If, in your quest to be self-sufficient in powering your home, you decide that you would like to go down the ‘do-it-yourself’ road and build your own solar panels, you will have to do a bit of homework and find out how much power you use over 12 months – check your power bills (while you’re checking your usage, check how much you have paid over that time, also!). Then divide the total yearly consumption by 375 to find out your average per day.
If you haven’t yet decided what you need to do with regard to reducing the size of your family’s carbon footprint, maybe I can help. I certainly hope so, because it will be good for you and for the environment if you can become self-sufficient in the area of providing power for your home.
With an ever-increasing demand for energy, and an ever-decreasing supply of energy producing resources, the whole world is heading towards a severe energy crisis. The world supplies of coal, oil, and gas are finite, and WILL run out, yet an increasing number of nations are becoming large-scale consumers as they become more industrialized and more sophisticated in their standard of living.
Add to all this the fact that the methods used currently to generate energy are known to be detrimental to the atmosphere, belching out greenhouse gasses and other pollutants. It is already known that these emissions are increasing the global warming problem, and as more and more power is generated using these traditional resources and methods of production, the problems will only worsen.
There have been so many advances in green energy technology, it is now easier than ever to start changing your home to run on clean, alternative power.
There are many ways to implement your plan to convert your home from being totally fossil fuel dependent to making use of renewable energy sources.
Another way we can embrace energy-efficient living is by switching to renewable energy sources to power our homes. You could install a system which would generate all the electricity you need for your home, or you could opt to just generate part of your home power needs. Either way, you will be reducing your home’s greenhouse gas emissions and saving yourself money. So everyone wins!
Solar hot water heaters, wind turbines and solar panels for generating electricity are readily available for purchase, and there are plenty of tradesmen available to install them, so it is not difficult to make the change from fossil-fuelled energy to renewable energy sources for your home power needs. It is, however, relatively expensive to purchase the units you will require and have them professionally installed. If you have the money to do it, this is definitely the quickest and easiest way to get your system up and running. If you don’t wish to spend the many thousands of dollars it will cost to go down this road, there is another way.
Here are a few suggestions on ways to save energy at home. There are many more things that can be done, but these are just to get you thinking about how you run your home and your life.
If you would like further advice on reducing your home power consumption, check out this site: http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/energyefficiency/index.html
This site belongs to the Australian Government, and I am sure the Government where you live will have a similar site which you can take a look at.
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With reports that the polar ice caps are dwindling away and climate change is wreaking havoc with our weather patterns, it has become increasingly obvious that we must all take steps to decrease global warming and our dependence on fossil fuels. The increases in world population and industrialization mean that our energy needs will continue to expand, so it is imperative that we look to other, clean sources for our energy supplies.
Hello, and welcome. I have always been interested in environmentally-friendly living, energy efficiency, and house design – particularly with regard to the use of passive solar design elements. I thought that it would be likely that there are a lot of other people who are also interested in these things, but may not know where to look for relevant information, so I began this blog in an attempt to bring understanding, new ideas and, perhaps, different perspectives to those who are looking. I want to cover several things in this blog, – (as you can see by the sub-title, it’s all about energy-efficient living!), – but electricity is such a big player in the field that I believe we should look at that first, and devote some time and space to it.
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