Guest Post - Tips On Choosing A Solar Panel Installer

The recent 9% increase in tariffs by the Big 6 has sent shivers down the spines of many UK home owners. With winter around the corner, the shivers will only get worse. Switching between energy suppliers used to be a good way to ensure that you were on the best tariff, but that has all changed. The energy situation can be remedied by use of alternate energy supplies, such as wind power and Solar energy.

Solar Panels have slowly become prevalent across England. Large retail stores, farms, country estates, banks all use solar arrays to keep their business running. Homeowners can also benefit greatly from this technology. They can enjoy less energy bills and can even earn money back using the Feed-In-Tariff System.

The public interest in the use of solar energy has also led to an increase in the amount of firms that supply and install solar panels. With advances in technology and better supply chain management, solar companies can provide tailored solutions to your energy needs. On the flip side, this also allows inexperienced companies to come into the trade. There have been reports in the news about pushy salespeople targeting home owners in a bid to sell them solar panels. 8 times out of 10, they are simply middle men who then sell off your details to the highest bidder.

If you have made the smart move to install SPV (Solar PhotoVoltaic) in your home, follow these when choosing your solar panel provider :-

1. First confirm that they are a registered member of the Renewable Energy Association (REA). In the US, check with the National American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP).


2. When you contact them, the company shouldn’t give you an estimate or quote over the phone. Unscrupulous sales people try to push for the sale, even before assessing your home.


3. A home visit should be arranged for proper assessment and to see if you are eligible for fitting a PV system. Ask if you will be visited by a sales person or a surveyor. Ideally, on the visit, a surveyor and an electrical expert should be part of the visiting team.

On the appointed day, your home will be assessed for key factors including :-

• The orientation of your roof, (you generally need a south-facing roof).
• The tilt angle of the roof is also examined as this determines the kind of frame that will be created to hold the panels.
• Your fuse box and meter
• Details of your current electricity consumption patterns

With this data, a professional solar PV installer can customize a plan for your home.

After the visit, the company usually contacts you within 5 working days, with a plan for installing a solar panel system. When they get back to you, they should give you a quote with a detailed breakdown of what they will be doing for you. This should include :-

• Panel information
• Warranty details of the parts to be used
• Details of the solar inverter
• Breakdown of Cost and savings
• Maintenance requirements and details

Professional PV companies will ensure that you get adequate returns on your investment. Be wary of firms that try to get a commitment out of you without carrying out these steps.

Choosing to use solar energy isn’t an immediate return on investment, but a steady and guaranteed one. A decade from now, you will be glad you did.

Guest Post - How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Around Your Home

Turning off lights, recycling waste, ensuring you have proper insulation are all well-known ways of reducing your carbon footprint around your home. But what if you have already done all this and want to take Eco-proofing your home one step further?

When it comes to energy efficient homes it is architects who are leading the way. An increasing number of architects are designing buildings and homes that have Eco-friendly designs integrated into their plans, so much so that it is now at the forefront of cutting edge modern building designs.

The good thing is that many of these ideas can be recreated by homeowners looking for ways to make their homes more energy efficient. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Natural light
Many architects are now designing buildings that let in as much natural light as possible. From floor to ceiling windows to complete glass structured buildings. The environmental benefits of living in a home with more natural light is that it reduces the amount of electric lights you need to use. This is particularly beneficial if you live in regions that don’t get a lot of bright sunshine and which have long dark winters.

You can replicate this at home by installing skylights, especially into rooms that are often dimly lit. If you don’t want the expense of adding skylights just by making sure nothing obstructs your windows and adding reflective surfaces into your interior will help to make better use of natural light.

Sustainable furniture
In the same way that many architects are creating more Eco-friendly designs, an increasing number of interior designers are also looking for ways of making home interiors more environmentally sustainable. This has led to a boom in furniture and home accessories made from sustainable materials.

Look around and you will be bound to find furniture that is made using sustainable materials and, as a bonus, they are often manufactured using ethical methods. Just remember to drop your old furniture off at a charity shop or a local freecycle programme.

Solar panels
Solar panels are becoming a common feature on new buildings, but they are also available for installation on many old buildings as well. Solar panels can not only produce electricity for your home but will heat up all your water too. They are a particularly good investment, both environmentally and financially, if you live in a predominately sunny area, however they are known to be beneficial to those that live in colder regions as well.

For those who don’t have the money to install solar panels there are now a number of solar powered home appliances available that will help to cut down on the amount of electricity and batteries you use at home.

Outside areas
Many people spend so much time thinking about how to make their home more Eco-friendly they forget about their outdoor areas. By making good use of your outside space can go a long way to reducing your carbon footprint. For example just by growing your own organic fruit and veg will mean that you don’t have to rely on buying food that has a high carbon footprint.

Even simple steps like purchasing a water butt for your garden, which will allow you to make use of rainwater instead of depending on using water from the mains when watering your garden, can help make your home more sustainable.

Written by Derin Clark, a writer, editor and blogger

Posted at Small Footprint Fridays

Guest Post - The Solar Timeline

Solar Energy has been touted as the clean sustainable answer to many of our energy problems. As recently as February this year Ofgem announced that between 2015 - 2018 we will be dangerously close to a crisis that will push up energy prices further, a worrying proposition.

This may not come as a surprise to you, but you may be surprised to know that Solar energy has long been heralded the answer to our energy issues, as far back as 1905 when Einsteins paper, that later won the noble prize engaged the Photoelectric effect we celebrated using the Sun to power our world! So it struck us that sometimes that new technology that you hear about, maybe took longer than you thought. This timeline takes you through some of the landmark solar events on our journey to harness the power of the sun. We hope you enjoy it!

Click twice for a larger version

Original article: http://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/the-history-of-solar-energy-infographic

Link - Created by Alex Vasili of http://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/

Alex writes about all issues on the green agenda, he has a specific interest in the growth of Solar technology and currently manages the leading solar panel comparison site and one of the most active green agenda blogs in UK. You can tweet him @TheEcoExperts

"Gators Go for World Championship With Record Prices for Solar Power" by Tom Rooney

In January we met Mr. Tom Rooney, CEO of SPG Solar. At the time, he was taking issue with some comments made by Bill O'Reilly and, in the process, shared his take on solar panels (you can read that article HERE).

Mr. Rooney recently returned from a trip to China and shares his thoughts about their solar energy efforts ... and the efforts of one, progressive city in the U.S.


Gators Go for World Championship With Record Prices for Solar Power

Something’s gotten into those Gators.

First, they won back to back championships in college basketball. Then they added a national football title to the mix, along with a Heisman trophy.

Now the city surrounding the University of Florida is doing something of even greater national import. Something that just might be remembered in 100 years as the place where America began its march to world energy leadership:

The Gainseville city leaders became the first in the country to set a competitive price for people who create renewable energy with their solar panels or wind farms or whatever, and who sell it back to the local utility.

They call it a feed-in tariff, if you must know the technical term. But it is simply the price you receive for generating your own power then selling it back to the utility.

Many solar leaders regard it as the key to the next step in the growth of solar in America -- both the use and manufacture.

Which is also the key to creating energy independence and reducing carbon.

Which of course we are not doing enough of.

On a recent trip to China, I visited several large factories where they make solar panels.

I wish everyone who wishes America to be an energy super power could have seen what I saw. These factories are world-class models of efficiency and skill. Their managers, many of whom are trained in the United States are very good and getting better.

Many of the panels they make are going to places where local utilities pay premium prices for solar power generated on rooftops; there is no doubt that wherever solar owners receive higher prices, more solar power exists.

In Germany and Spain and France and Italy, the feed-in tariff is as high as 72 cents per kilowatt hour. In Germany it is the highest, that is why they have more solar than anyone anywhere.

And most of this they did ten years ago.

In Gainseville, they recently set their price at 32 cents per kilowatt hour. Interest in solar in this college town is exploding far beyond what an economist might expect from the financial incentives alone.

Which tells us that people have important economic and non-economic reasons for using renewable energy.

If only they get the chance.

A competitive feed in tariff is just the beginning. The bigger the local market for solar, the greater the chance for local manufacturers to compete.

And that is what is missing in America so far. Missing from the plans of those who hope for tens of thousands of green jobs; Missing from the folks who crave energy independence. Missing from those who say solar is the cure for carbon.

But not missing in Gainseville -- where their 32 cent per kilowatt hour is a message to the rest of the country that this is what people do who are serious about energy independence and carbon reduction.

Compare that with California, the most solar friendly place in America, where solar power owners are lucky to get 1/3 of that.

There’s always a reason why we are not going whole hog on solar. The grid is not ready. The price is too high. We have more and better energy in -- fill in the blank -- that all we have to do to get it is -- fill in the blank.

But the blanks are always years and years and trillions of dollars away. Meanwhile, Asian suppliers and European competitors are racing ahead.

Today our national leaders correctly say that America can and should be a world power in renewable energy. But business leaders in Asia feel America will not get there.

If we are going to compete -- let alone win - for this world energy championship, we are going to have to act like winners. And we can begin by acting the way they do in the hometown of the national championship Gators.

I'd like to thank Mr. Rooney for that interesting and informative article.

As always, I would love to hear from you!