Solar and Energy Efficiency: A Winning Combination
Solar and Energy Efficiency
Solar and energy efficiency are the perfect partners for your home. When paired together, they work in tandem to decrease energy waste, improve your home’s comfortability, and lower your power bill.
Often homeowners will overlook energy efficiency because they have more interest in solar, or vice versa. However, both home upgrades come with a myriad of benefits and actually have the best results when paired together.
Benefits of Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency not only reduces your home’s energy usage but also enhances the comfort and safety of your living space. Ultimately, it is an excellent way to improve your quality of life by promoting temperature regulation, reducing drafts, and preventing the potential hazards associated with home inefficiency problems.
Attic upgrades include solar attic fans and new, efficient insulation. The insulation is responsible for keeping cold or hot air in the attic instead of letting it leak through into your home. Then attic fans pull this cold or hot air out of the attic so that it does not cause any damage by sitting stagnant–such as mold, mildew, or ice damming.
Other energy efficiency upgrades target air leaks in your home. Small gaps in your doors, windows, walls, ceiling, or floors can allow air leaks to affect your home’s temperature. Sealing these with caulk, weatherstripping, or foam sealer can reduce the amount of work your HVAC has to do to keep your home comfortable.
Benefits of Solar
Solar offers the benefits of financial reward and energy independence to homeowners. Additionally, it is a clean, renewable energy source that is better for the environment than traditional power sources.
When you go solar, you will no longer have to purchase from your utility company the amount of energy that your solar system provides. As a result you will see instant savings on your power bill, since you are now only paying your utility company for any energy you need beyond what your solar system can produce.
You also have control over every part of your energy production, consumption, and storage. Your energy consultant will work with you to design a solar system that meets your unique needs and preferences. Additionally, you will have access to an app that lets you monitor every aspect of your solar system. System monitoring ensures that you have full confidence in your energy source.
How Energy Efficiency and Solar Work Together
While solar and energy efficiency have many benefits on their own, and can certainly be enjoyed individually by homeowners, they work best when used in tandem.
Because of this, before we install a solar energy system we perform energy efficiency upgrades to the home. These upgrades reduce energy waste, which consequently reduces the home’s total energy consumption. Once the home is using less energy, it needs a smaller solar system to provide the power it needs. We have found that these upgrades reduce the number of panels needed by, on average, 20 percent. This significantly lowers the total cost of the solar project.
We choose to perform these upgrades before installing solar because it allows us to size your solar system appropriately. If we designed you a system that could provide 100% of the power your inefficient home uses, then later perform energy efficiency upgrades to your home that reduce the total amount of power your home uses, you will be left paying for a solar system that is providing more power than your home is now using. Instead, by doing energy efficiency first, we are able to analyze how much these upgrades will actually reduce your home’s power usage. Then we can design a smaller solar system sized to fit your home’s new, reduced power consumption.
Are you interested in a solar and energy efficiency package for your home? Contact Earth Right Mid-Atlantic so we can connect you with one of our experienced energy consultants. Our team can help you identify the best solar and energy efficiency solutions for your unique needs.
