Uses Of Renewable Energy In The Home

Sunlight or solar energy can be used for heating lighting and cooling homes and other buildings generating electricity water heating and a variety of industrial processes.

Uses of renewable energy in the home.

Primary energy sources include fossil fuels petroleum natural gas and coal nuclear energy and renewable sources of energy. Moreover the costs of renewable energy technologies have declined steadily and are projected to drop even more. They include watching television washing clothes heating and lighting the home taking a shower working from home on your laptop or computer running appliances and cooking. The united states uses and produces many different types and sources of energy which can be grouped into general categories such as primary and secondary renewable and nonrenewable and fossil fuels.

Depending on your location and the type of home wind system installed you ll typically see a return on investment anywhere from six to 30 years. Residential uses of energy account for almost forty percent of total energy use. Photo courtesy of thomas kelsey u s. The united states uses a mix of energy sources.

Planning for a home renewable energy system is a process that includes analyzing your existing electricity use looking at local codes and requirements deciding if you want to operate your system on or off of the electric grid and understanding technology options you have for your site. The powerwall stores excess electricity that you don t use right away so you can always use renewable solar or wind energy even when the sun is down or the wind s not blowing. Small wind energy is renewable clean and cost effective. We ve seen those massive wind turbines but it s also possible to use wind energy on a smaller scale to power your home.

The technology used to harvest the sun s energy is constantly evolving including water heating rooftop pipes photo voltaic cells and mirror arrays. In the home solar energy can be used to warm water for bathing or cleaning in the same way that solar bags are used among camping enthusiasts. When we talk about residential uses of energy these are the most basic uses of energy. At its core every source of energy even fossil fuels were originally powered by seemingly omnipresent solar energy.

In 2015 these three end uses combined accounted for 27 of total annual home energy use. Water heating lighting and refrigeration are near universal and year round home energy uses. Department of energy solar decathlon. These mostly seasonal and energy intensive uses vary significantly by geographic location home size and structure and equipment and fuels used.

Although renewable facilities require upfront investments to build they can then operate at very low cost for most clean energy technologies the fuel is free.