Reasons Why Anyone Can Go Solar

jchait — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

One of my favorite books, The Solar Living Sourcebook, notes that too often people sort of whine about locating the perfect plot of land for a solar powered home, when really solar can work for every location, just to varying degrees.

They make a good point.

Obviously, there's more sun on a mountain in New Mexico then in a valley in Northern Oregon. However, there's still sun everywhere, and if you have sun, you have solar potential. Basically any amount of solar power your home can use is a good deal for the environment. Any amount you can use is just that much less used from non-renewable sources, and that much money saved.

The Solar Living Sourcebook notes the following ideas:

Anyone can utilize solar power to a degree. You have to use what you have, make the most of what's available, and use super smart before building planning.
Work with nature, not against it.
You don't have to accomplish great strides all at once. Simply working hard to reduce your dependency on your heater and AC is a good start. Learning to use less is a key point. Sure your plot may not produce enough solar power to have your electricity running 24/7, but should it? No one needs their lights or TV on all day.

Learn more about solar power:

Super Slick Solar Home Lighting Design

jchait — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Green Home the Environmental Store has these great solar sun tunnel light fixtures available for your home.

I've actually been obsessed with these lights for a while. I'd seen some in action at a friend's home, and sun tunnels in general were featured on the always entertaining, HGTV show, Living With Ed. This show, by the way, has been canceled I believe, which is a bummer, because it rocked. Still, the lights are cool.

The Sun Tunnel is a roof-to-ceiling skylight system. How it works is by channeling sunlight through the tunnel and into a room of your home. It seems like it wouldn't work, but the light is diverted around obstructions and really does work - providing amazingly bright light to a room. It looks like you have really good traditional lighting installed; i.e. you can't even tell it's a tunnel light. The end of the tunnel is covered with a traditional light fixture cover.

This specific Sun Tunnel is very large in diameter (available
in 14 inch and 22 inch diameters), so your home receives more sunlight, and the sun tunnel is perfect for all spaces, like bathrooms, closets, pantries, living rooms, and more. There is a built in double-sealed roof
flashing to prevent water buildup and to supply the watertight
installation you need for a residential structure. The system works on all roofs.

Not only is this an energy saving approach, but natural sunlight is by fr the healthiest type of lighting. Research shows that sunlight can ward off, and even treat health issues like Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Best of all, this is not a high cost or time intensive set-up. This is one of those green building techniques that can be quickly installed and planned for. Total installation time is commonly under two hours. I hadn't heard of these when we were building our home, but you can bet that the next home I build will incorporate this lighting system.

Visit Green Home to learn more.

[Photo: Sun Tunnel via Green Home]

solar homes

Reasons Why Anyone Can Go Solar

Super Slick Solar Home Lighting Design