You have probably noticed that your monthly power bill is going up a little with every passing year. So, it should not come as a shock to you that you are not the only residential property owner looking for tricks to cut down on your power consumption, either by reducing use or increasing efficiency. Green sources of energy, once only beholden by environmentalists, is not becoming quite the trend for sake of saving money.
Solar panels are often the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about green energy. Politicians love talking about these, and are always pushing money into research and development. However, they are also pushing money into grants and tax breaks, which means you can possibly get government money to install them on your roof and then save on your taxes for having them. And on top of all that, they generate power for you on sunny days.
If you remember using a fireplace when you were younger but maybe were pressured into stopping burning wood because someone thought it was bad for the environment, reconsider. Forestry management practices are not what they used to be, and you can find wood for both heating and efficient cooking that comes from deliberately renewed acreage. You can now cook and heat your home knowing you are not depriving the world of another tree.
Stop using your dryer. The power you put into drying your clothes is just electricity used to get the water out of them. You can accomplish the same thing by just hanging your clothes outside.
If your home has started using cold water to save on your power bill, think about letting the sun give you hot water again. In as much as it can dry your clothes, you can also harness it for solar water heating without going for full solar panel roofing on your home. This hot water cannot be used just for showering and bathing, but also cleaning and your dishwasher and laundry washer.
Rain reclamation is a fringe but growing area of harnessing a renewable resource. Your entire yard and home are hit when it rains, but how much of it just runs off? With the right reclamation system put in, you can keep a lot of it. Rain water is not clean enough for human use, but your lawn and garden can certainly benefit from it. This is a very rewarding option for those in arid climates with serious water restrictions in place. Some locations even have legal technologies that can purify this water enough for laundering purposes.
Like everyone, you know that you should green up your home just to be nicer to the planet. However, the allure of saving some money off your power bill is an honest motivation to actually taking the action required to do it. Now that a slew of technologies are on the market that you can use at home, now is a better time than ever before to start investigating these possibilities.
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