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items for ones that handle noisy power supplies better. The saving you will make getting a cheaper modified square wave inverter could more than fund replacing some of your less tolerant appliances.

If you are going for grid tie then simply look for grid tie systems. They will be true sine wave to ensure you give the grid as good a supply as it already carries.

SOLAR, WIND OR HYDRO

If you have south facing rooftops and at least 5 hours of sunshine per day, solar should work well for you. Alternatively you can buy mounts that attach to a pole and track the sun for you, in which case only your average daily sunshine will be important. If you have wind above the national average then wind turbines are also something to consider. Beware though, some can be quite noisy. Also, for best results you need to mount them high up and may need planning permission etc. If you are lucky enough to have a stream or river running through your land you may well be able (subject to any planning requirements or restrictions) to install the easiest power generation equipment of all. A hydroelectric turbine is very easy to install, requires minimal maintenance, is less subject to high wind problems and can generate a lot of power, depending on the water flow.

GET A PROFESSIONAL TO INSTALL

Having read all the above you should have a basic idea of what you can do to save on your electricity. But you really must consult a qualified electrician skilled in low voltage work. They will save you a fortune on mistakes you will likely make - plus they may well save you from electrocuting yourself. In conjunction with your electrician you should be able to draw up the specifications for an economical system that will pay for itself inside 5 years.

UNTIL YOU CONSULT YOUR ELECTRICIAN

Do you want to save a lot of electricity now - and also have less of a draw on your alternative system when it's installed? Then search for low energy bulbs and replace every single incandescent bulb in your house. They will use 5-7 times less power and also last about 10 times longer. In fact there are now LED bulbs that use 10-15 times less power (though you may need a few of them as the technology is still young and they are not as bright as they will be). Even so - LED bulbs use so little power they will hardly spin your meter at all.

Also, get any manual thermostats in your house replaced with programmable ones. Then you can get your heating and AC to turn on and off when you choose and at temperatures you choose. You'll save much, much more than the cost of replacing your thermostats in just the first year. And if you can stand it - do not heat your house above 68 degrees and do not cool it bellow 82 degrees (Use ceiling fans to cool the extra few degrees down from there - fans use 10% of the power that an AC system does). Apparently every 1 degree of heat or cooling you save reduces your power bill by 7%. So a full 10 degrees most of the year will cut your bill by 70%.

Oh, and did you fill all the cracks around you home where there's a draft? That'll save you huge amounts of money for just the cost of a few tubes of caulk.

And, last but not least. When it's dry and windy unplug your clothes drier and hang your washing on the line. For the amount of power one hour of drying in a 6Kw drier uses you could run a low energy 7 watt bulb giving off 40 watts of power for 857 hours. Or more than a month. Put another way, you could run 35 of these bulbs all day and night for 24 hours for the same amount of power used in that one hour spin drier. But on a mildly windy day your clothes will dry inside one hour on a washing line.

See how much free power mother nature gives you? Take it - it's yours!

Learn more about this author, Robin Nixon.
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