PV Gap

Nicole Said:

I'm looking for some solar energy resources, can anyone help?

We Answered:

The first thing to do to reduce your electric bills is to reduce the amount of electricity you use. This isn't a wise-guy answer, for every $1 you spend on energy conservation, that's $4 less that you have to spend on your solar system. Replace your incandescent light bulbs with CFL or LED bulbs, replace any old energy hog appliances with new energy efficient ones. Many electric companies offer a free energy audit program to help you determine what to do. Once you have done all you can do, then think about solar.

Solar water heating can reduce your energy use by a lot. Around 30% of a household's energy use is for hot water. By heating the water with the sun instead of electricity, gas, or oil, you can save a lot of money.

Now you can think about solar electricity as an option. You don't need to generate 100% of your usage, and you don't need to deal with a complicated or expensive battery based system. A grid -tied system can be as little as a few thousand dollars, of course for that price, you'll only be offsetting a tiny fraction of your use. You can look at some different sized grid-tied packages at http://www.altestore.com/store/Kits-and-… They can go much larger than those as well, but it's a nice starting point.

There are incentives available to help you pay for the solar systems, federal, state, and regional. Take a look at your area at http://www.dsireusa.org/.