Hi Guys,

I hope that you are having a good day.

Ultimately everything boils down to MONEY. Can you afford a renewable energy system for your home? Are you wasting your money by installing a renewable energy system?

Your perception of cost and the reasons you would like to install a renewable home energy system will also determine your decision on whether or not you will install a renewable home energy system.

The first thing you need to do when considering installing a renewable energy system, be it a ground source heat pump, solar panels, a solar hot water system or a wind power generator, is to find out whether your home is suitable for such a system.

Once you have determined that your house is suitable for a renewable energy system, you must find out whether you will be allowed to install such a system by your local planning regulations and whether you will get planning permission to do so.

Assuming that your house is suitable for a renewable energy system and that you will be able to get planning permission then you can either build your own renewable energy system or get the system professionally installed.

A local energy company was recently advertising their renewable electricity generating system i.e. solar panels. They were also advertising a solar hot water system.

I decided to investigate and went onto their website to get further information. I must say that they did provide quite a bit of useful information – enough for one to make an informed choice if you put in a bit of effort to calculate your return on investment.

They will install an electricity generating system i.e. solar panel system that could provide up to 40% of your energy needs. However, this is based on using a standard 2.08 kWp installation generating 1768 kWh/year with a typical home energy consumption of 3300 kWh/year. They also include a rider that the output will vary.

Prices for the system starts at £10,995.00 and include fully installed 16 photovoltaic panels, inverter, cabling and fittings.

This led me to take a look at my electricity consumption and that came to 6953 kWh/year. More than double their typical home energy consumption.

(Interestingly enough my electricity consumption is only 58% of the approximate 12000 kWh/year that the average American household uses and less than 4% of the 191000 kWh/year that Saint Al Gore uses.)

The question is, if I were to invest in the above mentioned system, what would the return on my capital be?

The above mentioned system will only provide me with 25.4% of my electricity requirement. The 6953 kWh cost me £877.78. Therefore the above mentioned system will save me £223.20/year.

The break even point for the return on my capital, assuming a 0% interest rate, is £10,995.00/£223.20 = 49.26 years.

However if you were to borrow the money at 5% interest repayable over 5 years to finance the installation of the above mentioned system the break even point would be £10,995.00*(1.05)^5/£223.20 = 62.64 years.

Now, bearing in mind that your solar panels have a 25 years life expectancy, I don’t think that the above is good value for money.

The starting price for the solar hot water system was £4,939.00. Interestingly enough, they do not mention the energy saving provided by the solar hot water system. They only state that you may not need to run your boiler in the summer to heat your water.

They also keep including percentage energy carbon saving which as far as I am concerned is meaningless. People dealing in the so called carbon trading scams and governments wanting to tax us more than we already are, would be interested in those figures.

It is well known that so called professionally installed system will always cost considerably more than DIY systems. Buy building your own system you can save a really tidy sum of money.

If you wanted to build your own solar energy system, there are quite a few good publications such as The Solar Electricity Handbook 2009: A Simple, Practical Guide to Using Electric Solar Panels and Designing and Installing Photovoltaic Solar Pv Systems that will provide you with all the information you need to build and install your own system.

Save on your energy bills by generating your own power at home with solar and wind energy to reduce or eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at DIY Power System

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home energy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product

Hi Guys,

I hope that you have had a good Saterday.

Today I would like to touch upon the subject of whether it is time to start to utilize renewable solar energy. Personally, my interest in renewable solar energy, is to reduce my electricity bills and eventually go off grid.

As we know the sun is the life force of our very existence. The light and heat radiated by the sun, is what sustains life on earth. The leaves of plants convert the sun’s energy into food and fiber, which is in turn, sustains animal life on this planet. Green leaves are thus the powerhouses – the great driving force for Life on Earth. Photosynthesis is the life generating chemical process. Chlorophyll is thus the Molecule of Life.

I view solar panels as those green leaves and photovoltaic cells in the same light as that of the chlorophyll molecule in those leaves.

Renewable solar energy can provide us with much more than just food and fibres. Renewable energy can provide us with both economic and environmental benefits as well.

The technology is already in place, but a change in governmental and social attitudes towards this solar technology is required. As much as vested interests would like to slow the process the high cost of energy is forcing this social change upon us. If governments were able to tax us for this free energy (after our initial investment to install electricity generating or hot water heating solar panels), government policies would change overnight. Let’s face it if we all produced our own electricity governments and other vested interests would loose a captive revenue stream.

Every 15 minutes the sun produces enough power to supply the earth for an entire year. The United Kingdom receives 60% of the solar energy received by the equator. Each square metre of the UK receives between 900 to 1200 kWh each year. This energy is equivalent to the production of 1000 power stations.

Forgive my little rant here, but in light of this, is it not rather egotistical of man to assume that he has an effect upon the earth’s temperature? Climate change has occurred long before man made his apparition on this planet and will continue to do so long after we will disappear from this earth.

All one has to do, regarding the so-called global warming myth, is to educate oneself and follow the money. It is only a scam to fleece us of yet more of our earnings.

In many areas the cost of electricity is simply too high to avoid alternative sources.

Renewable solar energy is an excellent source of electricity. Rather than using dwindling fossil fuels (if you believe in the peak oil theory) to feed power plants, we can take advantage of renewable solar energy. Renewable solar energies come with very little pollution when they convert electricity from solar panels or thermal devices and once installed will not contribute to the effects of so-called global warming.

Another considerable advantage of solar power is the fact that energy production at the point of demand reduces and even negates the need for transmission and distribution infrastructure.

My motive for using renewable energy is purely a selfish one. I want to be as self-sufficient as possible. During a power outage I still want to be able to go on with my life as though nothing has happened and as I certainly do not like paying ever increasing energy bills nor do I want to pay so-called value added taxes on these bills. I would like to be in control of the energy I produce and use.

I know that there are days when the sun doesn’t shine enough to generate the electricity I may require should I use a just-in-time system, but there are far more days when the sun is there and not being utilized to power our homes, businesses and workshops. Once you invest in renewable solar energy, you can save greatly on maintenance costs as most solar systems have no moving parts and typically do not require maintenance, other than periodic cleaning of the solar panels. A Photovoltaic panel life, for instance, is typically 25+ years.

By utilizing passive renewable solar energy, you can build a solar home that requires very low energy use. To use passive renewable solar energy you must include south facing windows in your home design, in combination with products like brick and stone that provide heat radiating thermal mass. In combination with a solar hot water system and solar electric panels you can take full advantage of renewable solar energy resources.

It is also possible to build your own solar panel and solar hot water systems for your design. By building your own components you can greatly reduce the time needed to pay for your renewable solar energy system as at least half the cost of a commercial system comes from labour.

Building your own solar energy system also allows you to fully understand the mechanics and physics behind harnessing solar energy. This can have an educational benefit for all members of your family. Building your own systems will lower the cost of your renewable solar energy by at least half when compared to purchasing a system and having it installed professionally.

Start utilizing the power of the sun and design a plan for your renewable solar energy system. With a bit of research and some elbow grease you can be on your way to a lower monthly budget and a more environmentally friendly home or business. Renewable solar energy is going to be the way of the future.

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home enegy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product