Make Your Home A Solar Home

What are the benefits of a solar home? Every day, the sun provides plenty of energy that we could be taking advantage of to power our homes and keep their climates comfortable. Solar energy is a renewable resource, unlike conventional power derived from petroleum. Most people's homes have not only been designed in such a way that they don't take advantage of the sun's energy, but they often actually fight against it. Poor design, home orientation, and power systems mean that we're not taking advantage of the full potential of sunlight. Here's some information to help you make your home a solar home.

There are two basic ways to take advantage of solar energy in your home. The first is passive solar home design. By building or renovating your home correctly, you can trap the sun's heat when you need to warm your home, and allow heat to escape when you need it to be cool. This prevents you from spending a lot of money and wasting a lot of resources on heating and cooling.

Passive solar homes generally are designed so that the side of the house with the most windows faces south. The north side, which is coldest in the winter, and the west side, which is hottest in the summer, have comparatively small windows. This allows sun to enter the home, providing light and heat when needed. Building or renovating your house to have wide roof overhangs prevents sunlight from entering when the house is already too hot. These are just the basics, of course. There are whole books devoted to passive solar homes that you can look to for more information.

Active solar home design actually provides power to your home from the sun. This is often more expensive to implement in a new home than passive design, but may be easier in existing homes. Solar homes actively using solar energy do so by collecting sunlight with photovoltaic panels. These panels convert light into power, and can be connected to household systems such as lighting, heat, or even batteries. Some owners of solar homes even go “off the grid,” and power their houses entirely by the light of the sun.

Having an entirely solar home is a little less reliable than most people are willing to deal with, however. This is why many people who want to use power from the sun choose to do so with a grid tie-in, where excess power is sent into the power grid. That way, power you're not using can be utilized elsewhere, and you'll be credited for generating it.

When shopping for photovoltaic panels and other equipment for a solar home, don't get discouraged by the startup price. Remember that it might cost a lot to get set up, but power is free once everything is in working order. You should pay attention to how much sunlight your home gets during the year, since that will affect how much power you can collect. If your home is heavily shaded, or in an area that's often cloudy, you should take this into account. Fortunately, solar equipment is getting cheaper over time, which means that more people will be able to adopt it. With all the concern over power availability, more and more people are getting solar homes. Look into your options, and you might be able to have one too.