For many reasons, decided that installing my home solar panels was the best approach the least of which is the significant labor and markup cost savings over contracting with professional home solar installers. After some investigation and research, I took a big gulp, then moved forward.
Sizing my own residential solar system was relatively easy for two reasons. The first is that our utility bills give the usage for each month for the past year. This eliminates the need to make up a whole system load chart. We could decide the size of the solar array we needed simply from these utility bill numbers. The annual total showed that we are using an average of 5.87 KWH per day, which I rounded up to 6 kWh per day. Continue reading Home Solar Installers, Chronicle of My DIY Journey Into Renewable Energy →
There are some that argue that a home solar leases being offered by some solar companies is the renewable energy equivalent of a banks subprime mortgage and will have serious repercussions in the years to come.
One popular residential solar lease program permits the solar company to own the equipment and enjoying all the benefits and tax credits available while Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner saves $10 per month on their utility bill. There are voices in the industry that are shouting at the top of their lungs asking why would a homeowner let some solar company attached equipment to their house they don’t own? So instead of renting your electricity from the utility company you are now renting it from an unnamed financial institution? That does sound a little crazy after you say it out loud. Continue reading Is a Home Solar Lease the Equivalent of a Sub-prime Mortgage that is Doomed to Fail? →
Solar panels embedded into the blades of wind turbines? It seems the argument of solar power Vs wind energy is merging, or at least the technology is. Solar installers have teamed up with scientists from the University of Liverpool and are developing solar PV on the blades of wind turbines.
Why settle for one form of renewable energy when you can produce power with solar and wind combined? That’s exactly what scientists from the University of Liverpool have done by upgrading an everyday wind turbine with a new set of spinning solar blades. Continue reading Wind Turbines With Spinning Solar Blades, Renewable Technology Picking Up Speed →
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