Archive for the ‘energy costs’ Category

Using Green Energy To Reduce Energy Costs Around The House

With simple instructions available on how to convert to homemade wind power or DIY solar panels for as little as $200, many people are taking the alternative energy more seriously. When choosing to take on a DIY conversion project the first question most people ask is will one windmill or one large solar panel be enough?

There are too many factors involved here to answer that question for you. But one way to start is to ensure your home is efficient in the first place. In this article we will walk you through some steps that will help you reduce your energy consumption before you start converting your home.

Reducing Your Energy Needs

One often overlooked step in converting a home to green power is reducing your energy needs in the first place. The average home uses inefficient lighting, power hungry appliances, and poor heating/cooling solutions. An important step to reducing your energy needs is to look at the inefficiencies in your current system.

Consider:

1. Replacing old incandescent bulbs with fluorescents or led bulbs will cut your power consumption from light in half. 2. Replacing old, inefficient, appliances may reduce your energy bills by as much as 30% by itself.

You should also look at your current heating/cooling solutions. For example an electric hot water heater could potentially be replaced by a solar water heater. Maybe that inefficient air conditioner can be replaced with a more efficient heat exchanger.

If you need help choosing more efficient appliances, an excellent resource for this is put out by the Canadian government:Energuide Appliance Energy Usage. It?s called Energuide, and it covers everything power consumption of home appliance to energy requirements of large commercial air conditioners.

Spend some time looking through that guide and calculating how much you can reduce your power consumption in different areas of your home. By simply taking a look at everything in your home that consumes energy, you will find ways to reduce your energy needs before you start.

You don?t necessarily have to go all out and spend $10,000 replacing everything ? but things as simple as changing your lighting will reduce your energy needs before you start your conversion project.

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You Can Save Money on Energy Cost – Build Your Own Solar Panels

You can save a lot of money on converting your energy to solar panels but be aware that these can be expensive. You can of course build your own solar panels this way you will save money on energy costs. Why not take advantage of harnessing the sun’s energy so that you can cool or heat your home and save money while doing so. Adding solar energy to your home can be expensive because the panels are costly but if you do it yourself you can save a lot of money. Over a short period of time you will be able to recoup the amount of money you have spent on putting in a solar energy system.

How to: Build Solar Panels

There are many step-by-step guides that you can purchase to help you build your own solar panels so that you can take advantage of the sun’s energy. Make sure that you allow enough time so that you can properly build and install your new solar energy system. It will not take long would you have it installed to to realize the amount you would save on your energy bill. In many cases if you produce more energy than you actually use than you can get money back from the utility company.

Save with : Great Solar Tips

Remember that if you want to save money on your energy bill you need to consider installing a solar energy system. They can be expensive so you may want to find a do-it-yourself guide that can help you save money. One of the largest cost involved in this type of system is the installation of your panels. If you’re patient you will be able to install your own panels and start saving money immediately.

Illuminating the Great Outdoors with Energy-Saving Light Bulbs

“Electricity Prices Plummet,” The Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2009

Hey, is there a recession going on? This timely article details how slack demand for electricity in 2009 may lead to the first consecutive year decline in electricity use in the U.S. since 1950. Such news may tempt some consumers to relax an otherwise robust commitment to reducing home and business electricity consumption. Conservation and energy efficiency are hard work, and harder still to turn into regular habits, especially when energy costs are low.

However, with days growing shorter and nights growing longer as we head into autumn, lighting costs will be on the rise for consumers, even if rates per kilowatt hours are ticking down. Now may be the best time to make a switch to more efficient, energy-saving light bulbs to reduce energy consumption, but there is no need to get carried away. Instead, we suggest folks start slowly with a deliberate approach that targets fixtures that are lit most frequently and for the longest periods. This often leads our customers who want to reduce energy consumption outside.

Green Light Bulbs Reduce Energy Consumption

Exterior fixtures come in as many configurations as indoor lights and they mainly serve three purposes: security lighting, accent lighting and convenience lighting. In some cases, single fixtures perform double or even triple duty.

The greatest savings, in both dollars and reduced carbon emissions, are most easily realized by installing energy-saving light bulbs in any fixtures which are lit from dusk-to-dawn but aren’t controlled by a motion sensor. This could be a floodlight above the driveway or back deck or a pair of decorative sconces or lanterns straddling the front entrance. Post lights are commonly lit all night as well. If you’re like us, you get peace of mind knowing that these lights make the home look very much occupied while you sleep.

Choosing energy-saving light bulbs with the highest efficiency ratings for the amount of light desired will reduce energy consumption and have the greenest impact. Consider this comparison: on one hand, we have a traditional (incandescent) bulb and on the other, an energy-efficient bulb. At 60 watts and 850 lumens, the efficiency of an incandescent bulb would be only 14 lumens per watt, with an annual use of 2,920 hours (8 hours/day). The annual cost to light? – approximately $20, but with a CO2 emission level of about 349 lbs. Now take a 15 watt energy-efficient bulb. Even though it has a lower wattage and uses less energy, the output of light is the same. Lumens are less at 825, and efficiency has improved to 55 lumens per watt. The annual cost to light drops $15, and CO2 emissions are nearly three-fourths less.

$15 annual savings per socket is more than enough to upgrade to energy-saving light bulbs in order to reduce your energy consumption. Your energy efficiency investment will be paid back in less than one year. As for CO2 emissions, a 75% reduction won’t do your eco-conscience any harm.

For homes, Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) are a solid choice for dusk-to-dawn lighting scenarios. They’re available in a wide array of wattages, shapes (including decorative), sizes and colors and are typically designed to last 8,000 hours or more. One drawback of energy-saving light bulbs in an exterior setting is that they’re affected by ambient temperature. Our advice: if you live in a colder climate, look for lamps with “amalgam” technology for best performance or buy ones with the next higher incandescent watts equivalent (example: if you’re replacing a 60 watt incandescent, buy a CFL equivalent to a 75 watt bulb). Also if a fixture isn’t weather protected, be sure to select a bulb rated for use in a wet location.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps are hitting the market at a rapid pace and are also worth considering for their superior ability to reduce energy consumption and extremely long life. Interestingly, LEDs don’t emit ultraviolet light and don’t attract insects. For an overnight fixture near a door, an LED would be a good alternative to a yellow bug lamp. Advice: insist on UL listed LEDs (not easy to find) for safety’s sake.

Energy-Saving Light Bulbs for Motion Sensors and Electronic Timers

For multiple reasons, energy-saving light bulbs, such as CFLs, are a poor choice for fixtures that light automatically by motion detection. These are typically used for security purposes but are also a feature of garage door openers. CFLs are not engineered to produce short bursts of light. Thus, a traditional incandescent bulb is a fine choice (and probably what’s in the fixture now). Advice: when the existing bulb burns out, consider a high-efficiency halogen lamp to reduce energy consumption. Currently, these energy-saving light bulbs are 30 to 40% more energy efficient than traditional incandescents. Expect these savings multiples to grow as lighting manufacturers continue to improve their halogen technology in anticipation of lighting efficiency requirements that go into effect in 2012.

As for LEDs, while they do reach maximum brightness instantly, they are still very pricey and thus not a good investment for the short bursts of light delivered by motion control sensors. Prices will come down as demand increases for energy-saving light bulbs. My advice: wait.

Some people rely on electronic timers to switch on exterior lights as darkness settles in. Again, CFLs aren’t suited for this application. In this application, where once on, the light may remain lit during overnight hours; an LED lamp, which generally works with electric eyes (check with the manufacturer) would be an excellent choice to reduce energy consumption and extend bulb life versus an incandescent bulb.

Fall’s the Time to Make the Switch to Energy-Efficient Exterior Light Bulbs

They say that the cheapest, cleanest kilowatt hour of electricity is the one that is never produced in the first place. As the shorter days of fall approach and your energy demands grow, put on your green glasses and look at the lighting fixtures outside your home. You’re almost certain to find opportunities to reduce energy consumption and live more lightly with energy-saving light bulbs.

How-to-Build-a-Solar-Panel-System-and-Reduce-Energy-Costs

Why pay thousands of dollars for solar energy (average cost about $27.000 ) when you can build your own solar panels for home system for just a fraction of the retail cost. You can build a single solar panel or you can build an entire array of panels to power your home, GO GREEN – reduce your carbon footprint and help the environment by starting to find out how to build a solar panel system and reduce energy costs and use renewable and clean energy.

I have found 2 trustworthy systems and will review them here:

Earth4energy GreenDIYenergy

Basically there is not much difference between these two. Their guides and support are the focus point.
Naturally it all depends on what you choose, I am just giving my honest opinion here.

Similarities between both systems:

Reduce your electrical bills Are fairly cheap to build, about $50 (Limited offer) Have extensive and easy to follow guides Included are 2 bonus packages of step by step video footage and how to build your own windmill

Differences between both systems:
Actually there are no differences between both, looking at what they both are offering, 2 bonus packages included and online support, I concluded that both are probably offered by the same people, which does not make it any less interesting.

Earth 4 Energy and GreenDIYenergy created a Complete Step-by-Step Guide To Make Your Energy Saving Solar Power Panels And Wind Generator At Home! Generating your own power from the the sun can be extremely satisfying, in addition to lowering the cost of your electrical bills.

Anyone with reasonable welding, woodworking, and wiring skills is able to build their own solar panels with ease. In fact, with the guide’s complete setup instructions and easy to follow illustrations, you can easily start building your own solar power panels in a few hours and start reaping the benefits immediately.

Conclusion
Whether you want to save money on your utility bill or make the solar power panels and wind turbines and sell them yourself, these two systems are the best one’s to consider. Especially in these economic downsizing times people are looking for financial relief and saving on your energy costs will put more money in your pocket.

Earth4energy and GreenDIYenergy are taking the internet by storm and are selling 1.000 of copies a week, get yours and start saving on your electrical bills and not to forget help the environment. At this moment both systems offer an incredible and limited discount (normally $197 now for only $49,97) I am not technical at all but their guides along with clear pictures and easy to follow instructions are awesome and will have your solar panel(s) up and running quickly so you will start saving money on your utility bill!. Check out my blog review here for more information and some free gifts.

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