Consumers who are looking to reduce energy costs while doing something worthwhile for the ecology are often tempted to invest in solar energy for their homes. While they have been encouraged to go green in order to reduce pollution and conserve fossil fuels, they still question how conservation with solar energy would be utilized to save money and natural resources. At the moment, there are actually two key ways to go about this, but the real savings will only be seen down the road a ways. The initial expense of purchasing and installing solar energy is usually quite high, so it may be a number of years before real savings are realized. However, conservation of natural resources begins immediately.
Conservation with Solar Energy: Solar Panels and Photovoltaic Cells
Many homeowners are installing photovoltaic cells on their rooftops to harness power from the sun which is then converted to electricity. The great thing about doing this is that if you can harness and convert more power than you utilize during specific times of the day, you can feed it into the power grid for use by other consumers. At these times, the meter runs backwards and the amount you feed into the grid is taken off your total utility bill for the month. Not only are you saving money, as well as reducing consumption of fossil fuels, you are actually getting a discount on the amount of power you need to pull from the grid.
Conservation with Solar Energy: Solar Hot Water Heaters
The other way to take advantage of solar energy in the home is with a solar hot water heater. Water is collected in tanks that are pre-heated with sunlight. These tanks feed your electric or gas hot water heaters in the home so that less energy is required to heat water. Many consumers combine solar hot water technology with other conservation techniques such as turning the temperature down on their hot water heaters as well as washing clothing in cold or warm water. Also, by wrapping the hot water heater with an insulating blanket that was made for this purpose, heat loss can be prevented in order to be even more energy efficient.
While the initial setup of photovoltaic solar cells and solar hot water heaters is quite expensive, it is not nearly as costly as it was a decade ago. In comparing prices, it is amazing to note that solar energy products cost approximately half of what they did even as recently as the 1990s. As technology improves, and the demand increases, the cost is expected to plunge even farther. It is unlikely that conservation with solar energy will generate any real financial savings for the first number of years, but it will certainly reduce the damage to our planet from burning fossil fuels. If you are able to feed some of your excess power into your local power grid, those savings can be realized much sooner. Conservation with solar energy is one viable option if you are truly concerned with protecting this marvelous planet we inhabit.
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