Understand the Cost of Installing Solar Energy System

Solar energy is abundant and it is free. Unfortunately, we need expensive tools to harness this energy. If you plan to install a solar energy system at your home, then it is better if you understand how much it would cost. In this case, there are three things that you should know.

Firstly, the cost will normally depend on the energy that your household needs. If you need a large amount of energy, then you will need more solar panels, which will lead to higher cost. Fortunately, solar energy technology has developed considerably over the years and the cost has become cheaper nowadays.

Secondly, several countries have offered a rebate for their citizens who decide to switch to use alternative forms of energy. This is good news since the government will cover a portion of the total cost of the system.

Thirdly, some governments also provide tax credits when you use the solar energy system. In the United States, the amount of tax rebate is different from state to state, but it ranges from $1,000 to $2,000.

All of these factors affect the overall cost of your system installation. A photovoltaic system normally cost around $8,000 to $10,000 per 1kW. The amount is equal to $8 to $10 per Watt. In general, an average 3-bedroom American household needs energy around 1.5kW to 3kW. Based on this amount, the cost of installation will be around $14,000 to $30,000 before rebates and tax credits.

As mentioned before, the rebate is different from state to state. For this calculation, we use an average California household that needs 1.5kW system. It means that the system can get as much as $4,200 rebate. The number comes from 1.5kW=1500 watts times $2.80 per watt, which translates to $4,200. Based on the calculation, if your household requires 3kW system, you can get rebate as much as $8,400.

In the beginning, tax credit can go as much as 30%, but then it is lowered to 7.5% of system cost after rebate. Therefore, 1.5kW system can get $735 worth of tax credit that comes from $14,000 deducted by $4,200 and then multiplied by 7.5%. With the same calculation, 3kW system will get $1,620 worth of tax credit (($30,000 - $8,400) x 7.5% = $1,620)

Based on the calculation above, cost of solar energy system for 1.5kW household is $14,000 (cost of the system) deducted by $4,200 for rebate and $735 for tax credit or a grant total of $9065. With the same formula, the cost for 3kW system is: $30,000 - $8,400 - $1,960 = $19,980. This calculation is only a rough estimate. They do not represent real figures, but only serve as a basic idea for the cost of installing a solar energy system.

Hot tips

Normally an energy independent home has higher resale value and the home is also highly preferred by home buyers. Therefore, if you plan to sell your home in several years, it is also a good home improvement option besides providing a nice saving on your electrical bill.

It is a good idea to include the cost for solar energy installation into your mortgage. Another thing that you should remember is that if you have low energy requirement, it means that you can lower the installation cost.

Choose your appliances wisely. You can reduce your electricity load by buying appliances with ENERY STAR logo. If you feel that full solar energy system is too expensive, you can opt for a solar hot water system for only around $3,000.

If your area has a high electricity rate, you will get more saving from your solar energy system. On the other hand, the system is also suitable if your home is located far from existing power lines.

10 Lifestyle Changing Tips to Save the Environment

Sustainability concept becomes a global trend nowadays. News and broadcasts are crammed with information on how to save the environment. This article offers some tips that you can try to contribute for the environment. They cost almost nothing because what you need to do is to change your lifestyle.

1. Change all of your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. CFLs use much less energy for the same performance and they last much longer as well. This is the easiest way to save energy and reduce your electrical expense.

2. Turning off the lights whenever you go out from a room. This is a simple and easy way to save energy.

3. Saving energy by adjusting the temperature of your room. For instance, during winter, you can decrease the heater slightly and use sweater inside the house. You will save a considerable amount of money by implementing this tip.

4. Stop asking for plastic bags when shopping. Plastic bags are oil based and they are not biodegradable. Bring your own bag so you contribute in saving our unrenewable resources. You might get a discount from the store as well.

5. When you go shopping, do not buy disposable products. Disposable products will likely end up in landfills and landfills emit gases that cause greenhouse effect and global warming. Choose items that can be used many times. If possible, choose good quality products. They are more expensive, but they can be used for a long period of time.

6. When products need batteries, choose the ones that are rechargeable. Batteries contain toxic materials and their disposal needs proper care. Therefore, it is good if you can reduce battery disposal. You will save money because you don’t keep buying batteries repetitively.

7. When you plan to buy a new car, choose the environmentally friendly one. You can choose hybrid car or if it is too expensive, you can buy the one that consumes less fuel per mile. It is even better if you can travel by public transports or bicycles.

8. Limit your water usage. Water is extremely cheap in some countries and they do not use it wisely. For other, this resource is very important and very difficult to get. Therefore, you need to change your lifestyle and use water more wisely. Cleaning your deck or driveway using a broom will save you gallons of water annually. Use a washing machine when it is full so you use water efficiently. Turn off the water tap while you are brushing your teeth.

9. Using solar energy is another good idea that you should try. It is expensive, but if you have the budget, why don’t you try this option. You can start with small solar panels for your water heater for instance.

10. Why don’t you use a push mower instead of an electrical or fuel one? It works well if your lawn is small and you can also exercise while mowing your lawn.

The Achievement of Earth Hour 2009

From Sydney Harbour to the Empire State Building, cities and world landmarks plunged into darkness as a symbolic energy-saving exercise unfolded across the globe. The pyramids at Giza in Egypt, the Acropolis in Athens and the Houses of Parliament in London cut their electricity as part of "Earth Hour," a worldwide call for action to avert potentially devastating climate change. Some 371 landmarks were due to power down worldwide, including the Eiffel Tower, Niagara Falls, the Las Vegas casino strip and Beijing's "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium.

The global grassroots movement began in Sydney two years ago, when 2.2 million people switched off their lights. Earth Hour has since grown to include 3,929 cities, villages and localities across the globe.

The Earth Hour 2009 event began dramatically as Sydney's iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge plunged into darkness on Saturday night, killing their lights for an hour, followed later by the glittering Hong Kong waterfront.

Lights in the "city that never sleeps" began going dark at 8:30 pm (0030 GMT) at some of New York City's most renowned buildings and landmarks, including Broadway theaters, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and the signs of several big firms, including Coca-Cola's in Times Square.

In Washington, campuses of major universities and several embassies flipped the switch. People gathered at Freedom Plaza, which has an unobstructed view of the US Congress, to watch the lights dim on nearby buildings and hotels.

In London, the lights went off at the Houses of Parliament and the famous electronic billboard at Piccadilly Circus.

In Paris, hundreds of monuments and buildings, from the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral to the Arc de Triomphe, all went dark. For safety reasons, the lights on the Eiffel Tower were switched off for only five minutes.

Elsewhere across Europe, St Peter's Basilica in Rome and the Greek parliament in Athens were all plunged into darkness, while entertainers danced in front of the Romanian parliament in Bucharest.

In Egypt, the Giza pyramids, the Cairo Tower and the Alexandria Library on the Mediterranean all went dark.

In the United Arab Emirates, which has the highest per capita energy consumption in the world, Dubai's iconic sail-shaped seven-star Burj al-Arab hotel turned off its nightly multi-colored light show.

Mountaineers planned to raise an Earth Hour flag on the 29,000-foot (8,848-meter) summit of Everest, the planet's highest point.

The lights went dark in downtown Manila, as they did in the world's tallest completed skyscraper, the Taipei 101 building.

In South Africa, Table Mountain was to be seen only by starlight for an hour. And the Weekender newspaper reported that one couple would turn the lights down on their marriage at a vineyard near Cape Town.

This report on Earth Hour 2009 was summarized from Landmarks go dark for world climate campaign.

Earth Hour 2009

March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm tens of millions of people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together once again to make a bold statement about their concern about climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. Earth Hour symbolizes that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in the fight against climate change.

This year, the goals for Earth Hour are bigger because the stakes are higher. Already 250 cities in 74 countries have agreed to take part including Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and Nashville with more signing up every day. Around the world cities like Moscow, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai and Mexico City will turn out their lights in support.

You can participate by easily turning off your lights for only one hour on March 28, 2009 from 8.30 to 9.30 pm of your local time. Show your commitment to the environment by participating on this simple activity and you will see that we can make a big difference if we work together to achieve a common goal. Visit http://www.earthhour.org/ for more information about this worldwide commitment.

Use CFLs to Save the Environment and Reduce Your Expense

In general, most homes in developed countries consume 9% of total energy usage for lighting alone. The number is more than this for other parts of the world. Therefore, if you use cost-efficient lights, they can really become an energy saver.

Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs are made specifically for this purpose. It only consumes around 34% energy of conventional light bulbs. In this case, if you decide to change from incandescent to CFL, you will reduce your electrical consumption by 6%.

CFLs have the same luminescence for less power when compared to conventional light bulbs. It is true that CFLs are more expensive than the incandescent, but they also have longer lifespan. It is estimated that the lifespan is 12 times longer than the incandescent light bulbs. This way, you have saved $30 in electrical costs during the lifespan of the bulbs.

There is an article in the United States stating that if a household changes 30 lighting fixtures and invest $90 in CFLs, they can potentially save $500 to $1500 in five years depending on the areas. This is only a typical house. If we are talking about commercial and office buildings, the savings are much greater. A 75-watt CFL could save $22 every year. If we multiply this number with the number of light bulbs in the building, the saving amount is staggering. You will need to spend an extra $2 for every fixture, but you will recover that amount quickly.

Some manufacturers of CFLs use titanium dioxide coating because it is claimed that titanium dioxide can neutralize bacteria, odors, and molds. Furthermore, some manufacturers also apply a luminous coating to the CFL bulbs to provide extra luminescence after the CFLs are turned off. Therefore, a little light will remain for a short period of time in the case of accidents or power failure. Another good thing about CFLs is that they produce less heat, thus there is less work for air conditioners as well.

Is there any downside to CFLs?

CFLs have different behaviors than the ordinary incandescent bulbs. They take longer to achieve full brightness depending on the temperature. The colder the climate, the longer they need to achieve full brightness. CFLs also give off the brightest light at the beginning of their lifespan. Over time, they begin to dull gradually. A CFL approximately loses 20% of its original brightness at the end of its life.

Conclusion

Saving energy and sustainability are the current trend nowadays. People are buzzing about them. We depend a lot on fossil fuel and it is not renewable. Continuous research is done to come up with new ideas to conserve energy. We can contribute to this effort to save the environment. Changing incandescent light bulbs with CFLs is a simple and good start. It will help the environment and it will reduce our expense as well.

How to Teach Your Kids to Save Energy

Saving energy should become a fun activity for everyone in the family. Kids should also learn a valuable lesson to reduce the electricity bills. Teaching kids about energy efficient is not as easy as it sounds. Here are some simple tips that you can try.

Let them know the importance of saving energy

Your first goal should be teaching your kids about the importance of saving energy. Use a simple story to make them understand how global warming happens and why we should change our habit to help the environment. There are many educational books for kids that discuss the importance of saving energy. They will be a great help to achieve your goal.

It starts from you

If you have kids, you should know that they tend to follow what adults do. Therefore, if you want your kids to save energy, then you should do it first. The habit starts from you. Perhaps you put posters or small notes to encourage kids to save energy, but if you do not follow those notes, your kids will not follow them either. You can’t tell your kids to turn the light off before leaving the room if they never see you do it in the first place. You need to lead by example if you want your kids to change.

Learning new things should be fun

If you want to teach your kids to save energy, you should make the education process fun. There are many teaching materials out there where your kids can learn important lessons to save energy. You should sit together with your kids and explore those educational websites, books, and computer software to conserve energy and save the environment. This is a good method for kids from 5 to 10 years old.

Once they learn those things, you should encourage them to implement the things that they have learnt immediately. Put the lessons into practice and you should keep reminding them of what the right thing to do to save energy.

Pay attention to the age of your kids

Kids with different ages will need different ways to learn about saving energy. For instance, if you want to teach your 6-year old son to turn the light off before leaving the room, you only need to tell him what to do and why it is important to do it. Of course you should lead by example as well.

On the other hand, if your son is 11-year old, then you may want to use different approach. You can show him your electricity bill and tell him that he can contribute significantly by adopting a new habit. Afterwards, you can teach him about the importance of saving energy for the environment. Be creative in teaching this thing to your kids. You should know which method is the most effective and comfortable for them.

Simple habits for your kids

You can start teaching these simple habits to your kids to save energy:

• Turn the light off before leaving the room or the house.
• Turn the computer off after usage or if you leave it for a long period of time.
• Do not hold the refrigerator open for too long. Tell your kids to take what they want from the fridge quickly and close the door immediately.
• Unplug electronic appliances when they are not in use, such as mobile charger, DVD player, stereo, etc.
• Reduce lighting usage and switch to natural light as much as possible.

Saving energy will become more meaningful if you can get your kids involved. They are the future generation that will get benefits from this good habit.

What’s Wrong with the Unpopularity of Solar Energy?

Our sun produces 350,000,000 terawatts of power. A full exposure to this energy for only 15 minutes is enough to meet the world’s energy requirement. This energy cannot be compared against energy that is generated by fossil fuel and nuclear, which is only amounted to mere 10,800,000 terawatts. Of course, energy from fossil fuel is also non renewable.

In general, utility companies contribute 1.3 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the environment for every 1 kw of electrical power generated from burning fossil fuels. This CO2 is dumped to the atmosphere everyday. In fact, a typical home is accountable for approximately 22,000 pounds of CO2 annually.

On the other hand, harnessing the energy from sun’s rays is clean and safe. There is no emission and it can be extremely economical in the future. Unfortunately, right now only 0.1% of power in United States is generated by using solar energy. If solar energy is that good, why do only few people use it?

Article in Wall Street Journal dated August 2008 mentioned that several groups backed by certain political groups are against the installation of transmission lines for solar power. Furthermore, the power grid in the United States was designed more than 100 years ago. It is now badly congested in many regions. Therefore, it is not easy to deliver solar power to customers. A cost efficient plan needs to be developed to transfer energy from one location to another.

Another problem is the cost. Right now solar power requires a lot of initial investments. A home value normally will increase when it uses solar power, but the initial cost deters many people to install solar panels.

The government should encourage its citizens by placing rewards to avoid using fossil fuel. For instance, a 30% tax cut to projected cost previously awarded will be attractive for many if other federal credits are included to promote more investments. Global warming issues are everywhere and become a recurrent subject in different talk shows. This is good to keep reminding people on the importance of solar energy and other renewable energy sources. The unstable fuel prices can be another good reason to encourage the use of alternative energy sources.

Unfortunately, transmitting solar energy effectively to homes is still very difficult to achieve unless the obstacles are solved. Even if the obstacles can be removed today, it is estimated that 10 years are still needed to convert 20% of homes into solar energy users. In this case, individual homes with solar panels is still considered as the most feasible alternative.
The good news is that technology develops rapidly these days. Solar power with nano technology is currently being developed and should be available in the next five years. Solar cell design is also developed continuously and a cost effective method to harness solar energy is getting closer to become a reality.

Paper, Plastic, or CFL?

This is an interesting article by Eric Bloom posted in Environmental Lovins blog. He indicates that changing your light bulbs to CFL is more effective in contributing to the enviroment compared to avoiding to use plastic bags. Here's the story.

For concerned environmentalists like us, bags are always on our mind. Checking out at the supermarket often poses the eternal dilemma: Paper or plastic?

The debate surrounding this issue pits the durability and lower material demands of plastic against the renewability of paper sources. Many of us have come up with alternatives such as reusable canvas tote bags or bringing our own plastic.

When we feel we've made the best decision, we rest easy, knowing our actions are in some way improving the condition of our global ecosystem. And they certainly do.

But does that "eco-guilt" we so often feel motivate us to the best possible solutions for the environment -- and for us?

You might be surprised by the answer.

According to the Allen Consulting Group, the use of a reusable bag (like canvas tote bags) creates just 4.4 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions every year, while single-use plastic bags average 13 pounds, and paper bags ring in at 66 pounds.

As well as restricting trash volume, saving a few pounds of carbon by switching to reusable bags certainly counts. But should it be the focus of our stress when the buildings we live and work in emit carbon dioxide on the scale of tons every year?

The average American's transport, housing, food, goods, and services emit a total of 42 tons of carbon dioxide a year. What this starts to tell us is that we might be sweating the small stuff, and we ought to give some serious thought to our overall carbon emissions profile.

So, while the canvas tote bags do make a difference, there's a lot more we have in our power (literally) to reduce our carbon emissions, which one might say is a good way of measuring eco-guilt.

For example, replacing a single incandescent bulb with a CFL can reduce our energy demand, leading to carbon dioxide reductions of about 70 pounds per year -- that amounts to a little more than one person switching from paper to reusable.

If you have even 10 lightbulbs in your own house, the carbon dioxide savings would reduce emissions as much as 11 people switching from paper to reusable bags.

It's great you can save 5 cents for every paper bag you don't use at Whole Foods (assuming you avoid the use of 6 bags a week, that's a savings of about $15), but if we were to switch just 10 incandescent bulbs to CFLs, we could pocket $65 a year in saved electricity costs.

That's money in the bag -- in fact, you'd have to save over four years' worth of paper bags at Whole Foods to realize savings like that.

So the take-home point is this: The paper-or-plastic dilemma is an important one, but we should remember to take that same concern and transform it into actions that bring about the biggest carbon dioxide reductions.

If you're willing to sweat the small stuff, then don't forget to sweat the big stuff as well. Our homes are a really good place to start.