There are many uses of solar power in your home. They range from passive solar energy to dry your clothes to going completely off the grid and generating enough solar energy to provide all the electricity you need for your home. I think most of us fall somewhere in between these ideas and generally would like to learn more about the uses of solar energy so we can reduce our carbon footprint and at the same time save money on our utility bills. Cutting our energy costs goes hand in hand with using solar power. There is more of an investment up front and a bigger learning curve than knowing how to flip an on/off switch, but using renewable energy from the sun will pay for itself in money and convenience.

Some of the passive uses of solar power you may already use. If you hang your laundry out on a clothesline to dry, you are using passive solar heat. If you have a greenhouse, a cold frame, or a solarium you have a passive solar collector that provides heat to that space. If you have a cat, think about where your cat hangs out during the day. If its a sunny spot, there's your solar heat collector. Can you utilize that space and put that heat to work for you?

Solar collectors can also be built to provide hot water for your hot water heater or your pool. They consist of a collecting system that "collects" the heat, often black pipes or panels. The water is then passed through the heat collector and heats up. This is a simplistic explanation, but you get the idea. Solar hot water collectors are an efficient and fairly easy to build hot water system that you can add on to your existing home without much fuss.

Solar cells make up solar panels and are what most of us think of when we hear the words solar energy. Solar panels and cells are used in everyday things we take for granted such as calculators and watches. They are used very effectively in outdoor lighting, removing the need for electrical wiring as well as being a renewable source. Solar panels can power an item directly, using the energy they generate to power an item and only working when they are in the direct sun and collecting energy. They can also store that energy in a battery. Think of your outdoor solar garden lights. They collect energy in a small panel and it charges the batteries used to light them after dark.

That simple principle of how the solar garden light works is the same applied to any kind of solar panel, the ones on RVs used to power the TV to the ones on top of buildings that run all the lights. All these solar panels need is a way to collect the solar energy and somewhere for that energy to go and be used. You can even make your own solar panels to generate this power. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing situation, you don't have to generate all of your own electricity. There are uses of solar power for your home that will fit your own needs, large or small.

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