Types Of Alternative Home Energy For The Philippines

Not since the time of Fidel Ramos has there been such a problem with energy in the Philippines. It all started(well perhaps even earlier) with the conspiracy theorists’ no-el (or no election) scenario; allegedly a scheme to destabilize the Philippine presidential elections so that a certain someone can hold on to power. The no-el operandi was supposedly the culprit behind the spate of brownouts in Mindanao and was designed to ensure that the first computerized election in the country would fail. Of course it was just somebody’s wild imagination gone wild.

The brownouts however were very real. I was in Mindanao at the time of the power outages and I can say that it was pure hell. Even more for me because I am a self-proclaimed internet addict. Without electricity I couldn’t get my daily internet fix. More than 8 hours a day of no electricity was enough for me to form murderous thoughts in my head. I think this was what hastened my departure from Mindanao for the heavily polluted city of Metro Manila. Which led me to wonder, must we always be under the mercy of these energy companies? Are there other ways that the small people like myself who depend on the stable supply of energy to eke out their income?

There are all forms of alternative energy and I suppose some of them could be used if only to power up the electricity needs of little households.

Types of alternative home energy

There are four types of alternative home energy that I think are suitable for the typical Filipino household. Unfortunately some of these alternative energy types do not have the ready technology for individual home use. Hopefully in the near future all of these types of alternative energy can easily be applied to the common household.

Wind energy – Nowadays, windmills are used in some homes in the US to run small generators. These generators produce and store electricity to be used in running small home appliances. However, windmills have been around for a long time. If you take a look at the word ‘windmill’ you will realize that this type of alternative home energy device was used for a purpose other than producing electricity.

Yes, the windmill was indeed, used to mill grain in the olden days. As you may well know, grinding grain by hand is very hard work. So in order to make life more convenient and the production of flour more efficient, windmills were used to turn the large grinders.

Seeing as how this was so effective, it was inevitable that the windmill evolve into the 21st century in order to be used as a power source.

We think about windmills and we see vision of Holland, and tulips, and pretty girls in aprons. But really windmills are already in use a source of alternative energy in the country. One only need to take a look at the Bangui windmills in Ilocos Norte. Those windmills now power a lot of households in that area. Tone down the size of those windmills and even smaller homes can have their own private windmills to power up their homes.

Solar energy – Many people think of this type of alternative home energy as something that’s technologically advanced. In a sense, harnessing the power of the sun to produce electricity is. But this alternative home energy has already been in use for a long, long time.

Think about this word for a second: clothesline. Aha, you get it now, don’t you? Yes, we have been using solar energy to dry our clothes for God knows how long. Think about that spin dryer or hair dryer you have and think about how much electricity it uses to do a task that the sun has been able to do for years, albeit at a slower pace.

This alternative home energy is harnessed nowadays for a variety of tasks. Some use it to heat their homes, others use solar power to heat water, and other people use solar cells to power small appliances and save a little on that electricity bill. The efficiency by which we are now able to convert solar power into electricity is of such a degree that it is very possible to power a whole house!

How To Build Your Own Solar Panel

This one I certainly would like to have. This is no longer a pipe dream. More and more houses in North America are churning out their own solar panels and selling back electricity to the power companies. No joke. There are even a lot of DIY Solar Energy products that can readily be purchased. In fact, a lot of internet marketing folks are making a killing selling this type of product.

Hydropower - This type of alternative home energy makes use of water currents in order to turn turbines to run generators. Once again, this is not really a new technology. Like windmills, waterwheels were often used to harness the power of a nearby river in order to grind grain into flour. This technology is common already here in the Philippines. But again, its use so far has only been applied in a larger scale like the Maria Cristina Falls hydroelectric plant in Iligan.

This is also the usual scapegoat for brownouts in the country. They say that the usual power generated by the hydroelectric plants are not up to its normal levels because of el nino severely lowering the dams’ water levels. Whatever.

It would be nice to see small hydroelectric generators that countryside villages (those with nearby waterfalls and dams) can use. This is a cool technology but not much application to the common households yet.

The last one is biogas. This is another alternative home energy source. Biogas is produced naturally via the decomposition of different biological material. By using biogas instead of the common LPG, home owners can cut back on their cooking bills.

As you can see, there are a lot of different types of alternative home energy. Unfortunately, some of the methods of harnessing these different alternative home energy types may yet seem impractical to the common homeowner. However, as technology continues to evolve, we can be sure that the use of alternative energy will be more efficient.

By using alternative home energy, we can accomplish two things: we save on our expenses and also help create a better world. This is because alternative home energy sources do not produce any harmful effects to the environment. By using these sources, we harness relatively free energy. Some people may say that the devices used to harness these sources may be too expensive, but in the long run, we could end up saving so much more than what we’ll actually spend for these devices.

For sure some of these alternative energy technologies are pipe dreams for now, but time will come when these will be readily available to the basic Philippine household. In the meantime however it would be best if we focus on basic energy saving tips to help out the country and it’s burgeoning power crisis.

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