Samuel A Clarke.com

Clean and green. That seems to be the buzz words of the century. With sky rocketing energy prices, pollution, and dwindling resources, more and more people are looking towards alternative energy sources like solar panel energy collection. Also, the prices of key clean energy technologies are plummeting. This is bringing many technologies, such as distributed solar, and energy storage, closer and closer to mass deployment.

Just look at the cost of solar panels today. Solar panels are approximately 20% below the price that of what they where a year ago! Also best of all, they should continue dropping for the foreseeable future! In other words, the performance/price ratio is improving exponentially. We also see the costs per watt In advanced thin films dropping. Even more dramatic price drops are occurring in battery storage systems across a range of chemistries with prices halving themselves in the the last year. Plummeting prices that translate to rising performance are good news for developers, electric car-makers, the global industry at large, and all the rest of us too.

It may not be long before you can say ‘goodbye’ to that ever increasing, and outrageous, hydro bill we all are paying each month. A quick search of a “well known” auction website for ‘solar panel’ shows that, if you were willing to assemble your own solar panel collection system, you could get started for as little as $1.40/per Watt! Possibly for much less! How many Watts of solar panel energy could your buy with just ONE year’s hydro payments? Imagine how many Watts of solar panel energy you will be able to buy in a year from now!! It is for this reason I have; “Build a solar panel”, down on my list of projects to do. Watch for my future article and “How To” on this solar panel project.

Anyone who knows me, knows that lately I am all about couponing. I have learned so much over the last couple of months about how to get all those great deals and tons of free stuff.

One thing I have noticed is that the single greatest place to find amazing promotions such as free giveaways, contests, sweepstakes and great coupons, is Facebook. All these years I have been hopelessly addicted to Facebook, and yet I never would have guessed that I could use it to get free things.

Many products have their own Facebook page and it seems that they all, at one time or another, have some kind of promotion going on. I frequently find contests, free product giveaways, and really good coupons. Usually, all you have to do is ‘like’ their Facebook page to be entered into the contest or sweepstakes, or to receive the item and coupons.

I spent some time finding all the product pages that I could and ‘liking’ them. Now when a page is about to have a promotion, contest or giveaway, they post on my wall informing me in advance. How easy is that? Shreddies, for example, just had one a few weeks ago: I liked their page and they mailed me a coupon for a free box of Shreddies! I got my Shreddies yesterday at Save On Foods and didn’t have to pay a dime!

Febreeze also had a giveaway recently. For liking their page you got a Febreeze Set and a Refresh air freshener. Other free giveaways I have seen lately are for Maynards Blush Berries, Skinny Cow Ice Cream, Triscuits and Vector cereal.

Below are some current facebook promotions. Don’t forget to register on this site so you can leave comments on my blog posts and receive exclusive access to special promotions and deals only offered to registered users of SamuelAClarke.com! Also bookmark us and add us to your RSS feeds so you can stay up to date with my blog where you will get new and up to date info on the latest and greatest coupons and free sample promos.

Dial coupon
Dial Coupons

Kit Kat Contest for $25,000
Kit Kat Big Break Contest

Safeway Deal of the Week Coupon
Safeway Weekly Deal

Giorgio Armani Fragrance Sample
Armani

Flavur Contest to win iMac, Mountain Bike…
Flavur Contest

Motts Fruitsations Coupon
Motts Coupon

Pier 1 Imports Daily Deal (today’s deal is 50% off any LED candles)
Pier 1 Imports Daily Deal

Don’t forget to register for this site so you can leave me a comment. Also, don’t forget to +1 on Google and ‘like’ my post on Facebook. Thanks

Just a Buck… Help me to keep finding GREAT deals! 😉

These days I am always on the hunt for a great coupon offer or free product sample. Well I found both of these with this fantastic Purex promo! Purex has come out with a new product, Purex with Zout. It is a laundry detergent combined with the triple-enzyme stain-fighting power of Zout® pretreater. If you sign up on their website,(see link below) Purex will mail you a free sample pack of their laundry detergent AND a $3 off coupon!

Now I am all for getting free samples, but this free sample especially appealed to me since I just got a new washing machine a week ago, one that requires HE detergent! I needed to find a new product to replace my usual brand of non-HE laundry detergent, so I was happy to receive this free sample pack of laundry detergent from Purex. However, the coupon that came with the free sample pack was the really great part of this free offer. Why? Well, because there where two really amazing opportunities to use the $3 off Purex laundry detergent coupon.

The first opportunity I found was at London Drugs. They normally sell the 1.47 L bottle of Purex laundry detergent for $7.49 a bottle. However, London Drugs had a sale on where you could purchase TWO bottles of Purex laundry detergent for only $7.00. So thats just $3.50 a bottle, then minus the $3.00 off product coupon, that worked out to only $0.50 a bottle!!! That was a great opportunity, but… It gets even better!

The second opportunity I found to use the $3.00 off product coupon was at Zellers. Zellers has the same size 1.47 L bottles of Purex laundry detergent on sale for just $3.00 a bottle!!! So with the $3.00 off product coupon applied to the price, each bottle of Purex laundry detergent you purchase is FREE!! (you will however have to pay the sales tax unfortunately) This is extreme couponing at its best!

NOTE: Also be sure to register on this site so you can leave comments on my blog posts and receive exclusive access to special promotions and deals only offered to registered users of SamuelAClarke.com! Also bookmark us and add us to your RSS feeds so you can stay up to date with my blog where you will get new and up to date info on the latest and greatest coupons and free sample promos.

Here is the link to get your free product sample pack and coupon. It may take about two or three weeks to arrive in the mail.
Click here to get your Purex laundry detergent FREE Sample

Don’t forget to register for this site so you can leave me a comment. Also, don’t forget to +1 on Google and ‘like’ my post on Facebook. Thanks

Just a Buck… Help me to keep finding GREAT deals! 😉

I am pretty impressed with the website I mentioned in my last blog post, FreeCycle.org. I figured ‘what the heck!’, I’ll try posting in the ‘wanted’ section and see what happens. So I posted that I was looking for a free original XBOX since ours broke recently. I assumed it would be a pretty big long shot that I would get any responses. However, within 48 hours of posting, someone emailed me that they had an original XBOX they did not use anymore that I could have for free. Also at FreeCycle.org you can post to different ‘groups’ (each group represents a different area in which you live) increasing the chances you will find what you are looking for – for free. The person that contacted me is right here near me – just a few minutes from my house!  I definitely think everyone should check out:

FreeCycle.org.

Tell us all just what you were able to get for free or what you gave away for free.
Don’t forget to register for this site so you can leave me a comment. Also, don’t forget to +1 on Google and ‘like’ my post on Facebook. Thanks

Just a Buck… Help me to keep finding GREAT deals! 😉

In my search for free samples and coupons I came across this really great website called Free-cycle.  If you have stuff you want to get rid of for free you can post it on this site, and who ever wants it for free will take it off your hands. Conversely you can browse all the things people are offering, for free of course, and you just might find something you need.  I thought this was a great idea.  The idea is that we are keeping all this stuff out of a landfill by reusing it and I am all for that!  Check it out here:

Freecycle.org

Let me know what you got for free or gave away for free by entering your comments below. 😉

Don’t forget to register for this site so you can leave me a comment. Also, don’t forget to +1 on Google and ‘like’ my post on Facebook. Thanks

Just a Buck… Help me to keep finding GREAT deals! 😉

In my previous post I discussed what a microcontroller is, what a microcontroller consists of, and also a few common types of microcontrollers. In this post I would like to explore the PICAXE microcontroller from Revolution Education Ltd. A PICAXE microcontroller is a standard Microchip PICmicro microcontroller that has been pre-programmed with the PICAXE bootstrap code. The bootstrap code enables the PICAXE microcontroller to be re-programmed directly via a simple serial connection – eliminating the need for an expensive conventional programmer. This makes the whole download system into a very low-cost and simple serial download cable.

Why the PICAXE microcontroller from from Re-Ed.? Well, the PICAXE is a cheap, easy, and a surprisingly capable microcontroller. For just a few dollars, a simple download cable and free programming software available from Re-Ed. you can be up and running with the PICAXE microcontroller. You also get many advanced features with the PICAXE microcontroller such as; parallel multi-tasking, servo support, I2C interfacing, musical ring-tone tune support, ADC inputs, touch sensor inputs, and also standard, infra-red, and serial input/output pins to mention just a few.

The PICAXE microcontroller comes in several different sizes and variants. You can choose between 8, 14, 18, 20, 28, and 40 pin sizes and either standard DIP or SMT packages. There is also a special 28 pin DIP ‘module’ that contains a PICAXE-28X2 (PIC18F25K22) chip, voltage regulator, download socket, and reset switch all in one convenient package Ideal for breadboarding. The variants available are ‘M2’, ‘X1’, and ‘X2′. The older 08, 14, 18 and 20 pin ‘A’, ‘M’ and ‘X’ parts are no longer manufactured as
they have now been superseded by the M2 parts and the older 28 and 40 pin ‘A’ and ‘X’ parts are no longer manufactured and they have now been superseded by the X1 and X2 parts. There is still an 08’M’ module available but I suspect this will be discontinued soon and replaced with an 08M2 module. You can also get an 18’X’ but this has been replaced by the 18M2 and most likely will be phased out unavailable soon. For more detailed information and to checkout the different project boards available see the Revolution Education Ltd. website.

– [The following table shows the primary functional differences between the available PICAXE microcontrollers:]
____________________________________________________________
(For general ‘hobbyist’ the M2 and X2 series are recommended.)

Standard:(800 – 1800 line memory)

PICAXE uPU : –	Total I/O Pins : –	Max ADC Pins : –	Max Speed :
08M2	5 configurable	0-3	32MHz
14M2	11 configurable	0-7	32MHz
18M2	16 configurable	0-10	32MHz
20M2	16 configurable	0-11	32MHz
28X1	0-12in,9-17out	0-4	20MHz
40X1	8-20in,9-17out	3-7	20MHz

Advanced:(2000-3200 line memory, per ea. of (up to) 4 separate slots)

PICAXE uPU : –	Total I/O Pins : –	Max ADC Pins : –	Max Speed :
20X2	18 configurable	0-8	64MHz
28X2	22 configurable	0-16	64MHz
40X2	33 configurable	0-27	64MHz

____________________________________________________________

We will examine the different individual PICAXE microcontroller chips and their individual capabilities in more detail in my next post…