Watercolor Painting - Benefits and Drawbacks of Watercolor Painting

The most rudimentary form of painting with the brushes could be related to watercolor painting, as it is the primary step in the painting field, to get accustomed with the colors and the strokes of the brushes. This form of work is mostly found effective, to a great extent, considering the fact that it allows you to learn the strokes with a paint brush, before proceeding onto more daunting techniques. At the same time you also get the rough idea of mixing the paints, to get the desired effect. On discussing about this art we come across several aspects, which can be debated upon or could be put aside as the shortcomings or benefits of the art.

Several positive aspects

Watercolor paintings are an easy art, as far as the painting techniques with the paint brushes are concerned. The necessary ingredients required for watercolor painting could be easily available in the market, along with the water that is in free flow in every home. The watercolors are generally watering soluble pigments, which can be easily affordable by the individuals, and the water to dissolve the pigment is available at the workplace and even at home.  

All this makes the technique of watercolor painting so popular among the younger learners, who seek to get a good grasp on the painting techniques. Even the application of colors and the movement of strokes could be very well mastered, through the watercolor painting. It is much easier process than the others and allows us to feel free to experiment with the colors, as they are within affordable limits.

Some of the negative effects

Although, people say that the watercolor painting technique is a very easy process and saves a lot of money, they forget to consider the after effects of the watercolor painting. There are several disadvantages of maintaining a watercolor painting due to several reasons, like problem with pigmentation, colors being water soluble and few others. You might have noted that watercolor paintings are mostly done on paper, varying between several qualities, which tend to turn yellow after quite a few years.

Moreover, the watercolors being soluble with water are prone to water damage in the long run, where the entire painting might be ruined. Preservation for a watercolor painting can be really difficult considering these aspects, as you never know when some accidents might lead to contamination of water over the painting, dissolving the paint and ruining it.

When we take up the aspects of the pigments present with the paper texture, we do not wonder about the bonding of the pigments with the texture. For this reason, when the pigments seem to come off the paper and the painting seems to get dull over the days, you feel astonished at the incident, causing us further trouble to restore it.

High Altitude Diesel Generator Use

At high altitudes, engines suffer loss of horsepower due to reduced air density. Diesel engines work by compressing the air creating heat necessary to ignite this air and fuel mixture. Turbo Diesel engines can ram more air into the combustion chamber increasing the air density. Without turbo most diesel engines will suffer noticeable power loss and incomplete combustion at 3000 feet. If you are thinking of using a generator above 3000 feet, don't pick diesel or you will have problems.

To compensate for high altitude, engines need to be adjusted to avoid too rich a fuel/air mixture. Diesel engines are adjusted for high altitude by advancing the fuel injection timing. This gives the engine more time to burn the fuel before it is expelled. At high altitude engines are noisier, have difficulty accelerating and have reduced power output. Also, the rich mixture can generate black smoke, which indicates incomplete combustion or in extreme cases white smoke, caused by raw fuel in the exhaust.

Many portable generators have fixed fuel injection timing. You can however remove a shim between the engine and the fuel injection pump will advance the timing. Once an engine has been adjusted for altitude it can overheat due to the lean mixture if operated at low altitude. There may be no other signs before engine damage occurs. Some diesel engine manufactures such as Yanmar Diesel suggest the modifications be done at 5000 feet. Manufactures normally setup their generators to run at at 500 ft If you intend to run a generator at higher altitudes you should let your dealer know this before you purchase a diesel generator.

Run Your Car on Hydrogen Gas With an HHO Conversion Kit

As gas prices continue to rise, people will continue to look for alternate sources of fuel to run their cars. Do not let fuel costs continue to burn a hole in your wallet. Run your car on hydrogen with the help of an HHO Conversion Kit. Soon, we will all be driving some kind of Hydrogen Fuel Cars. Why not be the first one on your street to reap the benefits?

But what is a HHO Conversion Kit? Is it Safe? Where Can you buy them? These are all important questions. The answers are actually quite simple.

What is an HHO Conversion Kit:
Hydrogen gas, or HHO, is a flammable gas and can be used for fuel. When properly utilized, HHO can be used in your car to improve your gas mileage. HHO Conversion Kits are devices that when assembled and installed in your car, create a hydrogen generator that can be used to supplement typical gasoline fuel in your car. Hydrogen generators are an effective means to run your car on hydrogen. You'll still need to get typical unleaded fuel from your neighborhood gas station, but you'll cut the consumption of this fuel in half, if not more. HHO Conversion Kits are inexpensive to build and install. Even a novice handyman can do it. Hydrogen Conversion Kit manuals and / or ebooks tell you how to create a hydrogen generator from basic materials available at any hardware store.

How can you generate hydrogen gas from materials at a hardware store? Is not it more complicated? Not really. Hydrogen can be created by a chemical process called electrolysis. Basically, you only need electricity and water. Your car battery can supply plenty of electricity, and water is just about free from the tap inside your home. You will not need to create anything that sparks to burn the hydrogen gas. As hydrogen gas is created, it gets routed into the air intake of your car. From then on, your car's engine does the rest with no additional changes to the parts of your car. That's all you'll need to run your car on hydrogen fuel. The unit is compact and it takes very little room under the hood of your car.

When you run your car on Hydrogen you'll see many benefits:
- Improve your gas mileage up to 67%
- Reduce harmful CO2 emissions from your exhaust
- Smoother running engine
- Faster acceleration
- IRS tax benefits!

Is it safe?
When you run your car on hydrogen from a HHO generator, you face very little additional risk. Yes, you are creating a flammable gas, but this gas is sent directly into the engine. You car carries around a tank full of flammable gas all the time! The HHO generator creates the fuel on-demand, so there is no excess fuel to act as a hazard.

Where can you buy them?
Costs of the HHO Generator vary. Some ebooks say it can be built for $ 60, others for $ 150. At $ 60, to build an generator to run your car on hydrogen is equal to the cost of one tank of gas! That is an immediate return on your investment and time. If you are afraid of the manual labor to build the HHO generator, you can buy them for upwards of $ 5,000.

HHO Generators are an immediate solution to high gas prices. One can be built in just a few hours, and the savings begin immediately.

Comments: Chevrolet Beat Diesel Review

Looking For Better Gas Mileage? Do Not Be Fueled

With gas prices climbing, everyone is looking for ways to improve their car's gas mileage. Most people are aware of the standard ways to do that like slowing down, not stopping or starting quickly, keeping the tires inflated, replacing the air filter and getting a tune up. Those with a gas guzzler may be hoping for something that will really improve its gas mileage. They may be tempted to try one of the hundreds of products that are advertised to produce 20% to 60% better mileage. The question is; do those products work?

The Environmental Protection Agency has tested hundreds of these products. Not only did they not find any that significantly increase gas mileage, they found that some of them can damage the cars' engine and increase its emissions. Some of these products boldly claim that they are approved by the Federal government or the EPA. This is a blatant lie as they do not approve or endorse any products.

There are a myriad of products claiming to increase gas mileage. They claim to work in a variety of ways. Some of them are added directly to the gas tank. These products are supposedly to make the gasoline burn more complete that improving gas mileage. They usually contain either acetone or naphthalene which is the main ingredient in mothballs. Not only do these products not work, they can damage the entire fuel system including the seals, fuel injectors and fuel pump.

Another group of products claiming to improve gas mileage are fuel line magnets which can range in price from $ 10 to $ 400. These magnets attach to the fuel line near the engine. Supposedly, the magnet breaks up clumps of gasoline molecules allowing them to be burned more efficiently. Although they do work on diesel engines, they do not work on gasoline engines.

Performance chips are another group of gas savings scams. These chips are placed on the air intake temperature sensor. The theory is that the chip spins the air so that it mixes better with the fuel and therefore burns better. The chip which is actually a resistor simply creates turbulence which slows down the air flow and may decrease gas mileage.

Another bogus gas saving device is the electronic engine ionizer. In this device the rubber capacitor blocks clip onto the spark plug wires. When one of the spark plugs fires, this device claims to use that energy to fire the spark plus in the cylinders that are not firing. That firing is supposed to break down the gas left in those cylinders to make the next firings more efficient. The rubber on these devices can melt onto the manifold and cause a fire. And, premature sparking can damage the engine.

There are also hydrogen generators on the market than can cost up to $ 2,000 and claim to yield as much as 100 mpg. The theory behind it is the generator breaks up the water molecules into pure hydrogen and oxygen. The pure hydrogen helps the fuel burn better resulting in better gas mileage. The problem is that it does not produce enough pure hydrogen to be of any benefit and because it changes the oxygen levels it can damage the valve seals and heads.

The bottom line is that if any of the hundreds of identical gas saving devices worked, car makers and gas companies would be using them. Unfortunately, they do not work. The only options a person who has a gas guzzler has either to continue to drive it or replace it. Car dealers and the public do not want them so selling it is not a viable solution. That leaves car donation as the best option. The tax deduction is a very good benefit from a very bad situation.

A Look Back at the Most Impressive Race Car Engines

Did you know that race cars must have extremely powerful engines in order to be winners? Besides the aerodynamics that have been implemented and the modifications, the engine is what makes the car the ultimate winner.

Let's start off with the famous Formula One Ferrari. One of the most famous engines in the F1 was the Ferrari V10 F1. It was a 3.0 liter, ten cylinder racing car that was responsible for 57 wins.

The Porsche Flat 6 is another racing vehicle that left an impression on the world. It was a 2.0 liter air cooled engine. The most recent version of this Porsche has received impressive results by winning many races over the years.

The Porsche Flat 12 has one of the largest engines in the racing industry. There are two flat six engines packed into this car. It is a 4.5 liter engine which has 1500 horse power. You can imagine how cramped the driver must have been to make space for this massive machine.

The Mazda R26B 4-rotor might have been one of the craziest models in the racing industry. Having entered 21 races and only winning one might be a strange statistic. This one race was the LeMans and it made an impression as it was the only car that was not a conventional piston engine and it was a unique marque.

The BMW S14 was the start of the M-series. Winning the championship but winning no races, it was simply a 2.5 liter engine with only four cylinders.

The Audi R10-18 TDI has been through many changes over time but always had a memorable engine. Originally, this model was a petrol engine that had ten cylinders. This was entered into the LeMans race and won. However, the manufacturers decided to place a diesel engine with twelve cylinders and two turbos. Now, that is an amazing amount of power in just a single race car. Not even Formula One cars have a V12 Engine.

Ever race car has to be equipped with the finest mechanical and electrical parts. Races are there to prove the quality of the car before hitting the city streets. Racing cars also test how well an engine can cope under extreme conditions such as heat, rain and snow.

Racing tracks are also the best places for tire manufacturers to test their new products. Rubber needs to withstand heat and friction over long periods of time and track day is the time to test it.

Ethanol Is The New Biomass Fuel

Biomass materials have been a principal source of energy ever since man used wood to build fires. But nowdays, biomass is being developed into an interesting and alternative source of energy. Biomass is the term commonly used in describing any form of organic or biological material which can be used or burnt to provide useful energy. Biomass is by definition is a renewable energy source as it comes from living things such as plants and vegetable matter and by waste that most living creatures produce.

Biomass has an enormous potential as being a serious energy source, and the conversion of these waste materials, which would have otherwise been discarded, into biofuels is an interesting and exciting prospect that has a lot of potential. In its broadest definition, any biomass material that could be burnt or used as a fuel may be called a biofuel. Today, biofuels are becoming the most commonly used fuel type and a major source of energy production in many different countries.

So how can we use biomass as a form of fuel. Well, biomass is organic based matter that once come from living things and organisms, in the same way that fossil fuels are derived from oil, coal, or natural gas which themselves were formed deep within the Earth over many millions of years from dead plants and animal remains. Biomass materials are used to produce many different forms of energy, for example, heat, electricity and more importantly in liquid fuels used for transport such as biodiesel and ethanol.

There are many different types of biofuel but the two main and most widely used types are: Biodiesel which is a heavy oil based product made from vegetable and waste cooking oils instead of petroleum and Ethanol and other such alcohol based fuels distilled from corn, maize, grain and other such plant matter that can be mixed or blended with, or substituted directly for gasoline.

Biofuel allows farmers to turn vacant land or excess crops into a fuel with ethanol based crops now commonly being grown across the land. Ethanol is an alcohol based biofuel, since its name ethyl-alcohol, or ethanol for short, which can be created from common renewable sources such as oil seeds, corn, starchy crops, potatoes and sugar cane, to name a few as they can be broken down to produce a variety of sugars. Most ethanol based biofuels are fermented from corn.

Over the years, ethanol based biofuels have become the main alternative to gasoline as it can be easily used to power combustion engines in cars, either on its own or by being mixed with standard gasoline or other such automotive fuels. Gasoline when mixed with ethanol produces a fuel that is commonly referred to as: Gasohol.

Gasohol is a viable alternative form of fuel compared to petroleum based oil products. There are different blends of gasoline and ethanol available no at the gas stations with each one being identified by the letter, "E" for Ethanol, and a number digit to indicate the percentage amount of ethanol blended into the fuel. So for example, E10 contains 10 percent of ethanol and 90 percent of gasoline, E5 will contain 5 percent of ethanol and 95 percent of gasoline, while a much richer ethanol mixture of E85 contains about 85 percent of ethanol and only 15 percent of gasoline.

Ethanol is generally referred to as an oxygenate, which means that it can increase the amount of oxygen in the base fuel that it is mixed with. The extra oxygen content acts like an octane booster engine performance. However, when ethanol is used on its own as an automated fuel instead of regular gasoline, the engine used must be adapted to run with the new gasohol mixture. This is due to burn efficiently, ethanol fueled engines require a higher compression ratios.

Also ethanol fueled engines burn their fuel more cleanly than regular gasoline engines producing less emissions and air born pollutants, and as its an alcohol based fuel, the exhaust fumes from the tail pipe is water vapor and a much reduced amount CO2 emissions resulting in ethanol fueled engines thinking longer and running smoother.

Today, most of the major car manufacturers are building and designing ethanol powered cars with many fuel companies adding ethanol fueling pumps to their gas and petrol stations. The use of ethanol as a major fuel source to power vehicles is without doubt on the rise, as many ethanol fueled cars and vehicles give increased power output as well as better fuel economy by as much as 20% higher mileage than conventional vehicles that just run on standard gasoline alone.

One of the many advantages of Ethanol fuel is that its biodegradable because it's made from organic and natural elements, so if you spill it, it will not harm the environment. However, the main disadvantage is that to produce the large quantities of ethanol required to power our vehicles requires large numbers of crops. Therefore, producers and farmers would require more agricultural land to plant biofuel crops and far less land for food crop production.