Selecting renewable energy systems for your home can reduce your carbon footprint and utility costs, and make your property more resilient against weather or infrastructure-related power outages.
According to research conducted by Zillow, alternative energy solutions could even increase your home value. Learn about solar and wind as ways of powering your home.
Geothermal Heating
Geothermal energy differs from other renewables in that it uses an ongoing source of heat from underground. Through technology that extracts or dumps it outwards, geothermal power provides your home with power while helping reduce its carbon footprint significantly.
Geothermal systems produce 75% to 85% fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared to oil or propane furnaces, and can be used both to heat and cool your house as well as provide on-demand hot water heating/cooling/supply.
Green energy may not yet be as widely accessible, but biomass heating systems could prove very disruptive. After initial investment (which may be tax deductible), these systems cost far less to run than traditional fossil fuel furnaces while offering stable, predictable cost of energy costs.
Community Solar
Solar energy uses photovoltaic (PV) panels to convert sunlight into electricity for your home, using an inverter to transform its DC output into AC current that your household requires.
Solar and wind energy can serve to power our grid more cleanly while helping communities that most need jobs to create jobs in renewable energies.
Community solar offers families, businesses, schools and non-profits alike an opportunity to join a clean energy project that provides credits on utility bills for participation.
Community solar helps make the electric grid more resilient and capable of withstanding prolonged outages by spreading out electricity generation across more generators. Furthermore, community solar makes switching renewable energy easier as its upfront costs can be eliminated altogether.
Wind Power
Solar energy systems harnessing the sun’s rays can be harnessed for use in heating and cooling homes, powering lights and water heaters and more. Plus, it’s an eco-friendly source; oil drilling involves clearing Canada’s boreal forest; fracking causes earthquakes and pollution of water supplies; coal power plants pollute airways with carbon dioxide emissions – none of these are as environmentally-friendly!
Wind turbines generate electricity by harnessing the energy in moving air. A home wind system typically includes a tower, windmill and inverter which converts this energy into AC power for your home. There are multiple companies who specialize in designing and installing home-scale wind systems as well as providing permits, monitoring systems and assistance with connecting to the electricity grid.
Some states offer investment tax credits that reduce installation costs and accelerate payback time of renewable technologies such as solar hot water systems and photovoltaic panels, geothermal energy resources, or small wind electric systems that qualify for installation tax credits.
Solar Panels
Solar energy can reduce your electric bill by decreasing how much of it comes from fossil fuels, helping protect the environment with its lower greenhouse gas emissions and providing energy independence, decreasing your chance of downed power lines or blackouts.
Solar panels can be mounted to your roof or freestanding frames to convert sunlight into energy that your house can use, using an inverter to convert direct current (DC) energy into AC (alternating current), suitable for consumption by your household. The size and scope of your solar system depends on both its location as well as your home’s energy demands across a day or season.
Before installing solar, it’s essential that you first examine what energy efficiency measures you can take to make your home as energy-efficient as possible. Doing this will decrease the size and cost of installing and operating your renewable energy system; additionally, grid connection allows you to sell any excess power back through net metering.
