Folks, it’s time to think about the money you are paying for your energy! Bills have gotten thicker, pockets have gotten lighter. My neighbor Bob started looking for alternative sources of energy about a year ago, after realizing that it’s either this or he will have to sell his house! He is now pretty knowledgeable in this area and he managed to keep his house and a little extra money in his pocket monthly.
Lucky me, Bob is happy to share some of the lessons he learned during this last year with the rest of us, who still struggle with our energy bills.
Today we’re gonna talk about how to assess how much energy your household needs so that you know what kind of renewable energy technology to turn to.
You should know that some renewable energy solutions are developed to cover the full energy needs of a facility, while others are used along with back-up energy systems.
Even if your renewable energy solutions are used as back-up systems, they can still help to reduce your energy bills and improve your environmental impact by taking on some of the electricity load you use in your home or office. Here are some tips for getting the right renewable energy solutions to cover your needs, even if they are only for partial energy alternatives:
How to measure the wattage of your electrical devices
Every electrical item in your home has a wattage associated with it. For example, your light bulbs may pull 15 watts, 20 watts, or much more. Whenever that electrical device is on, the electrical device is pulling that associated number of watts from your energy source. In order to know how much energy you use, calculate the wattage for each of your connected electrical devices with the average amount of time that you use that electrical device each day.
There are some common electrical devices that you may use each day such as light fixtures, televisions, audio systems, power tools, refrigerators, washer and dryer, microwave, oven, alarm clock, and others.
Another way to find out your average daily energy use, you can also take a look at your monthly power bill and divide the total monthly energy use by the number of days in the month. Make sure that you make the calculations for summer and winter months as well, as your energy usage in summer months may be different than your energy usage in winter months, depending on your heating and cooling requirements.
How to calculate the consumption of energy
When trying to determine your total electricity consumption, be sure to multiply the wattage of your electrical devices by the number of hours those devices are used each day. If you have appliances that don’t have a wattage written on them, you can multiply the amperes by the volts to determine power consumption. However, you can usually find the wattage listed on a sticker, power cord, or other area of the device.
How to use selectable loads with renewable energy
A selectable load device is a device that pulls energy from the energy source only when you want it too, such as a hair dryer. Some energy sources pull energy all the time, such as refrigerators. However, you can control when to use a selectable load device to pull energy from the power source.
You can use selectable load devices with a renewable energy technology only when you have extra energy storages. For instance, if you want to incorporate a solar power technology system, you may be able to develop a system to store unused energy in batteries for later use. Then, when you want to use a selectable load device, you can pull energy from the battery rather than from the grid energy source. That’s ideal if you have a renewable energy source and a back-up source.
This is the first step that you need to do to select the best renewable energy system for your needs. Just remember that while some renewable energy solutions can power your entire home year-round, others will serve as partial power generators that are used in conjunction with another energy source.
That’s all for now, I cannot wait to hear all about how you manage to select the perfect renewable system for your household. Remember to keep an eye on your inbox, I’ll be back with amazing tips I got from Bob from Energycustomerservice.co.uk on how to find a renewable energy contractor to install the renewable energy solution you choose!
