There are people working to make it cheaper for us to be able to power our homes, or at least partially power our homes. According to ScienceDaily, a team of Durham University scientists are developing “more affordable thin-film PV cells [that] could lead to a reduction in the cost of solar panels for the domestic market and an increase in the use of solar power.” Besides being a sustainable energy source, solar power would mean reducing our energy bills by a huge amount, and I’m all for paying less money each month.

Even if you can’t go totally solar any time soon, you can use solar energy for powering much smaller objects than a home, and the price for that can be very affordable. I’ve been shopping lately at SolarHome. You can get some great garden and pool lighting and heating gadgets that will make your life warmer and brighter without costing you any extra each month in electric bills. And better yet, you are doing a good thing by not adding to our already mounting environmental problems. They also carry a nice line of solar-powered chargers for your mobile devices so you can deal with emergencies.

I hope I live long enough to be able to have a solar powered home. That would just really put a huge grin on my face. Until then, I’m going to try to utilize as many solar products as I can so that I can contribute to a better environment and reduce my cost of living just a little bit more.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blog action day, Durham University, energy bills, environment, PV, solar energy, solar homes, solar power, solar products, sustainable energy source
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Ok, I’m back. Compact fluorescents (CFLs) use about 65% less energy than standard incandescent light bulbs and last 10-20 times longer. So, ok, I’d be stupid not to go out and get these since they would directly benefit me as well as being good for the planet. But I haven’t yet paid attention enough to really know what else I could or should be doing. Have you?

I plan to do some research and I’ll be posting what I find here. I’m mainly looking to find things that won’t be a major hassle, because a hassle will just mean it won’t happen. But if we can contribute easily, then maybe we can actually accomplish something. If it’s too hard or too expensive, we may just continue to ignore the problems. Hey, we’re human, right?

So, as I find other small things that we can all do without much hassle or expense, I’ll be sure to list them here. And of course, if you know of anything, please include it in the comments.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CFL light bulbs, environmentally friendly, global warming, green, less energy, Live Earth
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.