The couple is now working to establish a cross-country network of methane filling stations and will barter for their fee with any college or other organization that would like them to speak and/or help to set up alternative energy systems. Contact Don and Judy Moser, c/o Vern Moser, 525 Davis Ave., Glendale, Calif. 91201.
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