Are you looking for solar cost information? This blog provides useful information related to the solar energy and its application. Fossil energy is not renewable and there is no better time than right now to switch to the solar energy, especially with the ever increasing costs of living. Compared to the fossil fuel, solar costs nothing except for the solar kits and the installation cost.
Solar cost is one of the major consideration for people considering installing solar panels on their roof, however it shouldn’t prevent you from having them installed, because once you get past the initial cost, there are so many long and short term benefits to solar that it would be an injustice to solar to not look further than the initial cost.
Solar PV cost will take roughly 50% of the total solar installation cost. The second most expensive solar power part is the solar inverter, which based on connectivity, can be classified as off grid or grid connected. If you are looking for the estimated total solar price you have to budget please feel free to use the solar cost calculator below:
Please note that the real cost may be higher than the actual solar energy cost you have to pay, depends on what companies you are dealing with. If you want to purchase the solar power parts gradually, be picky with the solar panels. There are many companies offering cheap solar panels but you have to check the efficiency of the panels. Lower efficiency means you have to purchase more panels. They will also need a larger area to occupy. Unless you want to cover your whole roof with these panels you better forget the idea of buying this type of panels.
If power outage does not commonly happen in your area you can also skip the option of having solar batteries in your system. Having them removed can give a better price saving of the total solar cost.
Ever since man existed, sunlight was and will always be available. For several years now, a lot of people are complaining about the ever increasing electricity bills. Because of this, solar power systems became great alternatives through the years. Sunlight is readily available especially in countries where they get a lot of sunshine. With the yearly improvements in modern technology, solar power for homes is now more advanced.
With just a little amount of sunlight, you can already get more electricity. With only a few solar panels, you can generate the needed electricity for your home. Even if you live in a small house, you can install a solar panel.
Most of today’s homes are not properly oriented to get a lot of sunlight and this becomes a great problem. New solar power systems are more efficient and can generate quality electricity with less sunlight. The modern solar panels are installed at steeper angles but can still tolerate sunlight. So, if you’re home doesn’t have an ideal orientation, it would still be possible to generate solar power.
Solar panels are usually installed on top of the roof together with an effective rail system. The panels are able to slide at the best position to get sunlight. The system is also ideal just in case you want to expand later on.
Before you install solar panels, you need to determine the electricity requirements of your home. To calculate your monthly electrical consumption, you will need to go over your electrical bills and determine the average usage. After that, you can now pick the right system size. If this is your first time to use solar power, it would better to start with the simplest project you can find. Make room for expansion as well so that you can expand the system little by little especially if you have limited resources. Even if you use solar power as an alternative, you will surely be able to cut your bills by 80% in the coming months. Read the rest of this entry »
Why is efficient home insulation good for saving energy?
Almost half of your electric bill goes to regulating the temperature of your home. Thus if you want to save on your electric bills, the best place to start is your home’s insulation system.
Insulation is important to minimize or eliminate the heat exchange/loss inside your house. Good insulation keeps the interior warm during winter and cold during hot summer days. A well-insulated house allows your heating and cooling systems to effectively work as needed. Proper insulation can save as much as 10% of your monthly electric bill.
Meanwhile, if your house has leaks or if it has insufficient insulation, air will pass through; and heat exchange will occur on areas where insulation is inadequate. This results to heat loss. And because a house with leaks and insufficient insulation requires more power to regulate its temperature, energy consumption will likely increase.
Where to insulate?
Areas of the house including the switches, power outlets, plumbing fixtures, walls, windows, doors, ceilings, floors, basement, crawl spaces and attic should be properly insulated.
Insulation Tips
Make sure that you consider factors such as building design, budget and climate when selecting the R-values of the insulation materials. Use the proper R-values insulating materials for particular parts of the house.
Consider parts of your house such as the attic, floors, kitchen, bathroom, windows, walls, door and other parts where heat loss are more likely to happen. Use the required insulation materials on these parts to effectively control the temperature. Read the rest of this entry »
I was first introduced to solar energy in the movie, Race the Sun with James Belushi in the lead. It was a story about low- income and under achieving Hawaiian students encouraged by their teacher to join the Solar Car race. In the movie, a car shaped like a cockroach and covered with solar panels used the sun’s rays as an alternative energy source to run the car.
Solar energy is the light and the heat from the sun. Solar energy is free and its supplies are unlimited. There are no air and water pollution caused about by using solar energy. But there is still some impacts on the environment although indirect.
Photovoltaic cells used to convert sunlight into electricity uses silicon and also produce some waste materials. There are also large solar thermal farms and these farms can also be harmful to the environment and desert ecosystems if not properly managed.
Solar energy can be used on different aspects. Solar energy can be used in agriculture. Greenhouses (which is entirely different from greenhouse gas) convert solar light to heat to be maximized in enhancing the growth of plants and crops. Greenhouses has been around since the Roman times and modern greenhouses were built in Europe in 16th century. Greenhouses are still an important part of horticulture nowadays,
Daylight systems are also being used to maximize the energy released by the sun. It is used to provide interior illumination replacing the artificial lighting. Daylight systems include sawtooth roofs, light shelf, skylights, and light tube. Daylight systems when they are properly implemented can reduce lighting-related energy consumption by 25 percent.
Solar energy can also be developed into solar thermal technologies which can be used for water heating, space heating, space cooling and process heat generation. Solar energy can also be used to distill water and make saline or brackish water potable or drinkable. Read the rest of this entry »
The rise and drop in temperatures in the coming years, place intense pressures on consumers around the world as this means only one thing, more energy and fuel are needed to control the environment and make homes more comfortable.
Over the years, new technology has been invented to improve the manner of living – energy saving devices are not excluded. However new technology, as always, is a bit expensive at first. And the prices will go down after some time. But instead of waiting for a more affordable energy saving devices, let us apply our common sense today and do some effort in saving energy.
• Avoid “phantom” energy users.
Electrical appliances that are plugged in to sockets even when not in use consume energy. It is like a turning on the engine of your car and idling for a very long time. A single appliance that remains plugged in may not give a significant increase in your electric bill but letting every appliance on “standby” can be a real money spender. Make sure to pull the plugs of every appliance from their sockets whenever you don’t use them. Read the rest of this entry »
What is the cost for installing a solar power system? We all know that solar panels cost can take up to 50 – 60% of the total solar home cost people have to pay, however the cost of solar panels have been significantly reduced in 2009 and some experts expected the price to go down further this year. The number of solar residential has been increased in some States but some people are still reluctant to follow because they can’t figure out what is the real cost of solar power they have to pay. Many will ask questions like “How much does solar power cost for a 4800 square foot house?”
The answer to this question is actually depends on some factors:
- Where they live
- Total sun hours they get every day
- Total electricity they use every day
- Total solar electricity they want to make with the system
- Solar rebates and tax incentives (if applicable)
- Grid-tied or off grid (with solar batteries) option
We don’t need to 100% substitute the utility power with solar electricity because it really depends on how much money we are willing to spend on the solar electric system in our house. To help you calculate the solar price NREL has an online calculator set up for this purpose. Read the rest of this entry »
For most homes in the developed countries, lighting alone accounts for 9% of the total energy requirement. For other parts of the world, it is far more than that. Thus, using cost-efficient lights can be a real life-saver, or should we say, energy-saver.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are made to be very efficient; it uses 66% less energy than the conventional light bulbs. Just by changing from the incandescent to the CFLs could already reduce electrical consumption to 7%.
When compared to the regular light bulbs, CFLs give the same amount of luminescence for less power and while it has a higher purchase price than the incandescent, CFLs have longer lifespan (approximately 12 times than the incandescent light bulbs, about 11,000 hours), enough to save $US30 in electrical costs during the bulbs lifetime.
A US published article claimed that if a household changes 30 fixtures in their home, investing $90, the money saved in the span of five years could be anywhere from $500 to $1,500 depending on the areas electrical costs. For commercial buildings and other bigger establishments, the savings are even greater. An average CFL at 75 watts could save $22 dollars in direct energy savings per year. If that is multiplied by the number of light bulbs in a building, and include the cost of labor that could be saved from changing light bulbs, the savings could rise exponentially. True, there is a capital investment of about $2 USD per fixture; however that could be recovered in a month from money saved.
Other manufacturers of CFLs also apply titanium dioxide coating. This is because titanium dioxide is claimed to neutralize bacteria, odors and molds. Still many manufacturers of CFLs apply a luminous coating to the bulb for the purpose of luminescence after the CFL is turned off. The idea behind is that a little light could still remain, even for a short while, in cases of power failure and accidents.
Because Carbon Fluorescent lamps do not emit as much heat as the incandescent light bulbs, there is also less work for air conditioners in cooling up the space.
Surely there must be a downside.
If this could be called a downside, CFLs behave differently from the ordinary incandescent bulbs. For one, it takes longer to attain its full brightness depending on the temperature. The colder the climate is, the longer it will take for the bulb to give off full brightness. CFL also gives off the brightest light during its first use and begins to dull gradually, giving off less light as it nears the end of its life; a CFLs is expected to reduce its brightness by 20% from its original brightness on first installation. But that is just about it.
Saving energy, in almost all conceivable phases of production, is in focus today. The fuel that is currently in use, as we are all aware, is non renewable. This is why even in the field of lighting, continuous research is being done to further reduce the coefficient of energy that has to be saved.
Solid state lighting, for example, is widely used in traffic lights; although for now, using this technology to be an energy saving method for domestic consumption is still being developed as the current cost is still high. For now, saving energy through the CFLs remains to spell a definite advantage compared with incandescent light bulbs.
You were probably shocked when we had the record breaking fuel prices both on gasoline and diesel in July 2008. What was more shocking was that at one point, diesel prices become more expensive than gasoline. What happened next was completely unexpected. After a couple of months, fuel prices began to drop steeply.
Still, the government took action by releasing funding on exploration of alternative forms of energy and gave incentives on those who produce crops that will be converted into fuel. While the government had been active in its campaign to become energy independent since time immemorial, it was just recently when crude prices were up, that the government had seriously taken it as a priority.
But is biodiesel the answer to unstable diesel fuel prices?
Originally, the diesel engine was designed to run on vegetable oil. But since petroleum diesel was cheaper then, vegetable oil was simply not an economical choice. But now, pump prices have driven farmers to convert their lands into biodiesel plantations. On one hand, the production of alternative fuel like biodiesel is good since its use will reduce our demand for petroleum oil. And if the demand is low, the prices will follow as well.
Since biodiesel comes from vegetable oil, it is 100% biodegradable. It does not hurt the environment. Furthermore, a wide spread use of biodiesel in the future will help solve air pollution in big cities because biodiesel help reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emissions. The decrease on petroleum consumption has a good environmental effect.
On the other hand, experts say that while converting farmlands into biodiesel will ease the demand on petroleum products, it will drive the food prices up and may create food shortage. This is because lands that are supposed to be used in producing food are now producing fuel. Many farmers are now focused on fuel production and not on food production. Early signs of food shortage were felt right after farmers began planting more corn. It should be remembered that just recently, corn prices began to rise because of the increasing demand for biodiesel. Prices of other farm-produced fruits and vegetables rose as well.
It is important, therefore, to understand the effects of solving one problem. Does it create another problem in the process? Or will it just be a temporary solution? It is also important not to focus too much on solving a particular problem.
There are other ways to get biodiesel. Recycled restaurant grease, vegetable oil and animal fats can be used to drive your diesel engine vehicle. Other alternative forms of energy that are both efficient and do not harm the environment include solar energy, electric and even water.
No one really knows what the future of diesel fuel prices is, but one thing is for sure: if high prices happened before, it is not impossible that it will happen again. But that doesn’t mean that we focus our attention solely on producing biodiesels. We have to find and develop other forms of energy that will not compromise other important commodities. There is nothing wrong with using biodiesel but make sure that biodiesels will not become the problem that is much harder to solve.
Today climate change is a reality that is acknowledge by even the most doubtful of skeptics. The warmer temperatures in areas where its supposed to be cool, scorching summers, and bone chilling winter have become a pattern that people cannot simply ignore.
What The War About?
Funny enough it seems that people are getting desperate and all are turning to bio-fuel like it’s the savior of all mankind. So what is bio-fuel? Bio-fuel is any gaseous, solid, or liquid material derived from biological materials. The argument ensues when people talk of the future. Bio-fuel’s raw materials are usually agricultural crops that are made to undergo fermentation and certain processes in order to produce bio-fuel.
The Problem
Who is the world’s largest oil consumer? Those with the highest number of vehicles running their roads, countries like the US, England and generally most of the European nations. When you think about it bio-fuel is made from corn, sugarcane, palm oil, vegetable oil, and etc; where do these agricultural crops come from? Third World Countries.
In Mexico they have this “tortilla crisis”. Corn which is the basic ingredient of tortilla is now sold five times the price it used to be marketed for. The reason for the inflated prices? The demand of bio-fuel in highly developed countries has severely altered the business people’s sense of profit. Why sell for a dollar when you can for 5 because the demand is now higher.
Who Suffers?
The first world countries will have to export goods from the third world countries to fuel their increasing demand for energy. The third world countries are usually tropical ones located near the equator, hence a higher crop growth of corn, and all those needed to manufacture bio-fuel; but for these countries corn is food, so is sugar cane. For the first world to survive the t poorer countries must either starve in hunger or break their back working to be able to afford the price hikes of the most basic of all commodities: food.
A Compromise
So what should we do? We need to address the problems of the environment and pollution, but it is also not right that to solve a problem we must create one. Think about it if the agricultural countries go into decline because its people can’t afford food then who will till the land to supply the giants with endless bio-fuel?
Sustainable energy is geared to sustain life, not make it harder. A proposal is in order. Since the crops needed for the production of bio-fuel can only survive in tropical countries then the governments of the more well off countries will have to invest in the agricultural countries to supply their own demand. These crops must be independent from those for local consumers. Stringent rules governing pricing and distribution must be implemented to further protect the source of the energy.
Sustainable power means the world working hand in hand to create a better way of life for the future. The road to betterment is paved with hard work and dedication. The ancient Egyptian used sails to go up and down the Nile; they were patient and they reached their destination. Let us all be patient but diligent in our quest for sustainable power to sustain life.
Do you think that using solar power for home is a great idea? Well, only you can answer that question. Before you embark on any project, you must have enough knowledge about it. Make sure that you do your homework first and learn everything you can about solar power. The world is suffering greatly from global warming and one of the primary causes is the use of fossil fuels to create electricity. Electricity is a necessity and because of this fact, people can’t do away with it. There is a need to look for alternative energy sources and a very good one is the use of solar power.
Before you make a decision and use solar power for your home, here are the important considerations that you should look into:
1. Where do you live? What is the weather in your area? Is it always sunny in your area or is it always raining? Are there tall trees near your house? You must answer these questions first before you start with any DIY project to create solar power for your home. If the weather is frequently sunny, then it might be a good idea to use solar power. For those with lots of trees in their yard, you need to get rid of them but this is not a very easy thing to do since trees are also very important. Local authorities might not permit you to do cut down huge tall trees. Study the weather in your area as well as your location. To use solar power, you will need the rays of the sun. Rain, clouds, and trees can block the sun’s rays and so you might end up wasting money.
2. Where do you plan to install the solar panels? You must determine the place where there is lots of sunlight all throughout the day. You can’t install the solar panels in an area where there is very little sunlight. Study your home’s surroundings. Find the perfect place where the panels can get a lot of sunlight so that you can benefit from it greatly.
3. Do you have enough knowledge on how to connect solar power into the electricity grid of your home? You can also conduct a research about it. The solar power DIY projects usually provide a complete guide on how to install the solar power to your homes. Just follow the instructions carefully to avoid committing mistakes. If you’re not that sure, you can always get an electrician to help you with the task.
Solar power can reduce your monthly electric bills by more or less 80% depending on your solar power project. In no time at all, your home can become self sufficient and you will no longer depend largely on the conventional energy sources.
Aside from that, the carbon emissions are also reduced thereby saving the environment from further damage. With a solar powered home, you can enjoy an endless electric supply that is clean, green, and fresh.
Get a solar power DIY kit now and get the needed materials. You can also ask other family members to help you out. That is, if you think that solar power is best for your home. Go through the three considerations mentioned above so that you can make an informed decision. This is the time to save money and help the environment, act now.