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<title>Latest Articles by andrew1056</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/</link>
<description>Articles at Populate.NET</description>
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<title>Gas To Electric Car Conversion</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/gas-to-electric-car-conversion.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/gas-to-electric-car-conversion.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ I find it quite funny that the price of oil is almost near the price it was over 4 years ago. If I remember correctly we were paying quite a bit less for gasoline as well. What they are telling us is that it now takes quite a bit more money to produce gasoline so we won't be paying lower prices ever again.

That's why I did a gas to electric car conversion. I was a little bit scared at first because I didn't really understand how easy it really is. It really is as simple as taking the engine and transmission out and dropping the electric motor and batteries in. There are a couple more steps, but they are easy as well.

To begin with I was going to use my car which was a 1998 Nissan Altima for the conversion. It's a fairly big car and there is lots of space underneath the hood to put the battery bank. I got my friend to help me one day to hoist the engine and transmission out of the car. I recommend getting a friend to help with this step as it makes the whole process a lot simpler.

After the car was ready for the conversion I went out and bought all of the parts that I needed. The motor was purchased on eBay for around $65 (including shipping and handling). I was also able to obtain 14 deep cycle 12 volt batteries for free. It's quite a simple trick really. I'm sure you don't live to far away from a golf course. Golf courses usually have electric powered golf carts and they swap the batteries out every two years or so as part of their maintenance practices. The good thing about this is that the batteries still have several years of life left in them. All you need to do is go ask at a couple golf courses and you should be able to find enough batteries to power your car.

In addition to the batteries you will also need a charge controller, a potentiometer, and some assorted nuts and bolts from your local hardware store. It is vital that you have a charge controller and potentiometer because one makes sure your batteries don't overcharge and explode and the other enables you to control the speed of the car by controlling the amount of electricity that flows to the motor.

After you have those parts it's simply a matter of mounting the motor to the driveshaft and mounting the batteries under the hood. If all of the batteries don't fit you may need to squeeze some of them into the trunk. Next, it's a matter of hooking the charge controller up to the batteries and hooking the batteries up to the potentiometer and then to the motor. The potentiometer is mounted to your gas pedal so that it functions in the same way a regular car does. ]]></description>
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<title>An Ouline On How To Build Your Own Electric Car</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/an-ouline-on-how-to-build-your-own-electric-car.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/an-ouline-on-how-to-build-your-own-electric-car.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Regardless of what anybody tells you it is possible to build your own electric car. I'm going to outline the basic steps that are needed so that you have a basic understanding on how to build your own electric car. If you're thinking that it's going to be too hard and you won't be able to do it that's untrue. As long as you have some basic DIY skills and can hold a screwdriver you'll be able to achieve this.

The first step is finding which car you're going to convert. Many people use their own car, but some people go out and buy one because they want to successfully convert a car to electric for something to drive on short trips. With a range of around 200 miles most people only drive the electric car.

After you've decided which car you're going to use for the conversion it's now time to buy all of the parts you are going to need. The electric motor you are going to need should be at least 8 inches in length and less than 12 inches in length. Our goal is to reach highway speeds of 55MPH and this size of motor will allow you to reach that. Next in the list is 14 deep cycle 12 volt batteries. You can buy these... or you can get them for free. Many golf courses use electric golf carts, and those batteries are swapped out every two years or so as part of regular maintenance. By simply asking around you can find what you need for free. Lastly, you will need a charge controller, a potentiometer, and some nuts and bolts from your local hardware store.

To begin with you will need to hoist out the engine and transmission out of your car. It's quite a bit easier to do if you have a friend helping you so I suggest you ask one. The next step is to mount the motor to the drive shaft. This is quite easy as you can use existing mounts on the frame to mount the motor. After the motor is mounted it's time to stuff as many batteries under the hood as you possibly can. The rest of the batteries can be mounted in your trunk, but if you have a large enough hood they should all fit under it.

After those steps are completed it's simply a matter of hooking everything up. You will need to hook the charge controller in between your charging source and the batteries. The charge controller is used so that your batteries don't overcharge and explode. Next, you will need to hook the batteries up to one side of the potentiometer. This is used to control the amount of energy flowing to the motor so that you can control your speed. You will also need to mount the potentiometer up to the gas pedal. The last part is to hook up the other side of the potentiometer up to the electric motor. Lastly, simply cut the wire and hook this up to a switch (or key) so that you can turn the car on and off.

This is a simplistic overview, but it's not much harder than what I've described. It takes about two weekend to do, and saves you about 75% on gas every month. For me that turned into about $110 in savings. ]]></description>
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<title>Living Off The Grid - Tips and Tricks For Success</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Inspirational_Motivational/living-off-the-grid-tips-and-tricks-for-success.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Inspirational_Motivational/living-off-the-grid-tips-and-tricks-for-success.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ After 16 years of living off the grid I now have a wealth of information to share with you. After a lot of writing about different topics I realized I don't have a tips and tricks for living off the grid. These are just some basic tips that will help you achieve your dream. If you keep them in mind while you are trying to make the switch I'm sure you will succeed.

The biggest tip I can give you is to never lose sight of your goal. 16 years ago when we were going to make the switch we actually had people laugh at us, but those same people now ask for our help with their own conversions.

Start small and take baby steps at first. Living off the grid is a learning process. You're going to be generating your own energy and you'll need to do a little bit of learning along the way. I recommend to first start out by making your house more energy efficient, and just become more aware of how you're using energy in your home. This can help quite a bit when it comes to building your renewable energy system as the less energy you need the less money you'll need to spend to produce it.

If you have a little bit of DIY skills consider building the solar panels or wind generator yourself. I know you may not think that you can actually do this, but trust me... we didn't think we could really do it either, but we managed to do it.

Get in touch with people who share the same ideals as you. They have a ton of information that they are willing to share with you. Right now there are literally thousands of places you could find people who are like minded. Forums are the best place as you can take part in discussions and ask questions from people who have actually made the switch.

Above all is never give up. One of my favourite quotes of all time is "those people who give up never realize how close they were to success." This is true in almost every case. We've been very close to giving up several times, but just by hanging in there and reminding ourselves why we were doing this we were able to achieve our dream of energy independence. I believe that if you want to you can do it too. ]]></description>
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<title>Why You Should Consider Living Off The Grid</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Environment/why-you-should-consider-living-off-the-grid.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Environment/why-you-should-consider-living-off-the-grid.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ With the current rise in energy prices and people looking to save money living off the grid has become a popular alternative. The current recession does offer us some relief, but this is only temporary and at most can only last a year or two. When the economy is back under control energy prices are going to go higher than we've ever seen them go. Now is the time to think about living off the grid as you can be prepared for the inevitable.

We saw that energy prices were going to go up and we didn't want a monthly mortgage to the electric company. 16 years ago we decided that we weren't going to pay them any more and set out building our own renewable energy system. 

One of the reasons why you should consider living off the grid is simply because you'll be doing your part to help save our planet. By generating your own electricity you are taking that first step and reducing your emissions. We are the trendsetters here, and as we show that it can be done more people will follow.

I think the most attractive reason to many people for living off the grid is simply the fact of money. For an average family who spends around $200 / month (conservative I know) on electricity stand to save around $2400 per year. Imagine what you can do with that money? Many people spend it, but quite a few of them put it away into savings accounts.

I know this may sound crazy, but living off the grid can help you retire sooner. Don't believe me? Just look at the proof in the previous paragraph. If you're able to save an extra $2400 per year for the next ten years you'll have around $35,000. That's an extra $35K simply because you took the first step and started producing your own energy.

It's not as expensive as you think either. Today you can get an entire system installed for around $12,000, but if you're like us and want to save money you can build your own system for around $1500. Remember, it's not why should you move off grid its why shouldn't you.

The pros far outweigh the cons in my opinion, and I hope to help many more people realize a dream. It's the same dream that we had 16 years ago, and that's simply to fire the electric company and generate our own electricity. ]]></description>
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<title>It's Easy To Start Living Off The Grid</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Environment/it-s-easy-to-start-living-off-the-grid.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Environment/it-s-easy-to-start-living-off-the-grid.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ That's right, it's easier than you think to start living off the grid. For example, it used to cost well over $50,000 to put solar panels on your house, but now that cost is down to around $10,000. This is partly due to new technologies making the manufacturing process cheaper and higher production also decreases the cost. If you're really brave you can build your own solar panels for about $1500 and save a ton of money. I prefer telling people to build their own solar panels as it's not that hard and it saves a lot of money... plus it pays for itself in about a year.

You can start living off the grid right now simply by making your home more energy efficient. To start out with you should change all of the lights in your house to compact fluorescent lights (CFL's). These lights offer 75% savings in electricity and the light they produce looks exactly like incandescent light. Simply by changing the lights in your house you could save upwards of 15% on your electric bill.

After you have enegy efficient lights you will need to start thinking about the other places in your house that hog energy. Simply by becoming more energy aware you will be able to save money on your bill. One of the best tips I have deals with your refrigerator. You see, if your fridge is full it uses less electricity. The problem is that we simply can't keep our fridge full without wasting food. The solution is to have jugs of water in your fridge that you place in there as it gets empty. The reason behind this is simple. Air doesn't really hold cold that well, but water is very good at it. When you open the door the little amount of air that is in the fridge escapes, but you have a bunch more energy which is stored in your jugs of water. This means that it will take the door being open longer before it will turn on, and this in turn saves you money.

After your house is energy efficient you can look at buying or building a wind generator or solar panels for your home. Once you take this step you are truly living off the grid and you won't have to pay the electric company ever again. It's a great feeling and you all of the sudden have a bunch of extra money that you can spend or save. ]]></description>
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<title>You Can Do an Electric Truck Conversion</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/you-can-do-an-electric-truck-conversion.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/you-can-do-an-electric-truck-conversion.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ So you're looking to convert your truck to electric. The good news is that it's quite a bit easier for you. Doing an electric car conversion means you're limited by how many batteries you can fit inside the hood or in the trunk. With a truck it's much easier because you can stick a bunch of batteries into the bed of the truck and still have quite a bit of storage space. In addition, you can also add more batteries to increase the range of your truck. Some people have told me that they've gotten their trucks up to almost 500 miles by adding a bigger battery bank.

I recommend using a light truck for your electric truck conversion as there's less weight you have to move around. I strongly discourage you using anything bigger than a Ford F-150 as that's about as big as you could go and still be fairly efficient.

The batteries needed for your conversion are 12 volt deep cycle batteries. These can easily be found for free at your local golf course. I stumbled up this gold mine while I was working at a golf course over 5 years ago. I remembered it when I was starting my conversion. You will need a minimum of 14 batteries as this will give you a range of around 200 miles. If you want to add more batteries you will increase the range, but you will have to watch out for weight. Try not to overload your truck to much with extra batteries.

In cars I recommend getting a motor that is 8 - 12 inches in length, but for trucks I recommend you stick closer to the 12 inch mark. This will ensure that you have plenty of power to get your truck up to the desired 55MPH.

You will need to hoist the engine and transmission out of the truck and mount the electric motor. After which you can hook the motor up to the driveshaft. Next, you can start mounting as many batteries as you can under the hood and stick the rest of them in the bed of the truck. Lastly, you'll need to wire in a potentiometer and charge controller in to your truck. The potentiometer is used to control the trucks speed and the charge controller is used to make sure you don't overcharge your batteries.

After you've got all this done you can turn the key and begin motoring around town in a completely quiet vehicle and boast to your friends that you save over 75% on your gas costs every month. ]]></description>
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<title>Doing Your Own Electric Vehicle Conversions</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/doing-your-own-electric-vehicle-conversions.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/doing-your-own-electric-vehicle-conversions.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Many people are now looking to do their own electric vehicle conversions because they have now learned that they're not as hard as they thought and they're quite a bit cheaper than buying an electric car. The great thing about doing an electric vehicle conversion is that no one will know you're driving an electric car unless they listen really closely.

You will also be able to brag to your friends that you're saving well over 75% on fuel costs per month. I would be careful with who you tell though because several of my friends have asked me to help them with their electric vehicle conversion.

To start with your electric vehicle conversion you'll obviously need a car or light truck. I recommend a car with a big hood or a truck because you'll be able to fit more batteries in without having to sacrifice storage space. As with everything battery powered the more batteries you have the longer it will last. With the recommended 12 deep cycle 12 volt batteries you should be able to travel almost 200 miles per charge which covers pretty much 95% of the driving we do. If you want to increase the range all you need to do is add more batteries.

You will also need a DC electric motor which is 8 - 12 inches in length. This should provide you with enough power to get your car up to the desired 55 MPH. Our goal when we built ours was to be able to do highway speed. If you buy a bigger higher RPM motor you will be able to go faster. Look on eBay for these motors as you'll be able to find them there cheaper then if you went and bought them from a retailer. I managed to get mine for $65 including shipping and handling.

In addition, you will also need need some electronics and some assorted nuts and bolts from your local hardware store. Two of the most important electronic parts you are going to need is a charge controller and a potentiometer. The charge controller is used to make sure that your batteries don't overcharge and blow up and the potentiometer is used to control how fast your car goes when you press the 'gas' pedal.

An entire conversion can be done in about two weekends providing you have someone to help you. The great thing is that your electric vehicle conversion will pay for itself in about three months, so the savings start pretty much immediately. ]]></description>
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<title>Convert My Gas Car To Electric</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/convert-my-gas-car-to-electric.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/convert-my-gas-car-to-electric.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ With gas prices still skyrocketing through the roof, and projections for gas prices to only go further up many people are looking to convert their gas car to electric. I know that gas prices have fallen recently due to the recession, but this is really only a temporary state for gas prices... once everything settles down again they're going to skyrocket once again. The great thing about an electric car is that gas prices would have to go down to about 30 cents per litre or so before it would be economically feasible to drive with gas rather than electric.

To begin with you're going to need a car to do the conversion. You can use your own, but just remember that you'll be about 2 weeks without a car so plan accordingly. It takes about two weekends to do a conversion, but if you can manage to get time off of work you could do it in 4 days.

The next thing you're going to need is a DC electric motor. I recommend going to ebay and looking around. You should be able to find one for quite a bit cheaper than going to a store. You are looking for a motor that is approximately 8 - 12 inches in length. This will ensure that the motor has enough power to propel your car to the desired 55MPH. You can look for a bigger higher RPM motor, but just remember that you will need to add more batteries to go the same distance as it uses more energy.

You will now need to find 14 deep cycle 12 volt batteries. You can buy them new or... you can get them for free. It's true, you can get free batteries and here's how. Your local golf course has at least 14 electric golf carts. Every two years they swap the batteries out for new ones as part of regular maintenance packages. You can ask around at your local golf course and they will usually give them to you for free as it costs them money to dispose of them.

Lastly, you will need to pick up some assorted nuts and bolts from your local hardware store. You will also need to pick up a charge controller and a potentiometer as well. The charge controller is used to ensure that you don't overcharge your batteries. The potentiometer is used so that you can control the speed of the car.

Once you have all the parts it's simply a matter of hoisting the engine out and mounting the motor and batteries to the car. I love my electric car as it costs me less than $30 per month to drive whereas it used to cost me well over $100 per month to drive. ]]></description>
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<title>Batteries For Electric Car Conversion</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/batteries-for-electric-car-conversion.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Automotive/batteries-for-electric-car-conversion.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ The heart of any electric car conversion is the batteries. Without the batteries your car or truck isn't going to go anywhere.

It's important to find the right kind of batteries though. You are going to need a type of battery called a deep cycle battery. What this means is that the battery is designed to be discharged almost completely and it will continue to hold charge when you recharge it. If you don't get this type of battery then after the first couple of charges with your electric car the batteries are going to stop working. So make sure you get 12 volt deep cycle batteries.

There are several sources where you can find these batteries for free. One of them is your local golf course. I used to work at a golf course while I was a teenager and every year or two we would swap the batteries out of the golf carts and replace them with new ones. The old batteries were still good, they were just replaced for routine maintenance. When I was doing my electric car conversion I went around to the local golf courses and managed to pick up 20 or so 12 volt deep cycle batteries. They still have years of life left in them, and if one breaks I have a couple of replacements.

Another source of free batteries are fork lift batteries. These are usually swapped out every five years or so. If you ask around the warehousing district of your nearest city you should be able to find a couple of them. These batteries are great and they are designed to last at least 20 years.

The problem with forklift batteries is that they are quite a bit more bulkier than conventional 12 volt batteries so you will not be able to fit as many in... or you may not be able to fit them in at all. In order to use forklift batteries you'll need to use quite a large car or you could clear out your trunk and mount them there.

There you have it, what type of batteries you will need to make your electric car conversion. I recommend that you measure the dimensions inside the hood and the trunk so that you know whether you'll be able to use forklift batteries or whether you have to use regular golf cart batteries. Both types are quite good, but fork lift batteries can store more energy. ]]></description>
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<title>Living Off The Grid - You Can Do It Yourself</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Environment/living-off-the-grid-you-can-do-it-yourself.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Environment/living-off-the-grid-you-can-do-it-yourself.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ One thing that I tell people over and over is that they can make their own conversion to renewable energy. It's not really as hard as you think, and it doesn't cost nearly as much as you hear on the news. When people ask me how we managed to move off the grid for such a low cost I tell them that it was because we didn't want to pay that high price tag.

If you are thinking about living off the grid then trust me you can do it yourself. Even if you have just a little DIY skills you will be able to succeed. All you need to be able to do is follow instructions.

Let's start with the first thing that you need to do. You will need to begin by making your house more energy efficient. The reason behind this is simple. The less energy your home consumes the less energy you need to generate to power it. Starting out you will need to change your lights to compact fluorescent lights (which are 75% more efficient). Moving on from there you will need to become more aware of how the energy is used in your house. Your refrigerator and furnace are usually two of the biggest culprits for energy hogging. To remedy your fridge you can make sure it's full all of the time. If you don't eat that much food then put jugs of water in to fill up and of the air in the fridge. You'd be surprised at how much energy this can save. Expect at least 5% savings or more.

After your home is energy efficient it's time for you to start generating some of your own power. If you live in a windy enough place you can build a wind generator. It isn't as hard as you think and I can vouch for that. Many of the people I've helped thought it would be an impossible task, but after completing it they admitted it was easier than they thought.

If you don't live in a windy area you can build some solar panels. This is a slightly more expensive route, but by building them yourself you stand to save at least 60 - 75%. The good thing about solar panels is that they are very low maintenance and last quite a long time.

After you've built something that can generate electricity I recommend getting an electrician in and hooking it up to your meter. This is great because you don't have to have a huge battery backup, but you will still save 100% or more on your electric bill. Did you know that if you produce more electricity than you use that the electric company will actually pay you?

I hope I've eased your fears at least a little and made you more confident that you can make the switch to living off the grid yourself. As I like to say "if we could do it then anyone can". ]]></description>
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