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Home > Learning Center > Home solar panels

Home solar panels-Low Cost Solar Panels

 

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When you are looking into energy options for a more environmentally friendly home, there are several tiers of investment into which upgrades and modifications can fall. There is a low tier that is fairly low cost, yet can offer a good impact for your investment. This tier involves things like replacing your existing bulbs with energy efficient ones when they go out. (Replacing a perfectly working light bulb with a new one is wasteful, wait till they burn out on their own.) It also includes things like switching to re-usable bags at the grocery store, and walking or using public transportation whenever possible. These are low in cost, they are easy, and they make an impact, especially over time.

The second tier of investment involves a bigger purchase that is designed to increase the energy efficiency of your home. Replacing old appliances like furnaces, air conditioning units, or refrigerators is a great way to reduce your energy use.  Other ways to make your home more eco friendly include replacing old windows and doors, installing insulation, and the like. These upgrades can cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, but most will pay for themselves over the life of the item in question.

The top tier of investment is in the investment in an environmentally friendly power generation source, such as a wind turbine or home solar panels. These investments run much higher than a simple appliance upgrade, as home solar panels run several hundred dollars for each panel, and a system capable of handling the load requirements of an average house consists of upwards of a dozen panels in many cases.

Even though the initial price is steep, home solar panels are still an investment that will pay for itself over its lifetime. Even assuming energy prices flatten out over the next decade, a solar panel that you install and hook up to your home today will pay for itself over the next 10 years in the power it supplies to you.
Since no realistic economic forecast would predict a zero inflation rate for a decade, you can safely assume that if you choose to invest in home solar panels; you should recoup your costs in less than a decade.
The cost analysis is really a side benefit for most people considering a switch to home solar panels, since their primary concern is environmental impact. Solar panels are one of the cleanest and lowest-impact power options available today. They take up less land than say, a hydroelectric facility. They are silent, and they have no emissions once they are up and running. This means that the full environmental impact of a solar panel is realized before you have it hooked up and running, making an impact assessment very simple for you to conduct.

For those looking primarily for a way to reduce the environmental impact of their daily life on the planet, it is important to look into the manufacturing process used by the specific panel brand you intend to buy. Each manufacturer will have a slightly different process, and a few use radically different technologies to make their panels. Since any detrimental impact a solar panel will have on the environment is amassed during construction, having a handle on what that impact is will help you make the best choice.