Alternative sources for energy is for sure a hot topic today and as energy prices continue to increase, it’s only getting hotter. So go ahead and look online and you’ll find a pretty much ending supply of articles and information products on the subject. However; there’s just one glaring problem.

That’s that almost without exception, they all focus on just two aspects of alternative sources for energy. Those being solar, and wind energy generation systems. How to design and build them. Where to buy them. Along with general information on them. Wind turbines, and solar panels in all their shapes, and forms.

So is that all there is to alternative sources for energy and “living green” off the grid? Simply hooking yourself up with a nice set of solar panels on your roof or a wind turbine up on a tower, and away you go? The answer to that is that for some folks is.

Now what about thinking “out of the box” though? What about challenging yourself to come up with new systems that can be put to use in your home because after all, if you stop and think about it, we really are only at the dawning age of alternative sources for energy.

What About Hydrogen Gas for Cooking and Heating Your Home?

Take hydrogen gas for instance because it really is some pretty amazing stuff. You can use it for cooking, just as you would with standard gas that you buy off the grid, and you can save it up for heating your home, or a hot water tank. Also best of all, you make it yourself out of ordinary water, and the kicker is it causes “zero pollution” when it’s burned.

Don’t forget that you can also power a generator or fuel cell with this gas too, so it’s easily converted right back to electricity that way. Still more is that because it’s only steam that comes out of the exhaust pipe there aren’t any noxious exhaust issues, so you can run a generator right in your home.

Hydrogen gas is made by splitting water molecules into their separate atoms. Water is composed of 2 hydrogen atoms that are bonded with 1 oxygen atom. So when hydrogen burns, it’s (oxidized) and the only exhaust that’s emitted is steam. You read that right. It’s converted right back into to water.

Furthermore, as alternative sources for energy go, hydrogen gas is one of the easiest to make. Now because it is a flammable gas, there is definitely a number of associated safety issues that need to be addressed but none the less you can make, contain, and burn some today if you want to “see it in action” for yourself.

Simply full a glass with water, add about 4 teaspoons of ordinary table salt, and then plug two wires connected to a 9 volt battery into it. Presto! One wire will begin giving off bubbles of hydrogen gas, and the other wire will be bubbling off oxygen.

To contain them, simply fill a test tube with water, insert it into the glass of water “up-side down” over the wires and as the bubbles drift up into the tube they’ll displace the water until it’s filled with hydrogen, and oxygen gas. Bring it out, touch a match to it, and, “poof”, it burns, and returns back to water.

So hydrogen gas is one more solution to the problem of storing power created by sources of alternative energy. You see, while you may have an abundance of electricity when the sun is shining, or the wind is blowing, just as soon as night falls, and the weather changes, things change.

Put Biodiesel Fuel on Your List of Alternative Sources for Energy

It’s a fact that right now in the area where you live there is a free supply of biodiesel fuel in the form of used cooking oil sitting in a tank behind every restaurant, and fast food business. Now if you live, say in a larger city, this available supply could definitely be substantial.

The deal is though that a lot of folks are catching on to this free supply of oil that can be converted biosiesel fuel to heat homes and power vehicles, but there is a catch. That is that dealing with old used cooking oil is an incredibly grimy task, so a lot of folks try using it, and then quit.

It’s just not something that you would do on the side on a lark. Rather, it takes planning and preparation but once you’ve equipped yourself with the proper means for gathering, transporting and processing used cooking oil into usable biodiesel fuel, you’re set.

Just imagine fueling your car or truck up from your own 500 gallon private tank of carbon friendly biodiesel fuel that cost you a fraction of the price of standard filling station fuel. Also wouldn’t it be nice to heat your home without having to worry about high heating oil costs?

Step one is to start in researching what it takes to clean, purify and blend used restaurant cooking oil into usable biodiesel fuel, by doing some some small batch experiments. Once that’s done and you have thorough understanding of the process, it’s on to step two.

That’s figuring out how to get your hands on a truck or trailer that’s equipped with a large tank and pump, so you can use it to gather and haul your base used oil with. After that’s done, then you can start in processing your product in, say 30 to 50 gallon lots for storage.

Now granted, as far as alternative sources for energy go, this one is messy and by the time you’re fully equipped to process and store biodiesel fuel in large quantities, your going to be out some start up capital as well. Also don’t forget that your vehicle, and heating system also have to be converted to use it.

Just the same though, this stuff can get you off the power grid by powering a diesel generator, it can heat your home, and it can also run your vehicle. So do the math and it’s not hard to see why so many people all over the planet are rolling up their sleeves, gathering this stuff up, and processing it.

The real story about diy solar panels, is that your entire system will be made up of components that you will have to piece together to one degree or another. Now granted diy solar panels aren’t done with duct tape, and coat hanger wire but just the same, unless you buy a complete, brand new, off the shelf solar power system, you’re going to be doing some innovating.

Then there’s always the option of crafting together a solar power system made from used panels, and components that in some cases believe it or not, can be had for free. You see, over time solar panels degrade just like anything else stuck out in the elements, and they end up being discarded. So how degraded are they? As the old saying goes, “one mans trash is another mans treasure”.

Important Tips for DIY Solar Panels

• Rule number one, is to get to know the product line before you shop for anything. Also understand that just because you procure your solar power system in pieces, it’s no guarantee that you will in fact save any money in the long run. Would buying a car one part at a time be any cheaper? Of course not!

• If you’re considering buying used solar cells to fabricate your diy solar panels out of, you need to become familiar with used solar cells in general. What they look like as they degrade, and also how they function. You see, paying 25% of cost for used cells that have 25% of their life left in them is in fact “no savings” at all. You see, it’s a numbers game where the life expectancy of the product is factored against their discounted price, and you have to come out better than simply paying full price for brand new product.

Scouting Out Used Solar Power System Components

• Start learning to think out of the box with regards to how and where you can find discount, or used solar cells, and solar power system components. By now you may have already seen the tips online that suggest that you contact contractors. The problem there, is that’s a “no brainer”, and you’ll probably end up having to take a place in line with everyone else who putting together diy solar panels now. What about setting up a website? What about contacting boat repair shops? What about police auctions?? What about placing adds in local papers. Start brain-storming!!

• Chiropractors get to meet all the people in town with bad backs, so why not start up a little solar power system repair, and installation business on the side. Why you can even offer to replace degraded panels for free, if you get to keep the old ones you’re replacing. Don’t let the fact that you don’t have a contractors license stop you either because you can pick up a handyman license for around $100 tomorrow if you want to.

Be Careful Buying Used Electrical Components Online

• Beware of buying solar power system components online from sources and venues that don’t have a verifiable track record, and reputation. Remember that in the end, they are electrical components, and just like any other types of electrical components, there are always shady folks looking to unload their broken crap on unsuspecting buyers. Always remember that if the deal seems just too good to be true, as the old saying goes, it probably is.

You Can Always Get Bigger and Better

• Another thing to consider is that once complete your diy solar panels, your project is really never completed. Keep in mind that it can always get “bigger and better”, so try to start thinking long term as you plan for your solar power system, and how you are going to acquire what you need to build it. Start networking online with other like minded people who you can share information with because you, and they will both benefit from it.

Why is it that when ever our government leaders talk about solar home power they seem to always be referring to a new national grid system powered by huge public works projects, like wind farms? Are they that far behind the times, or is it that they just don’t want to let the public know the real truth about solar power homes?

The truth, is that for the vast majority of buildings across the planet there is more than enough sunlight hitting their roofs to supply them with all the solar home power they need. All it takes, is for people just like yourself to take the money that you’ve been spending on utility bills, and use it instead to install solar panels for home use to harness it.

Your Initial Steps Towards Solar Home Power

• The very first thing you need to do is to research all the government solar home financial incentives that are available in your area. Now there is a fairly hefty federal tax rebate deal in the U.S., but for the most part, most local solar home incentives tend to be rather tight fisted. (Permit fee waivers, etc.) Just the same, solar home power incentives can add up collectively to real savings that has the potential to quickly add up to thousands of dollars. Also if you live in a county like Sonoma County County, California where the politicians aren’t in the pockets of utility providers, the solar panels for home use incentives can make conversion to a solar home incredibly easy. Now get ready though because while you won’t have to slash your way through a mountain of red tape, they’re terms none the less can be a little on the complicated side. Even so, once you start reading up on what’s available, and start doing the math it will most likely have a direct impact on your solar home power plans.

More Options in Solar Panels for Home Conversion Projects

• Keep an open mind and definitely think out of the box. If you’re like most people for instance, the first item you’re going to gravitate to is standard solar panels for home use. Now this is good because the odds are that you will end up with at least one on your building. But what about solar roof tiles for instance? The fact is that they’ve gone through several advancements that have made them the new shining star of the solar panels for home use products industry. For instance there are now even curved “Spanish style” solar tiles. They’re also more cost effective now as well. Then what about a solar water heating system? For sure if you have a swimming pool, and are currently heating it with a conventional system, something like this should be way up towards the top of your list.

Used Solar Panels for Home Conversion

• What about “used” solar panels for home power conversion? You see, as more people convert to a solar home, increasingly more used panels are created. Some folks just don’t have a lot of room, so they require maximum solar home power from their panels. As soon as they pass their peak performance level, they replace them. What this means is that right now there are used solar panels for home use out there that still have 5 to 8 good years left in them that you can pick up at a discount, and in some cases even for free. After all, after a few years of service your solar home system really is made up of a bunch of used parts anyway.

Solar Power Homes on a Limited Budget

• Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you need a big budget to get started on a solar home. There are loads of “quick fit” solar power home products that you can buy, and install on smaller projects as the money comes available, and it can start with something as basic as a solar outdoor lighting kit. Or, what about a solar power attic fan and while you’re at it, what about blowing some extra insulation up there as well? Then there solar home products like sun powered ceiling fan kits with fan assemblies that cost no more than standard fans. Remember that every dollar invested in solar panels for home use, is just one more dollar you don’t hand over to a utility company.

• Go online and network with other people who have already made the solar home power conversion. You see, there’s no doubt that there will be lessons to be learned along the way. The question is though, do you want to learn them the easy way or the hard way? There are some real clever people out there who have a lot to share, and don’t forget that people have been improvising systems together for their solar power homes for decades now. Join an online solar home forum, or better, yet join a few of them. Another thing you can do while your at it, is to become more more politically active for the the “solar home power” cause. It really is pathetic how our elected officials on both the national, and local level do so little to promote real incentives for their constituents to convert to a solar home.

• Take control of your power usage

• Learn what each appliance is costing you

• Cut your power bill by 25% your first month

The electricity monitor has been available in it’s various forms for saving energy at home for some time now. Even so, it’s taken a long time to gain wide public acceptance even in spite of it’s relatively low price, and ease of operation.

The main problem, is that when it comes to devices for saving money at home, the electricity monitor really wasn’t what folks in general have had in mind. You see, what most folks have really been hoping for all along, was new technologies that in and of themselves would cut power usage. Not measure it.

After all, if you stop to think about it for a moment, you have to ask yourself how on earth can any device that simply tells you how much power you’re using save you any money? Something so simple in concept and operation that you just clamp it around the main feed wire at your power box?

Do You Really Need to Know What it’s All Costing You???

The simple answer to both these questions, is that an electricity monitor doesn’t save you any money. As stated above, it only measures it. However; the “proven fact”, is that statistically people who buy them and use them, cut their power bills by about 25% on average within their first month.

Sound a bit hard to believe that saving energy at home can be as easy as simply measuring it as it’s being used? Well once you think about it, it all makes perfect sense, but first stop and ask yourself if you would feel comfortable owning and driving a car that didn’t have a fuel gauge, or a speedometer. Or; how about ordering at a restaurant that didn’t have prices posted on their menu?

So the concept of tracking the cost of things as you consume them isn’t unusual at all because you do it every day as you go about your life. In fact if you take a moment to think about it, given the amount of money that folks spend on electricity, what should be a surprise is that the electricity monitor has been so long in coming.

Are Your Home Appliances Really Shut Off ??

For instance, are you aware that your television set may be using up to 75% of the power that it consumes while it’s turned off!? You read that correctly. While your TV is sitting in the off mode, it is still in fact active and consuming electricity, and by the way there is a new device to put an end to that.

It’s a clever hand held remote that turns the “actual electricity” for your TV on and off at the power source when you use it, but that and other clever devices are material for another article. Right now I’m writing about the electricity monitor.

It comes as two separate components that work together for saving energy at home. One device simply clamps around the main power line at the power box and the other device sits in your home, and receives signals from the unit out at the box. That’s it!

How Much is Each Appliance Costing You Today ??

However; it’s what the electricity monitor does with the information that it receives that’s so useful. For starters it can measure the energy usage for your entire home or it can measure how much any given appliance uses on an individual basis. Does that sound interesting?

Then with that information, with the simple click of a button it can convert that actual “usage figure” into a real “monetary figure”. That is how much it’s costing you in several international denominations. (dollars, pounds, etc.) But wait because it gets even better than that.

That’s because with just one days measurement and cost figure, it can extrapolate it out to show you what your cost will be in a week, a month or a year. Want to know how much your old refrigerator is costing you this week, month, or year, and compare it to the cost of buying a new one for instance? No problem!

Then with the software that comes with your energy monitor you can connect it up to your computer, so you can check your power usage figures online from anywhere on the planet, and even join an online community. So what kind of community?

A Whole Online Community of Cost Cutting Fanatics

A community of energy saving fanatics that share tips and information. What kind of information? How about being able to access each others actual power usage figures while challenging one another in contests to find new methods for saving energy at home? Sound interesting?

Well it’s going on right now and once you get into it you’ll quickly discover how with a simple device that costs you as little as $50 US you can slash your electrical bill in half and at the same time become a heck of a lot more knowledgeable about power usage in general.

• Can you really build a usable homemade wind turbine for $200?
• How much power will it produce?
• What are some engineering problems you will encounter?

If your property will support a homemade wind turbine then you really need to start narrowing in your focus on making one. You see even if it’s a small unit that puts out very little actual power, the experience you will gain from making it you can put to use further down the road. Hey! The cost of gas and electricity is only going up.

Now perhaps you may have already noticed that DIY articles on how to build your own homemade wind turbine are pretty much a dime a dozen online. It seems that just about everyone wants to hold themselves out as an expert these days but I see just glaring problem and that is that they all seem to make it all look just a bit “too easy”.

For instance, the first thing you need to be aware of is that it takes a “good amount” of steady wind to power a homemade wind turbine and a good “breeze” just won’t cut it. As an example, perhaps you may have noticed that commercial wind-farms are located in high wind areas and even now offshore.

Another thing to take into consideration that the vast majority of DIY wind turbine information products fail to mention is that water can ruin your homemade wind turbine real quickly. So what this means, is that if you live in a “wet climate area”, that’s just one more thing that’s not in your favor.

Also if you’ve seen any of the articles that proclaim to show you how to build a homemade wind turbine for $200 or less, don’t believe it. For one thing good motors that will function as generators (if you want to use a motor) are getting harder to find and then there’s the problem of your propeller.

Now if you have seen any of the articles that explain how to cut propeller blades out of a hunk of plastic pipe do keep in mind that propellers made this way are highly inefficient. Consider looking online for an actual low cost wind propeller that will make full use of the wind you have available.

A good quality propeller that’s designed and built for powering a wind generator will deliver maximum performance and it’s that extra level of performance that can make the difference between a homemade wind turbine that actually makes electricity for you on low wind speed days.

At the same time keep in mind that the larger your propeller the greater the amount of stress on your support structure. Now a small propeller spinning like a “bat outa hell” is really no problem but once you move to a larger propeller, vibration, and stress do become an issue.

Perhaps you may have driven past a commercial wind farm and wondered to yourself why the huge propellers on the generators seem to be turning so slowly. Well now you know why they use gears to spin the generator at a high RPM while the larger blades spin at safe low speed.

Still yet another item to address, is the tower that your homemade wind turbine is going to be mounted on. Now if you plan on building a small light generator to simply to have some fun with then you can easily get by with the flimsy tower made from water pipe and guy-wires that you may have already seen in the DIY articles online.

Something like that will work great for powering a couple of lights or a small laptop but if you plan on building a larger scale unit to provide a usable amount of power for your home, you’ll need something different. You’ll for sure need a taller, more heavy duty tower.

There are some great information products online that deal strictly with buying, and building towers for a homemade wind turbine and the monetary figure that most of them hold out, is that 50% of your total cost will be for your tower alone. Even so this isn’t chiseled in stone.

For instance I read a fantastic article on the topic that showed pictures and explained how a group of people cut a tall pine tree to fashion a tower out of in the forest area that they were working in. A highly effective solution, using what they had at hand.

The Bottom Line on Building a Homemade Wind Turbine

• A $200 unit spinning a motor that’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand is going to generate minimal power.

• Electrical components exposed to open weather in a wet climate will quickly deteriorate.

• A large well designed and balanced propeller is needed to drive a generator capable of producing a sizable quantity of power, but it must be geared down to prevent vibration problems.

• A homemade wind turbine large enough to produce a usable amount of electricity requires a tall, secure, well built tower.

• What are the pros and cons?

Pretty much everything about the tankless water heater or what some people also refer to as the on demand water heater is a surprise, and complete breakaway from a conventional standing unit. They’re also the perfect “rainy day backup unit” for solar water heating systems.

Now the first big surprise for most people, is their size and weight because for some reason the standard assumption is that a much larger piece of heavier equipment is needed to heat large quantities of water so quickly. The tankless water heater is incredibly compact and light.

The On Demand Water Heater is Compact and Light

In fact the larger on demand water heater models that are designed to replace a standard 40 gallon conventional unit weigh in between 20 to 30 pounds on average. These larger units are also about the size of a small compact television set. Usually in the area of fifteen by fifteen inches, or so.

So the next surprise is how easy they are to install and hook up because they simply bolt to the wall through the back-plate and electric models basically just plug right into a wall socket. With a simple “cold water in” inlet and “hot water out” outlet, connecting up the lines is also a snap.

Incredibly Efficient use of Water Heating Power!!

Another big surprise is how efficiently they use power. For instance the gas powered tankless water heater doesn’t even need to be vented out of the home because there is just “no wasted heat” to be vented out. Now there is a top exhaust vent but you can hold your hand over it when the unit is running and will only feel “a bit warm”.

Another big surprise is how much scalding hot water they will put out, and do so continuously. Be aware though that a larger gas fired on demand water heater does gulp quite a bit of gas when running on maximum output, so you have to make sure that the gas lines in your home have the capacity to provide it in large amounts.

Two Downsides to the Tankless Water Heater


So then what are some of the downsides of the tankless water heater because there always seems to be pros and cons with every new innovation? The simple answer to that question is there are two, and the first one is cost.

Generally speaking, an on demand water heater of such a size and capacity that it can replace your current 40 gallon standing unit, is going to cost you about twice as much on average. Also be aware that they also tend to be more vulnerable to complications caused by mineral buildup from heavy water.

• A truly do it yourself solar product

• Installs just like a composition shingle

• As hassle free as any other roofing tile

The fact is that home solar technology has been around for decades now, but up until relatively recent years there’s been one glaring problem. That was that it simply wasn’t cost effective. Simply put, the products, materials, installation, and maintenance costs outweighed the value of the electricity older systems produced.

Well of course all that has changed now as new products like solar roofing tiles now deliver a full 25% to 30% profit return on your investment. Also another nice thing about newer alternative energy products like these, is they do away with the “hassle factor”.

That is the need to maintain, or do repairs on a home power generation system. You see, that too has been a long time coming because if you stop to think about it, there really are very few things that you can leave out in the sun, and the rain for twenty-five years, and not have them break down.

The icing on the cake, is that the most recent solar roofing tiles are made from materials that are fully recyclable, and while this is big think now, it’s going to be huge in the future. Along with products like new fully recyclable metal roofing, it’s just one more solid step towards a fully recyclable home.

So talk about easy, secure installation, take a look at amazing at new asphalt composition style solar roofing tiles that nail, or staple to the deck just like a composition shingle. So what about wiring hassles? There are none because each shingle comes with a one foot long wire leader that’s simply passed through a hole into the attic.

The beautiful thing is that if you step outside and look up at your roof you’ll see that if you remove shingles, they peel off in rows from the top down, so you don’t have to tear your roof apart to install them. Simply start at the ridge and remove the number of rows down that you plan on replacing with solar roofing tiles, and that’s it.

In fact of all the serious home solar systems out there, this is the only one that’s marketed as a do-it-yourself product that comes with complete installation, and hook up instructions. So you don’t feel like doing it yourself? That’s no problem either because any local roofer that does roof repairs can do it for you.

They’re guaranteed for five years and rated to last twenty, which means that in practical application you can expect to get some twenty-five years of power out of them. Also another real nice thing is that they function independently of one another, so if one develops a problem it in no way will interrupt the total system.

• Who invented energy saving bulbs?

• Then who stole the idea and technology?

• What’s the latest invention?

• Will they Steal it too?

If you think that energy saving bulbs are a relatively new invention, you are just plain wrong. In fact would you believe that the first prototypes of what has become today’s compact fluorescent lights were developed, and produced back in the late 1890s?

Well it’s true and in fact the first working commercial models were marketed by General Electric way back in 1938. However; there were few nagging problems that kept them from achieving anything near the level of public acceptance that they have today.

Energy Saving Bulbs Back then


Those were that they were big, and they were expensive. You see, they had yet to develop the manufacturing techniques that allowed them to be mass produced in large quantities an also just as important, they were too large. About a eight inches long, and around as big around as an orange.

They were made though, and they were also bought, and used. But; only for specialty purposes like in photography studios, and compact areas where the heat from a normal incandescent bulb was a problem. In due time few things were to change though that led to a new public interest in energy saving bulbs.

No More Cheap Oil for You Yankee!!!

One was the 1973 oil crises, and the other was the development of the “curly tube” that you can find on so many of these types of lights today. You see, the energy crisis of 1973 inspired inventors to get busy, and also got the public to take a look at new ways to cut power usage.

So it was three years later in 1976 that a product designer with GE came up with the spiraled bulb that finally shrunk the lights down to the size of a normal bulb. However; by then the oil spigots in the Middle Eastern deserts had began to be slowly opened back up which led to the determination by GE marketing executives that energy saving bulbs were a dead-end street.

Now Who Let the Chinese Guy in!!??

Even so, through it all there was one group of people who were determined not to let a good idea go to waste, and that was the Chinese. You see, it was about that same time that their industrial espionage cadres were first getting busy running around the U.S. and the UK stealing every hunk of information they could get their hands on.

You mean you thought that the Chinese invented something?? Now granted they did invent the bottle rocket, and the fire cracker, but that was a few thousand years ago and it was not long after that that they came to the conclusion that it’s just cheaper and easier just to steal patented ideas than to come up with them themselves.

Man that Guys a Good Worker!!

So somehow the slippery devils got into GE and ran off with the idea, and technology to produce relatively inexpensive compact energy saving bulbs and after the Chinese got them, the competition was over. Hey! what workers can compete with slave laborers that have AK-47s pointed at them?

So now they were cheaper than ever before, but the Chinese had yet one more industrial secret to swipe to make them even cheaper, and that was the concept of replacing only the bulb element. But they had just one problem, and that was first someone had to come up with it before they could steal it.

Just One More Idea to Swipe

You see when compact fluorescents wear out, it’s only the bulb that goes bad. the lower part, or main electrical component that the tube is attached to doesn’t wear out, and in fact can last for decades. So what was the solution? The solution was energy saving bulbs with detachable fluorescent tubes.

Now who the Chinese stole this new idea from is lost to history, but you can bet your chop-sticks that they stole it from someone. However; there’s a new type of energy saving bulb being marketed now, and the folks who make it have taken a blood oath on John Wayne’s grave that the Chinese won’t steal it.

Keep Your Eye on the Chinese Guy This Time!!

It’s a brand new type of screw in light bulb that uses LED technology, but as of 2010 they cost somewhere in the area of $50 a unit. Just that same, they’re quite amazing because they use a fraction of the power of even the best compact fluorescents, plus one other thing.

That one other thing is that the light that they put out is as close to natural as you can get from any other screw in bulb up to now. Now they only emit the equivalent light of a standard 60 watt bulb, but it’s expected that in the future they will become more powerful as they also become more affordable.

• Is your attic bleeding you financially?

• Find out how to stop the hemorrhaging!

If you own a home today then chances are real high that there is more than one area that you can address to lighten your energy consumption load. For instance if it was built prior to the mid 1960s, chances are real good that no insulation was installed in the attic at the time it was completed.

Why? The reason for this is because homes in virtually all areas of the U.S. in particular weren’t even required to be insulated as part of the building code, and that was both in the walls and the attic. It’s one area of a home where a lot of energy can be lost.

Tip #1

Cellulose insulation is easy to blow in and in fact odds are that your local hardware store that carries insulation has a blower that they’ll let you use for free, with a deposit of course. It’s quite simple. One person runs the blower, and dumps the bales in, while the other person handled the business end of the hose up in the attic.

Tip #2

The second of your energy saving tips also involves your attic vents. You need to make sure that it is vented properly and that any screens on vents under the outer eves aren’t clogged up with cobwebs. You see, if your attic can’t breath it becomes a huge thermal storage tank.

Tie a broom to a long stick and do your best to swoosh clean all the eve vents along the outer perimeter of your home. Now if they’re clogged up from the inside then consider using a garden hose sprayer to give them a quick blast of water to clean them out.

Tip #3

If you don’t already have one then buy, and install an attic fan to keep it vented out. Even better yet, check into a solar powered attic fan that automatically comes on as soon as the sun hits the solar panel, and there are some very affordable units out there.

What you may not know is that if you’re using air conditioning to cool your home in the summer, and heat it in the winter, up to a full 30% of the energy you’re paying for is being wasted by having a poorly insulated, and unvented attic.

So if the cost of adding insulation and installing an attic fan seems expensive then you should know that you’re paying for them anyway on you power bill in the form of needless electricity you’re just throwing away. Maybe its time to check your bills and do the math.

• Where are the most common mistakes made?

• How can you avoid roof leaks?
  

There is just no getting around the fact that solar panel installation is tricky business, and the first place that people tend to look is their roof. At the same time though, it’s important to keep in mind that damaging your roof is no way to save money.

Solar Panel Installation Tip #1

Do your best to avoid installing your panels on a tile roof. Yes there is tile roof solar panel installation equipment available, but the odds of you completing the task without breaking tiles is slim to none. Consider going with solar tiles that are designed to be integrated into a tile roof system.

Your Second Hot Tip

Another thing to consider timing your solar panel installation project with a roof replacement job. Even if this means that you may have to bump up your scheduled roof replacement a few years, it gives you the option of using a flush mount system. Flush mount systems are far less likely to leak, and do away with the need for exterior brackets.

Hot Tip #3

Think twice before doing the solar panel installation work yourself. There is someone in your area who who does this type of work, and by going with a professional, you’re assured that the final outcome will be professional results. Keep in mind that ceiling damage caused by leaks can quickly negate any cost savings from doing the job yourself.

Here’s One More Hot Tip

Definitely talk to people who have already had solar panel installation work done on their home or business. You can rest assured that they’ll have at least some useful information to share with you, and always keep in mind that there are two ways to learn lessons. #1 is the easy way, and #2 is the hard way.

Big Tip Number 5!

Theft of solar panels has ticked up in recent years, so don’t think that you are somehow immune to it. A nice solar system can easily cost several thousand dollars, and can be disconnected and hauled away in as little time as an hour. When selecting a place on your home or property to do your solar panel installation job, look for an area that’s out of view of the general public, and also consider using a security mounting and attachment system.