There are several ways to make your home more energy efficient. These methods are practical and cost effective. The bottom line is that they will save you money on heating, cooling, and powering your lights and appliances.
Solar panels for your home
One solution is to add solar panels to your home. These can be used to supply electricity and can also be used to help create hot water in your drinking water supply.
Solar panels absorb sunlight through photovoltaic cells. These photovoltaic cells create direct current, which is a type of electricity that flows in one direction. However, the appliances used in your home use alternating current, which is a type of electricity that runs in two different directions through your home’s wiring system in phase. Therefore, your solar panel system will need an inverter to convert DC electrical power into usable AC electrical power.
Most homeowners install these panels on their roofs. However, this is not to say that you cannot install a row of these panels in your backyard, where most of the sunlight hours hit the ground.
Building solar panels with proven plans would be a practical solution that would help reduce energy costs and make your home more energy efficient. However, this will be a technical task and proper guidance will be necessary for most people.
rooftop solar panels
Houses are being built with shingles that have built-in solar panels. These shingles look just like a regular roof, but the solar panels are built in and will help subsidize your energy bill.
Windows as Solar Panels
Recently, the solar energy industry has found methods of using windows to provide power to a building. These solar powered windows can be used to replace existing windows in a building and make the structure more energy efficient. These windows contain tiny solar cells that convert sunlight into energy. This energy is converted into electrical energy and can be used directly. Excess electrical energy is stored in a battery to be used later. Apparently one of these windows can supply enough power to charge a cell phone twice a day.
Other methods of energy conservation
Using energy saving light bulbs is one way to make your home more energy efficient. There are a number of energy saving light bulbs available to the consumer. These include halogen incandescent lamps, compact fluorescent lamps, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These are very popular and can be purchased at various hardware and grocery stores.
Energy efficient incandescent bulbs are being phased out, but are still available at a lower cost per unit. However, they have a shorter lifespan compared to these more efficient light sources. You do the calculations.
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