There are many ways to use solar power in your home and to reduce your carbon footprint, and your energy bill at the same time. This blog is going to cover 5 of the best ways to use solar energy in your home.

Power your electricity in your home

You can use solar energy in your home by creating your own electricity. You should know that there is an upfront cost that will put some people off, but the long-term results and savings are worth it. You can also obtain tax rebates in many cites and countries.

Use a solar oven

There are now specially designed ovens that use the suns rays to heat food. These ovens were originally designed for camping but they can be used for indoor use now. Solar ovens are actually relatively cheap to buy and easy to use. You no longer need to waste large amounts of electricity or other natural resources to heat up or cook your food.

Use passive heat storage tubes

You can find modern greenhouse fiberglass tubes that you fill with water, so they can catch the light of the sun and store it as energy. They will then heat the room with the energy. This will help to reduce your winter heating costs while keeping your home very warm. They can be used as room accents or room dividers.

Use solar powered garden lights

There is now a wide range of garden and driveway lights on the market, which use solar power. You need to position these lights in sun lit areas during the day, and they then capture and store energy from the sun. They have a sensor and then come on when it gets dark. These are very cheap and easy to install. They can also power the lights for a number of hours, although not as brightly as electrical powered lights.

If you are looking to become greener and want to decrease your energy costs then start to implement some of the ideas above. Some of them are very cheap to implement and you can make savings right away.

Dry your clothes outside

You can use the power of the sun in order to dry your clothes, by hanging them outside. This will drastically reduce your carbon footprint and lets your clothes dry naturally. This is something that anyone can do, instead of using an electric dryer.

 

Pat Lindle finds new ways to use green energy in his metal deck company in Phoenix, AZ.  When not using alternative energy in his steel deck fabrication facility, he constantly finds new uses at his home in Scottsdale, AZ.

Want to Start Making Solar Power at Home? Check out these instructions for building your own solar power. Includes videos, ebook, diagrams, and all the plans you need to get off the power grid and start saving some green while going green.

Practically everyone who can read knows the phrase, “Go Green.” Most of those are familiar with “green cleaning tips.” You can go a step or two beyond the ‘tried and true’ method of using white vinegar and water as a cleaning solution and still “stay green” as you clean. Vinegar and water works—make no mistake. But don’t you get tired of the sharp aroma? Use a few of these green cleaning tips to avoid harsh chemicals, make your house smell lovely and fresh, and clean safely.

Grease:

For grease, there is little more effective in natural solutions than citrus juice. You don’t have to spend a fortune on fresh fruit to squeeze if you like the scent of lemon: Lemon juice concentrate is inexpensive and works extremely well. Lime and orange juice works as well. Just evenly spread the juice over the greasy area or on dishes, add hot water and give it a few minutes for the juice to cut through the grease. For really tough spots or pans, increase the amount of citrus juice, add just a drop or two of a gentle dish soap and let it soak. Before long, you can practically wish that grease away, and it’s gone.

Please note: Oranges contain a higher natural sugar content, and you shouldn’t use a sugar solution on your stove or in your oven. Please use lemon or lime juice instead—it’s much safer around heat sources.

Counters, Tables, Tile and Linoleum:

Even with the fear of spreading illness, you actually don’t need all that anti-bacterial soap or harsh cleansers to get your floors, counters, cabinets, tables, tile or ceramic clean. If you change from outdoor shoes to indoor shoes as soon as you come in the door, you avoid spreading many germs throughout your house. Wash your hands well with warm water and soap before you handle food or dishes, and you cut down the odds even more. If you spill food or drink, you still don’t need chemicals to clear your tabletop or counters of bacteria. Use hot tea instead.

Soak a half dozen or so black tea bags in a gallon of really hot water, taking care not to burn yourself, of course. Let it sit overnight then remove the tea bags. As you need it, apply the cooled black tea solution to the surface in question then wipe with a clean cloth. If desired, you can rinse it with warm water to lend peace of mind against staining. Use black tea only, however.

If you still worry about germs, you can always sanitize your home’s surfaces monthly with the vinegar and water solution, but regular cleaning with this natural cleanser gives you a clean, green alternative to those harsh commercial concoctions.

If you have indoor plants, the used tea might be good fertilizer, too!

Wood:

Who doesn’t like the look and feel of a great wood floor or table? Would you rather not risk cleaning those boards with chemicals? Clean your hardwood floors with a quarter-cup of olive oil to a gallon of warm water and mop. The olive oil both cleanses the wood and keeps it well protected. Olive oil contains a cornucopia of natural anti-bacterial properties to keep you healthy, too.

If you have boards that squeak, try rubbing some baking powder between the boards. Clean up any excess with a damp cloth but don’t press too hard. Pick up the loose powder only with a bit of gentle rubbing.

This Post was written by Sara Woods @ Coupon Croc. Visit us and save on eco-friendly, energy saving household appliances and electronics when you shop at Currys.

Want to Start Making Solar Power at Home? Check out these instructions for building your own solar power. Includes videos, ebook, diagrams, and all the plans you need to get off the power grid and start saving some green while going green.

If you’ve resolved to reduce your carbon footprint, there are a few things you should know about your “eco-friendly” actions before you take a hardcore pledge to go green. Environmentalism comes with a cost to… the environment. Being kind to Mother Nature in one way may cause problems somewhere else, so choose your green activities carefully.

Biofuels Don’t Always Help

You want to reduce your dependence on gasoline and help the environment at the same time. What could be better than moving toward the use of biofuels? Well… biofuels create their own environmental concerns, not the least of which is that they put food producers in competition with energy producers. Current legislation in the US requires a certain portion of the corn crop to be used for biofuels.

Unfortunately, the corn crop happens to be a huge source of food for everything from humans to animals. Unless the amount of land devoted to the production of corn increases significantly, the logical outcome of competition is an increase in the cost of corn used for food… and fuel. As a result of feed shortages, fewer farmers are producing pork, chicken, beef and other corn-fed animals, which pushes the price of food in the supermarket ever higher.

If the amount of land devoted to corn production increases, expect to see biomass fuels creating a larger carbon footprint than fossil fuels do. How’s that? Farmers need to clear more land and devote less desirable land to corn production. This will require clearing and an increased use of farm equipment that uses… fossil fuels. In addition, the waterways will likely receive a much larger dose of farm fertilizer run-off, which will create algae blooms and subsequent fish kills within the system of freshwater lakes and rivers.

Recycling Is More Wasteful Than You Might Think

It sounds good. Reduce, reuse, recycle, right? The truth of the matter is that only a small fraction of the consumer waste stream is (or can be) recycled. Newspapers come to mind immediately as a recyclable product. While it’s true that paper is one of the most recyclable products around, legislation introduced in the US often requires newspaper producers to use recycled paper. Recycled paper is actually more expensive than new paper, and puts newspapers at a competitive disadvantage. Ultimately raises the price of the newspaper and reduces sales.

Mandatory recycling goals haven’t worked out so well, either. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had established a recycling goal of 25% of all trash. Many states went much farther and set goals that fell between 40% and a whopping 70%. This led to the construction boom for incinerators. Aside from their phenomenal costs, the incinerators haven’t been kind to the environment to say the least. Further, municipal recycling plans – the weekly curbside pickups- have produced millions of tons of nominally recyclable garbage across the nation for which there is no market and there are few productive applications.
The same legislation that requires newspapers to purchase and use recycled newsprint also requires green purchasing programs in the public sector that use recycled materials. In other words, the government has legislated a market for materials that consumers don’t want, in part because they’re more expensive and less reliable than new materials.

Environmental Protection Policies Sometimes Exacerbate Damage

Not all environmental protection policies turn out to be helpful. In fact, the rise in the size and severity of some wildfires has been directly attributed to the land management policies designed to protect the environments of certain threatened species. One of the key ingredients to a wildfire is fuel. The inability to clear brush due to environmental concerns has created a significant amount of ready-to-burn fuel in certain areas of the country. In some cases, land designated for conservation is at a much higher risk for fire damage than land designated for development.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to protect the earth and limit your impact on your environment. Reducing gasoline consumption and dependence may make a lot of sense. In some circumstances, recycling is the best, most viable option. If you decide that green is the way to go, just make sure you’re really reducing your impact on the environment, and not just shifting it somewhere out of your line of sight.

Mark Lowell is a huge green activist, even though he did graduate from one of those big beauty schools in New York. He’s being living green for over 10 years and has found some bad things about living green that he wants to make everyone aware of. 

Want to Start Making Solar Power at Home? Check out these instructions for building your own solar power. Includes videos, ebook, diagrams, and all the plans you need to get off the power grid and start saving some green while going green.