Fortunately, there are more than a few ways you could help financially cushion yourself against the rocky road ahead — and some of those techniques, like those listed below, might have long eluded your notice.
Think twice about switching energy supplier
While perusing the tariffs available from various energy suppliers would usually be a reliable way of confirming that you are on the best deal possible, many people are currently likely to be in a situation where switching definitely wouldn’t be a good idea.
For example, if you are on a low-priced fixed-term deal, you are unlikely to find anything just as cheap elsewhere. If you do need a new tariff, a variable or default one might be the best bet for now.
Consider buying new, more energy-efficient appliances
If all of your existing appliances currently work fine in terms of their core functionality, replacing many of them now could prove a false economy. However, if any particular device you have needs replacing in any case, you should make sure the replacement is an energy-efficient model.
Keep in mind that, even when two particular machines have the same energy rating, they can still differ significantly in how much energy they consume in practice.
Photo Source: wellsphere.com
Add fresh insulation to the home
As well as adding what you might call ‘proper’ insulation to the loft and to any hot water pipes and tanks in your home, you could insulate the property through other, less direct means — like adding cosy furnishings and installing draught proofing.
As revealed in various statistics shared by the Energy Saving Trust, you can slash your yearly energy bill by about £28 just by using your washing machine on a 30-degree cycle — rather than higher temperatures — and, over the course of the year, reducing your washing machine use by one run per week.
Meanwhile, if you tend to use a shower rather than a bath to wash yourself, showering for just four minutes at a time could potentially save your household £70 a year.
Reassess lighting and how often it is switched on
When you leave a room, remember to switch off any lights fitted in it. Simply getting into this habit can net you an annual saving of approximately £20 — or potentially even more if those lights are LED bulbs rather than standard lightbulbs.
On a similar note, it would be wise for you to turn out-of-use appliances off standby mode, as doing so could save you a further £55 yearly.
Solar power is becoming an increasingly popular option for powering homes and businesses; however, numerous questions and concerns are associated with making the switch to solar power. Some of the questions include; why solar? Is solar power a good investment? Here we explain some of the reasons you should consider when making the switch to solar power.
Here are 6 common questions about solar power answered:
Question #1: How Do Solar Panels Work?
Solar panels are arranged on rooftops or large outdoor areas and constructed of silicon cells, a metal frame, a glass casing, special film, and wiring.
During the daylight, photovoltaic cells, otherwise referred to as solar cells, absorb sunlight. Each cell contains a semiconductor, which energizes the cell and creates an electrical current when affected by light. Once the energy is converted into usable electricity using an inverter, power is distributed to the electrical panel and throughout a home or business.
A proper solar panel system can efficiently power a home using the sun’s free energy and advanced photovoltaic technology.
Question #2: How Do I Install Solar Panels?
Determine the number of solar panels necessary for your home or business by calculating the kilowatt-hours of power needed to fulfill your energy consumption. Typically, a homeowner needs 28-34 solar panels to completely cover energy usage.
Once you select the number and type of solar panels, choose an installation method for mounting and wiring the solar power system.
If you possess basic construction and electrical skills, consider a DIY approach to save money on labor. Otherwise, hire a specialty contractor to properly and easily install the system.
Question #3: Do I Have to Go Off-Grid?
Going off-grid isn’t required for installing solar panels.
Living off-grid involves utilizing batteries to store collected electricity. Unfortunately, batteries for solar panels are incredibly expensive, inefficient, and underdeveloped.
Staying connected to the grid is a more convenient and cost-effective method for harnessing solar power. Electricity generated through your solar panels is transferred to the local power grid, meaning if you overproduce or underproduce electricity, you’ll be benefitted or covered by the utility company.
Enjoy reliable solar power by staying on the grid.
Question #4: What is the Billing Process?
Billing for solar power involves a practice known as net metering. Net metering is a system designed to compensate solar power system owners for distributing energy to the utility grid.
Electricity generated by your solar panels and consumed by your home is measured using an electric meter. Excess electricity produced is accounted for and delivered to the power grid and local utility. The electricity you provide to the utility company is deducted from your electric bill through credits.
Understand the billing process to learn about the money-saving advantages.
Question #5: What are the Benefits of Solar Power Compared to Traditional Electricity?
Solar power provides numerous benefits compared to traditional forms of electricity.
Solar power offers many advantages including:
Cleaner environment: Avoids emitting harmful gases into the atmosphere during production to combat global warming
Improves public health: Reduces the number of pollutants reduced in the air and water to limit sickness
Immense savings: Receive monthly savings by offsetting your electric bills by 70-90% for utilizing solar power
Tax incentives: Earn 25-30% of the installation costs back on federal taxes through supportive policies
Renewable resource: Offers a sustainable and inexhaustible alternative to traditional, finite energy sources
Reap the environmental and financial benefits of solar power by installing solar panels at your home or business.
Question #6: What is Community Solar?
Community solar refers to a group of people sharing energy generated through collective solar panels. Community solar is also known as shared solar, energy sharing, and solar farms or gardens.
Shared solar works by a third party installing numerous solar panels in a certain area. Energy is converted into electricity and delivered to the local power grid. The utility company then distributes the electricity to homes and businesses.
Joining a community solar project is as simple as finding a local option and subscribing to the service. Becoming a solar farm member is a perfect alternative to personal solar panels for people unable to afford or install the system.
Locate a New York community solar project to benefit the environment and earn guaranteed savings.
Before switching to solar power, review these 6 commonly asked questions to discover if it’s the right option for your home or business.
Renewable energy is a hot topic at the moment and more countries are starting to drive toward the end goal of generating all of their energy from renewable sources. A huge amount of the research is going into wind and solar energy and that’s what most people tend to use on their houses if they want to generate their own power, but what about the other sources? The research into solar and wind energy is mostly directed at efficiency because there are a lot of downfalls. If you live in a country that isn’t particularly sunny or windy it’s going to be patchy. Relying on something completely out of your control to generate your power isn’t ideal which is why some of these alternative energy sources are a lot better.
Hydroelectricity is a fairly well established source of renewable energy. It works by putting turbines in a dam which are then turned by the flow of the river. The initial costs are obviously going to be fairly high when compared with wind turbines or solar energy but after that large outlay, it’s a lot cheaper. The cost of generating hydroelectric power is around 3 times cheaper than the cost of solar panels and you can get a far larger yield out of it as well.
Bioenergy
Bioenergy isn’t something that is used all that much but it has the benefit of recycling materials as well as producing clean energy. Bioenergy – Renewable energy uses waste in a lot of different ways to produce energy. A large amount of it comes from farms but there are all sorts of sources. Biodiesel was one of the options for clean cars but it hasn’t taken off as of yet. Bioenergy is one of the only clean forms of energy that can directly replace fossil fuels so we can still make use of those power plants without too many expensive modifications.
Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy is a clever way of producing power using the temperature difference above ground and below ground. Like hydroelectricity, there are quite significant costs initially because you need to bury a lot of the equipment below ground. However, it doesn’t require much maintenance afterwards and it’s a lot cheaper than solar energy. It works out about the same price as wind energy but you don’t have to deal with the added issue of people that don’t want wind turbines near their house because it’s an eyesore.
Coal is obviously a terrible source of energy, but only in the way that we use it right now. It sounds like an impossibility but there is such a thing as clean coal. By using new equipment that filters out a lot of the pollutants so they can be buried deep underground, it is actually possible to burn coal without damaging the environment. It would take a lot of modification to update the power plants but once it’s done, the energy produced would still be about half the cost of solar energy.
Solar and wind energy are still valuable sources of clean energy but these options are often cheaper and more reliable.
The sun is an important source of solar energy which provides us with numerous benefits. All of us utilize sunlight to produce vitamin D at the same time, animals and plants depend on the sun for their everyday lives. Various ways of utilizing the energy of the sun are always created, and presently, solar hot water is one of them.
The solar hot water system is not just a meticulous acquisition for the environment because it has obvious and feasible benefits for you as a homeowner too. Certain studies showed that most homeowners who have purchased this system have been thrilled with their expenditure.
A solar hot water system or solar domestic hot water system can be an economical way to produce hot water for your home. You can utilize it in any weather plus the material used on it to provide energy is the sun which is free. Listed below are the benefits that you can get from installing a solar hot water system in your home.
Energy Efficient
According to some studies, installing a solar hot water system in your home can lessen your monthly energy bills. And by utilizing the sunshine to heat your water, it helps you reduce the hot water costs in half annually.
This innovative product is much more effective than electric or gas heaters. However, solar hot water systems are typically more expensive to install and purchase compared to the traditional water heating systems. But you can save a fortune in the long period.
The solar energy component is determined as the generated power brought by the system divided by the gas or electrical energy embed into the system. The scope of the solar energy factor is from is from 1.0 to 11.0. Generally, the higher the number, the more it saves energy.
Do not merely depend on the efficiency of the system. Consider also the size and the total cost of the solar hot water system.
Increase Your Homes Worth
Most people consider their home as their substantial asset and preserving it appropriately is essential to guarantee its value. The various modification and maintenance of your real estate can improve the way you live and probably increase your home’s market value.
Boosting the worth of your property makes much sense, but what is the excellent approach to doing this? Hardly not all improvement increase the worth of your home to keep up with the cost of doing it all.
One of the improvements that will most likely increase the worth of your home is solar power. Everybody needs electricity in their home, and by installing solar power systems, the citizens will prospect your home positively when it is open for sale.
Solar hot water systems have been here for a long period, and most people used to utilize solar power instead of other forms of energy. Furthermore, setting up solar hot water system will not only increase the value of your home, but it helps you market it faster.
Cuts Water Heating Bills
The best thing about purchasing a solar hot water system is that it mostly save a lot of money throughout the time. However, it relies upon the quantity of hot water a user utilizes and the worth of the traditional fuels.
You can check out the solar hot water panels in many reputable online stores like GStore because they offer the best products with the highest quality. It cuts down your water heating bills as much as 50%.
If you live in a sunny place, then purchasing a solar hot water system is the best move. The solar hot water panels will take in much sunlight that will turn out to be saving plenty of money on your water heating bills instead of using another form of a water heater.
Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
In wherever part of the house, all of us utilize plenty of liters of hot water each week. If you are compensating for those liters of water to be warmed, the amount of money and environmental effect might be tremendous.
When you are heating your water for whatever you’ll need them, there are 25% of energy utilized in a typical home and is accountable for 23% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the energy used.
Therefore, by using the solar hot water system with its renewable source of energy to heat water is an excellent way to minimize your impact on the environment. And by installing a GStore Solar Hot Water can lessen the greenhouse gas emissions by likely up to 1.8 to 2.8 metric ton per year.
To not danger the environment, use to your advantage the energy that is freely given on Earth which is the sun. Opt for a solar hot water system to absorb the heat of the sun and warm your water naturally with no risk on the environment.
Takeaway
Nowadays, heating water is costly and requires a lot of energy. However, utilizing solar hot water system in your home are cost-effective and environmental-friendly to warm the water for all your needs. It utilizes the sun’s heat to generate hot water.
Solar hot water is energy efficient, increases the worth of your home, cuts water heating bills, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions which can improve your lifestyle and your home.
President Barack Obama will unveil the revised Clean Power Plan on Monday, August 3.
The new plan’s objective is to cut greenhouse gas emissions from US power stations by nearly a third within 15 years.
The measures will place significant emphasis on wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources.
However, opponents in the energy industry have vowed to fight the plan.
They say Barack Obama has declared “a war on coal”. Power plants fired by coal provide more than a third of the US electricity supply.
The revised plan will aim to cut carbon emissions from the power sector by 32% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.
Each US state will have an emission-cutting goal assigned to it and must submit a proposal to the Environmental Protection Agency on how it will meet the target.
Photo EPA
The measures would give the president the moral authority he needs to argue for global reductions in greenhouse gases at a major conference in Paris later this year.
However, several state governors are already saying they will simply ignore the plans.
In face of the criticism, the White House said the release of the plan was “the starting gun for an all-out climate push” by the president and his cabinet.
In a video released by the White House, Barack Obama said the new limits were backed up by decades of data showing that without action the world faced more extreme weather and escalating health problems.
“Climate change is not a problem for another generation. Not anymore,” the president said.
“My administration will release the final version of America’s Clean Power Plan, the biggest, most important step we have ever taken to combat climate change.”
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she would defend the plan if she was elected to replace Barack Obama.
“It will need defending. Because Republican doubters and defeatists – including every Republican candidate for president – won’t offer any credible solution,” she said.
“The truth is, they don’t want one.”
One Republican presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, said the plan would be “catastrophic,” while another, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, said the plan was “irresponsible and over-reaching”.
Correspondents say the emphasis on renewable energy sources marks a significant shift from the earlier version of the plan that sought to speed up a transition from coal-fired power to natural gas plants, which emit less carbon dioxide.
It is believed the revised plan will aim to keep the share of natural gas in US power generation at current levels.
Power stations are the largest source of greenhouse gases in the US and account for about one third of all such US emissions.
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