WattHackers | Save Power | Go Solar | Live Green

One of the questions I get asked frequently is what the right cost per watt is before it makes sense to install solar panels.  While endless variables make for a less than black and white answer, I can offer my opinion on what makes good fiscal sense and what I’m considering before taking the plunge.  This is the beginning of a series of posts that look at solar energy, the cost, considerations, and reasoning behind going green

Last year I put together a list of 10 Power Monitoring Devices to put Your House on a Diet and Save Power to share with everyone the great options that were available for monitoring and reducing home (or business) power use. At the time, I struggled to round the list out of ten, but now there is a whole new group of devices hitting the market. If you have endless hours to research, then maybe you have discovered some of these. If not, then maybe you’re like me and need to rely on great advice and tips from the energy conscious community. Russ, one of our readers, has been researching power saving technology for a home he’s building in Turkey. He was kind enough to pass along and let me share his list of whole house electricity monitoring devices as well as a few more plug meters. His list goes a little something like this:

Heavy hitter Google released news months ago that they were entertaining the notion of jumping into the power grid business. Well, the power management space to be more exact. This exciting news was followed by months of silence, but the rumors are starting to heat up based on Google and GE now hosting a “Plug into the Smart Grid” conference in Washington DC…

This short post gives several options to installing photocells to control dusk to dawn lighting. You can do this project with little money, tools, and experience.

Over at Watthackers, one of the ways we help the environment, our pocket books, and the economy is to buy local and buy used when practical.  Reusing objects helps to cut down on manufacturing, reduces material in our landfills, and in many cases puts cash directly in the hands of local citizens.  I’m amazed at [...]

No matter how I slice it, adding solar panels to our house is just plain expensive. Even with the current tax incentives and credits from the utility companies, I ran the numbers and a system will still set us back about $20,000 by the time it’s all said and done. With that in mind, we set out to tackle all the passive solar and energy reduction projects that we could before jumping into active solar. In case you don’t know what the difference is between passive solar and active solar, let’s start with a brief explanation of the two

When it comes to installing solar panels on your home or business, there are more choices now than ever before. Chances are good that a manufacturer is making a solar panel that will be perfect for your application; the challenge is figuring out which one to use, the proper size, voltage output, etc. There is no shortage of data out there, but real information is scattered about and confusing, so I built this guide based on the data I have collected for my own solar installation project. I hope you find the guide useful.

I must admit, I’m a big fan of unclutterer.com.  The shiny clean offices, organized cables under the desk, color coordinated boxes to hold every misguided purchase, and the endless stream of information that calls out that I’m a complete failure at getting my “stuff” in order.  I buy things to organized, and then I find [...]

Project: Add photocell (dawn to dusk switch) to existing outdoor fixture.
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 30 minutes
Benefits: Eco Friendly, power saver, time saver, esthetically appealing
Cost: $5 – 10 depending on you collection of tools.
Today’s Watthack covers adding a photo cell to a patio light.  This light is on our front porch and we typically turn it on when [...]

Right now there are some great solar tax credits and ways to reduce you taxes by making your home more efficient, but will the programs be continued beyond 2008? Here’s how to reduce your tax liability by making your home or business more efficient.