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How to Lower Your Energy Bills by 50%

A guide to help save money on electricity costs with energy saving products

First of all - this is just advice! We do NOT trying to sell you anything. Please don’t take this post so…

Regular Solar Panels and Windmill still great for home, but a bit expansive! In fact - with the right “how to” renewable energy kit you can build your own homemade solar panel and wind power generator for less than $50 ?! (in your own backyard)…

Just tips.
Each energy saving product - different levels of energy savings. The products that you could use based on your living situation, to help lower your energy costs. Choose from the products and categories below, and a more detailed description of a list of products or single item will appear on your screen.

KILL A WATT ELECTRICITY MONITOR - ENERGY WATT METER
Watt Meter Electricity Monitor The only way to be sure of the power draw of your appliances and electronic devices and peripherals is to test them at the outlet. Once you find out how much energy is being used when your devices are on, or idle, you will understand how much energy and money you will be saving on your electric bill by replacing, unplugging or using a smart power strip to cut off any power to that appliance. One could learn that a computer is actually drawing 30-70 watts when idle or on standby per hour. Then the energy abusing products can be changed or booted from the home, resulting in less wasted energy and a lower utility bill.

ENERGY EFFICIENT COMPACT FLUORESCENT & FULL SPECTRUM LIGHT BULBS
CFL Light Bulbs For every one standard incandescent light bulb you replace with an energy star qualified compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), it would save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime (source: energystar.gov). And, they use 75% less energy than regular bulbs, reducing energy consumption and lowering your bills. For only 13 Watts of energy usage, a bulb can product the light equivalent of a 60 Watt incandescent bulb. And they have a long life span of up to 10,000 hours, which saves money on replacement bulbs and save the earth from excessive replacement bulbs in the landfills.

ENERGY SAVING POWER STRIPS
Smart power strips Save time, energy and money without doing anything extra, except buying a smart power strip. Each time you shut off your tv, but forget to turn off your dvd player, vcr, and speakers, there is energy and money being wasted. In addition to the usual lightning strike protection, and equipment meltdown warranty from a standard power strip, you will no longer need to remember to turn off your peripherals. New “smart strip” techonology works this way: when you plug your television or computer into the “Control” outlet and when this appliance is turned off, the peripheral appliances, like your monitor or DVD player, automatically turn off as well. Smart Strips also allow you to have appliances “always on” - for things like your cordless phone or fax machine. Great for computers with accessories, home theater systems and businesses. Choose from 7 or 10 outlet settings.

EVAPORATIVE COOLERS OR SWAMP COOLERS
Evaporative Coolers Enjoy a cooler space in summer, and save up to 80% on the energy bill compared to traditional air conditioner units. For rooms between 150 sq. ft. - 750 sq. ft., simply choose to cool the space using an evaporative cooler, or swamp cooler, which uses one third the energy of a standard ac unit. Best suited for dry, hot climates, evaporative coolers do not use refrigerants, such as chlorofluorcarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons, which are known for damaging the ozone layer. Other benefits are a filter eliminates dust and pollen, and enjoy low maintenance and electricity costs.

ATTIC INSULATION COVERS
Energy Guardian Attic Insulation Covers The potential energy savings from reducing drafts in a home may range from 5% to 30% per year (source: US Dept. of Energy), and the home is generally much more comfortable afterward. Experts recommend checking your attic hatch for air leaks, which is a cause of heat loss in a home. If the attic hatch is not insulated, you can eliminate a major source of energy loss by installing an attic insulation cover or attic tent. Once installed, the attic insulation kit produces a 3-5 degree difference in overall temperature. It reduces the loss of energy during the warm summer months, or colder winter months. Attic covers consist of a frame and lid. The frame serves as a barrier or dam to keep insulation from entering into your living area. With a two-piece unit, you only pick up the lid when you enter and exit the attic (weight is only 10 lbs). When you leave the attic, simply reverse the process and set the lid into the form fitted frame.

DRYER VENT CLOSURES
Dryer Vent Closures For a small, simple way to bring about big changes in your energy bill, consider dryer vent closures. Conventional dryer vents often act as an “escape hatch”, allowing outside air to enter your home through the exposed opening. This means higher heating bills in winter and higher cooling bills in the summer. The unique shuttle cup design maintains a tight seal from outside air, insects and birds when the dryer is not in use. These can also be used for range hoods and bathroom ventus, adaptable to any fan vent that has a duct smaller than 6″.

SOLAR BATTERY CHARGERS
Wind-Up Flashlights and Gadgets Let the sun power up your portable devices or batteries, and leave behind the batteries and higher electricity bills. You can use solar power battery chargers for a wide variety of needs. Use the solar buddy or Weza portable solar chargers for supplying the necessary emergency backup power to your car, boat or motorcycle battery. Or, use the solio solar chargers for multiple gadgets, including mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets, smartphones/PDAs, ipods and other MP3 players, portable gaming devices, digital cameras, GPS and more. The money and energy savings of using the free power of the sun benefits the planet and the wallet.

SOLAR OUTDOOR LIGHTING
Solar Outdoor Lighting When considering outdoor lighting and landscape lighting needs for the driveway, garden and walkways - it is possible to say “so long” to electrical wiring and energy usage. Solar powered outdoor lighting using LED bulbs is the energy saving alternative to large landscape lighting kits with cables, 150 watt transformers, and inefficient bulbs that take extra time to set up and use.

Installing a homemade energy system is proven to lower your power bill
and help the environment.
One of the major problems families today face is continuing price hikes for utilities, such as energy. In today’s world electricity is absolutely essential. It powers our homes, schools and offices; it is impossible to imagine our lives without it. The problem is that this essential part of our lives is getting really expensive because of higher demand and the higher price levels of oil. That is why it is important for us to find ways to save money on electric bills. And to cut our electricity bills, we must find unconventional ways of acquiring energy, like installing solar power systems or wind power systems.

Residential power sources offer great options to the regular energy supply. They use solar or wind energy which costs nothing, is recyclable and produces no carbon emissions. These three major factors are the reasons why more and more people fit wind or energy power units in their homes. Research tells us, if 25% of households in the United States choose to power their homes using residential power devices, thousands of electric power plants in the country alone could be replaced. This could mean great reductions in carbon emissions which in turn means less green house gases and a more healthy environment.
Regular Solar Panels and Windmill still great for home, but a bit expansive! In fact - with the right “how to” renewable energy kit you can build your own homemade solar panel and wind power generator for less than $50 ?! (in your own backyard)…

Apart from solar units here is the option of residential wind turbines that are great if you want to save money on electric bills, and be beneficial for our environment and health. Wind power devices take advantage of this great sustainable energy source, the wind, which will produce energy without emitting any harmful carbon that destroys the ozone. It is a one time investment that could last a lifetime. Windmills work by using the power of the wind to rotate a turbine creating mechanical energy. This mechanical energy is then passed to wind generators that convert it to electrical energy usable for homes. Energy that is not used immediately can be stored in a battery to be used when there is no wind.

Two major benefits come from installing residential wind or solar power. One, you can save a lot of money by using residential power, and two - maybe even more importantly - you can help save the environment. Fitting residential wind or solar units is an investment for the future that will cut your costs for a long time; money, which cn be used for better things for your household and family. There may be another money saving opportunity as well, since some governments offer tax benefits to anyone who installs environment friendly energy sources. Some energy companies also offer the opportunity to sell unused energy if you produce more than what you need. There are also the environmental benefits of using wind or solar energy since you decrease the demand of regular energy from the grid, produced by plants that use fossil fuels to produce electricity.

So, not only will you save money, you can also save the environment from the ill effects of carbon emissions.

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In case you missed President Obama’s address to the nation last night—as the White House blog points out it’s not a State of the Union address—the President (again) laid out his vision of how investment in clean energy will be the catalyst in reviving the nation’s economy. Nothing strikingly new, in terms of ideas presented (and what would you expect given his length of time in office so far), but it’s still good to hear that energy policy is in the front of Obama’s mind:

After going through a recap of how we got into this financial mess in which he fairly evenly spread blame around, and thanking Congress for passage of the economic stimulus package, the President launched into what sort of investments we will have to make to move forward,

Regular Solar Panels and Windmill still great for home, but a bit expansive! In fact - with the right “how to” renewable energy kit you can build your own homemade solar panel and wind power generator for less than $50 ?! (in your own backyard)…

Economic Recovery Begins With Energy

We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril, and claimed opportunity from ordeal. Now we must be that nation again. That is why, even as it cuts back on the programs we don’t need, the budget I submit will invest in the three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future: energy, health care, and education.It begins with energy.

We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century. And yet, it is China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy efficient. We invented solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it. New plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea.

Well I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders – and I know you don’t either. It is time for America to lead again.

Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years. We have also made the largest investment in basic research funding in American history – an investment that will spur not only new discoveries in energy, but breakthroughs in medicine, science, and technology.

We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country. And we will put Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions of dollars on our energy bills.

Congress, Send Me Cap-and-Trade Legislation

But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. And to support that innovation, we will invest fifteen billion dollars a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.

We Can’t Walk Away From the Automobile

As for our auto industry, everyone recognizes that years of bad decision-making and a global recession have pushed our automakers to the brink. We should not, and will not, protect them from their own bad practices. But we are committed to the goal of a re-tooled, re-imagined auto industry that can compete and win. Millions of jobs depend on it. Scores of communities depend on it. And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.

Frankly this is the only part of this excerpt that bugs me. While recognizing that the automobile will be with us in one form or another for a while, to say that we cannot walk away from it fails to acknowledge that perhaps we should create and adequate public transportation system and build our towns in ways that encourage people to walk away from their cars. And while Obama couldn’t tell the Detroit automakers to f-off in this speech (nor less auto workers…), he at least could’ve mentioned alternatives to the auto as part of the solution.

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Breaking the $1/watt Barrier
The $1 per watt price point has been a goal of the solar industry for a long time: First Solar announced that “it reduced its manufacturing cost for solar modules in the fourth quarter to 98 cents per watt”. It’s a bit unfortunate that it is happening to First Solar at a time when the economy is in bad shape and fewer people and corporations can afford solar panels, but it is nonetheless a great achievement.

A bit of history:

First Solar began full commercial operation of its initial manufacturing line in late 2004. From 2004 through today, manufacturing capacity has grown 2,500 percent to more than 500 megawatts in 2008. First Solar’s annual production capacity will double in 2009 to more than 1 gigawatt, the equivalent of an average-sized nuclear power plant. These escalating volumes have been accompanied by a rapid reduction in manufacturing costs. From 2004 through today, First Solar’s manufacturing costs have declined two-thirds from over $3 per watt to less than $1 per watt. First Solar is confident that further significant cost reductions are possible based on the yet untapped potential of its technology and manufacturing process.

Regular Solar Panels and Windmill still great for home, but a bit expansive! In fact - with the right “how to” renewable energy kit you can build your own homemade solar panel and wind power generator for less than $50 ?! (in your own backyard)…
So capacity is doubling this year, while manufacturing costs are now 300% lower than they were 5 years ago. That’s what I call progress!

Unfortunately, the manufacturing costs are only part of the final cost of solar panels: Installation is costly too. To achieve parity with other power sources, First Solar would have to bring down manufacturing costs to about 65-70 cents per watt. That might not always be the case, though. A tax on carbon (preferably revenue neutral), internalizing the costs of pollution, might make other power sources more expensive, making solar relatively more competitive.

One of the major problems families today face is continuing price hikes for utilities, such as energy. In today’s world electricity is absolutely essential. It powers our homes, schools and offices; it is impossible to imagine our lives without it. The problem is that this essential part of our lives is getting really expensive because of higher demand and the higher price levels of oil. That is why it is important for us to find ways to save money on electric bills. And to cut our electricity bills, we must find unconventional ways of acquiring energy, like installing solar power systems or wind power systems.

Residential power sources offer great options to the regular energy supply. They use solar or wind energy which costs nothing, is recyclable and produces no carbon emissions. These three major factors are the reasons why more and more people fit wind or energy power units in their homes. Research tells us, if 25% of households in the United States choose to power their homes using residential power devices, thousands of electric power plants in the country alone could be replaced. This could mean great reductions in carbon emissions which in turn means less green house gases and a more healthy environment.

Regular Solar Panels and Windmill still great for home, but a bit expansive! In fact - with the right “how to” renewable energy kit you can build your own homemade solar panel and wind power generator for less than $50 ?! (in your own backyard)…

Apart from solar units here is the option of residential wind turbines that are great if you want to save money on electric bills, and be beneficial for our environment and health. Wind power devices take advantage of this great sustainable energy source, the wind, which will produce energy without emitting any harmful carbon that destroys the ozone. It is a one time investment that could last a lifetime. Windmills work by using the power of the wind to rotate a turbine creating mechanical energy. This mechanical energy is then passed to wind generators that convert it to electrical energy usable for homes. Energy that is not used immediately can be stored in a battery to be used when there is no wind.

Two major benefits come from installing residential wind or solar power. One, you can save a lot of money by using residential power, and two - maybe even more importantly - you can help save the environment. Fitting residential wind or solar units is an investment for the future that will cut your costs for a long time; money, which cn be used for better things for your household and family. There may be another money saving opportunity as well, since some governments offer tax benefits to anyone who installs environment friendly energy sources. Some energy companies also offer the opportunity to sell unused energy if you produce more than what you need. There are also the environmental benefits of using wind or solar energy since you decrease the demand of regular energy from the grid, produced by plants that use fossil fuels to produce electricity.

So, not only will you save money, you can also save the environment from the ill effects of carbon emissions.