The Photovoltaic

Energy from photovoltaic cells is the most efficient and economic way of generating electricity. 

The system that empowers the production of energy is very light, you only need to place them somewhere ( on the roof by default ) and a power convertor so you can get energy at the desired voltage. Compared to many other systems like wind energy where you need a very heavy turbine.

The energy produced varies from winter to summer or from day to night. To prevent the lack of energy during the night you need a power saver ( a bettery ) that can store few kilowatts of energy so you can use at night.

The system will still produce energy during winter too, but at a lower level, probably around 40%. So if you want to rely only on the energy coming from the photovoltaic cells you need to dimension your system based on winter production. This will mean that during summer you will produce much more energy than you need.

However, in many developed countries you can get the extra energy back into the central electricity system and you will be paid for it. Actually, in some countries, because the regenerating energy systems are encouraged, you will sell a kilowatt for more money that you actually buy it.

Costs

The costs of a phoyovoltaic system is not much. You can buy solar modules that you can place on your roof from 1.5$ to 2$ per watt. This means that for a 1kW system you need a 1500$ panel. If you don’t have any storing facility you need more than this. But if you have a decent storage so you can prevent spikes than this is ideal during summer. If you want to rely only on solar energy, than you need to buy at least 5 1000 watts panels. So you can have at least 2000 watts during winter, along with a small storage device. Generating 2kw per hour during the winter days, and about 1kw during the winter nights, you will get about 30-35kw during the winter days, which I think is more than enough for the power consumption in a decent house.

How to do it

Building an alternative energy system for your own house is easy, but at first, you need some guidance. I recommend  you the following book that will explain you how to purchase a photovoltaic system, how to install it and what you need to do in order to connect it to the power network so you can earn money from your unused energy.

You can get the book from Energy 2 Green website.