Things To Do Before You Make Solar Panels
There are things you should do to prepare your house before you install solar panels. Your goal should be to reduce your power consumption as much as possible, before you focus on solar energy. The reason for this is quite simple, there are dozens, if not hundreds of things that you can do inside your home that will be easier, and more cost-effective than making solar panels.
Save Money Drying Clothes
I (the creator of this website) am an American, but I moved to the Philippines about 2 years ago when I married my Filipina wife. No one over here has even heard of electric clothes driers. They simply use a clothes line, and after you buy a cheap clothes line — it is entirely free to dry your clothes.
On the other hand, electric clothes driers can be expensive to use. Here is an excellent site on how to save energy drying clothes. Michael Bluejay, the owner of the linked website, contends that if electricity costs 15 cents a watt, and you are drying 7 1/2 loads a week, you will save $196 every year by clothes-line drying your clothes instead of using the electric clothes dryer.
Save Money on Washing Laundry
Again, living in the Philippines — no one over here uses warm water to wash clothing. I do not notice any difference between clothing washed in hot and dried with an electric drier, and clothing washed in cold and dried with a clothes line — except in the electricity bill. The Michael Bluejay site also has a laundry cost calculator. He explains that 90% of the energy cost in washing clothes goes to heating the water! Not to mention, heating your clothes causes them to shrink and wear out faster than with using cold water.
Save Money on Light Bulbs
You can save money on light bulbs. An average Compact Fluorescent (CFL) Light Bulb will last on average 8000 hours. On average, to use 60 watt incandescent light bulbs for 8000 hours will cost you $74.10. Meanwhile, the CFL light bulb will cost $16.85. Both of these figures (the $74.10 and the $16.85) take into account the cost of the light bulb and the electricity necessary to run them. The savings on 8000 hours of usage is $57.23!
Before you install solar panels, you should replace your light bulbs to CFL, the savings is incredible. It is difficult to say how much you will save per month, or per year — that depends on how much you keep the light bulbs turned on, how quickly you use up the 8000 hours. Nonetheless, changing light bulbs is one of the most significant things you can do to reduce your monthly bill.
There is a misunderstanding that many people have when it comes to turning off the light. Many people believe that it uses less energy to just keep a light bulb burning, than it does to turn it off and on repeatedly. That simply is not the case. If you are going to be out of the room more than 5 minutes — it makes sense to turn the light off, you will save money.
There are literally hundreds of things you can do to reduce your monthly electricity bills. I will continue to add articles about reducing energy and conserving energy. It is smart to make solar panels after you have reduced your power consumption. The thing to remember is, the lower your power consumption, the smaller your solar panel installation will need to be to offset your electricity usage.
