Solar Power Home

I reduced my own power bill by a huge amount and I did it without using any solar panels. Most people think that if you want to lower your power bill, you must install solar panels. This is just not true. My power bill dropped by 20% after I did the steps below and now I’m going to show you exactly how I did it.

Insulate Those Windows - I always laugh when I see someone with solar panels and single pane windows. Talk about swallowing a camel! Single pane windows are horrible. The average person loses about $2 a day in cool air or heat escaping out their single pane windows. You need to have double pane windows. Double pane windows cost a lot of money so just focus on doing one room at a time. Start with your living room and slowly work through every window in your house.

Ventilation In The Attic - Your attic stores an incredible amount of heat. If your air vents get clogged with dust, too much heat will build up in your attic and make your air conditioner run much too long. You need to clean the vents in your attic and make sure they are allowing hot air to escape through them. If you have an attic that doesn’t have vents, you need to have some put in. Go to your local hardware store to find attic ventilation kits.

Air Conditioner Filters - A dirty air filter makes your air conditioner work much harder which means it takes more energy to do its job. Changing your air conditioner filters once a month will save you money off your monthly energy bill.

Range Filter - The fan above your range uses a ton of energy. If the filter in your range hood is clogged with grease, the fan will work a lot harder to do its job and cost you a lot of money. You should change your range filter once every 3 months depending on how much you use it.

Save Money By Turning Off Lights - You should go around to all your lights and lower the wattage on all your bulbs. Do not leave lights on when you leave the room. Do not use outside lights. A single outside light that uses a standard 60-watt bulb will cost you about $10 a month. Forget using dimmer lights as they don’t save you very much. Use fluorescent lights whenever and wherever possible.

Appliances Power Usage - If you want to understand how the solar power calculate works or you want to calculate this manually you first need to estimate how many hours per day you use the appliance. You then use this formula: Wattage / 1,000 x hrs/day x $/kWh / 30 days/month = total cost per month. A refrigerator uses 540 watts per hour. If your refrigerator runs for 125 hours a week, that’s 125 hours / 7 days = 17.9 hours per day. Here’s what a month’s worth of use costs you: 540 / 1,000 x 17.9 x 0.15 x 30 = $43.50 per month. If you are using a central air conditioner (for 10 hours a day during the hot summer months) it’s costing you: 4000 / 1,000 x 10 x 0.15 x 30 = $180.00 per month.