A small wind turbine system can provide additional electricity in your home, or even power your sailboat battery.
Installing solar-powered outdoor pathway lights is one of the easiest ways to use solar energy at home.
Building a new home is the best time to design and orient the home to take advantage of the sun's rays. A well- oriented home lets in the winter sun in south-facing windows to reduce heating bills, and blocks the heat from summer sun to reduce cooling bills (see the Solar Heating and Cooling section).
Heating water is a great use of solar power (see the Water Heating section). If you have a swimming pool or hot tub, you can use solar power to cut pool heating costs. Most solar pool heating systems are cost competitive with conventional systems and have very low operating costs. It's actually the most cost-effective use of solar energy.
Installing small wind turbines, which range in size from 400 W to 20 kW, can provide some of the electricity for your home. Other uses of micro wind turbines (20-500 W) include charging batteries for sailboats and other recreational vehicles. Learn more at energysavers.gov.
