Solar Power & Energy

I’ve been interested in solar power and energy for many, many years. The technology can still be a bit expensive for residential solar panel systems, but that is not the only way you can take advantage of the sun’s free natural energy. The following are some experiments in solar energy I’ve done over the years, and simple little tricks and tips I’ve learned along the way…

Getting Started With Solar Energy In Your Home

I live in the desert Southwestern areas of the United States, and solar power is something I’ve been heavily interested in for years. Since this area of the country tends to have 300+ days of sunshine each and every year, it makes sense for me to take advantage of that in my home.

Putting in a full solar powered home energy system can be expensive though, particularly if you have a large family. It took me a couple of years before realizing I didn’t have to put the entire thing into place at once, and as soon as that thought finally occured to me I started working towards being more free from my outrageous electric bills.

You see, my family of five people averaged $250-$350 in electric bills each month, with the highest bills coming in the hottest parts of summer and the coldest parts of winter. So the first step I decided to take was reducing consumption.

- I replaced every lightbulb I could with the energy efficient “pigtail” bulbs. This has made the biggest difference in our electric bills so far, knocking as much as $100 and more off the total bill each month.

- I sealed up various cracks and drafty spots around the house. This house is old and unfortunately it has lots of drafts that let hot air in during the summer and cold air in during the winter. Blocking the drafts made a huge difference in keeping the house at more comfortable temperatures throughout the year.

- I started using more of the sun’s natural solar energy. I open my curtains in the winter so the sun can help heat my home. I also place water jugs in the sun so they can store heat during the day. At night, these are excellent heat source supplements to our small space heater.

I’ve also been trying out various forms of natural convection solar heating, and I’ve been learning how to create my own solar panels too.

After a bit of research I found I can buy ready made solar panels for $700-$1000 then install them myself, and this will save $1000 or more on installation. Making your own solar panels is actually quick and easy to do though, and that can cost as little as $150-$200. This inexpensive cost range makes installing solar panels more than cost efficient, and since I don’t have to have lots of them to get everything started, I plan to build additional panels as needed over the next couple of years.

Using Solar Energy to Heat Your Home

Using solar energy to heat your home in the wintertime is not complicated, expensive, or time-consuming either. In fact there are many simple and easy ways to use solar Sun power to help heat your home, and reduce your electricity bills in the winter time. Here we’ll look at some of the easiest things you can implement quickly.

In North America, the winter sun is lower in the sky and weaker in strength but it can still help warm your home quite nicely. The best way to utilize that Sun power immediately is to simply open the curtains on the south side of your home. Houses which have many windows on the south side will get the best results.

Simply opening the curtains will allow the sun to shine into the room, and that will help warm up various objects and items in the room too. Some objects and items will hold heat better than others. And this is a good thing when you’re using solar energy to try and heat your home. Metal objects for example will absorb the sun’s heat fairly easily, and store it for slow release throughout the day or night. Water works the same way. If you have dark furniture that can also help absorb the Sun’s heat, which will in turn help warm up your room. And last but not least, if you have concrete, Adobe or brick in the walls and flooring of your home, those will also absorb the sun’s warmth throughout the day. The walls and floors will then slowly release that heat throughout the cold of the night, which helps your home stay comfortable while requiring less work from your furnace.

To make the best use of this natural solar energy immediately there are a few things you can do after opening the curtains to let the sunlight in. First of all, try to sit any metal furniture or objects close to the Windows which have the most sun coming it. By placing these metal objects into the sunlight, they’ll be able to absorb the heat much faster.

If you don’t have any metal furniture or objects, you can use water instead. This is actually an excellent way to recycle drinking water jugs too. Each time you empty a drinking water jug, instead of throwing it away fill it up with tap water. Then position these jugs of water in an area which gets plenty of sun throughout the day. The water will store the heat from the sun throughout the day, then at night time as it gets colder inside, the water will slowly release the heat into the room.

Be sure to close your curtains in the evening once the sun starts going down so that the heat you have absorbed throughout the day does not get released too quickly at night time. Closing the curtains will also help insulate the Windows so you’re not receiving extra cold air from outside.

Easy Home Experiments in Solar Energy

For the past couple of years I have been experimenting with various forms of solar energy and solar power, particularly to help heat my home in the wintertime. My goal is to eventually buy some land and live entirely off the grid. I’ll have solar panels to generate the electricity that I need, and I plan to have a house which is extremely energy efficient from the start.

I’ve been studying, learning, and experimenting with a variety of ways to use solar energy for the past couple of years. I learned about convection solar heating for example, I’ve learned how to use water bottles to absorb the sun’s heat, I’ve learned how to strategically place trees, bushes and shrubs around my house, and many other things too.

Using solar energy is an excellent way to reduce electricity bills, and sometimes to eliminate them altogether. It doesn’t work the same way for everyone though, because where you live makes a difference. If you live in an area which has a lot of cloud cover and rain, you may not be able to use solar energy to completely go off the grid. You can probably still use it to help reduce your utility bills of course, but you might need to look into other alternative energy sources to. Wind power is the second most popular alternative energy source you should look at. Most of us live in an area which gets lots of sun and can use solar power, or gets lots of wind and can use wind power. Some people actually live in an area which can utilize both systems combined.

I live in the desert southwest area of the United States. When we buy land next year, we plan to buy in Arizona which is known for having 300 days of sunshine a year. So using solar power is the best choice for us.

You don’t have to have expensive solar panels to try various Solar energy techniques either. In fact, there are several things you can actually try today. If you live in North America, you can get started by simply opening the curtains on all windows of the south side of your home. This is particularly helpful during the winter time because the sun is stronger on the south side and will help warm up your home naturally.

You can also look into natural convection heating techniques. Cold air naturally stays lower than warm air. Warm air rises. You can use this natural phenomenon to create a sort of small heater for your home. All you need to do is put a metal or dark colored panel in a south facing window, leaving a small crack at the bottom and a small crack at the top. The space between your metal panel and your window will start warming up as long as the sun is coming through. So cold air from the room of your home will enter into the bottom crack and start being heated by the space inside. As that air is warmed it slowly travels upwards until it escapes out the top. As you can probably tell, this is a natural heating system.

You can create a similar heating system using plain water. I like to use 5 gallon drinking water jugs because they are semi transparent, easily portable, and I’m recycling instead of throwing them away. Once my water jugs are empty, I simply refill them with standard tap water. Then I sit them in a sunny window where they absorb the heat throughout the day. The sun actually warms the water inside the jugs. Water is an excellent conductive material, so it it absorbs the Sun’s solar energy quite nicely. By the end of the day, the water jugs are warm and I simply close the curtains. The water jugs then slowly release the heat they’ve stored throughout the night.

Materials Which Absorb Solar Energy

Solar energy is simply energy which comes from the sun’s power. This natural energy source can be used for a wide variety of things inside your home. Many people think of using solar energy for their electricity needs, and that is certainly an excellent way to use it. In most cases though, you can actually just use the sun’s energy to help heat your home naturally. Doing this does not require the use of solar panels, solar cells, storage batteries, or any complicated grid setup. Of course you’ll get much more benefit from setting up an actual solar power system using panels and grids, but if you simply want to start utilizing the natural power of the sun today, there are several ways you can do so.

Essentially all you need to do is set up a way to absorb the heat from the sun. In the winter for example, you can start reducing your electric bill by allowing the sun to supply some of the heat for your home. The easiest way to do this is to just open the curtains and allow the sun to shine into your home during the daylight hours. The sunlight will naturally bring warmth, and items inside your home will actually absorb that warmth too. Any items which help absorb the warmth from the sun will also help your house retain some of that heat after the sun goes down.

You’ll have much better results though if you purposely set out to try and absorb as much of the sun’s heat as you can each day. And to do this, you simply need to know which types of materials absorb and retain the sun’s heat easily.

Most types of metal for example will absorb heat quickly and easily. Some metal gets hot faster than others and releases that heat much more slowly. If you lay a sheet of copper in the sun for example, you’ll notice it gets hot quite quickly. Once the sun goes down, the copper will start releasing its heat into the air around it. And this can be used as a natural heating system for your home. You could do the same type of thing with most metals.

Dark colored items also get hot quickly. You may have experienced this yourself in the summertime actually. Getting inside of a vehicle which has black seats will be much hotter to the touch than getting inside of one which has light-colored seats. And you can use this to your advantage when heating your home in the winter time as well. If you have dark colored furniture, then simply positioning them in a location of the room which gets sunlight during the day will allow them to absorb heat. You can also place dark curtains at the window, or position dark pieces of furniture, accents, or decor in the sunlight too.

Other materials which absorb heat very nicely include concrete, brick, Adobe, and water. If you live in a home which has concrete or brick walls for example, those walls will absorb heat from the sun throughout the day and store it. Then as the nighttime coolness creeps in the stored heat will slowly be released which helps maintain a comfortable temperature in your home while using less electricity.

Combine Solar Energy with Conservation

If you’re like most of the world, you’ve been watching the news about the global economy and financial crisis. And you already know that many people are worried about how they will be able to heat their home this winter. The biggest concern is being able to afford to pay the electricity bill or gas bill. The good news though is that it’s very easy to combine free solar energy power with energy conservation. Let’s look at a few ways to do that.

The first step is to try and reduce how much energy you’re consuming on a daily basis, so that your electric and gas bill will not be so high. It only takes the few simple steps to conserve energy and reduce those bills.

1. Turn off any lights that are not being used in your home. If no one is in the room, there’s no reason for the lights to be on.

2. Change your lightbulbs. There are two changes you need to make with your lightbulbs: the first one is to buy what are called pigtail lightbulbs, or energy efficient bulbs. This might seem very hard for you to believe, but you can actually reduce your electricity bill by as much as $50 per year for each light bulb you change. I have literally knocked off $100-$200 per month from my electric bill just by changing to these types of bulbs. The second thing you need to do is use a lower wattage bulb. If you normally use a 100 W light bulbs, try reducing to a 75 or 60 W bulb instead.

3. Lower the temperature on your water heater. It doesn’t matter if you use gas or electric to heat your water, you need to lower the temperature on that water heater to help reduce your bills.

4. Change your thermostat. Instead having your thermostat set to 72 or 75° this winter, try reducing it to at least 65° instead. If possible, lower it even further to 60°. This will feel chilly to most people, but you can wear your favorite winter clothing, or snuggle up in blankets to help offset the difference. It will be well worth it when you see how much of a difference this makes in your heating bill.

Besides helping to conserve energy, you can also utilize the power of the sun and tap into natural solar energy too. On sunny days for example, even in the winter time when there’s snow on the ground, you can help heat your home using the sun’s light and power. Simply open the curtains and let the sun shine through in every area of your house that you can.

If you have objects in your home which are made from natural materials such as brick, Adobe, or even concrete, then try to position those items so that they are getting as much sunlight as possible on them throughout the day. The more sunlight they receive, the more heat they will help absorb from the sun naturally. Then when the sun starts going down in the evening, close your curtains to help prevent cold night air from coming into your home. The furniture and other natural objects in your home which have been absorbing heat throughout the day will now start releasing that heat for use throughout the night. This will actually act as a supplemental natural heating system for your home.

Solar Section: Solar Power KB, Specifics: Energy Conservation, Solar Heating