how many types of alternate sources of energy are there for the home?
368150
if you want a huge turbine in your back yard, you could try using the wind for your energy
801669
There is a lot of possibilities starting from the simplest one which is wind generator.  More complicated would be water generation where a usually dam is build and potential energy of the water accumulated behind the dam moves water through turbines and generates power. Some other may include thermal energy of the earth. If you drill deep enough you will get to the earth crust zone where temperature is high to produce steam and this steam is converted (generated) into the electric power. Ocean waves are also source to generate energy.
772410
electrical energy-------> heat + light\ndoes that help?
875999
Yes, I believe houses, and objects like furniture can hold negative energy, kind of a "cell memory"  the place may just need feng shiu, rearranging things so the energy flows properly. \n\nhttp://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Space_Clearing/id/35197\n\nhttp://www.wholife.com/issues/9_3/03_article.html
212281
Generally, appliances use electricity.  Some small amount of it is transformed to movement or light.  The majority of electricity is transformed to hear, which is dissipated to the environment.  Waste hear generated in this manner cannot effectively be captured and used for anything useful.  However, the waste heat generated by the refrigerator, light bulbs, and ovens will reduce the heat needed to keep your house warm in the winter.
716011
[1] Fusion Energy - unlimited power using Sea Water as fuel.\n[2] OLED Displays - Full size color computer screen you can roll up and put in your pocket. Wallpaper that illuminates your room.\n[3] Smart search engines - enter your question in English and you get the correct reply in English.\n[4] Real time translations of speech from one language to another.\n[5] Robots that move around just as we do and perform useful tasks.
686726
Actualy there ARE free energy solutions out there, such as a self sustaining magntic generator the problem is noone will fund building these power sources becuz there is no profit in free power and we all know everything is about money and profit.
364875
Not sure what you mean, are you talking about using 2 different metals and generating electricity from a potato?
27592
Fossil fuel is the primary alternative due to price.  As the price of fossil fuel rises, a number of alternatives become more attractive.  Wind energy is an option, but it is not likely to be the main alternative.  Nuclear has a long history for power plants, but very limited short term potential for other applications.  Solar holds tremendous potential.  Gas to liquid technology and coal to liquid technologies are the most likely alternatives in the 5 to 10 year range.  Hybrid cars will help for a while, and in 15 years hydrogen fuel cell cars will start to have a MAJOR impact.
612377
while i cant give you scientific terms, the best short answer i can give is that they are all forms of energy.
257590
food\nfuel\nrent/mortgage\ntaxes\nutilities\nclothing\nrecreation
470132
Solar energy ( using solar panels or something ) is the ultimate alternate energy source, because the energy in living things comes from the sun.  The energy in petroleum, which comes from dead plants, comes from the sun.  And the energy from hydroelectric dams comes from the sun, because the sun evaporates the water so it can rain down on the mountains and fill up the reservoir behind the dam.  Why not just go directly to the source--the sun.\n\nAs for simulating day and night, you must do this!  The human body schedules itself to sleep about every 24 or 25 hours.  Going against this schedule or against the schedule of light and dark periods can cause difficulty sleeping, difficulty staying awake, and possibly psychological problems.\n\nI don't really know what kind of colony you are referring to, so I can't really answer the other questions.  Is it a computer simulation, like Sim City, or a science-fiction colony on the planet Mars, or just a wilderness survival plan?
241725
The ultimate source of energy in all. living systems is the sun
103003
There will be other energies. Only way we will run out of them is if the powers that control them (Oil men in many countries) say to. "Fossil" fuels themselves may not even be quite what we think they are.
137307
You should probably do a google search on it. Put in alternative fuels, International Energy Agency or LEED(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The International Energy Association website has a lot of info on that, but countries like America, Australia, Netherlands/Holland, Germany, Japan, Kenya, and a lot of countries are using alternative fuels/energy. This is another good site - http://www.oecd.org/topic/0,2686,en_2649_37459_1_1_1_1_37459,00.html
103533
A simple voltaic device can be made with a piece of fruit and 2 pieces of dissimilar metals.  It won't run your house even if you have lots of them.  The juice serves only as the electrolyte, not the energy source.\n\nFor real power, you'd need to ferment and distil the juice and put it in a fuel cell.  There's lots of fuel cell info online.
815781
Good question.\n\nThere seem to be many other sources of energy but they seem to be expensive to obtain or to require large amounts of land to be dedicated to crop growth or for collectors.  This is in itself a type of inefficiency. \n\nIn the long term prices may come down but energy such as crop based gasoline alternatives don't seem to me like they would cut it with a growing demand for gas their will be a growing demand for the amount of land that must be dedicated to its production. not to mention the population is growing and its not going to stop.\n\nIf we move toward becoming almost entirely dependent upon alternative energy we must move towards harnessing different kinds of power and not just search for one solution.\n\nA lot of money would be lost from a lot of big companies.\n\nFor instance there is a windmill type device you can purchase for your home needs right now for around $10,000 it is highly efficient\nand supposedly super quiet.  It is said to be able to generate between 30% to all of a homes energy needs depending on where you live. If too much energy is generated the excess may be sold back to the electrical company.  \n\nIf you could purchase three of these at the hefty price of $30,000 you could theoretically not ever have to pay a power bill again in some places or pay almost no bill at all. The electrical companies services could be utilized as a form of backup power.  \n\nIf everyone had these wind collectors this would certainly shrink the electrical power industry.\n\nThere is no information available to me about how much it can cost to repair these items or how well they can withstand the event of a hurricane or tornado. \n\nBut I dont think think alternative energy is a pipe dream it is just something that is going to take a large investment to start up and develop towards higher levels of performance and efficiency. \n\nThe engineering of rugged devices will have to play a large role and does currently, however, a lot of trial and error needs to occur to see what works where and why and what got destroyed by random acts of god and the forces of nature and how that can be prevented.\n\nShould things begin to look rather good for alternative energy... and it seems things look better day by day... energy companies would have to begin facing downsizing and new business models and perhaps invest themselves into the production of alternative energy or alternative energy generating devices for sale to the public.  Either way at some point they wont be the economic giants they have been to this point and thats probably gonna keep them from helping.\n\nAlternative energy will only be a pipe dream if people are afraid to nurture it and harness the energies available. This is something that is and will be heavily influenced by politics.\n\nOn another note, I think that nuclear power seems to be an "easy way out" but I don't believe that it is a good or secure solution.  There have been so many nuclear mishaps you dont hear about and so much waste that you cant prevent or do anything about. Aside from alternative energy being developed for fear of a lack of oil I also thought a large part of it was moving towards a cleaner earth. Moving towards nuclear power and nuclear waste is dangerous for everyone.  Radiation does not simply go away it is corruption of matter and it is "contagious".  Sure we could maybe launch it off into space, but should something go wrong on the way out of here we would face yet another type of radiological disaster.