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Many cities such as Boston are providing wonderful rebates on solar panels for your roof that generate power and feed that energy back into the grid. The homeowner gets free of charge power and thanks to generous rebates (now renewed for 2009 and beyond) from the U.S. government and city and state government, the expense of the system out of pocket can be as low as 00.

Our photovoltaic or solar panel system generates nearly 3 kilowatts on a sunny day and on typical gives about 15 kilowatt hours per day. This supplies practically all the power we want.

This is because we eliminated the massive power wasters such as an electric dryer, water heater and stove.

We use propane for cooking, a solar hot water heater, which is situated on the roof subsequent to the photovoltaic panels, and we use a clothes line to dry clothes most of the time.

To limit the use of our air conditioner we installed ceiling fans and a entire residence fan, as well as solar shade screens on the windows. We get rid of the solar shades in winter to let sunlight in which heats the home.

We selectively removed trees that had been blocking the panels, which assists them create much more energy and also we clean them about when a month with a soft brush and hose. See this article on how to keep your solar panels clean

http://www.ehow.com/how_4612087_solar-panels-solar-panel-efficiency.html

Given that we don’t use the air conditioner except for about two months of the year and use a wood stove for most of the winter heating needs our electricity use has dropped enough that the solar panels offer almost all of what we require.

In addition to the above measures we also eliminated the phantom loads that were drawing power when the devices were plugged in but in the off position. Utilizing a device referred to as a “Kill A Watt” we measured each and every device that was plugged in and put those ones that draw power when “off” on a power strip with a switch.

For a lot more on phantom loads see this write-up

http://savegreenly.com/how_much_do_vampire_loads_price_u.htm

Phantom loads or vampire loads may possibly be costing you as much as per month.

We also changed all the lights in our house to compact fluorescent and put those switches in places like the hall and closets on a push button or wind up timer. When we enter the hallway we push the button once and this keeps the light on for ten minutes, or we can set them for up to 1 hour.

This eliminates leaving lights on for a lengthy period of time. In addition we make positive that items like coffee makers are not left in the warming mode for hours. A coffee maker can draw up to 1500 watts when brewing and 400 watts in the warm mode.

It is possible to live off of solar power alone, if you are determined and can make some adjustments in the way you use energy.