Residential Solar Power
Part of the thing with residential solar power is conserving
electricity. This means taking an honest look at how much power you use
every day, and where you can cut down on energy usage. The beginning
steps for this is going around and seeing what kinds of appliances are
in your home, like refrigerators, stoves and ovens, the heating and
cooling systems, as well as the hot water heater.
If your appliances aren't Energy Star appliances, they need to be
replaced. Your hot water heater sucks a bunch of electricity, because
if you have a tank heater, then most of the energy wasted is keeping
the water hot. You might want to consider replacing this old outdated
unit, and replace it with one, or even two tankless water heaters.
These are small, compact, and can be placed almost anywhere. You can
hook it up to the residential solar grid, or you can get a gas unit.
Now if you have natural gas available in your area, you should take
advantage of it. You should change all of you appliances over to gas if
you can. Natural gas is clean burning, and takes less to do more. For
example, if you have a hot water tank, depending on the size, you could
heat the water twice as fast as a comparable electric heater. For
tankless systems, it means that the water takes less to heat up, and
recovery is much quicker.
If you have that taken care of, the next stop on your way to
residential solar power is checking around your house for drafts, cold
spots, and places that collect moisture. You may need to replace old
outdated windows with new energy saving windows, some can be double
plated glass, with an inert gas between the panes. These not only cut
down on condensation in between the pains, but it can also cut down on
UV rays in your home.
All of this preparation seems expensive. However, if you stop to
think about the money you will be saving, and the reduction of your
energy bills, it far outweighs any initial costs. While you can install
residential solar energy in existing homes, or if you are building your
home from scratch, you can start right the first time, you will not
only be able to run your house totally from solar and gas, any extra
power you don't use can actually be sold back to the power company!
You can find more information about residential solar power online.
Depending on where you live, you may have a hard time finding some
things from local sources, but you can easily find Energy Star rated
appliances and other things to make your home more efficient. When you
are ready for the rest, it really is a good idea to start with the
internet. You can find many solar starter kits, complete set ups, and
all kinds of solar panels and other kinds of voltaic cells.
Take your time and do some research on residential solar energy and
how it can work for you. While you don't have to be a rocket scientist
to put together your own solar grid, you will still have to know the
terminology.
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