Thursday, October 4, 2012

Solar Power Techniques To Convert Your Home To A Green Haven

By Jack Hammer


You can start utilizing the power of the sun throughout your home in order to save money on your energy bills. Additionally, you will be making your home more environmentally sound. You do not even have to invest in solar panels! Read through the advice outlined in this article to begin utilizing solar power in your home living environment.

The largest of these systems is a solar water heating system. Instead of using expensive solar panels to generate electricity, this system uses panels that are dark colored to capture as much heat as possible. These panels are then used to heat water that can be used throughout the home. The cost of these systems vary based on how complicated you make the system, and cost recovery varies by region, taking up to 20 years in northern climates.

One advantage of using solar energy is helping to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Unfortunately, a large amount of the crude oil we utilize comes from politically unstable countries. This wrecks havoc with energy prices and has caused a huge increase in electrical energy and gasoline prices within the last few years. When there is less demand for crude oil, the law of supply and demand will go into effect and energy prices across the board should be much lower.

Know upfront how much money you will need to install solar energy. As mentioned, you will need a good amount of money to get started. Solar panels can be in the tens of thousands of dollars, and you don't want to get started, only to find you do need it.

How do they work? Solar panels are made up of several photovoltaic cells. These cells capture light energy from the sun's rays and convert that energy into electricity. Since the cells convert the sun's light energy, rather than the sun's thermal energy, into electrically energy, solar panels will still generate electricity on freezing cold days as long as the sun is shining.

If you want to save some money on mowing your lawn every month, you can invest in a lawn mower that runs off of solar power. These products store sun power in a battery and use this power to mow the lawn. These products are only slightly more expensive than their conventional counterparts and can save you a lot of money over time, especially if you own a lawn care business.

If you're looking for a more all-inclusive, large-scale way to take advantage of solar power, you should look at the principle of passive solar design when you build a new home or renovate your existing one. Passive solar design is a set of architectural principles intended to fit a house into its local climate with as much energy efficiency as possible. Roofs and windows are oriented to take advantage of sunlight for direct heating during the cold months. Building materials are selected for year-round energy efficiency. The overall result is a home that works with its environment and requires minimal energy expenditure for heating and cooling.

The variety of items that use solar power make it easy to educate your children about solar power and how it can save energy in everyday life at affordable prices. Use the examples above to choose some easy ways to lead by example when it comes to living green.




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