Fol­low the Sun

When it is a beau­ti­ful bright sun­ny day, use your pow­er. Run your wash­ing machine, dish­wash­er, air con­di­tion­ing, pool and per­haps charge all elec­tron­ic devices. Even if it is a day with over­cast, you can use your power.

Min­i­mize your con­sump­tion at night.

You don’t have to live by can­dle­light but use LED lights and turn devices off if they’re not being used such as tele­vi­sion and, bed­room lights. This way, you’re shift­ing your usage more to day­light hours and min­i­miz­ing your evening con­sump­tion when your solar pan­els aren’t pro­duc­ing. Not to men­tion reduc­ing car­bon emissions.

Know where your pow­er goes.

A basic ener­gy audit is a very good idea, so you can per­form ener­gy man­age­ment. Some things you can do to save seri­ous amounts of ener­gy around your house; Switch lights off dur­ing the day and make the most of nat­ur­al light Use fans instead of air con­di­tion­ers if the heat is only mod­er­ate Switch off appli­ances at the wall instead of using stand-by pow­er (which can account for 15% of a pow­er bill) Dis­con­nect any sec­ond or third refrig­er­a­tors or freez­ers when they’re not in use Ensure your house is prop­er­ly insu­lat­ed Hav­ing solar is the first big step to sav­ing pow­er, but these small adjust­ments could mul­ti­ply your sav­ings with solar.

Make hot water electricity!

If you are pro­duc­ing solar elec­tric­i­ty, you should con­vert your hot water sys­tems to elec­tric boil­ers. Instan­ta­neous water heaters also allow the heat­ing of water close to the tap – for instance as under- sink units. The water tem­per­a­ture can be adjust­ed to exact­ly what is desired. The demand for hot water is the same over the course of the year. Dur­ing the late spring and sum­mer, that demand can entire­ly be met by solar pow­er. That increas­es the lev­el of self- consumption.

Keep your pan­els clean and clear.

Giv­ing your pan­els a clean every 12 – 18 months ensures your pan­els are get­ting as much light as pos­si­ble as dust on your pan­els fil­ter and reflect light and may slight­ly reduce their efficiency.