ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Use Green Electricity in Your Home

Updated on September 29, 2012
Source

Think about this: How do you use green electricity in your home? Let this question guide you as you read.

Most sustainable efforts are led by large entities: governments, corporations, social organizations—and this is good and necessary. These groups have the money, means, and power to make decisions for the rest of us that possess none of those resources or a clue about how to start. But this doesn’t preclude our responsibility to make sustainability a priority in our lives.

Green living—when looking from the opposite direction—is also a grassroots movement. For a long time people have been giving voice to the displaced concerns about our ecological welfare; and, unfortunately, inattention has now brought us to the place where we must listen. But hope remains in the little each of us can do to meet the big-spenders somewhere in the middle.

You see, changing an incandescent to a CFL or recycling your plastic bags is what a first step looks like. In fact, these small-scale actions are ways we speed the world’s transition to environmental resourcefulness. Moreover, such action, ever compounding, gets noticed by the big organizations—the intransigent ones as well—and pressures them to change.

Test Your Electricity IQ!

view quiz statistics

What is Green Electricity?

The next step in household sustainability is capable of letting us live "off the grid" entirely. You may have heard of some methods, like rainwater collection and geothermal heating, among many others. Green electricity is also a common and growing custom among serious clean energy adherents, or those simply trying to save on utility bills.

Green electricity is no savvy new quality of energy: electricity is all the same and is a very clean form of energy. But green electricity is so differentiated for how it is derived.

Most electricity is generated in ways that create pollution and use non-renewable sources; such is the case with coal and gas-fired power plants and nuclear power plants. Green electricity, however, uses renewable sources of energy (water, wind, the sun) to move turbines that create electricity and produces no pollution in the process.

Source

Using a Home Wind Turbine

Green electricity is produced several ways: by means of water (hydroelectric or tidal), heat (geothermal), plants (biofuels and biomaterials), the sun (solar), and wind. Although any of these can be used to benefit the individual home, most are suited for large scale energy providers. Only two are better suited for the household: wind and solar power.

Wind turbines are a simple mechanism: wind energy turns blades that drive a turbine, which creates electricity. And the energy is commensurate—the stronger the winds, the more energy that is generated. Most of the people that install wind turbines do so to reduce the amount of energy used from traditional sources. It is important to understand that it takes a large turbine or several small ones to generate any significant portion of energy from wind power.

Utility Wind Turbine Facts

  • Utility-scale turbines, the biggest kind, cost about $2 million per megawatt to install. Most average two megawatts but are able to supply energy to 500-600 homes.
  • Current utility turbines stand at 363 feet. The blades are each 100 feet in length.
  • Today's turbines have a lifespan of 20-30 years.
  • These giant structures are quiet: about the equivalent of your home refrigerator.

Domestic Turbines and Energy Savings

Domestic-sized turbines are either pole-mounted or building-mounted. Pole-mounted turbines stand high—between 80 and 120 feet—where strong winds are not hindered by ground structures and trees. These can produce up to 500 kilowatt hours each month—still only about half the energy a typical home uses monthly. And they are expensive: around $20,000 or more to install.

The more commonly installed roof-top mounted turbine is affordable (from $500) and capable of reducing utilities by 10 percent. Yet their cost effectiveness must be considered with regard to location. For instance, wind turbines are not recommended for dense urban areas because of large buildings and the tendency for erratic wind patterns.

Definition: Net Metering

The option to purchase excess energy derived from green electricity sold back to the grid, or the power company.

Do Wind Turbines Save Money?

The purchase of a wind turbine should be properly understood: it is an investment. It is an obvious investment in green living but also a financial one with several benefits. First, wind turbines can last more than 20 years and need little maintenance. They also add value to the resale of a house.

Further, tax breaks and energy mortgages are available for clean energy technology.

Still it gets better. Many energy companies offer an option called net metering. This means that any unused electricity derived from the wind turbine can be sold back to the grid, or the utility company. Think about it: You already pay a smaller utility bill because you use a wind turbine; but now the utility company pays you—and your utility bill—for your excess energy!

Utility companies then offer that green electricity to other green-conscious customers albeit at slightly higher prices (called green pricing). So your green energy is now helping the neighbors!

There are many factors in determining whether a wind turbine is for your home. But if the question is whether they save money or not…well that cannot be denied.

Source

Using Solar Energy in the Home

Solar energy is used in the home more than any other renewable form. It is most commonly used to heat swimming pools and is also used to heat water and for electricity.

Solar electricity is a growing industry. Solar power plants in parts of Western United States are steadily increasing in number. Solar cell, or photovoltaic (PV), technology lies at back of this energy source. These cells change sunlight directly into electricity. Solar cells were first developed in the 1950s for use on satellites. There are various materials and types of cells, but only a few are commonly used.

How Solar Cells Work

The way solar cells work is basic physics. The cells have two layers—positive and negative—consisting of semiconductor material (usually a type of silicone). When sunlight strikes a cell or panel of cells, electrons are knocked loose; the electric field within the cell then pulls the electrons in a directional current; metal contacts in the cell turns the flowing electrons into electricity.

Definition: Green Pricing

The cost for excess green electricity that has been sold back to the grid. Prices are slightly higher than charges for energy produced by normal methods.

Source

Solar Power Use in America

There are more than 10,000 homes in the U.S. that are completely powered by solar energy; and more than 200,000 homes use some type of PV technology. In fact, solar products such as roof shingles and glass facades are now emerging in the green building market. These products not only look good but also, amazingly, generate electricity.

PV systems save money and it is possible to live off the grid with solar panels. But there are more factors to contend with to maximize a PV system than there are with a wind turbine—shade, obstructions, decreased cell output, cloud cover, and angles. Many people use dynamic mounts that allow panels to track the sun for maximum exposure.

One more thing: solar energy is expensive—very expensive.

A basic PV system costs between $15,000 and $20,000. These prices are steadily decreasing, but the flourishment of solar homes may never occur, especially when buying electricity off the grid is relatively cheap. People who live in extremely sunny areas or who have minimized their utilities to the point that a PV system would actually pay them for using it—these are the ones who will benefit the most.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)