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Solar Energy on a Limited Budget

By Solar energy | February 2, 2009

Solar Energy on a Limited Budget

How do you afford the purchase and installation of a solar energy system in these economic times? I certainly want to but I am limited by financial constraints.

To make solar more affordable, we are limiting our current home energy consumption. The thinking goes like this: the less energy we use, the fewer solar panels we will need to install, the less expensive solar panels will be. Once installed, our reliance on fossil fuel greatly diminishes.

All this has got me thinking about limits. Actually, this article by Wendell Berry encouraged these “limit” conversations I keep having with myself.

Mr. Berry reminds us what we in our arrogance tend to forget, that the very nature of life on this planet is defined by limits. “Any definition is a limit” which suggests ecosystems, geographies, and fossil fuels have boundaries, have ending points, are limited.

Solar energy makes sense for two reasons:
1.    Reduced reliance on a limited fossil fuel supply (coal and oil)
2.    Solar energy is not diminished by using it

This seeming unlimited supply of solar energy could be fanciful delusion. Just because solar energy seems inexhaustible is not permission to use it without limits. The materials from which solar panels are made come from a limited source.

As with every resource at our disposal, solar energy should be used thoughtfully, reverently, with restraint.

So when you do use solar energy primarily, how much is enough?

That’s the question.

How much energy is enough?
How much do you really need?

We have been on a home energy diet, of sorts for the last five (5) months. Our goal is to reduce our energy consumption through conservation (first) and efficiency (second), to determine just how much we really need for physical (and fiscal) comfort without being wasteful.

Join us here at Simple Home Solar Energy for the Energy Conservation Challenge. We begin with the Challenge details on Wednesday, February 4.

Topics: Home Energy Conservation Challenge, Solar Home Energy Project | 1 Comment »

One Response to “Solar Energy on a Limited Budget”

  1. Myra Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    I can’t wait to get started. I think your challenge will be the stimulus to ignite my energy conservation fire

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