Energy Saving Products First Then A Solar Panel System..
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
So you are in the market for a Solar Panel System for your home? While it is pretty much everyone’s dream to take their house power off the grid, it is even more important to have an “Energy Savings Makeover” first before calling up the Solar Panel Contractor to assure you are needing as little electrical demand as possible (that you can live comfortably with that is). Here are some energy saving changes to make before taking the plunge into a costly solar panel system for your home.
1) Are you still using those energy draining incandescent light bulbs? Incandescent bulbs are old school and can consume from 60 watts up to 100 watts each in a typical household. Did you know that there are really great light bulb alternatives called LED Light Bulbs? There is a 7 Watt LED Light Bulb for example that is equivalent in brightness to a 60 watt incandescent light bulb and a 13 Watt LED Light Bulb that is equivalent in brightness to a 100 watt. So just think.. if you have 5 – 60 watt bulbs (total of 300 watts) and 5 – 100 watt bulbs (total of 500 watts) in your home that’s a total of 800 watts for the 10 light bulbs. Now let’s replace them with LED Light Bulbs and see what we get… 5 – 7 watt LED Bulbs (total of 35 Watts) and 5 – 13 Watt LED Bulbs (total of 65 watts) that’s a total of 100 watts compared to 800 watts! See where I’m going here? So as the very first step, I would recommend replacing all of your household light bulbs with LED Light Bulbs although the price may be higher than CFL’s and incandescent bulbs, some of the main benefits that out weight the cost difference are that LED’s have a life expectancy of 50,000 hours (approx 20 years), they have no harmful chemicals (CFL’s have mercury!), and they are cool to touch. Changing your bulbs is a must no matter if you are definitely getting a solar panel system or not.. who wouldn’t want to save on their electric bill?
2) The other thing that many do not realize is that there are a bunch of little energy draining devices around the home that are still draining electricity even when they are turned off while we are at work or sleeping! Electronic devices like DVD players, Game Consoles, TV’s, Home Theaters, Computer accessories such as printers, monitors etc draw what’s called “phantom power” which is usually for the purposes of keeping a clock going on a DVD player or providing a quick start up operation for a game console.. Not to worry, no need to throw your money down the drain paying for it on your electric bill. For the TV and it’s surrounding accessories (DVD Players etc..) there is a cool energy saving gadget called the TV Trickle Saver which turns all of your devices off automatically when you turn your TV off and vise versa. Here is a cool animation of how it works: How it works. There is another similar product but for a Computer and all of it’s accessories like the monitor, printer etc.. it’s called the PC Trickle Saver. Another cool energy saving gadget is the SensorPlug Motion Activated Electrical Outlet. It does pretty much what the name says.. you plug it into the wall, plug in a table lamp for example then as soon as the sensor on the outlet senses movement, the lamp will come on.. as soon as motion is no longer detected, the lamp goes off.. it’s as simple as that.. Just think about how often you and other family members leave certain things on that would better if turned off when not present in the room..
3) Other energy sopping culprits are heat and air conditioning. You turn your heat or a/c on and it slowly fills spaces throughout your house from room to room. Did you notice that I said “slowly” ? There is a solution though.. a few different air flow boosting products like the ThruWall Room to Room Fan or the EntreeAir Door Frame Fan. If you have the older floor registers then there is also a fan for you – the Equalizer EQ2 Register Booster Fan. All of these air circulating fans move tempered air to where you need it and faster than waiting for the air to just reach various rooms on its own. This means using less of your heat or a/c system which means less power consumption.
And just a suggestion to those who really want to see the how much difference making all of the above the changes effect their electric bill, there is a device called the Blueline Power Cost Monitor. The PowerCost Monitor is a wireless energy monitor for your home. It can tell you at a glance how much electricity your home is using from moment-to-moment and in total. Why wait for your electricity bill when you can see what you are spending on electricity as you spend it!
So these are just a few things to consider doing before getting an estimate on a solar panel system for your home. You will find by doing an ”Energy Saving Makeover” first, that a solar panel system will end up costing you significantly less money. (I doubt most Solar Panel Installers would tell you this). So there you have it folks. Don’t forget to checkout all of these and other energy saving products at EarthTechProducts.com that you could purchase for your home to make your move to a more energy efficient lifestyle easier. If you have any questions about any of these energy saving gadgets, contact an Earthtech Products Representative at 877-548-3387, they are always happy to help.
