Green Home Improvement Resolution - Go Solar

The best way to power your furnace and your water heater is with solar power. Solar power packages are expensive, but you don't have to buy them all at once. You can start with a converter and work your way off the grid. Each time you install a solar panel, you will eventually save money on it. Being that it is wintertime, the best solar investment may be evacuated tubes. These tubes are marvelous solar collectors that work even in cold and overcast climates.

Just want to share this one i found on the web

You can build you own, but it requries some diy skills. But tell me, how do these tubes work? because solar power is based on the sun, not if its cold or hot. Yes, when there is sun it is generally hotter.

Other great green projects are wind panels or hydro power. It all depends on the area where you live and which is in abundance

Solar panels not only an improvement but also an investment. With Solar panels you would be able to generate electricity and the cost of electricity will go down.

It would be good for where I live in Las Vegas, but from what I understand the power company here doesn't buy back the electricity. Factor that with the cost of $20k - 30k I'm really hesitant to get into this. From what I understand the return on this investment is around 10 years.

I'm as pro-solar energy as they come, but I looked into a couple of solar projects last summer and I just couldn't get the numbers to work. I live in an area with relatively low electric rates, but even if they were higher the ROI takes a very long time.

Money is almost ALWAYS better spent conserving energy rather than trying to produce it with renewables. Air sealing, insulation, windows & doors, appliances are better places to put your money IMO.

fi3rymonkey said:

It would be good for where I live in Las Vegas, but from what I understand the power company here doesn't buy back the electricity. Factor that with the cost of $20k - 30k I'm really hesitant to get into this. From what I understand the return on this investment is around 10 years.

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$20K-$30k ? How can it cost so much ? You can keep a smaller solar system ,which won't cost so much and won't make redundant power . Your opinion ?

fi3rymonkey said:

It would be good for where I live in Las Vegas, but from what I understand the power company here doesn't buy back the electricity. Factor that with the cost of $20k - 30k I'm really hesitant to get into this. From what I understand the return on this investment is around 10 years.

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Check into the buying back of power. If I'm not mistaken it is a federal mandate that if they are a public utility then they HAVE to buy back your power. This doesn't always make it easy as they can and will charge you to upgrade any of their equipment that is required to do it, but in the end they can't say no. In MI they have no choice, if you want to sell it they have to buy it. I went through this at work a while back and it was very complicated there since it was three phase 480V, but at home it should be much easier, a reverse capable meter and a disconnect/isolation switch.

Other great green projects are wind panels or hydro power

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never heard of 'wind panels'. What are they?

Most utilities that I know of will buy back your electric power (home consumer) but only to offset what you use during a year. This allows you to produce extra electricity in the day and use it at night and even produce extra in the summer and use it in the winter. This is called "Net Metering" and it's good for you because you don't need batteries to store your energy. Sometimes the value is as good as 1 to 1 - that is for every Kwh you put in you can get one back out and no charge. Often you can see your electric meter run backwards.

But if you produce more electric power than you can use in a year you do not get any credit for the extra - your electric costs go to zero but you do not get money back from the utility for the extra.

There are programs where the utility will buy the extra from you - these are rare and typically called a "feed-in tariff" and it is usually not a 1 to 1 rate. The utility will buy whatever you produce at one rate and sell you power at another rate.

There may be other costs; a fee to connect, rates can change by time of day. Before you go too far you should check with your local utility because they are all different.

You should also do everything else to reduce your electric use first because everything else will have a much better pay back. A $15 LED could pay for itself in a year or two where a solar panel will usually take decades to pay for itself.