In our innovative, tech-focused, and eco-conscious age, it’s surprising that a larger number of Americans aren’t choosing to live green. In just a few small steps, you can minimize the amount of energy you use and lower your electric bill.

There’s more you can do to make your home energy efficient than just installing a new refrigerator. There are energy-saving tactics both big and small you can take part in to make your home a more efficient, and greener, place.

Here’s what you can do to lower your utility bills, cut back on your energy resources, and make your environmental footprint just that much smaller.

Remember Your Windows

Your windows are a key player when it comes to making your home more energy efficient. This might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be amazed by how often homeowners forget about these energy-suckers.

Don’t open your windows during the fall and winter months if you’re looking for a cool breeze. Instead, turn down the thermostat. By doing so, you’ll save your HVAC system from overworking itself to fight against the draft.

Make sure that your air conditioning unit fits properly in your windows during the summer, too. If the accordion wings on your unit don’t fit flush against the window frame, you may be cooling the outdoors in addition to your house!

During temperature-neutral days, turn your HVAC system off and let the weather outside naturally regulate the temperature in your home. You can also add weather stripping to your windows and doors that will help to retain your home’s internal Temperature throughout the year.

You may also want to install an automatic, or programmable, thermostat. These thermostats can be as cheap as $20 and work great to cut energy use without sacrificing comfort.

Here Comes the Sun…

The sun can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to making your home more energy efficient. If your home is in an area where there aren’t many trees to provide shade, you might find yourself fighting to crank up the AC high enough during the summer months.

The good news is you can save yourself the high energy bills during the summer by installing blackout curtains over your windows. Blackout curtains help to keep the sunlight out so your home doesn’t turn into an oven and your AC unit doesn’t have to overwork itself.

You can also take advantage of your home’s sun-soaking abilities by installing residential solar panels. Residential solar panels allow particles of sunlight (photons) to knock electrons free from their atoms. This generates a flow of electricity.

By generating your home’s electricity using the same sunlight that overheats your house during the summer months, you can save significantly on your energy bills. What’s more, because you’re generating energy using sunlight instead of using an electricity service, you’re reducing the number of fossil fuels burned.
Unplug Your Electronics When They’re Done Charging

There’s a reason why it’s commonly suggested to unplug your electronic devices when they’re not in use. And it’s not just because it’s a fire hazard.

When you leave your phone plugged in even after it’s fully charged, it continues to pull energy from the grid. This is true of other electronics as well including your laptop, your TV, stereo, game console, and more.

You’re paying for additional electricity that isn’t even being used. Those small price hikes can build up over time and leave you wondering where all your money’s gone.

To save money and energy (and to reduce the risk of an electric fire) get in the habit of unplugging your chargers when they’re not in use. This includes pulling your charger out of the wall when your phone is done charging too, not just unplugging your phone.

It can also help to plug your electronics into a power strip that can be turned off when you’re not using your devices. This way, you don’t have to worry about what needs to be unplugged when you’re hurrying out the door. You only need to flip the switch on the power strip and you’re good to go.
Interested in Installing Residential Solar Panels?

In 2018, utility-scale electricity generation facilities in the U.S. generated up to 4.18 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity. But only 17% of that energy came from renewable resources. Residential solar panels give you the chance to draw your home’s energy from a renewable resource and do your part in the fight against climate change.

Solartime USA offers residential solar panels and solar panel installation so you can make your home more efficient all in one place. To learn more about our solar installation process and solar panel design, contact Solartime USA today.

A growing number of homes across the United States are upgrading their roofs with residential solar panels. While some homeowners are motivated by going green and fighting climate change, others are choosing to install solar panels to gain energy independence.
No matter your motivation, residential solar panels offer many benefits that can make every homeowner happy. But, before you call up your local solar panel installers, it’s important that you first understand what you’re getting into.
Here are some important things you need to know about solar panels so that you can have a better understanding of how your future solar energy system works.

How Do Solar Panels Work?

Solar panels work kind of like plants: they capture as much sunlight as possible and process that sunlight to turn it into energy. This sounds simple enough, but the actual process by which solar panels capture the sunlight and turn it into electricity is a little more complicated.
Electricity needs a positive charge to flow. This positive charge is created in your solar panels when sunlight comes into contact with the silicone/boron materials your residential solar panels are composed of.
When sunlight comes into contact with your solar panels, the electrons in the panels become unsettled. These electrons want to return to their undisturbed state, and this dissonance creates energy.
The energy that’s created by these antsy electrons travels through an inverter and into your home. Once there, this energy can be used to power your electronics, appliances, and lights.
Because your solar panels are able to create electricity using the energy from the sun, they effectively replace your power company, who generates electricity using coal. To generate this non-renewable energy alternative, coal is burned to boil water and create high-pressure steam. This steam is then forced through a turbine to generate electricity using magnetic induction.

Not only do solar panels replace your need to use a power company but they also replace the power company’s need to burn coal to generate power. You’re helping the environment in more ways than one.

What Do I Need An Inverter For?

Your solar panels don’t generate power that can be used directly in your home. That’s what your inverter is for.
Residential solar panels generate direct current power. Your house uses alternating current power.
Your inverter will convert the direct current power from your solar panels into alternating current power that’s usable in your home. The panels maintain the alternating current voltage of 110 volts at 60 cycles (Herz) per second.
Your inverter is rated in terms of watts. You need to match your inverter correctly to the solar panels’ output voltage for it to work.
It’s worth mentioning that your inverter will lose a small amount of power as heat, which can sometimes affect its efficiency. But, never fear, inverters often come equipped with sensors that would shut it off automatically if something were to go wrong.

How Do Solar Panels Save You Money On Your Energy Bills?

Now that you know how solar panels work and what your inverter is for, you may be wondering just how your solar panels can save you money. After all, are a major investment. But don’t worry: they more than make up for the original investment.
Every kilowatt-hour of energy you generate using your residential solar panels is an hour you don’t need to buy from your power company. While you’re taking a bit of an initial cost hit with your solar panels, every kilowatt-hour of energy generated from here on out is a kilowatt-hour saved.
It’s kind of like buying a (significantly cheaper) house. Once you pay off your “mortgage,” you start building equity. The same is true of your solar panels.
Once you make a return on investment on your solar panel installation, you can save hundreds of dollars every year because you’re not paying anyone for the energy you’re using. Even as other energy costs rise due to inflation, the solar power captured by your solar panels is free for your use.

How Much Solar Power Can I Generate?

How much solar power you can generate typically depends on where you live and what your climate is like. That’s what makes Texas and California such great places for solar panel installation: both states receive tons of sunshine.
The amount of sunlight your region receives is called insolation, which depends on the angle of the sun relative to your area. For instance, the Texas Panhandle region receives 5.5 to 6.0 kilowatt-hours of sunlight per square meter every day.
Even if you live in a really sunny place, it’s still important to place your solar panels in the right spot. You want your solar panels placed where they can receive optimal, direct sunlight and won’t be shaded by other buildings, trees, or shrubs.

How Many Solar Panels Do I Need To Install?

How many solar panels you need installed largely depends on your electrical usage and your insolation. Start by determining how much electricity you use in watts.
The size of your roof will also determine the number of and the kind of panels you can mount. The cost per kilowatt-hour for energy usually goes down as you increase the size of your solar panels.

Is Installing Solar Panels Really The Best Choice For Me?

Solar panels aren’t for everybody. For instance, if your home is situated in a shaded area and you don’t receive a lot of sunlight, you might not save a lot of money on your energy bills by investing in solar panels. But, if you live in a very sunny area and your home receives plenty of sunlight, it may be a good idea to consider installing solar panels.
Just remember that, while the transition to solar power can be complex, you can keep it simple by choosing the right solar power company to install your panels. Look for a full-service solar provider that’s licensed, bonded, and insured.
Ask them any questions you need to feel secure installing solar panels on your roof. The better you feel about installing your solar panels, the more you’ll get out of using them.

Looking For The Residential Solar Panels Dallas Residents Prefer?

With climate change causing major issues for the environment, it’s crucial that everyone finds a way to do their part to become more eco-friendly. One of the best ways you can help the environment (while saving money in the process!) is by installing residential solar panels.

Since 2010, the cost to install residential solar panels has dropped by more than 70%. That means it’s more affordable than ever to invest in going solar. If you install your solar panels this year, you can even claim a 30% tax credit! Act fast, though, because come 2020, the tax credit drops to 26%.

While installing solar panels can be a big investment, there are options to reduce this initial financial hit. Solartime USA offers financing plans where you do not have any initial cost, your electric bill decreases as a result of your new solar power, and you exchange that payment as a sort of ‘solar collateral’. There are plans that take between five and twenty years to pay off with interest as low as 3.99%!

Dallas solar company Solartime USA provides custom solar designs to ensure your new solar panels fit perfectly to your home. To learn more about our residential solar panels and custom solar designs, contact Solartime USA today.

In recent years, solar panel tech has truly taken off as a sustainable source of energy production, especially in Texas. By the third quarter of last year, 282,032 homes in Texas were using solar power. Solar panels undoubtedly make solar energy more accessible to the general public, but most people don’t fully understand how they work. Read on to learn more about how these panels work to create sustainable solar energy for hundreds of thousands of families in Texas.

What are Solar Panels Made of?

Solar panels are made of photovoltaic cells clustered together. Therefore, the panel itself is actually made up of many, much smaller components that actually do the work of generating the electricity. Photovoltaic cells are made primarily of very thin layers of silicon or an equally conductive material. Photovoltaic cells rely on the distribution of electrons across atoms in different materials to work properly, so photovoltaic cells also contain both positively and negatively charged material at any given time.

Read more on the three types of solar panels and what they’re made out of!

The Science of Going Solar

Simply put, solar panels work by using photons, or light particles, to separate electrons from atoms, allowing them to be used to create energy. When photons from sunlight hit a solar panel, they knock electrons free. These electrons then move from one layer of material to another within the solar panel, generating electricity. This form of electricity generation does not require using consumable materials like fossil fuels, meaning it’s a much cleaner form of energy production than many other popular methods.

Advances in Technology

Recent technology has helped improve the efficiency and practicality of solar energy, particularly for residential Dallas solar panel applications. Solar panels have gotten lighter and more effective at generating energy, with some photovoltaic cells being light and flexible now. This allows them to be integrated into projects more easily, making solar energy a realistic option in many practical applications.

Benefits of Going Solar

The benefits of going solar in Dallas and around the world also has some great benefits for you such as:

• Reduce your energy bills — Adding solar panels to your home can bring in monthly savings of over $100! Consider the amount that you save after two decades and there is no reason you shouldn’t make the switch to solar power.
• Increase your home’s value — Since buying a home that utilizes solar energy translates to lower electricity costs, your home will be much more sought as soon as it hits the market. Similarly, solar panels increase a home’s attractiveness in the housing market. According to a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), homes with solar panels sell 20% faster than those without and for 17% more money. Are solar panels worth it, you ask? Read more about solar panel appraisal value.
• Secure investment — A lot of utility organizations can have fluctuating, unfair, and unreliable electricity prices. With solar, however, you can make a secure investment and rest easy knowing that you’re getting the exact amount of electricity necessary — and for a fair price.
• Guaranteed performance — Solar panel manufacturers typically include performance guarantee warranties, typically between 20 to 25 years. The industry standard guarantees at least 80% performance after 25 years, but the real lifespan of custom solar designs can be much longer, think up to 40 years!
• Easy to install — Finally, since these panels are easy to install, they can be placed nearly anywhere. They can be installed on vertical and horizontal spaces, onto large properties, and onto small and custom designs.

Solar energy is an environmentally friendly and increasingly efficient way of producing energy that families all across Dallas and the United States can take advantage of through residential solar panels. For more information on Dallas solar energy and solar panel design, contact Solartime USA today.