Home Solar Panels

The price of electricity is going up. The price of everything in our capitalist society will go up. Economic growth and inflation are all part and parcel of a growing economy. These unavoidable truths force us to consider alternative energy sources like solar panel technology and windmill generators as a way to both save money and be kind to the environment.

People today are much better informed and due to this awareness there is a movement that is growing towards getting rid of the old generating systems of the past and the adoption of new technologies for renewable energy is fast becoming the accepted practice. Everyone knows that the environmental crisis is one of our making. The best way to find our way out of a difficult quandary is to find ways to both reduce our energy consumption and to explore clean alternative sources of energy.

As a nation, our leaders have taken the initiative and put significant financial resources into home solar panels technology, wind and nuclear energy. Wind and solar generators have the ability to provide electricity with virtually no cost to the environment.

Due to government investment in these renewable technologies, it has allowed the research to move quicker, resulting in lower prices and smaller scale for the home user.

The concept of a small wind turbine and/or a solar array has come full circle, to be seen as a reasonable and rational concept for main stream society.

The technology of solar power – familiar to students of physics — works by exposing solar photons to thin sheets of different electric elements, producing an electric current. If you have enough of these element ‘sandwiches’ you can produce enough electricity to power the necessary appliances in your home. The appliances designed even a few years ago to run on a limitless supply of electricity are not the appliances we now need.

It is vital to streamline appliances in order to maximize their efficiency. It is an achievable goal to expect self suffiency in the future if we keep our efforts to spread the awareness at all levels of society.

For those in areas without constant sunshine, it is possible to utilize wind turbine technology to produce power to supplement.

While the generation of enough electricity to produce heat of sufficient quantity may be difficult in northern climes, the obvious and equally environmentally friendly alternative is the geothermal or aqua-thermal ‘heat pump’. Already becoming extremely popular in the cooler climates, the ‘heat pump’ transfers the inherent heat of the Earths average 65 degree constant temperature, into a system of liquid filled pipes, and, with the use of a refrigerator-like compressor, send it into your home. It even reverses to cool in the summer.

If this heat pump is powered by your home solar panels, you have succeeded in making your solar panel installation part of the solution to our environmental problem.

The Challenge Of Going Solar – Are You Ready?

Have you heard that the U.S. is full of possible, and as yet undeveloped, sources for renewable energy? Especially solar energy, but other renewable sources also. For example, we have such things as wave energy (from ocean waves), and wind energy. All these renewable sources have lots of un-tapped potential.

Fossil fuels like coal and oil have powered the western world for over a hundred years. Well, that was then, and this is now. Coal and oil have been used because they were cheap and abundant. Also, these energy sources were simple and convenient to use.

It is now evident that the Earth’s stored fossil energy reserves are running low. Getting at them becomes harder and harder. Then there is the spectre of the Global Warming.

I don’t know about you, but I have come to the conclusion that this issue must be taken very seriously. It doesn’t take a genious to realize that as we burn coal and oil, enormous amounts of carbon dioxide end up in the atmosphere. The origin of this is carbon which has been fossilized and tucked away in the Earth since long before the age of the dinosaurs. Now we humans are opening a Pandora’s box by releasing tremendous quantities into the air.

During the 1900s, there has been an enormous increase of the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Why is this a problem? It’s because of a property of CO2; the “greenhouse effect”. This gas is invisible to us but reflects infrared radiation back to the surface of the Earth. Which means that as the CO2 level goes up, so will the Earth’s temperature go up also.

You will be affected in different ways depending on where you happen to live. In some parts of the world, it can lead to disastrous consequences – drought, desertification, famine. Plus the polar ice caps are now melting away at a really alarming rate. If this trend continues, the ocean levels could rise several feet. If so, you can expect a watery future for such cities as New York. And large parts of countries like The Netherlands would also end up under water.

What can we do about these problems? The remedy is to make every effort to phase out the use of fossil energy. The time has come for solar panels and other kinds of renewable energy – time to develop their potential. I guess you belive solar panels are way too costly? Not anymore. You can set up home solar panels yourself and save money.

In case you happen to be a rugged and self-reliant person, I am sure you have an interest in DIY solar panels. Get them set up on your rooftop, and thumb your nose at these pesky bills from the utility company. People in the U.S. have a great reputation for being self-reliant action-takers. So, I think they will be able to handle this challenge also.