Home & Garden Green Living

Solar House Plans - Active Vs Passive?

So you are thinking about going green, off the grid, using nature as your ally rather than an opponent that you need to be fearful of at every turn in your life.
Going green, being environmentally conscious and using solar house plans is no longer a hippie pipeline dream that has no merit.
Technologies have come along way since the golden era of solar panels in the eighties and many people see these technologies as the future as increasing oil spills, oil consumption and a general lack of any alternative to oil is on the horizon for power generation, at least at a government level.
This leaves room for us to utilize available resources now and there are a couple of methods that you can employ when trying to harness the power of Mother Nature to save money and the environment.
Much of your decision will also depend on your current situation with regards to owning or building a home.
If you are looking to build a new home, incorporate green technology into your plans is an option from the outset however if you want to update your existing home to a newer cleaner living (eco houses) space it may require a different method or plan.
If planning and building a new home, passive forms of solar energy can be used by orientating your house towards the sun, using clear pipes with black backboards to absorb heat and use this for heating of your house.
You can run pipes under your home and use geothermal properties of the earth to generate heat and use these principles to heat and cool your house.
Obviously lots of planning is required as you need to take into account many factors that can cause heat loss.
More active approaches to generating energy from the sun include using systems such as voltaic cells or solar energy to power portions or your entire home.
Solar energy absorbs the suns potential energy and stores it so that it can be used to generate electricity in your home.
The obvious advantages of this are that you do not need to spend any money to generate energy (apart from your initial buying of the solar cells).
These solar cells have advanced dramatically over the years and the technology is now widely available making it a real possibility for many people to incorporate this into their existing lives.
Commercially bought solar panels may be quite expensive and you may need to think of making your own, depending on what kind of budget you have to work with.
Making your own solar panels might sound like a huge challenge but there are so many great guides around which give you step by step approach and hold your hand with online support every step of the way.
It is essential for us to start considering and using these approaches in our homes as we need to play an active role in utilizing our resources.
Please consider using solar house plans when building or renovating your home.

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