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At Home in the Modern World

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Gusty Thoughts and Tankless Tasks

alternative energy 101 gusty thoughts and tankless tasks

Residential Wind

When we think of alternative energy at home, our minds leap straight to solar panels, the most obvious symbol of a site-generated grid-free power source.

It’s less common to think of wind turbines for small-scale residential use, because most of us have only seen them by the hundreds along highways or on agricultural land. The power generated on those sprawling farms can be purchased for residential use through many energy providers, but it’s also possible to put a small turbine right on your property and get the same results with the added bonus of self-sufficiency. Residential wind turbines have been slower to hit the market than solar, largely because refining the design for home use has required a great deal of engineering (especially maximizing efficiency where wind currents don’t reach high intensities). However, a host of start-ups are rising to the challenge and the first residential turbines to hit the market are said to provide for up to 70 percent of a home’s energy needs.

On-Demand Hot Water

We don’t keep a kettle boiling on the stove all day for the one moment when we want tea, so why do we keep water heated around the clock when all we need it for is a shower or a load of laundry?

On-demand heating technology, also known as tankless heating, makes hot water available only when it’s needed, saving the energy required to heat it when it’s not being used. A tankless heater is much smaller than a typical hot water tank, containing just a set of coils through which water passes for quick warming. Though the on-demand system costs more than a standard hot water system, it saves money over its lifetime as it eliminates most of the energy (and costs) that heating your water normally demands.

There are many different manufacturers of tankless hot water systems and a range of options depending on whether you want gas or electric, what your demand is, how large a space you have for the heater, and how many points of use the heater is intended to serve. Tankless water heaters generally last longer than standard storage tanks.

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