Solar Panels For Home - Stimulus Package Makes Installation of Residential Solar Panels Much Cheaper

If you've been holding out on installing new solar panels for your home, you may want to rethink your decision. Buried deep within the omnibus stimulus package is a certain provision that allows for a new tax credit of thirty percent on the installation of any new home solar panels. Solar panels for home suddenly got a lot cheaper, and much more appealing.

What this means is that you can now get an immediate reduction in your payback time of thirty percent. If that wasn't enough, you can also combine this tax rebate with any other rebates that are available to you. So by combining both federal, state, and local tax credits and incentives, it's now possible to lower the cost of your solar power system by fifty percent or more depending on your location and available incentives.

This is great news for anyone that's been on the fence about going green. The United States government's most recent study shows that a typical home solar panel system has a payback that is 4 years or less. If you factor in the expected cost increases of electricity from your local power providers, and then take into account the new tax credit from the stimulus bill, you can see that a payback of much less than 4 years can easily be achieved.

And if you needed any further incentive to install solar panels for your home, keep in mind that every watt of power that you generate helps to lower your carbon footprint, and in turn helps to fight global warming. As you're probably well aware, the earth is quickly approaching a tipping point. If we don't do all that we can now, we may never be able to stop or reverse the problems that are coming our way. And while it may not cause problems for us in our lifetimes, our children are sure to suffer because of it. The time to go green is now.

Autor: D. R. Smith

Here you'll find some of the best commercially available Home Solar Panels, and the best plans on how to build your own home made Residential Solar Panels

Added: April 7, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Reducing the Heat of Your Conservatory

One of the first extensions that people consider making to their home is a conservatory - generally this is by far the cheapest and simplest extension that is well known to add value to your property. It is relatively easy to get planning permission and there are a lot of choices and styles available within your local area to choose from.

The sad fact is that most people do not use their conservatories. Why is this? Well very simply because of the high temperatures these glass rooms create. In the winter a conservatory is often the coldest room of the house - being mainly a summer room you would think that as the warmer weather increased, a conservatory owner would use their conservatories more and more. However as the weather warms the heat in your conservatory multiplies into almost unbearable levels very quickly.

Most people who have invested in this type of extension quickly realise that they need some protection from the heat and glare and the obvious solution is conservatory blinds.

Conservatory blinds come in many styles and colours though they keep away the glare and offer a degree of shade they do not do a great job of keeping the heat out. The heat is still created as the sun hits the glass.

A perfect solution to heat reduction is to use external conservatory blinds. Modern fabric technology has allowed for a special type of fabric that is designed to reflect up to 95% of the suns heat away before it hits the glass, still allowing light to pass through though taking away the glare.

These exterior conservatory blinds offer huge heat reductions in the conservatory bringing the temperatures down to standard room temperature - even on the hottest of summer days.

Being these conservatory blinds are mounted externally an electric motor powers the blind on opening and closing. This allows simple temperature control as, at the press of a button, you can open, partly open or close the blind allowing more or less sunlight to hit the glass.

When not in use the exterior conservatory blinds retract back into a small housing that is hardly noticeable. In it's cassette it can remain protected from adverse weather elements and kept looking as smart as it did on day one!

These conservatory blinds are often not cheap, certainly if you are looking at quality, though the benefits of a room you can use often outweighs the cost implications.

Autor: Olly Fallon Olly Fallon
Level: Platinum
Olly has a passion in life for Music - primarily the guitar. Combined with a good understanding of computers and the internet, Olly can work ... ...

Nationwide Home Innovations offer high quality Conservatory Roof Blinds for the UK as well as high quality Sun Awnings.

Added: April 6, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

What Makes a House Eco Friendly?

More and more people are showing interest in making their homes eco friendly. When a home is eco friendly, it is environmentally friendly and you are able to save some serious cash on energy. You would be surprised some of the small and large things that you can do to make your home more eco friendly.

Below are some of the ways you can make your home a friend of the environment:

More and more individuals are installing solar panels in their roofs so that they can draw solar energy. This requires the home to use less electricity, which can save a lot of money on the power bill.

When installing new countertops and cabinets in your kitchen, you can install countertops and cabinets that are recycled. It is much better to use recycled materials than new materials. By doing this, you're giving the materials a second chance to be something great and they will last for a long time. You don't have to worry about the items not being made as sturdy as something that is new. The quality is just as high.

Rooftop gardens are another hot item. They insulate the home naturally. The garden can also be constructed in a way that drainage of rainwater is successful. Many skyscrapers and other structures are implementing these systems because of their cost-effectiveness in the short-term and the long-term.

When building a brand new home, it is important that the home not be built from wood that has been acquired through deforestation. Wood can be acquired through other means that don't involve cutting down trees. There is plenty of wood found in nature that isn't planted into the ground.

New homes can also be built facing the sun so that the home can be heated naturally. This will reduce your heating bill and keep some money in your pocket. You can also add more windows to the home on the side that faces the sun. You want to let in as much heat as possible. Even in the winter, you can pull heat into your home.

There are also a variety of little things that you can do, especially if your home is an existing structure and there really isn't anything you can do with the structure. You can do such things as implement a recycling program within your home. Any time that you do repairs or remodeling, make sure you use environmentally friendly materials. If you have to use chemically-based substances, make sure they are safe for the environment. You can also check your drainage system to make sure dangerous materials are not being swept into the groundwater. A good French drain is a way to really accomplish this.

When building a new home, the location of your home can also have an impact. Perhaps you build close to a store that you can shop at. If you do, you will not have to drive your car there. You can walk or ride a bicycle when you don't have to buy very many items. The less you drive, the more you are helping the environment.

So there are many things that you can do to make sure your home is eco friendly. You can only work with what you have, but you might be quite surprised at what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it. Don't think that just because your home is already standing that you can't make it an eco friendly home. Doing something as planting a garden makes your home more eco friendly. So do it and feel good about yourself.

Autor: Amy Nutt

Ontario's new home building company, Industry Leader. Visit us in our Guelph Homes location.

Added: April 4, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/