These days, there are many practical ways to take advantage of solar energy in your households. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to install solar panels on your roof. Instead, try the following options which can be more affordable and efficient.
1. Outdoor lighting
Instead of using 120V underground circuit wires or low-voltage lighting, it is a good idea to create good lighting in your landscape with separate lighting fixtures which are powered by solar cells. In the past, they were rather dim and puny lighting, but these days, you could get sufficient landscape lighting thanks to enhanced batteries and LED technology. These solar panels would charge the batteries at day and keep your lights illuminating during the night.
2. Ventilation fans
Ventilation fans are a great option to lower your cooling bills during the summer. In general, these units are often wired into the electrical current of your house, which might be bad for energy-saving purposes. However, now you would purchase self-contained roofing vent fans which come with small panels of photo-electric cells to help operate the units without needing for electrical currents. They have portable designs which can be kept in a garage, chicken coop, doghouse, shed or garage. Also, there are many free-standing units which could be installed in children’s play areas or patios.
3. Swimming pool
Swimming pools are a great joy for parents and kids during the summer. All of us are excited for the first day, except when it is too cold for enjoying. To deal with this issue, consider installing a solar blanket which would heat up the water. It is basically a passive heating unit which simply works by taking in the heat from the sun and transferring it to water. If you want an advanced solution, try to set up a full-fledged solar heating system, which makes use of solar panels to collect the heat.
4. Battery charging
Nearly all pieces of device which runs on batteries could be charged with solar energy through some kinds of photo-electric panel systems. These units could produce DC currents in the same form as in most batteries. Many inexpensive and basic solar panel models come with connections which enable you to connect with cell phones, laptops, and pad devices for charging directly. In addition, you could include a simple inverter which could convert DC currents to 120V AC currents.
5. Cooking
You could also utilise solar energy to cook your daily meals. Even though it is a new method, this is actually much simpler than you thought. All that you need to prepare include a thermometer, Styrofoam insulation, a duct tape, a cooking bag, aluminium foil, pan, and a box. The idea of cooking with solar energy is to make a container which is lined with shiny substances like foils to focus the rays of the sun into a cooking chamber. You could actually find a variety of plans for this online.