Posts Tagged ‘environment’

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Could Now Be The Perfect Time For Solar Panels?

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

For Massachusetts residents, the answer is a convincing yes!

On account of the variety of incentives at both the state and federal level to purchase solar panels, there really has never been a better time to go green with solar power. Nearly all residential systems can pay for themselves in less than five short years.

The typical retail price on a 5 kilowatt solar panel system is around $25,000. A system of this size should give off nearly 6,000 kWh of electrical power every twelve months in Massachusetts and provide around 60 percent of the typical residential home’s electricity needs.

There is a Commonwealth Rebate that will deduct $2,000 off the top of that selling price. Moreover, for those who reside in a moderate house or have a moderate salary, you should be given another $2,000 reduction. Or if you were unlucky enough to have your home damaged in last year’s tornadoes, you will be given a further five thousand dollars reduction.

There also are both national and Massachusetts state tax credits. Currently the federal tax credit is currently a fantastic 30 percent and the state credit is for $1,000. After the rebates together with the tax credits, you will be able to invest in a 5 kW solar panel system for about $16,000, less if you happen to receive the moderate income or moderate home value adders.

A system of that size here in Massachusetts ought to provide an average of just about $80 worth of electricity monthly to get an annual cost savings of $1,000.

But the best long-term profits derive from selling your SRECs. One megawatt hour (1,000 kWh) earns you 1 SREC and a 5 kilowatt solar panel array will yield just about 6,000 kWh annually. Because the state has required the electricity companies to produce a small percentage of their electricity from green techniques, they will be compelled to give you about $400 for every one of those six SRECs to say that you are producing electricity for them. Consequently that’s an additional $2,400 in tax-free revenue straight into your wallet each year.

So now you can see how a $16,000 solar panel system can get paid in full in less than five years as it earns $3,400 annually including electric bill savings together with SREC proceeds.

Solar panels may also be one of the best home improvement possibilities open to the Massachusetts resident. For a cost of $16,000, it should up the value of your house by $20,000. That’s a 125% ROI. Most home improvement projects don’t pay for themselves wholly. Solar panels not only increase the value of your own home more than they can run you, they will earn you money each year as well. They are even exempt from property taxes for the next 20 years.

And let us not forget the main reason all of these incentives exist in the first place – to save our planet. A 5 kilowatt solar panel array is going to reduce your carbon footprint by about one-hundred tons of carbon dioxide across twenty-five years, the equivalent of planting 800 trees. Each year, it is going to prevent the equivalent of around three tons of coal or 20,000 cubic feet of natural gas from being burned to create electrical energy.

Needless to say from all of the stimuli currently available that right now indeed is the best time for solar panels. The Commonwealth Rebate together with the federal and state tax credits cut down your startup expenses. Plus the electricity savings together with the SREC program add significant revenue and also bolster your home’s resale value.

Plus there’s no way to tell just how much longer these stimuli will be available. The Commonwealth Rebate has already been decreased recently and the federal tax credit is endangered yearly.

Additionally, as this business grows, an increasing number of financing approaches are becoming offered to homeowners, making solar panels cost-effective for everybody. If you’ve always wanted to buy solar panels, there’s never been a better time than the present!

Gary S. Best resides in Massachusetts and spent months researching the different incentives and financing options before deciding to invest in a five kW solar panel system in 2011. He has since created a website, www.MassSolarInfo.com, educating residents about solar energy in Massachusetts and providing them with a means to easily get free estimates and save up to $500 off their own installation.

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Are Air Purifiers Worth The Money?

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Most families have managed without an air purifier for generations – hundreds or even thousands of years, so what, you may be asking yourself is the hurry to get one now? And it is true, there is a bit of a buzz about air purifiers at the moment. But do they work well and are they worth the money?

The answers to both of these questions are not simple, but everyone would have to agree that the motor turns when you plug them in, so in that way they do all work. Whether they are effective or not depends on what you buy. There are some very effective air purifying units and there is a lot of rubbish too.

The very useless ones are the very cheap models, that are just not powerful enough and do not even enclose adequate filters, but leaving those aside, there are very good portable air purifiers and very good central air purifier systems.

So, the first thing you have to determine is whether you want a central or portable air purifying system. If you want to purify the air in your office at work or your caravan or trailer, then a good portable purifier will do the job very well. The reason why a portable purifier is not so good for the home is size. Your house is just too large for one portable air purifying unit.

If you locked yourself up in one room, then OK, but as soon as you open the door, or someone walks into the room, you have lost a lot of your clean air. Therefore, if you are thinking about purifying the air in your house, you really ought to go for a central system, particularly if you already have ducting in place for a central heating or central air conditioning system.

If you are lucky enough to have such a system then a powerful and very efficient air purification system can be fitted near your existing blower in minutes in most cases. These systems will purify the air in your whole home at the same time, meaning that you can walk about your house, go about your daily business and leave interconnecting doors open at leisure. It is the only way to go if you have active children. This is often the cheapest option too, surprisingly.

If you are going to purchase a portable model, note the measurements of the largest room you are likely to use it in and work out the volume of air in that room (length x width x height). You will have to check that whichever air purifier you get can deal with that volume of air. That information will be in sales literature. The cost of filters is an essential aspect in the overall cost of a purifier. How much are they and how often do they need to be changed? Can they be cleaned a few times before requiring to be changed?

Think about why you want an air purifier. Is it because you want to prevent a specific allergy? Is it because there is a smoker in the house? Is it because of animals? Or is it just because of increasing levels of general pollution from cars and industry? Whatever the reason, make sure that the air purification system you are thinking about purchasing can take filters that can remove those substances from the air. Not all filters are identical – not all filters can filter everything.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with central air conditioner prices. If you are interested in Home Air Conditioning Systems, please click through to our site.

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Eco-Friendly Bedding

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

Are you concerned about doing your bit to help salvage the planet? I mean, are you prepared to pay a little bit more for something that has been made in a manner that is less polluting to the environment and the planet? Do you encourage organizations that sell goods made in far off lands in time-honored ways that are ecologically friendly?

These are the minimum measures that people in the West ought to be prepared to take in order to support those who are trying to reduce our impact on the environment and dispense some of the West’s wealth to the poorest peoples of the world.

There are lots of organizations which say they do this. There are probably also a couple that say they do, but do not. An Internet check should weed these rogues out.

One of the easiest methods to help reduce your effect on the planet and help poor peoples living in remote places abroad is to take more care where you purchase your fabric from. These days the only cloth that people purchase in large quantities is clothes and bedding, so you ought to strive to buy materials that are natural, not man-made, which necessitates the use of a lot more chemicals.

While it is true that bleach has always been used a great deal in manufacturing material, it is not completely necessary to have pure white sheets or duvet covers, even if tradition does demand that you put on a pure white shirt to go to the office or a pure white gown to walk down the aisle.

Buying bedding made from 100% cotton is a great way to reduce your effect on the environment. In fact, 100% cotton sheets and 100% woollen blankets make a perfect combination for any bed in any season and your impact on the environment would be negligible. Cotton is cool and wool warm, but in fact acts as insulation, so can be warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Another fantastic natural fibre is silk. Alright, it is a lot more expensive than cotton, but it is also a lot tougher, so you will find that silk sheets last a lot longer than cotton ones. This means that silk sheets are not as expensive in the long run as they first appear. Silk has a lavish feel to the skin, but it is not as warm as cotton. Ideal for the summer months and 100% non-chemical as it is made by silk worms and spun like wool.

Other fibres that you can obtain from the Far East, Africa and South America are flax, hemp and coconut fibre materials. If you make a point of checking out the stores that sell objects such as these you really can make quite a difference and help poor trades people in far off lands for just a few dollars more.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is at present concerned with the college for massage therapy. If you have an interest in massage, please go over to our web site now at Classes For Massage Therapy

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Some Interesting Facts About Energy Efficiency

Monday, December 5th, 2011

Energy efficiency is when someone has the desire and puts for the effort to reduce the amount of power used to run a house or office building every day. People use several different methods to cut back on how much power they use, everything from turning off lights when they leave the room to buying on only the best power-saving appliances on the market.

Two popular natural power saving devices are skylights and fluorescent lights. Skylights let in the natural light and reduce the amount of indoor light needed. They also provide a nice picture on a beautiful day or on a starry night.

Technology continues to advance, introducing new ways to reduce the amount of power that is used on a day to day basis, in offices and homes everywhere. Home appliance manufacturers have long been developing products that are power efficient, requiring less power to do the same amount of work. This includes dryers, washers, refrigerators and freezers. Microwaves are also seeing a reduction in power usage.

Renewability and sustainability are on the minds of every scientist and researcher who is trying to create new ways to use less natural power. Solar power is still popular and the cost of using it is gradually decreasing. It is important to reduce the worlds energy consumption and because of new processes and procedures, it appears things will improve over time. A one-third reduction is expected by the year 2050 if we continue to use the efficiency methods proposed. Decreasing power usage in vehicles and factories is causing a significant and noticeable reduction in greenhouse gases.

Humankind has been on a path of environmental awareness since the 1970s. This was an era during which people began to see that we had been ignoring the battle against global warming, fossil fuel depletion and pollution.

Some of the things that are taken into account when discussing a reduction of natural power usage are heating and cooling, lighting, pump systems, electric motors, office equipment and appliances. All of these items rate extremely high on the scale of power usage. If everyone were to use energy efficient methods in their homes, their electricity bills can be reduced up to 75%.

Energy efficiency is one of the subjects that should be on everyones mind as we fight against the effects of damage done to the earth. Committees have been put together on a national and a local level to see if anything can be done to further the progress.

Get the exclusive low down on how to achieve your energy efficiency goals now in our comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about how and where to find the best electrician and electrical services .

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Know How To Reduce Your Energy Bills This Winter By Draught Proofing Your Home Now

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

It is likely that you want to know how to reduce your energy bills this winter by draught proofing your home. This is something that everybody wants to know and now you can find out. There are fives ways that you can do this – it just depends on the type of insulation you need and can gain.

Good insulation is required to make a home suitable for the winter weather. A well insulated house means that the heat does not escape and the cold breezes do not get into the home, whether through an attic or non-insulated walls. You will be able to use less energy throughout the year, especially at winter, to heat the home through so will save money on your electric and gas bills.

Draught proofing is actually something you can do without the need of spending a lot of money. In fact, it is likely that you can do it with items that are already in your home. The most common way is to put a rolled up rug in front of a door, which will stop the breezes getting in through the bottom of your main doors. This is also something that you can do with any room that you are in.

Windows are another place for the heat to escape but you can counter that through the use of large, heavy curtains to block them. However, this will not stop the cold air coming through the gaps in your window. To stop this, you will need to find old clothes or some material to plug the gaps up.

You will be surprised at where you lose heat from and you will need to go through each room in the house. Take your time to find out which are the coldest rooms and look after them. Pay close attention to the attic and basement. These rooms are where most of the heat is lost through, usually through gaps that you would not usually notice.

There are three main types of insulation that you can have placed in your home and it is important to consider all of them. Two of them are placed in the walls and it will depend on the type of wall that you have. You will either need solid wall or cavity wall insulation. However, you will also need to invest in attic insulation to stop the heat escaping as it rises.

Learning how to reduce your energy bills this winter by draught proofing your home is the easy part. There are lots of options available. It is up to you what you use and which ones will work out economically viable. Looking draught proofing can be done with anything in your home, including old clothes and rugs.

Sash window draught proofing will help you save money on the electric bill. More and more individuals are turning to sash window refurbishment today.

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