Save $100's On Your Power Bills With Renewable Energy

Every time the price of power goes up (which seems to be every month at the moment), ever more people are thinking about using renewable energy for at least part of their regular supply.

The kind of renewable energy you ot for will very much depend on where you are in the world. If you live in a fairly sunny part of the world, you'll likely decide to use solar energy.Image by Rob__ via Flickr

If you're in a colder part of the world, chances are that your thoughts will turn to using the power of the wind instead.

Each of these has advantages and disadvantages.

Pretty obviously, solar power only works in daylight, even if it doesn't need full sunlight nowadays. If you live in a hot climate, the sun will be shining at the time you most need your power for air conditioning and other such items. If you're further north then the benefits of solar power may be less, although we still use power in the summer months, when output will be higher, or solar power could contribute to running your computer in the day, your fridge and even some evening lighting for your garden or patio.

Likewise, wind turbines need at least a breeze in order to operate but they'll also have an upper limit of windspeed, beyond which they won't operate - if the wind falls below a certain speed, they won't operate, if it blows too fast the turbine may struggle to keep up. You also need to remember that even in the most windy place, there are times of dead calm, so you'll need a battery or regular power connection for such times. This problem also means that unless you have your own storage, you shouldn't totally go off grid power if you rely on wind.

Once you've decided on the type of renewable energy you want, the next decision is whether to buy an off-the-shelf product or go for DIY renewable energy. You can get a set of comprehensive renewable energy instructions to help take you down this path if you like, with the added advantage that you'll be saving hundreds of dollars if you go down the DIY renewable energy path.