Take Advantage of the Sunshine

I love summer. But it’s wearing thin here in South Texas with temperatures still reaching into the triple digits, daily. Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to take advantage of this sunlight and reduce the electric bill?

Here are a few places you can learn about solar energy for your home.

This online course covers the “fundamentals of alternative energy for the individual home owner.”

If you live in Maryland, Maryland Solar Solutions is offering a course in September entitled “How to Fire The Electric Company and Produce My Own Clean Energy Needs.”

Distance Education.Org offers several online courses on solar energy to help you make informed, wise decisions about your solar needs, how solar works, solar thermal systems and solar photovoltaic systems.

If you know of other good solar energy courses for the homeowner please leave a note in the comments.

Thanks.

Another Tutorial on Home Solar Energy

You want energy independence. You want to reduce your carbon footprint. You want lower home energy bills.

Educate yourself about solar energy and other renewable energy sources.

Find out how to incorporate them into your lifestyle.

And then do something.

Alternate Energy Source gives you the basics on solar power.

Check them out.

Home Energy Utilities to use Renewable Sources

My home energy provider, Pedernales Electric Cooperative, www.pec.coop passed a resolution “to purchase or generate up to 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.”

Our goal to be a net ZEH home has not changed. But while working toward to ultimate goal, it does make me happy to know the energy I buy is at least partially from renewable energy sources.

If PEC manages to do this without increasing our cost per kilowatt-hour we would be ever so grateful!

Thanks, PEC.

Our Home Energy Reduction Continues

Affording a solar energy system for our home means drastically reducing the amount of energy we use at home. We have been on a conservation and efficiency binge for several months now.

While not all our planned strategies are yet in place, the few changes we have made are bringing great results.

Comparing October 2007 with October 2008, we reduced our kilowatt-hours by 53.5 percent! We averaged 18.1 kilowatt-hours per day, our lowest use ever.

During the Thanksgiving holidays we had house guests for several days. We cooked more, used more hot water, used the clothes dryer more, and heated more rooms.

So November will show more kilowatt-hours used than October. But I still think we can beat our November 2007 energy consumption.

What are you doing to conserve energy at your home? Leave a comment to share the tips that work for you.