Ways to Generate and Save Energy at Home

NOVEMBER 18, 2009John Roach, MSNBC

Prepare for battle if you’re ready to pull away from the electricity grid and generate at least some of your energy at home. “The first thing you do is make war on consumption,” said Richard Perez, the publisher of Home Power Magazine, which guides people through the transition to a life built around renewable energy. “In other words, analyze where you are using electricity and see where you can make it more efficient.”For example, replace old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs with electricity-sipping compact fluorescent bulbs and junk that 20-year-old fridge for an energy-efficient model.Once that’s done, it’s time to integrate the reduced use with at-home energy generation, noted Ren Anderson, a researcher at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.

Solar power keeps going and going …

Between 80 and 85 percent of the at-home renewable energygeneration systems installed today are solar panels, which in industry parlance are called photovoltaic modules. “If it is installed properly, it is pretty much a forget-it proposition. There’s no maintenance involved, there’s no noise involved and it is easily installed on roofs of houses,” Perez said. Incremental advances in solar technology over the years have made today’s photovoltaic modules more powerful, less expensive and longer lasting. Warranties offered by many companies last for 25 years, noted Perez, and life-cycle testing indicates many systems will perform for 50 to 100 years. “Just because the warranty runs out doesn’t mean the modules stop making power,” he said.

Solar water heaters for the masses … and geeky celebs

Bill Nye the Science Guy stands on his roof in Los Angeles, next to a solar water heating panel. Such heaters sit on roofs and use the sun’s rays to heat up water to temperatures hot enough for most basic household needs. Nye and his celebrity-actor neighbor Ed Begley Jr. are entrenched in a friendly competition over who can outfit their homes with the most environmentally friendlytechnologies. But don’t think that solar water heaters are just for Hollywood celebrities. “It’s a snap to put up, and in most places of the U.S. it will supply all the hot water needed for washing, bathing, doing the dishes and stuff like that,” Perez said.

A true classic: Passive solar heating

If you’re in the market for a new home and have time to work with an architect, you can take advantage of the millennia-old practice of positioning the home to take full advantage of passive solar heat. The basic concept hasn’t changed much, Perez noted: Use a lot of south-facing windows and not a lot of north-facing ones. That’s the method used in the Lakewood, Colo., home shown here. In addition, add insulationbeyond standard levels to lock in the heat on cool days. Insulation is measured in resistance to heat flow, known as R-value. An R-value of 19 is standard, according to Perez. Solar homes have insulation with R-values up to 60.

Wind is not always a breeze

There’s a ton of energy to be harnessed from the wind, though doing so “is a tough one for individual homeowners because, in most locations, the wind can be somewhat intermittent,” said Anderson. In addition, many municipalities have zoning laws that can make sticking a tall tower up into the breeze a challenge.