Watch Your Phantom Loads

Monday, April 20th, 2009

Watch Your Phantom Loads
Before you purchase that solar power system, you need to know how many panels you need to support your home energy use.
Soon after you begin the energy discovery process you learn about invisible critters called “phantom loads”  that haunt your home.
It’s hard to see evidence of these little devils but here’s a [...]

How to Read an Energy Guide Label

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

How to Read an Energy Guide Label
In an earlier post, I shared about how to use a Kill-a-watt meter to determine home much energy your major home appliances are using. This handy electric meter told me my 1996, 18.2 cubit foot GE refrigerator cost me $137 per year to operate.
Newer, energy-efficient refrigerators cost only about [...]

How Our Simple Home Solar Energy Project Began

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

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How Our Simple Home Solar Energy Project Began
Our simple home solar journey began with keen understanding that governments are inept at finding solutions. People create solutions.
So we asked ourselves, what can one ordinary couple do? We are not among America’s wealthy. We live on a budget which tightens with the arrival of [...]

Home Energy Efficiency and Major Appliances

Monday, September 15th, 2008

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Home Energy Efficiency and Major Appliances
Eventually, I want a net ZEH , a house that produces as much energy as it uses.
We are taking the small steps toward that end goal. Our initial goal is to reduce our energy consumption by 25%. For us that means reducing energy use to 38 kWh/day. [...]

How to Have Hot Water and a Lower Energy Bill

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

Time to Get Your Energy Bill Out of Hot Water!
Heating water for your home accounts for roughly 25 percent of your home energy consumption. Since we are trying to reduce our home energy usage by 25 percent, we clearly need to do something about our hot water.

I will make a small confession here. I want [...]

Home Energy Use Measured in Kilowatt-Hours

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

How Many Kilowatt-Hours Does Your Home Use?

Making an informed choice about solar home energy requires knowing how many kilowatt-hours your home uses. Until the recent concern with our environment and energy prices, many have never paid much attention to how many kilowatt-hours their home uses.

What is a kilowatt-hour?

Electric utility companies measure your home energy use [...]