August 26th, 2017 | by Chris Dragon
Welcome back to our series of guides covering how to power your life with renewable electricity. If you're new to this series, check out the introduction in Part
July 3rd, 2017 | by Chris Dragon
In Part 5, we covered solar panel installation. In this chapter, we'll discuss using that solar system to power your cooking. I was also going to cover clothes washing here, but the article got too long, so look for laundry in Part
April 23rd, 2017 | by Chris Dragon
Want solar panels? Need info on solar panel prices, installation, installers, rebates, payback period, permits, etc.? This in-depth guide focused a bit on California has megawatts of answers
April 8th, 2017 | by Chris Dragon
Welcome back to our series of guides covering how to power your life with renewable electricity. If you're new to this series, check out the introduction in Part 1. In Part 3, we covered cutting gasoline use. Now, on to heating your home with electricity!
April 8th, 2017 | by Chris Dragon
How do you go about actually offsetting carbon emissions? Is it expensive? Is it difficult? No, and no. See how to offset carbon emissions from flights, driving, energy use, etc
February 19th, 2017 | by Chris Dragon
In Part 2, we talked about heating hot water with electricity with a goal of supplying 100% of that electricity with solar panels.R emember, we aren't trying to cover 100% of instantaneous electricity use with solar PV, just 100% of the average electricity use for the entire year in a grid-connected system without batteries. For example, if you use 11,000kWh of electricity during the entire year, your PV system will need to generate at least that much energy for the year (and hopefully some extra to offset grid losses). We'll talk about that more in Part
January 12th, 2017 | by Chris Dragon
Most Americans are familiar with water heaters that keep water hot in a large, insulated storage tank. A tankless water heater eliminates that tank by using enormous amounts of electricity to heat water to your preferred temperature as quickly as you need it
December 9th, 2016 | by Chris Dragon
In Southern California, actor Ed Begley Jr. is famous for going 100% renewable back when it was prohibitively expensive to do so. In 1985, he bought a stake in a wind farm. In 1990, he installed solar panels on his roof. He prefers walking and biking, but when he drives, it's in an EV (including the EV1, RAV4 EV, and various custom models). Everything in his home is renewable powered or person powered. He's even got his own TV show about his way of living
