Solar and Energy Efficiency: A Winning Combination
Solar and Energy Efficiency
Solar and energy efficiency are the perfect partners for your home. They work in tandem to decrease your home’s 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, but 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. 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 energy efficiency 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. 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 the temperature of your home. 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. It is also 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. This means 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. You can work with your energy consultant to make sure your solar system is designed to meet all of your unique needs and preferences. You will also have access to an app that lets you monitor every aspect of your solar system so that you can 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. Now that the home is using less energy, it needs a smaller solar system to provide the power it needs, reducing the number of panels by, on average, 20 percent. This significantly lowers the total cost of the solar project.
The reason we choose to perform energy efficiency upgrades before installing solar is that 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. By doing energy efficiency first, we are able to analyze how much these upgrades will actually reduce your home’s power usage, then 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 who can help identify the best solar and energy efficiency solutions for your unique needs.
