Top Five Methods To Get Free, Renewable Energy From The Sun
Renewable energy sources don’t come much cheaper than solar powered and in most locations, all-year-round sunshine will give you several options to utilize this: try these great solar investments…
1) The greatest demand for your home’s energy comes from water heating and the simplest ways to provide this heating come from solar power.
Even basic DIY skills are all that is needed to construct and fit these to the roof of your home and to adapt the existing water storage tanks and pumping.
2) Solar photovoltaic (PV) cells that produce electricity directly from sunlight are still pretty expensive for the average home owner.
But, and this is a big BUT, if you are concerned with saving the planet and not just reducing the utility bill, systems are available that can generate up to 2kw of electricity.
So, for an investment of $15,000-$20,000, you get about a third of the average home’s electricity needs from the solar panels.
Payback will take time, of the order of a couple of decades rather than years. But the technology continues to evolve and prices continue to fall as production volume increases. Energy generated from solar cells is already on a par with that generated by oil-based plants.
Home lighting using cells that are charged during the day and release electricity at night are a common feature for garden settings, but will not generally give enough wattage for indoor requirements.
3) For solar pool heating there are several options and the simplest is to cover the pool with a thermal insulation unit which prevents heat loss and evaporation.
4) The higher tech option is to add a solar collector into the current filtration system your pool uses. Install the solar panel between the filter and the return to the pool so water on the way back is heated.
It’s as simple as it sounds. In fact for the average DIY enthusiast and a few materials from the hardware store your current system can be adapted in a matter of hours.
5) Solar powered ovens for the home are still lie in the future, but a gas fired barbecue can be replaced with DIY cookers that are both simple and cheap to make.
In fact if you are prepared to wait for hours, roasting and baking boxes can be constructed for next to nothing.
Hikers can carry lightweight cookers for heating water in the wilderness without the risk of fire and as a project to demonstrate the power from the sun, this is one thing the whole family can be involved in just for fun.
Essentially this is the attitude to adopt with solar power, not just as a way to save on the utility bill but to increase your self sufficiency for when electricity may not always come at the flick of a switch.
Download our free money-saving ideas report and start cutting the cost of your utility bill. Learn how to make solar panels and other renewable energy solutions at our site.
