Reduce Dependence on Fossil Fuels With Solar Energy

With the rising costs of heating fuel and the price of electricity, now may be the perfect time to consider using solar energy to power your home. This is growing in popularity as a very effective alternative energy source for homes and businesses.

Unfortunately, there are some people who insist that solar energy will never be a viable method of producing electricity. These are usually the people who have ties to the oil industry, also including coal and nuclear power, and would definitely be losing money with the prospect of the world transitioning to clean energy sources. Also by using clean energy, there is no chance of ever running out, as opposed to fossil fuels which costs billions of dollars to produce and ship, and even worse the costs to the environment when accidents happen. Don’t be swayed by the naysayers.

Solar power is the most effective and cost efficient way to generate power. Even with today’s energy prices, this would raise the standard of living for many people in the world who may otherwise not have access to electricity, and most importantly have very little impact on the environment.

In order to get the energy efficiency benefits of solar power in your home, you will need to install solar panels. There are currently easy to follow do-it-yourself solar panel kits available to help you do just that. The way these panels work is they draw in energy during the day when the sun shines on the panels and then stores excess energy in a battery system to use at night and on cloudy days. Different types and sizes of panels will store more or less energy. Obviously on very sunny days there will be more energy produced, but they will function properly with reduced sunlight. A smaller system may save you around 50% of your energy costs, and a bigger system will make even more of an impact on your monthly costs.

Other small ways you can have an impact on your monthly costs are shutting off the lights behind you when you leave a room, turning the heat down in the winter and the air conditioning temperature up in the summer, and also closing curtains to provide insulation to the windows.