What is the Best System for Your Needs?
What is the Best System for Your Needs?
You have made the decision that it is time to get away from your fossil-fuel consuming ways onto something cleaner, but you aren’t sure where to start. How big of a system do you need, and how much is it going to cost? Let’s explore the different types of clean energy and their pros and cons for home use.
Solar Power
Solar power is a great way to generate quiet, clean energy with just a few panels attached to your home. The installation is quite simple and no special skills are required. You can easily start off with just one or two panels and expand when you feel the need for more free power.
Solar panels are fairly affordable, and you can buy kits online that come with everything you need to get started, or you can choose the individual components yourself to meet your needs. The size of system you get entirely depends on how much energy you want to generate.
On the downside solar panels may still be too expensive for some, although with the rising costs of energy they are starting to look like a pretty good investment. Obviously since solar panel generate electricity with the light from the sun there is not going to be any energy generated on dark days or at night, so an alternative energy source must be used, or excess energy needs to be stored up in batteries.
Wind Power
You have likely notice an increase in the amount of wind turbines around, which is a sign that more companies are getting on board with alternative energies. If you have consistent wind flow through your property then you can harness the wind and convert it into energy using a smaller scale residential wind turbine.
Residential wind turbines can mount on top of your home, garage, barn, or on its own tower. With a consistent amount of wind you can make a big dent in your electricity bill every month – from 50 to 90% depending on the size of the wind turbine and the amount of electricity you use.
Wind power is a great idea for those who have windy, cold winters or windy, hot summers since the wind coincides with your peak energy usage. When the wind is blowing you will have a steady flow of energy to keep your house toasty warm, or nice and cool.
The drawback of wind power is that it is expensive, with installed wind turbines and towers costing on average $6,000-$22,000. While they do provide significant amounts of energy, this upfront investment can prove to be a major negative factor. Also wind power is not silent. Although the residential models only make about as much noise as a washing machine, if you live in close quarters with your neighbors this may not be the best choice for clean energy,
Final Notes
With the advances in technology, as well as government programs aimed at decreasing the cost of converting to alternative energy, it is certain that within the near future more of the population will be turning to wind or solar power to provide them with an option to get away from fossil fuels to heat, cool and light their homes.
